Stand with Muslims
It is almost beyond comprehension. Fifty people are dead. Another 50 are injured. Hundreds, probably thousands, of people face grief, unimaginable loss. This was an attack on Muslims as Muslims, targeted at their holy places, carried out on their holy day. It was an act of terror. Our star...CONTINUE READING
Britain slammed in UN court judgment over occupation of Chagos and Diego Garcia
On 25 February, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague found that Britain’s 1965 excision of part of Mauritius, the Chagos Archipelago including Diego Garcia, which the UK then sub-let to the US military, was unlawful. Between 1968 and 1973, the population of Diego Garcia wa...CONTINUE READING
Understanding the new far right threat
What are the far right and fascism today, and how should we respond to them? Two new books by Marxists try to answer these questions: David Renton’s The New Authoritarians: Convergence on the Right is scheduled to appear in April; Enzo Traverso’s The New Faces of Fascism: Populism and the...CONTINUE READING
Elliott Abrams, Washington’s ‘new’ Cold Warrior, plots regime change in Caracas
The Trump administration set a 23 February deadline for Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to bow to US demands and cede power to self-appointed “president” Juan Guaidó. Sanctions imposed by former US president Barack Obama have been extended and deepened, costing Venezuela US$38 billion...CONTINUE READING
The rising of Mexico’s maquiladora workers
A major strike wave has broken out in the maquiladoras of Matamoros, an industrial city in the state of Tamaulipas, across the US border from Brownsville, Texas. The strikes, which have taken on both the bosses and fake charro union leaders, were prompted in part by the raised expectations...CONTINUE READING
Why the rich are to blame for climate crisis
Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist who inspired the global “school strike for climate” movement, was invited to speak at January’s annual World Economic Forum, a meeting of business leaders and celebrities held in Davos, Switzerland. She didn’t mince words: “Some peop...CONTINUE READING
Up to two million workers shut down Kolkata
In the lead-up to the Left Front’s electoral launch on 3 February, I was warned by comrades and taxi drivers alike that traffic would be bedlam. Working class people from all over West Bengal, India’s fourth most populous state, were descending on Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground in a show...CONTINUE READING
Reckoning is due after Afghanistan endgame
The war in Afghanistan is approaching its end – and no-one in Australia seems to much care. Last week, Washington’s chief negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, announced a framework for peace, based upon a supposed Taliban commitment to prevent terrorist groups using the country as a base. That’s...CONTINUE READING
The battle for Venezuela
National Assembly speaker Juan Guaidó swore himself in as Venezuela’s interim president on 23 January and was duly recognised by all and sundry right wing governments in South America. Jair Bolsonaro and Iván Duque, who head two of the most reactionary governments, in Brazil and Colombia,...CONTINUE READING