International Viewpoint

A dynamic seemed to be building for the election of Lula in the first round.

‘It is not social rights that produce mistrust and hostility among employees, it is on the contrary the fact that these rights are not for everyone and are increasingly restricted, giving the feeling that aid is “for others and never for me”.'

“The junta started its reign in a brutal and bloody way, it was however recognised by Emmanuel Macron, present at the funeral of Idriss Déby Itno. Demonstrations organized by political groups, human rights associations, and trade union organizations were violently repressed (eight dead and more than five hundred arrested), their leaders were arrested.”

“The regional resistance is perhaps the most important. It has the greatest potential right now to sabotage the mobilization and challenge Putin.”

“No doubt the Republican governors will win the support from Trump's political base. But photos of the families with their children standing on American streets looking lost and afraid will also cost them the votes of many independents.”

“The initial slogans, generally directed against the morality police, were very quickly enriched by mass chants such as: “Death to the dictator”, “Down with the Islamic Republic”, “No Shah, no Supreme Guide”, “Woman, Life, Freedom”, or “Bread, Work, Freedom”. The movement was highly politicized from the start, and it was no longer a purely protest movement.”

An initial analysis of the results of the Italian general election.

Former president of the TransAfrica Forum Bill Fletcher interviews Vladyslav Starodubtsev, historian of Central and Eastern Europe, and a member of Sotsyalnyi Rukh, for his thoughts on the war in Ukraine and the response from the Western left.

“The mobilization announcement looks like a desperate step and a challenge for a regime that had relied on mass depoliticization.”

“Railroad workers were driven to threaten this strike by continuous employer pressures for greater productivity, by their lack of sick days, and by rising prices.”

“As a first step we call on feminists around the world to raise prominently solidarity with Ukrainian and Polish women in their mobilizations in defence of abortion and reproductive rights on the occasion of 28 September, International Day for Abortion Rights.”

“As in the past, women are at the forefront of the protests and by taking off their scarfs, and they have shown that they are protesting not only against the hijab but also against the entire brutal structure of the Islamic Republic.”

“The mobilisation at Mine No. 9 is not the only protest in the western Ukrainian coal fields during Russia's invasion of the country.”

“While the reversal of Roe has been a major setback for the reproductive justice movement in the Valley, the fight for liberation is far from over. The community's outpouring of support for La Frontera Fund and South Texans for Reproductive Justice's efforts shows otherwise.”

“Cancel the debt, or let the Bretton Woods group profit from climate disaster.”

“The Sweden Democrats, on the other hand, increased by over three per cent and is by far the largest party on the right. A coming bourgeois government is entirely dependent on their support. This means nothing less than an earthquake in Swedish politics.”

“On September 25 Italy will hold elections following the resignation of Prime Minister Mario Draghi and the concern is palpable. The Economist wrote that they could hardly come at a less opportune time, in the midst of at least three interconnected crises: the invasion of Ukraine, the energy crisis and inflation, which in late August reached 8.4% in Italy, its highest level since 1986.”

“A new wave of feminist internationalism is now evident in the huge marches to defend women's rights to abortion in Poland, and in the recent Green Wave of feminist militancy (symbolized by women waving or wearing large green handkerchiefs) that has swept across Latin America, with huge mobilizations to end violence against women and secure women's reproductive rights. Turning history on its head, these activists sometimes say they hope to inspire women in the United States to defend their own reproductive rights.”

Breaking the Impasse: Electoral Politics, Mass Action, and the New Socialist Movement in the United States, by Kim Moody. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2022. 242 pages. $19.95 paperback

“The material reality of the attack on working class living standards is cutting through the pomp and circumstance.”