Last week ended with a military coup in Turkey. Turkish forces shut down Istanbul’s two main bridges; Atatürk airport was captured; and President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an tried desperately to rally his supporters via FaceTime. After a bloody year featuring fraught elections, sporadic terrorist attacks, and war against Kurdish militants in the country’s east, it appeared as if he may have lost control.
The Olympic Calamity
15 August 2016, byWhen Brazil’s interim president Michel Temer announced the opening of the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, he was met with boos. Speaking as fast as a voiceover at the end of a pharmaceutical commercial, it was an awkward scene. The choreographers of the ceremony launched fireworks to mask the crowd’s disdain, but discontent with the Olympics extends far beyond Maracanã Stadium. While smiley-faced Games-goers fill the Olympic suites, thousands of Brazilians are taking to the streets.
Political and Economic situation in Sri Lanka
13 August 2016, byAlthough it is not a “thunderstorm like” crisis, Sri Lanka has going through a deep structural crisis since mid-1980s. This crisis was aggravated by internal war (1983-2009) between Tamil militant groups and the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL). Partly as a consequence of the structural crisis, a parallel development took place in the political sphere in the form of the rise of authoritarian governance that was culminated during the last regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa (2005-2015) that was replaced by UNP-SLFP coalition headed by Maithripala Sirisena (SLFP) and Ranil Wickramasinghe (UNP) at the election held in January 2015.
Their Security, Our Poverty: Militarization and the New Code of Labour in Lithuania
12 August 2016In the last months the Lithuanian media has been rife with debates about the new labour legislation proposed for parliamentary vote on June 23. Not very different from the French reform proposals, and pushing for further deregularization of the labour market, the code has sparked a series of protests and actions throughout the country. Representatives of the trade unions protested yesterday in Vilnius, expressing their intention to continue the demonstrations the following week, while activists from Kaunas have occupied one of the main squares of the city. The occupation is still continuing. Published first on www.locomotive.press this article by Noah Brehmer tries to make sense of the new legislation, integrating it into the larger context of Lithuanian post-socialist neoliberalism.
The Gypsies’ Tortuous Journey
11 August 2016, byThe New York Times reports that France has become one of the most hostile European countries for the Roma. In 2013, there were 19,000 forced removals of Roma people; 13,500 in 2014, and an average of 150 each week in 2015.
‘C is for Corruption’: The Rio Olympics from A to Z
10 August 2016, byFrom police killings to forced evictions and environmental destruction; the Olympic Games in Rio are cause for an alphabet soup of misery and suffering. Republished from ROAR Magazine, 26 July 2016.
Notes on the NATO summit and the antiwar counter-summit in Warsaw
8 August 2016, byThe main result from the NATO summit in Warsaw was the official proclamation of a “containment” strategy toward Russia. So far, the practical consequence of this declaration is modest in military terms—a total of 3,000 foreign troops will be deployed to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Far more important are the politics of this decision. The “Russian threat” is primarily defined as hybrid, that is it’s covert and exists on the borders of war and peace, state policy and social dynamics.
The UKIPisation of the Tory Party –The Brexit left in denial
7 August 2016, byIt was clear, long before it was launched, that the EU referendum held serious dangers for the left as well as for multiculturalism and anti-racism in Britain. The campaign itself was always going to be a carnival of racism and xenophobia and an outcome in favour of Brexit would trigger a major shift to the right in British politics—both at the level of government and in terms of social attitudes. Racism and xenophobia would be strengthened and the left thrown onto the defensive.
International Solidarity with the migrants of the world!
6 August 2016This statement was approved by the closing rally of the youth camp in solidarity with the Fourth International on 30th July in Cannoves, Catalonia in the Spanish state. This statement was approved by the closing rally of the youth camp in solidarity with the Fourth International on 30th July in Cannoves, Catalonia in the Spanish state (for the other statements adopted see Stop the bombings and the sieges in Syria, support the Syrian people!).
Stop the bombings and the sieges in Syria, support the Syrian people!
5 August 2016This statement was approved by the closing rally of the youth camp in solidarity with the Fourth International on 30th July in Cannoves, Catalonia in the Spanish state. More than 350 participants from Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, the Spanish state and Switzerland attended as well as representatives from Brazil, Mexico and the United States. Unfortunately because of the economic difficulites in Greece no young cormades from Greece were able to be present and so the camp sent a message to them. However a delegation of comrades from Western Sahara was present and the camp took the opporunity to make a statement of support for their demand for self-determination. These two shorter statements are published following the one on Syria. A further statement on the question of migrants will be published later.