IV519 - April 2018

A mass movement in Armenia pushed out the Prime Minister and former president Serj Sargsyan. Even if liberal currents are trying to channel the movement and gain electoral support, this event could also be a positive move for the oppressed youth and the working class in the country. LeftEast interviewed Hovhannes Gevorkian, an Armenian student of Law in Berlin and member of the Revolutionären Internationalistischen Organisation (RIO) of Germany. The interview was conducted by Philippe Alcoy (PA).

IVP519 April 2018 magazine available to download
IVP519 April 2018 magazine available to download here

On April 4, the US remembered Martin Luther King Jr. on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death. The discussions and reminiscences about the civil rights leader brought home some stark realities about race relations in the country – that notwithstanding the progress made since the period of the civil rights movement, the US is still a long way from achieving the ‘dream’ King fought and died for. Some commentators even argued that for African Americans, the situation today is worse than it once was.

The US government, in alliance with the United Kingdom and France, launched air strikes in Syria in mid April 2018, officially in response to the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons against the population in the city of Douma, in eastern Ghouta, a few days earlier, killing about 70 civilians and wounding few hundreds. This attack on the chemical weapon led to the decision of the forced withdrawal of the fundamentalist Islamic militia Jaysh al-Islam in a few days to the north of Syria in an agreement with the regime of Damascus. As a reminder, following the conquest of Eastern Ghouta by regime’s forces, some 66,000 persons, in majority civilians, have been forcefully displaced to Idlib and Aleppo governorates. The UN estimates that some 100,000 – 140,000 individuals remain in east Ghouta, 50,000 – 700,000 of them are estimated to reside Douma.

A public meeting that became voice of the voiceless in spite of repression.

During Finland’s bloody civil war, revolutionary women struggled against exploitation in all its forms.

During the week of January 8, Tunisia experienced a new outbreak of protests in response to the antisocial measures contained in the finance law of 2018. After a week of protests, and sometimes very violent clashes with the police, an uneasy calm has again descended across the country. [1] The social crisis, which continues to worsen, feeds frustration and discontent among broad layers of the population. At any time, the anger could resurge.

Italy’s political future is unclear more than a month after general elections that failed to produce a working parliamentary majority for any single electoral coalition or party. Nevertheless, the March 4 election was a triumph for the right-wing coalition of parties led by the xenophobic League and for the populist Five Star Movement, which came in first and second respectively in voting. The incumbent center-left Democratic Party was trounced, losing nearly 300 seats in the two houses of parliament.

Shenzhen traffic police are unilaterally extending their remit to regulate the employment conditions of the city’s food delivery workers.

Bhaskar Sunkara is editor of the US-based socialist magazine Jacobin and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, which has experienced rapid growth over the past year.