A double relief prevails in Nigeria. The presidential elections of late March, 2015, were conducted without any outbreaks of violence, and the outgoing President, Goodluck Jonathan, was beaten. With a score of 54% of the votes, Muhammadu Buhari won a clear victory, confirmed during the subsequent state governor elections, where his organization, the APC (All Progressives Congress), won 21 states of the 36 that make up the federation of Nigeria. Despite the threats of Boko Haram and the many technical incidents that marred the ballot, Nigerians massively mobilized to end fifteen years of rule by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Rasmea Odeh’s Sentence/Appeal
13 May 2015, byRasmea Odeh, a Palestinian activist and Chicago community leader who turns 68 in May and has lived in the United States for the past 20 years, faces 18 months in federal prison and deportation, following her March 12 sentencing in Detroit for “unlawful procurement of naturalization.”
Lessons from the Nepal earthquake: Prepare and survive
12 May 2015, by“A major earthquake has struck western Nepal, two weeks after a devastating quake killed more than 7,000 people.
The latest earthquake hit near the town of Namche Bazar, near Mount Everest.
The US Geological Survey said it had a magnitude of 7.4. An earthquake on April 26, centred in east Nepal, had a magnitude of 7.8.
The latest tremor was felt as far away as the capital of India, Delhi, as well as Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.” [BBC News 12 May 2015.] This news makes the article below even more timely.
If you can marry an economic justice agenda with climate action, people will fight for that future”
11 May 2015, byGiven the massive inequalities generated by capitalism and the ecological urgency of climate change, “everything can change”, Naomi Klein claims in a new book. Provided we do not “give in to despair”, because “too many lives are at stake”, and “fight for a more just economic system”. The Canadian anti-globalization activist and essayist is famous for her inspired criticism of capitalism: No Logo denounced the tyranny of global brands, and The Shock Doctrine the brutality of neoliberal reforms. She now takes aim at the total impunity of major oil and gas corporations which have declared war on our planet.
Left and Independent Political Action Conference: Unprecedented Cooperation
11 May 2015, bySome 200 political activists from a variety of independent political organizations, as well as individual activists, carried out rich discussion and amicable debate about how to collaborate in the work of building a large political alternative to the left of the Democratic Party. Participating in the Future of the Left/Independent Politics Conference in an unprecedented spirit of cooperation, national, state, and local candidates and activists, as well as elected officials from the Green Party, the Peace and Freedom Party, the Richmond Progressive Alliance, Socialist Alternative, and the Vermont Progressive Party, discussed the challenges of campaigning and the difficulties of actually holding office while trying to both build movements and push progressive policies. Also at the conference were members of Progressive Democrats of America and the Justice Party.
The implications of the general election results
10 May 2015, byA combination of a fear campaign by the Tories and deep flaws in Labour’s stance produced a slim Tory majority that no one (including the Tories) expected in the British General election on 7 May.
A look at the state of the U.S. labor movement while, in protests, workers fight for $15
9 May 2015, byTens of thousands of low-wage workers protested in 200 American cities on April 15, many of them marching, demonstrating, and sitting-in at McDonald’s fast-food restaurants and other low-wage employers. Smaller numbers of workers walked out of some workplaces on strike. They were demanding an increase in the current federal minimum wage from $7.50 to $15 an hour.an hour. April 15 was chosen because it is the day that Americans must file their federal income tax return, and everyone is thinking about their incomes, and increasingly thinking about inequality.
Ciudadanos, Podemos and the desired centrality
8 May 2015, byThe eruption of Ciudadanos has changed, once more, the fluid and volatile political landscape of the Spanish state. Finally the option of quiet change came, the regeneration of the model without changing it. Is Ciudadanos the Moriarty of Podemos? Its unexpected and invincible enemy? That is the hope of the Ibex 35 and all those who have endeavoured to promote the “Podemos of the right”.
1975: In check! – Looking back on the US war in Indochina
7 May 2015, byToday there is nothing unusual in the United States losing a war. This was not the case in the previous century. Just 40 years ago, the US debacle in 1975 in Viet Nam was an event which was all the more significant in that Washington had for years mobilized its gigantic resources to prevail, while the Indochinese struggle had a major international scope. Between revolution and counter-revolution, the confrontation of east-west “blocs” and the Sino-Soviet conflict, Vietnam was the “focal point” of the world situation in a geopolitical configuration without equivalent since then.