One month away from Mexico’s presidential election, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as AMLO) finally appears to be the undisputed candidate for the presidency.
Siege and resistance in Gaza: an interview with Toufic Haddad
11 June 2018, by ,For more than 10 weeks, Palestinians have gathered in protest every Friday at the Israeli-Gaza Strip buffer zone, located in the perimeter of the 1949 armistice lines. Called by organisers the Great March of Return, the mobilisations have demanded an end to the crippling Western state-Israeli economic and political blockade of the Gaza Strip and that families expelled for generations from their homelands be allowed to return.
‘Sooner or later, there will be a new financial crisis’
10 June 2018, byThe recent bubbles in the stock exchanges and financial markets foretell an imminent financial crisis that would likely be stronger and more dangerous than in the past, according to Eric Toussaint, historian, political scientist and a spokesman of the Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt (CADTM).
Karl Marx: India’s freedom struggle too was influenced by Marxism
10 June 2018, byFriedrich Engels, while informing a common friend about Marx’s death in March 1883, wrote “...mankind is shorter by a head, and the greatest head of our time at that”. Few would have agreed with Engels’ appraisal at that time. By the turn of the century though, the ideas of Karl Marx had started capturing the imagination of millions across the world.
So Trashy! A Review of EU Waste Management and Inequality Modeling
9 June 2018, byThe policy of the European Union (EU) in the field of environmental protection and natural resources has, since the 1980s, continued to grow in importance. But some topics are of particular concern to European citizens. This is the case, in particular, with the production of waste, which is increasingly alarming, with the EU generating some 2 billion tons of waste every year.
Tthe new government and the challenges for Unidos Podemos
8 June 2018, byThe triumph of the motion of no confidence presented to Spain’s parliament by the Pedro Sánchez, leader of the Spanish Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español – PSOE) on June 1, 2018 and the ousting of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of the Partido Popular (PP) is undoubtedly good news. It has been received as such by a large majority of Spanish society. A new political scenario is thus opened up, filled with unknowns and without any great illusions about the new government which will now be formed. At the very least, a stage of brutal attacks on basic rights and liberties on all fronts is over.
Where Is The Rebellion Going?
8 June 2018, byThe popular rebellion against the dictatorial government of Daniel Ortega, four-time president of Nicaragua, has been going on now for more than a month. And the Ortega government has continued its violent repression. In the last 47 days, it is reported that 104 people have been killed, while some have been arrested or tortured and others have gone missing. In one of the most atrocious events, government snipers fired on the May 30 “Mothers March” led by mothers mourning the murder of their children. Fifteen marchers were killed and scores wounded.
A new centre-right government is born
7 June 2018, byThis is a political assessment by Communia Network of the new Lega/Five Star Movement government in Italy. It expands, partly repeating, the earlier article by Salvatore Cannavo from Il Fatto Quotidiano “A new centre-right (with a hyphen) is born ”. [IVP]
A truckers’ strike puts Brazil on edge
7 June 2018, byHundreds of thousands of independent truckers are continuing the second week of a nationwide strike, and oil workers have walked off the job for a 72-hour strike as political tensions escalate in Brazil.
Why the conservatives fell in the Spanish state
6 June 2018, byMariano Rajoy, the conservative president of the Spanish state, was forced out June 1 after the parliament voted for a motion of censure (similar to a vote of no confidence) put forward by the biggest opposition party, the center-left Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), and supported by the left-wing Unidos Podemos and the nationalist parties Partido Nacionalista Vasco (PNV) and Partido Demócrata Europeo Catalán (PdeCat). PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez became the new president.
Rajoy, the leader of the conservative Popular Party (PP), was brought down after the PP was implicated in a corruption scandal for which several members were sentenced to prison in May. But the wider backdrop to Rajoy’s downfall involves deepening social conflicts in the Spanish state, including the independence referendum in Catalonia late last year, which was violently repressed by the PP-led central government. The self-organization and mobilization of the Catalan people was squelched when the Spanish state imposed Article 155 of the Constitution, annulling the referendum results in favor of independence, and punished participants in the process, including elected Catalan political leaders.
Brais Fernández, an activist in the revolutionary socialist organization Anticapitalistas in Madrid and member of the editorial board of Viento Sur magazine, talked to Eva MarÃa about what led to the downfall of the conservative government and about perspectives for the Spanish left moving forward.