IV582 - July 2023

On Spanish TV on Sunday 23 July, you had the rather bizarre spectacle of both major parties claiming victory.

On Wednesday, 26 July 2023 the news broke of the arrest of Boris Kagarlitsky by Russia’s federal security service, the FSB, which quickly transferred him from Moscow to Syktyvkar, in the far north, charged with “apology for terrorism”, with a trial announced for September, where he faces seven years in prison.

Alan Minsky interviews Howard A. Rodman

This article seeks to respond to the questions posed by Amandla! which relate to the South African Left in particular: where is the Left intellectually, programmatically and organisationally? What has happened to it, and why has it become so fragmented and marginal? Given the broadness of the questions, it is necessary to engage with them within a particular timeframe. Therefore this article is located in the post-apartheid political moment.

The state of the water industry has been a matter of increasing concern in British politics over recent years. More and more stories have about the excessive dumping of sewage into rivers and seas. In many local areas, especially on the coast or where rivers are significant local attractions, this despoliation has become the focus of strident local organising. This has gained support from people who have traditionally voted for the ruling Conservative Party.

High inflation rates, price hikes of basic goods, unemployment, lack of economic policies and loss of income: the earthquake added to more than a decade of devastation, leaving Syrian citizens in the hands of diaspora remittances. Joseph Daher analyses the economic aspects of the February disaster.

Across the media and elsewhere, we hear of organized efforts to ban books, especially for school-aged young people, and to censor school curricula, primarily history and civics.

We appear to be in strike season, with hundreds of thousands of workers either on strike or threatening to strike to protect their jobs and for higher pay.

Just after his difficult “triumph” at Presidential elections, Erdoğan’s cabinet has signaled slight changes on some policy matters. The new Finance Minister has come back from London, leaving behind his work at Merrill Lynch global investment management company and has increased interest rates. Neoliberals in Turkey had been demanding an increase in rates to attract foreign capital from global financial institutions but the low interest rate policy has been strongly defended by Erdoğan before the elections.

It is crystal clear that it is the March 27 ruling of the Manipur High Court to award Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the majority Meitei community (mostly Hindu) that led to mass protests by Zo-Kukis in early May which in turn led to violent attacks by Meitei vigilante groups and then a spiral of violence on both sides but with the Kukis easily the principal sufferers. Not the least reason for this being that the ruling BJP government and its Chief Minister Biren Singh have in various ways favoured the Meiteis. Consider the following: