IV519 - April 2018

Since March 22nd, the country has entered a prolonged phase of strikes, mobilizations and clashes with the government.
The mainstay of this movement is the mobilization of railway workers. The four main SNCF unions (CGT, SUD, CFDT and UNSA) started a series of strike days since April 3rd (following a rhythm of two days on strike every five days).

The Fourth International salutes the desperate courage, resolve and creativity of the thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip taking part in the #GreatReturnMarch. We are in full solidarity with them. They have already made a great step forward for the Palestinian cause, by bringing 70 years of dispossession and ongoing Nakba back to the attention of a world that had proved all too willing to be distracted.

Lies, damn lies and statistics, right? Well not always – sometimes statistics dramatise social reality in a graphic way. A year before the devastating floods in India, Bangladesh and Texas, a little-noticed UN report revealed extraordinary figures about the effects of climate change worldwide.

Today in Poland, remembering Poles’ complicity in the Holocaust is subject to punishment.

The recent riots targeting Muslims in Kandy have provoked accusations on many sides. While mainstream conversations focus on what the riots entail in terms of immediate political consequences for the current Government and its tepid response, progressives have also had to reckon with the growing presence of anti-Muslim rhetoric and violence as a feature of contemporary Sri Lankan life.

Erdo?an’s would-be dictatorship is anything but stable. Here’s a look at the contradictions and fractures roiling Turkish society.

The Saudi ruling elite has relied on US backing, and military support, for its regional policies. But since the Trump administration, none of their regional policies has met with success.

Although it has been seen as a secondary struggle through much of the history of the workers’ movement, today feminism is taking the lead in the resistance against austerity capitalism. It is a vibrant movement characterized by radicalism, a capacity for self-organization, a mass audience and a broad potential to absorb other struggles.

The poster above portrays some of the major Catalan political leaders imprisoned without trial at this moment, while the text below it outlines the balance-sheet to date of police and legal attacks on Catalans trying to implement their right to self-determination.

As the Syrian revolution entered its eighth year this march, Dan Fischer and S. Maja sent some questions to Joseph Daher. We discussed how the destiny of Syria’s popular struggle against Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship is linked to anti-authoritarian and anti-fascist struggles globally, including in Rojava, Palestine, Europe, and North America.