IV501 - October 2016

Besieged from the outside, first by the 15M anti-austerity movement and then by Podemos, the final coup de grâce to the social-democratic party PSOE came from the inside, as a reaction of fear by a fraction of its bureaucracy and ruling elite faced with its decline, a crisis of regime and the collapse of the previous political order. The checkmate of the removal of party leader Pedro Sanchez was a coup of fear and arrogance. The coup of a past that survives in the present in putrefied form. It is the fruit of the crisis that has gripped the PSOE since 2011. And at the same time, it has opened a new phase of this crisis acting as the precipitating factor of a dynamic of serious implosion. It is therefore simultaneously a result of the internal crisis and a cause of its worsening.

This report on the Awami Workers’ Party conference was published on 16 October 2016 in the Pakistani news site Dawn.

Is the forgotten war turning into a forgotten famine? What answers will we give when the next generation ask how we could watch these tragedies and do nothing?

About 150 activists, community leaders, and climate justice advocates from various climate networks and people’s movement marched from the University of Santo Tomas to the Mendiola Peace Arch, and were joined by residents of Barangay 105, the local community affected by Rock Energy International Corporation’s coal stockpile located in Happyland, Tondo, Manila.

We, the undersigned Palestinians, write to affirm our commitment to the amplification of Syrian voices as they endure slaughter and displacement at the hands of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime. We are motivated by our deep belief that oppression, in all of its manifestations, should be the primary concern of anyone committed to our collective liberation. Our vision of liberation includes the emancipation of all oppressed peoples, regardless of whether or not their struggles fit neatly into outdated geopolitical frameworks.

In contrast to Egypt, left forces in Tunisia have been able to maintain continuity over several decades, even clandestinely. The main reason for this is the existence, since just after the Second World War, of a powerful trade union movement, which played a decisive role in the fight for independence and allowed left forces to partially protect themselves from the effects of repression. Some of these debates resemble those in other countries, starting with relations with the existing regimes.

In recent years several countries in the region have been cracking down on the practice, which the U.N. says kills over 5,000 women a year. Pakistan’s parliament unanimously passed legislation against "honor killings" Thursday, three months after the murder of an outspoken social media star. (See the article by Abida Choudary of the Awami Workers’ Party below.)

In the midst of a right-wing onslaught, Indian workers carried out one of the largest strikes in world history.

For women who built revolutions with their dreams and sewing machines.

“Feminism cannot be monolithic in its issues, goals and strategies, since it constitutes the political expression of the concerns and interests of women from different regions, classes, nationalities, and ethnic backgrounds.

While gender subordination has universal elements, feminism cannot be based on a rigid concept of universality that negates the wide variation of women’s experience.

There is and must be a diversity of feminisms, responsive to the different needs and concerns of different women, and define by them for themselves.”

— DAWN, 1987

The ceasefire in Syria concluded on September 9, 2016 between the US and Russia came to an end on September 19 at 7pm. It was a total failure politically, military and in humanitarian terms.