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NIGERIA Popular uprising against police brutality and oppression

2020-11-15

Nigeria ranks first as Africa’s economy with the largest population in the continent. Currently, an important popular uprising is under way. It started at the beginning of October launched on the social networks to denounce police brutality and has now grown to a full-scale movement against the ruling power. If the origin of the movement was the brutality of the SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad) a police body known for its brutality, the root causes reach much deeper. Actually, the decision of the ruling power to disband the SARS has not put an end to the protests. Though the country is an oil producer (almost entirely in the hands of four huge multinational corporations: Shell, Total, ExxonMobil and Chevron), it does has not benefitted from the economic repercussions, and Nigeria’s economy closely depends on oil revenues. Besides, the payment of the debt takes over 60% of the country’s revenues. The value of the Naira, the local currency is plummeting. Meanwhile the federal [...]

INDIA «This was the biggest failure of the right wing Modi Government during the pandemic» Interview With Milind Ranade

2020-09-29

Milind Ranade leads one of the largest trade unions of contract sanitation workers in Maharashtra, a state in Western India. Most of the union members are migrants and all of them belong to low caste–Dalits – (called untouchable in old days) community. It was a herculean task of organizing illiterate, hardly literate workers employed by the Municipal Corporations in different parts of the State. The organizing work began in Mumbai. Later in other cities like Thane, New Mumbai and Nashik, Panvel, Badlapur etc. Mumbai Municipal Corporation had engaged a large number of contractors for the jobs [...]

BURUNDI A new phase of the war and an escalation of arrests

2020-09-29

Early in the morning of 23 August 2020 a group of armed men coming from the RDC (Democratic Republic of Congo) sneaked into the hills above small fishing villages along Lake Tanganyika. The governor of Rumonge has said that they are “outlaws coming from the RDC”; they killed 11 people who were carrying goods stolen from the township of Bugarama. According to the newspaper Iwacu, all the declarations from people living in fishing villages scattered along the coasts of Lake Tanganyika from Gitaza towndhip to Muhuta, in Rumonge and all along to Nyanza-Lac testify to the same: “Several people stole into the country from RDC via Lake Tanganyika”. Other sources indicate that during the night of Sunday 30 August, armed gangs came in the near vicinity of the bridge over the Dama River, less than 10 kilometres from Rumonge. [...]

AFGHANISTAN Human rights and NATO’s double standards

2020-09-20

The longest war of the US and NATO occupiers has been defeated in Afghanistan. This unequal war has not only inflicted irreparable human casualties on the people of Afghanistan, but has also destroyed and damaged Afghanistan’s infrasture and social-economic foundations. Although the American invaders and their allies occupied Afghanistan under the pretext of reconstruction, democracy and protection of human rights, it soon became clear to the people that they were here to achieve their nefarious economic, military and political goals. Protecting human rights is one of the fascinating slogans that imperialist regimes use as a weapon against their rivals and adversaries. In order to achieve their military, economic and political goals, they by misusing the slogan of human rights interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, aiding opposition parties and groups in targeted countries, imposes economic sanctions on them or invade and occupie them militarily. Globally, it is [...]

MAURITIUS A Historical Mass Gathering

2020-09-20

A historical popular mass gathering took place on 29 August following the oil spill that devastated the coasts of the island of Mauritius after a Japanese cargo began leaking tonnes of oil into the Indian Ocean. Activists of the workers’ organisation for socialism Lalit (« Struggle ») have sent us their thoughts on this event. Bruno Laurette The organisers of the march spoke of 123,000 to 157,000 demonstrators (i.e., more than 10% of the Mauritian population). This mobilisation was unexpected, all the more so as it had been called by one Bruneau Laurette – largely unknown to the public – who is the owner of a small security company, trained in martial arts in the U.S.A. and in the State of Israel. (1) The social make-up of the demonstration was marked by the predominance of the “middle class”. Although, as always, the workers and the poor have been the hardest hit by this catastrophe, surprisingly it was the middle classes and fractions of the bourgeoisie who [...]

UNITED STATES « It’s impossible to put an end to racism without fighting to end capitalism »

2020-09-11

Discussion between Alan Benjamin, member of the Steering Committee of Socialist Organizer (which in the United States supports the positions of the Organizing Committee for the Reconstitution of the Fourth International), and Nnamdi Lumumba, co-convener of the Ujima People's Progress Party (Black working class organization in Baltimore, Maryland). [...]

PERU Solidarity with the workers at BSH Electrodomesticos S.A.C.

2020-09-10

Labour activists in Peru have informed us of the facts reported below concerning the household appliance factory BSH Electrodomesticos S.A.C., a subsidiary of a major German group, located in Callao, Peru. [...]

UNITED STATES “There is a strong need for independent politics” An interview with Clarence Thomas, former Secretary Treasurer of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10, on the West Coast of the United States

2020-06-28

All 29 ports on the West Coast, including the Port of Vancouver in Canada, were shut down for eight hours to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. The outpouring of workers and youth was huge, far exceeding any of our expectations; some estimates place the turnout as high as 25,000 people. A number of unions, such as SEIU Local 1021, joined our effort. READ MORE... [...]

CHINA/HONG KONG New threats against the democratic rights of workers An interview with Cho Ming Lam, labour activist

2020-06-28

The COVID – 19 crisis has seen the growth of a significant offensive against workers’ rights and democratic freedoms. As is the case elsewhere in the world, the conditions for lay-offs and firings have become more “flexible”. At the same time, in addition to the banning of gatherings, surveillance of the population has been exacerbated, thanks to new technologies. Inhabitants are more and more “tracked” for the sake of fighting the virus. READ MORE... [...]

Black Lives Matter! An editorial of La Tribune des travailleurs (Workers’ Tribune) by Daniel Gluckstein

2020-06-14

“I’m here because my life matters” – that is how one Black woman explained her presence in the thick of the demonstration in New York on 1 June. She added: “I have the right to live. They don’t think so. So I will come here every day until they understand (...). This has been going on too long: you can’t oppress us and then dictate to us how we should react.” Yes, Black people in the United States have the legitimate right to react as they see fit, to protest the way they want to and to organise as they judge it necessary. [...]