“On this path, in the struggles, in the resistance against destructive capitalism, for democracy and for an alternative and sustainable economic policy, lies the possibility to change the national power relations that are unfavourable today, and to make more concrete an ecosocialist alternative for humanity.”
Clash over national labour agreements
20 October 2020, byWhen Italy’s health crisis exploded in the spring, employers lobbied drastically to keep the economy on hold. Profits had to be maintained, even if it meant killing workers, endangering the health of entire sectors. These same employers, largely those in metallurgy, who put their interests ahead of our health, now want the bill to be paid economically and in terms of wages. The bill has, however, already been paid by the majority of workers, with technical unemployment (which, in Italy, covers on average just over half of the salary) and the hundreds of thousands of precarious workers who have been laid off.
USA on the Brink?
19 October 2020, byWHAT WILL THE day and the weeks after Election Day look like? In this Trumpster fire of a political year, the difficulty of prediction is partly that much of the Republican Party has morphed into something close to the French National Front or German Alternativ fur Deutschland – parties of the racist far right which, by establishment consensus, are excluded from national government although they may be regionally or locally powerful. In the U.S. context, the human and political damage of the past four years is severe enough but the full extent of the menace remains to be tested.
Still the gift of the Nile?
18 October 2020, byHerodotus’s formula is well known: “Egypt is the gift of the Nile”. But it seems that, 2,500 years after the death of the Greek historian, this will no longer be the case.
From viral epidemic to social pandemic?
17 October 2020, byThe now almost recurrent images of water and tear gas cannons come this time from Indonesia. Workers and students have invaded the streets of the main towns and clashed with the police. In the face of the epidemic, authorities have been slow to take action. The number of doctors per capita is around 20 times lower than European averages and President Jokowi, sometimes presented by the press as progressive, declared the country immune ... by religion: ginger and turmeric were advocated as remedies. To take up Rohana Kuddus’s phrase describing the management of the epidemic in New Left Review: “Lemongrass and prayer”.
Capitalism Made Women of Color More Vulnerable to the COVID Recession
16 October 2020, by“For all the women who have lost their jobs during this pandemic, for Black women and Latinas who have performed the bulk of the essential work during lockdown and borne the brunt of the recession, for all the Black and Brown elders who have lost their lives during this crisis, it is capitalism that has been their preexisting condition.”
Situation of Garment Factory Workers in Katunayaka – COVID-19 Update
15 October 2020, by“The biggest mistake done by this Government and the Health Ministry was to claim that we had “conquered” Corona. Then everyone became complaisant. Most people stopped wearing masks also. There’s no point trying to make world records (coming 2nd in the world) for having managed Corona, we should have focused on creating a Sri Lankan record by, making sure we properly managed things here. Then automatically we would have got international recognition,” said a worker now in quarantine in Kalutara.
Intersecting crises and the impact in Britain
14 October 2020, by“These three crises (economic, ecological and political) are global in nature and have impacted countries in both the global north and south.
In Britain, we also need to take into account the specific problem of Brexit – probably a no-deal one.”
Golden Dawn goes to jail - The antifascist movement still out in the streets!
13 October 2020, byThe colorful river that flooded Athens and all the cities of Greece in the morning of 7 October marked the conclusion of the antifascist movement that managed to impose in court what had already been achieved in the consciousness of the vast majority of the working class and the youth: Golden Dawn to be condemned as a criminal organization.
Radical Socialist Statement on Hathras Caste Atrocity and the Babri Masjid Verdict
12 October 2020, by“This case forces us to confront once again not only the cultures of cruelty and violence that pervade the lives of Dalits, women and minorities in India, but also the impunity afforded to upper caste men by the nexus between dominant caste lobbies, state institutions and the ruling political regime. ”