International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

The dharma [1] convention by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on January 18 had some distinct features. For the first time, Imran Khan chose not to be aggressive, agitated or offensive. It was a retreat from his previous attitude. His usual criticism of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N) government for rigging and stealing the general elections was replaced by “all efforts to build a new Khyber Pakhtunkhwa”.

Greetings. We would like, first of all, to congratulate you for the intuition, the “flair”, the sense of initiative that you have had to build Podemos, from the beginning.

Since the attack against Charlie Hebdo, France has been the scene of a veritable outpouring of Islamophobia: accusations of culpability, amalgams, violence. But the least that can be said is that the ground had been largely prepared.

The victory of Felipe Nyusi and the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) in the October 15 presidential and parliamentary elections pours cold water on the hopes of many who were convinced that 2014 would bring political change to Mozambique. Instead, Frelimo will maintain its stranglehold on political power for another five years, with an absolute majority in parliament. Accredited observers, independent reports and the media documented numerous breakdowns of transparency and fairness in the recent electoral process.

This “Announcement of the Central Committee of ANTARSYA for the results of the Greek elections” was issued on 26 January 2015. It was published in English on the ANTARYSA website.

Below is a short note on the first results of the parliamentary elections of 26 October.

There then follows an article by Alexandr Volodarsky, a Ukrainian anarchist who is a native of Luhansk, a city which is at present occupied city by militias armed by Russia, and who took part in the battles of the Maidan. This article dates from the beginning of July. I have accompanied it by notes, either to update or to add elements of reflection or information. These notes naturally reflect my point of view and not necessarily that of the author. V.P.

Sergey Nikolsky, a Russian philosopher of culture, says that perhaps the most important idea for Russians “from the fall of Byzantium until today is the idea of empire and the fact that they are an imperial nation. We have always known that we live in a country whose history is an unbroken chain of territorial expansion, conquest, annexation, of their defence, of temporary losses and new conquests. The idea of empire was one of the most precious in our ideological baggage and it is this that we proclaim to other nations. It is through it that we surprise, delight or drive mad the rest of the world.”

The Landscapes on Uncrowded.org are conspicuously lacking in people: a spacious meadow, a desert stretching to a distant mountain range, and a calm expanse of water.The Washington D.C. non-profit promotes a troubling message against this bucolic backdrop. They claim that national and international laws encourage irresponsible childbearing and overly large populations.

This is an edited version of a speech given at the Calcutta Press Club by the author in April 2014 as part of a national seminar on Communal fascism. It is reprinted here as part of our discussion on the question of imperialism.