Prominent Sri Lankan trade unionist and Ceylon Teachers’ Union General Secretary Joseph Stalin was arrested in his office on 4 August for taking part in a large anti-government protest in May.
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has finally been toppled after days of mass protests in the capital, Colombo. Hundreds of thousands of people descended on the city on 9 July, exactly three months after the #GotaGoGama (go home Gotabaya) movement began.
While many of those who voted Labor on 21 May might have hoped the new Albanese government would direct its energies towards dealing with climate change, rising inflation, stagnant wages, unaffordable housing and soaring energy prices, it has other priorities. High on its list has been demonstrating its commitment to US imperialism.
Thirty-six years after disgraced dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr was driven out of the Philippines by the “People Power” movement, his son Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr has been elected president in a landslide victory.
Since early April, Sri Lanka has been engulfed by a wave of mass protests demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Thousands of workers and students have mobilised in the most significant mass movement in 30 years.
The Thin Red Line is a novel by James Jones set during the World War Two battle between the United States and Japan for control of the Solomon Islands. It is about the devastation war visits even on the “winners”; the title refers to the physical and mental fragility of human beings, which combat inevitably exposes with horrifying consequences. And it is about the hypocrisy and callousness of those who give the orders to fight without having to suffer those consequences.