IV540 - January 2020

In the face of geopolitical tensions instrumentalized by the imperialist power of the US and regional powers such as Iran, the struggling popular classes remain the lodestar of progressives and internationalists around the world.

“In December 1991 [...] Lula and the PT stood for the struggle against odious and illegitimate debt.”

Our comrade Mohand Sadek Akrour, PST mayor of Barbacha, in Kabylia, answered our questions about his activity as mayor of a commune confronted with a particularly corrupt and blocked system, and about the struggles that the comrades lead in the city with the population.

The expression ‘tipping point’ refers to the point when a system passes from one system of equilibrium to another, the point where it is no longer possible to prevent accumulated quantitative changes from causing a qualitative change. It is used in many different fields, from population studies to climate change, as well as social sciences.

For Indigenous Australians, Australia Day commemorates nothing but the invasion of their territories. While the Change the Date campaign gathers momentum, only a Treaty can begin to address the trauma and bloodshed of British settlement.

Since 20 January, the movement for the withdrawal of the proposed Macron-Philippe pension counter-reform has entered its second act. Despite the fact that the last few days have seen the end of the SNCF and RATP strikes, the mobilization is far from over and the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators on 24 January made clear their determination to continue fighting for several more weeks.

Patrice Lumumba was a radical leader of the Congolese independence movement who resisted Belgian colonialism and corporate interests. That’s why he was assassinated in a US-backed coup 59 years ago today [24 January].

In the days leading up to 12 December 2019 in Paris, New York and even Montreal in a temperature of -13°C, Algerians organized themselves in front of the polling stations to put the case for voters not to endorse the electoral masquerade. They wanted to set an example from the outside to the Algerian people. This gave confidence to the people to contest the presidential election called by the de facto regime in order to ensure its continuity.

Colonial-era sedition laws used to criminalize dissent to protect imperial sovereignty. Now that “The People are sovereign” in independent India and Pakistan, why are they still being charged with sedition?

Brazil dominates Latin America’s economy. And although the coup in Bolivia, uprisings in Chile, Ecuador, and Columbia, Trump’s threats against Iran, Australian megafires, mass strikes in India and France, anti-government protests in Lebanon, and the British elections have pushed Brazil off the front of the international pages, what happens in Brazil will go a long way to determining the social and politic balance of power in Latin America in the coming period. In just one year, far-right Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has done a lot of damage. The Amazon rain forest is burning, social services, education, culture, women’s rights, and unions are under attack. Bolsonaro and his followers have given the green light to the murder of indigenous activists, they have threatened LGTBQ people and elected officials, their fingerprints are all over the assassination of Party of Socialism and Freedom Rio de Janeiro city councilor Marielle France, and they have launched a campaign against “cultural Marxism.” Yet, despite legitimate fears, Bolsonaro has not managed to consolidate a neo-fascist party, his administration is enmeshed in growing corruptions scandals, and the judiciary was forced to release former Workers Party (PT) president Lula in October, who stands as a unique electoral threat to Bolsonaro’s reelection in 2022.