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A full-scale « conscript hunt » in towns and villages

2024-04-22

Volodymyr Zelensky enacted several laws that considerably tightened the conditions for mobilization. One lowers the minimum age for soldiers sent to the front from 27 to 25. Another abolishes a whole series of medical exemptions and creates a database to combat draft dodgers. Other bills are due to be voted on by the Rada (Parliament) at the end of April. Meanwhile, according to the Associated Press (April 4), « the new laws (…) could add around 50,000 soldiers to the army« , i.e., « one tenth of the 500,000 additional soldiers Mr. Zelensky said he wanted to mobilize in December« . These considerable objectives speak volumes about the level of human losses in the Ukrainian army. Even before these laws were enacted, the TTsKs (military recruitment centers) deployed their recruiting sergeants in all public places, in search of men of fighting age. In the town of Rivne (in north-western Ukraine), a Ukrainian activist said in early March: « The situation I’m about to [...]

« Joining forces to help political prisoners… »

2024-04-22

letter from prison by Boris Kagarlitsky Putin’s regime is multiplying convictions, prison sentences and repressive measures. In addition to liberal opposition figures and any citizen who publicly expresses his or her rejection of the war in Ukraine, repression is hitting working-class and socialist organizations and activists harder every day. For example, the Russian Socialist Movement (RSD) and most of its leaders have just been branded « agents of foreigners », a characterization that entails police surveillance and often precedes arrest. In a letter he was able to smuggle out of prison on April 4, sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky, sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for « apologie du terrorisme » for opposing the war in Ukraine, notes that « socialists, communists, anarchists and also simple leftwing democrats who are not members of any party, are increasingly falling victim to the repressive machine« . He adds that, « fortunately, support for political [...]

Not one penny, not one weapon, not one man for the war!

2024-04-22

The Parti des Travailleurs, the Workers’ Party of France, declares: While Macron multiplies his declarations on the engagement of French troops in Ukraine, the Chief of Staff of the French Army, General Pierre Schill, has announced that the army « stands ready whatever the evolution of the international situation » and that it « is prepared for the toughest of engagements. » Meanwhile, Macron continues to deliver arms and munitions to Netanyahu, who is continuing his genocide in Gaza. At the same time, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire is slashing 10 billion from public services in 2024 and has announced a further 20 billion in cuts in 2025. But that’s not all: the government is also targeting retirement pensions, health insurance (and in particular, the treatment of long-term illnesses), and unemployment insurance. To these attacks must be added the ones against schools, in particular the sorting of pupils into “level groups” – against which teachers, their unions [...]

63,000 dead on the roads of exile in 10 years

2024-04-15

Over the last ten years, 63,000 refugees have died on the road to exile. More than half of them, 36,000, died in shipwrecks, including 27,000 in the Mediterranean, according to a report by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). The IOM points out that the actual figures must be much higher, given that collecting reliable data is a problem. IOM Statistics [...]

Talon seeks to divide the peoples of Togo and Benin

2024-04-15

President Patrice Talon is shutting down one border crossing after another between villages on the Benin-Togo border, building veritable walls of granite blocks. Village populations and families are separated on either side of the border, prevented from accessing their fields, and all trade is blocked. With these closures, Talon is seeking to turn people against each other, our correspondents report. [...]

Niger breaks off military cooperation with the USA

2024-04-15

The July 2023 coup in Niger received some popular support when the junta, dubbed the Conseil national pour la sauvegarde de la patrie (National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, (CNSP), broke off military cooperation agreements with France. French troops were seen as the guarantors of the plundering of the country by multinationals such as Orano, which exploits the uranium reserves essential to France’s nuclear power plants. The U.S. administration was not averse to the elimination of French imperialism. But on March 16, the Niger junta decided to break off its military cooperation with the United States. Washington has a drone base and 1,100 soldiers in Niger, the second largest American base in Africa after Djibouti. It seems that it was the diktat that Washington tried to impose that precipitated the break. On the eve of March 16, an American delegation arrived in Niamey, including the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and the Commander-in-Chief of [...]

Attacks and intimidation against the trade union movement

2024-04-15

While the military government in Burkina Faso has driven French troops out of the country and broken with ECOWAS, which was strangling the economy, it has also at the same time engaged in dangerous practices against democracy and workers. At a conference on 24 March, the spokesman for the CGT-B trade union center denounced these attacks: « While all the activities of political parties and civil society organizations are banned under the pretext of fighting armed terrorist groups, the transitional authorities and their supporters are flexing their muscles and organizing meetings and rallies (…). Manoeuvres such as threatening people with machetes are used to silence our people, preventing them from expressing any criticism of the management of the security crisis and, more generally, of the of the government’s rule” The government continues to unilaterally seize 1% of all wages to fund the fight against terrorist at- tacks and has prolonged the general mobilisation [...]

A determination to break

2024-04-15

Bassirou Diomaye Faye was elected in the first round of the presidential election with 54.28% of the vote. It was a slap in the face for the incumbent president, Macky Sall, whose candidate was swept aside, while his coalition exploded in mid-air, against a backdrop of disputes over the award of concessions for new offshore oil and gas fields. The Senegalese Socialist Party (which was part of the government, as was the « communist » PIT party) won less than 5% of the vote. Just a few days ago, Diomaye Faye and his mentor, Ousmane Sonko, were imprisoned along with hundreds of other activists, and their party, PASTEF (Patriotes africains du Sénégal pour le travail, l’éthique et la fraternité), was banned. The son of a peasant who graduated from Senegal’s ENA, Diomaye Faye was a trade unionist and then leader of PASTEF alongside Sonko, and enjoyed widespread popularity, particularly among young people. The press described the presidential election as an « anti-Macky [...]

Gaza: famine, one of the weapons of genocide

2024-04-04

« In Gaza today, we can clearly speak of famine« , says Jean-Pierre Delomier, deputy director of operations for Handicap International (RFI, 25 March), as « ceaseless bombing » continue. Back from Rafah – in the south of the Gaza Strip, where 1.4 million refugees driven out by the Israeli army are packed together – Jean-Pierre Delomier says: « Five or seven kilometres before entering the Gaza Strip, I saw these lines of trucks. You have to remember that one lorry carries 20 tons of goods waiting and 100 metres is five trucks. So that’s 100 tons.” But for months the Israeli army has been blocking the entry preventing these thousands of tons of food transported by truck from entering Gaza. In Gaza, he adds, « every day is a desperate search for food for yourself and your family« . Testimonies confirmed by other institutions. The director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which has just been banned by Israel from [...]

Two years after the popular uprising, the same questions remain

2024-04-04

Sri lanka
Two years ago, at the end of March 2022, tens of thousands of workers and young people stormed the residence of President Rajapaksa, who was doing the dirty work for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and they kicked him from power. For lack of a political alternative, successive governments have prolonged the country’s subordination to multinationals and financial institutions. In April 2023, the government signed an agreement with the IMF, based on a US$2.9 billion loan, with calamitous conditions, including higher taxes for ordinary citizens, privatisation of public companies, higher energy prices, ‘reform’ of the Labour Code, plundering of workers’ pension funds, reform of the land law to allow multinationals to grab land, and so on. To push through such an agenda, the authorities are attacking democratic freedoms: banning demonstrations and rallies, police actions leading to the arrest of thousands of people in violation of the law. Measures have been [...]

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