IV508 - May 2017

This statement was issued by Socalist Resistance, British section of the Fourth Interntional, on 23 May 2017.

Neither defamation nor repression will slow down the grassroots protest movement in the Rif. Only the expansion and radicalization of the struggle will make it possible to achieve gains and move towards emancipation.

Pedro Sanchez was re-elected as leader of the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español - Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party) – defeating his right wing opponent, Susana Díaz, after having been forced to step down from the leadership under pressure from the right in October 2016.

While demonstrations in Budapest and international reactions expressed outrage over the Hungarian Government’s attempt to shut down Central European University (CEU), on 11 April 2017, the Economic Committee of the Hungarian Parliament was also proposing legislative amendments to the Labor Code. The amendments – to the Labor Code, which is already often referred to as the “slave-labor law” (rabszolgatörvény) – would enable an even more flexible, employer friendly use of working time, especially in the production segment of manufacturing. Instead of the currently, already very flexible reference period of 12 months, the new legislation proposes a 36 months long reference period. The reference period means that the employer can unilaterally decide about the daily, weekly, monthly, and even annual working time schedule of an employee – i.e. if (s)he is to work a daily 8 or 12 hours, 3 or 6 days per week, etc. Moreover, non-standard, continuous work schedules, or shift-work is common in metal manufacturing.

This is a very urgent call for solidarity signatures. Baba Jan, a dedicated activist from Gilgit-Balistan, north of Pakistan, is appealing against a life sentence. His final review petition will be heard by the Supreme Court May 25, 2017. To have an effect, this international call has to be sent Monday 22, 2017 in the evening (European time).

Following a wave of protests in Zharrez, Albania, Griselda Qosja spoke with activists affiliated with two of the leading leftist organizations in Albania, Organizata Politike and Thurje.

It is not possible to understand the current crisis in Venezuela without analysing the factors that develop “from within” and are not entirely explained by the mainstream media. We offer here seven keys to the current crisis, emphasizing that understanding what is happening in Venezuela requires taking foreign intervention into account and being aware that the concept of “dictatorship” neither explains the Venezuelan case nor is a regional specificity of this country. We suggest that the social contract, the institutions and the frameworks of the formal economy are breaking down and that the future and the political definitions of the current situation are being channelled by force, through a number of informal mechanisms, exceptional and subterranean. We propose that the shared horizon of the two ruling party blocs is neo-liberal, that we are faced with a historical crisis of Venezuelan rentier capitalism and that communities, popular organizations and social movements are facing a progressive undermining of the social fabric.

A hunger strike that has involved more than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails is starting its fourth week [1] , and Israeli authorities are continuing a crackdown against it.

Let’s assume that Russia is actually guilty of everything it’s accused of doing – which I’m personally guessing it probably is – to hack and interfere in the U.S. election (and others, including most recently France). At the very least, it seems clear that these charges are not ideologically motivated inventions like those infamous mythical Iraqi weapons-of-mass-destruction in 2003. In the present case, the reality of Russian hacking appears to be the informed judgment of journalists and intelligence professionals in the United States and elsewhere.

On April 28, Brazil witnessed one of the most impressive general strikes ever. What, if anything, changed after the strike? How will the resistance to the Temer government go on?