IV531 - April 2019

With a turnout of more than 75%, the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español – Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party) was the main winner (28.70% of votes, with 123 seats, as against 2016 when it obtained 85) against the PP (Partido Popular – Popular Party), which has entered an irreversible crisis (it has gone from 137 seats to 66, with 16.70%, while it did not obtain representation for the first time in the Basque Country and only has one seat in Catalonia), Ciudadanos (which rose from 32 to 57 seats with 15.86%, but did not overtake the PP and fell back in its original fiefdom, Catalonia) and Vox (which enters parliament with 24 seats and 10.26%, but below the expectations it had generated with its discourse of the Reconquista).

Indonesia’s incumbent president, Joko Widodo, won the country’s general elections on 17 April 2019, beating his rival, Prabowo Subianto, who had a nefarious military past. A victory for democracy? It’s not that simple…

On 8 April 74% of schools and kindergardens in Poland went on strike. The strike’s organizer is The Polish Teachers’ Union (ZNP), close to the Social Democrats, but the strikers are also members of the pro-government Solidarno?? (Solidarity) union and non-union members. It is the biggest teachers’ strike since 1993 and possibly the biggest in the history of Poland. There is impressive solidarity and grassroots mobilization of a mainly female occupational group. Inter-school strike committees are being launched as well.

It is the political question that is now structuring the actions and debates in the popular protest movement known as “Hirak”. Since 22 February 2019, the date of the emergence of the movement that occupies the street and Algerian public space, the demand has quickly passed from its ethical dimension, the rejection of the candidacy of an old and sick president for his fifth term, towards the political issues that underpinned this candidacy and its corollaries relating to the organization and democratic exercise of Algerian government.

As conspiracy theories about Trump-Russian “collusion” and fatuous claims about Putin’s iron grip have dominated American headlines for the past two years, the politics of the Russian street have undergone a noticeable transformation. Despite the authorities’ best efforts, mass street protests have become a fact of Russian life. The mass protests for fair elections in December 2011 aroused intellectuals’ interest in opposition politics in the large cities. Seven years later, the aesthetics of protest have changed. Today’s protests are more and more defined by youth from poor families from provincial cities. This is a welcomed development, proving once again, that politics in Russia is far more vibrant, especially among young people, than the American media would have us believe.

At least 253 people were killed and 500 were wounded due to the suicide attacks carried out by religious extremists on Easter Sunday on three churches and three luxury tourist hotels in Sri Lanka. The Left Voice, an organisation of socialist activists in the trade unions and peoples’ struggles, unconditionally condemns this barbaric attack.

The 2019 Indian general election is currently being held in seven phases from 11 April to 19 May 2019 to constitute the 17th Lok Sabha. The counting of votes will be conducted on 23 May, and on the same day the results will be declared. [1] This statement by Radical Socialist was issued on 19 April 2019.

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the foundation in Portugal of the Bloco de Esquerda (BE – Left Bloc), which was created as a unique political movement and not as a unified political party or as a coalition. Its constitution and evolution, for those of us who have closely followed this experience with interest and passion from other political contexts, is paradigmatic. A unique experience that is not free of paradoxes, challenges and risks. A revolutionary left that does not want to limit itself to a testimonial practice and self-affirmation has to reflect on these.

On 18 April the twenty-nine year old journalist, trade unionist and lesbian activist Lyra McKee was shot while reporting on rioting in the Creggan area of Derry in the North of Ireland. This killing provoked widespread grief for a well-known journalist and activist and anger against the New IRA – a dissident group that broke with the Provisional IRA in 1998, rejecting the Good Friday agreement. – IVP

The elections in Ukraine have come a shock and will have an impact not only in Ukraine and East Europe but globally. What does this mean and how did it happen?  In order to help understand these dramatic events Christopher Ford organiser of the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign interviewed leading Ukraine specialist Yuliya Yurchenko author of Ukraine and the Empire of Capital (Pluto, 2017).