The massive surge in support for Scottish independence in the recent referendum was motivated more by democratic than nationalist sentiment. It was an expression of long term working class alienation from the political decision-making process. The spur was a Tory-imposed austerity the Scots hadn’t voted for, following years of disastrous warmongering, neo-liberal economic crisis and growing inequality.
Is the Umbrella Movement Planned and Funded by the US Government?
8 November 2014, byThis is an excerpt of an essay originally published in the Ming Pao Daily on October 19, 2014. Certain paragraphs have been slightly edited and supplemented for English readers. This essay is translated for the coming issue of Amandla, the South African radical left journal.
On Kobanê, Rojava and the Iraq-Syria wars
7 November 2014, byKarman Matin, born in Eastern Kurdistan, spoke to Dicle News Agency (D?HA) - a multilingual internet news agency in Kurdish, Turkish and English- about the recent developments in the Middle East and attacks of ISIS gangs at Kobanê Canton of West Kurdistan, Rojava.
The IPCC sounds the alarm
5 November 2014, byThe International Panel on Climate Change has now published the synthesis of its fifth evaluation report and also a summary for policy makers [1]. The diagnosis is not a surprise:
• Global warming is ongoing, its main cause is the burning of fossil fuels and the negative consequences are more important than the positive effects.
• It still is probably possible to avoid a rise of the average temperature of more than 2°C, in comparison with the pre-industrial period but the measures of the last twenty years lead us to a warming of between 3,7 and 4,8 °C ( between 2,5 and 7,8 °C when taking the climate uncertainty into account) which would lead to “high risks of very severe impacts, widely spread out and irreversible”.
Two Years after the CTU Strike: “Reform” Plague Still Spreads
4 November 2014, byIt has been two years since the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) struck for the first time in over 20 years and changed the discourse on education in the United States. The strike was historic in making issues of race and class central to a contract struggle and in garnering public support to defend public education.
Of the class struggle and the things we eat
4 November 2014, byDo the rich and poor eat the same? Do our incomes determine our diet? Today, who is overweight? Although often, and from certain quarters, the call for healthy and wholesome food is viewed with disdain, as “a fad”, “posh”, “hippy” or “flower power” the reality is rather different than these short-sighted comments imply. To defend ecological, local, peasant food is most “revolutionary”.
Crisis and class-struggle in Slovenia: the growing momentum of socialist politics
3 November 2014, byFor many liberal spectators, Slovenia was for a long time considered a success story of transition from a ‘socialist dictatorship’ into a ‘parliamentary democracy’ based on a market economy. In the winter of 2012, however, mass popular uprisings swept through the larger cities and eventually brought down the far-right neoliberal government of the Slovenian Democratic Party. What followed was more or less a continuation of the same policies under a nominally ‘centre-left’ government. In a similar way that Tony Blair could be considered Margaret Thatcher’s greatest achievement, the technocratic approach to dealing with the manifold crisis devastating Slovenian society in general and the historical achievements of labor movement in particular, has become the universal language spoken by all political forces, often including those of organized labor. It seems, considering the socio-economic situation in the entire European periphery, that the subsumption of all spheres of society under the profit-driven rule of capitalist accumulation has only really begun for Slovenia.
A tipping point?
3 November 2014, byOmar Barghouti wrote in December 2013 that the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign "may well be reaching a tipping point." Barghouti is one of the founders of this movement to pressure Israel to recognize fundamental Palestinian rights. This may be the breakthrough moment for BDS, shifting from the slow accumulation of modest victories to major successes and widespread support. He described this as the "South Africa moment," where BDS organizing would reach the critical mass of anti-apartheid solidarity in the 1980s.
Footnotes
[1] The IPCC is composed by three working parties whose work is centred on (1) the science of climate change, (2) its impact and adaptation to it, (3) mitigation strategies. Each working party writes a report and each report is then published with also a summary for policy makers. The reports are written by scientists. The summaries for policy makers are being co-written by scientists and representatives of the states who speak on behalf of their governments.