MarÃa Teresa Blandón, who comes from a rural area in northern Nicaragua and was a guerrilla in the Sandinista revolution, is today one of the most critical voices of Nicaraguan feminism. We met on the premises of the Programa feminista la corriente, a feminist network which, since 1994, has been a reference in Central America for the study of feminist theory: investigations and surveys, training of leaders, alliances for the defence and promotion of women’s rights and gender equality. MarÃa Teresa Blandón granted a long interview in May 2016 which is published below, almost in its entirety.
Between rumours, clamours and social networks: a social explosion
15 February 2017, byAfter the social explosion in opposition to the government’s draft finance law followed by conflicts with the security forces in early January 2017 in a number of Algeria’s wilayats – in Bejaïa, Bouira, Boumerdes, Blida and Tiaret – and the social discontent in others, the question is: are they the fruit of rumour and manipulation, as the government and the media tell us? This regime does not ask why violence has become a mode of expression, why youth has its horizon blocked, why the public school throws more than 500,000 children onto the streets every year, while the barons of the regime enrich themselves. The social explosions, riots, strikes and social movements reveal a profound political and social malaise.
The new balance of terror in Syria
14 February 2017, by ,The scorched-earth war of the Assad dictatorship, backed by allies Russia and Iran, against the Syrian Revolution has attained a critical victory with the conquest of the rebellion stronghold of Eastern Aleppo. Now the left must place a premium on understanding the lessons of what happened—and what it will mean for the region.Ashley Smith interviewed Daher about conditions in Syria and the situation for the remnants of revolutionaries after Aleppo, as well as the role that Hezbollah, Lebanon’s Shia fundamentalist party, has played.
A new economic model?
13 February 2017, byA former dignitary of the Algerian regime argues that, since the death of Boumediene, the government has tried to create a social base by developing “corruption and widespread consumption” [1]].
Iglesias, Errejón, and the Road Not Taken
12 February 2017, byThis weekend, Podemos will gather for its second congress. At stake at is whether Podemos will be a party that merely seeks to win elections or one that wants to transform society. The meeting, planned as a kind of internal and external catharsis, will bring to a head all the strategic debates that arose after the party’s leadership imploded in March 2016. This division had, until last spring, been only latent, held primarily by the minority membership who had always opposed the party model and strategy codified at Podemos’s first congress in Vistalegre in October 2014.
Nature is priceless, which is why turning it into ‘natural capital’ is wrong
11 February 2017, by ,An increasingly popular line of argument is that, by turning nature into capital, it is possible to reconcile a capitalist growth economy with conservation. In this way, proponents assert, conservation can be expressed in a language that economists, policy-makers and CEOs understand.
Introduction to Pambazuka’s Special Edition on the labour movement in Africa
10 February 2017, byIn the face of multiple crises of profit-driven socio-economic systems that have driven millions of people in Africa into hopeless poverty, the urgent questions of our time are quite clear: How do we change the balance of class forces in favour of the working class? What are the radical reforms around which a program of mass action could be initiated? How do we form mass workers’ parties all over the continent? What about organisations of the jobless, the landless and the homeless, the feminist structures, the youth?
Trump’s China aggression drawing Australia closer to war
9 February 2017, byThe Trump administration appears set on a confrontation with China sooner rather than later, and the Turnbull government has given every indication that it will be riding shotgun with the US when that happens. These are dangerous times.
Beyond Lean-In: For a Feminism of the 99% and a Militant International Strike on March 8
8 February 2017, by , , , , ,The massive women’s marches of January 21st may mark the beginning of a new wave of militant feminist struggle. But what exactly will be its focus? In our view, it is not enough to oppose Trump and his aggressively misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic and racist policies; we also need to target the ongoing neoliberal attack on social provision and labor rights.
Some notes on the political situation
7 February 2017, byWe knew in France that 2017 would be politically polarized by the preparations for the presidential election. It is true, in more than one respect, but this polarization also reveals the general crisis of the institutional parties and the institutions in general and the chasm that separates the leaders of the Socialist Party (PS) and the right wing party Les Républicains (LR) from those they are supposed to represent. Also its dynamic could, perhaps, escape the ritual of the suffocation of the social movement.
Footnotes
[1] [Ahmed Benbitour, a minister in five successive governments and head of government. He is an economist and former consultant with the World Bank and IMF. He chose to join the liberal opposition to the existing rentier system, after having overseen the policy of privatisation of public enterprises. See Ahmed Benbitour, L’Algérie de l’espoir, Éditions Dar El Khaldounia, 2015.