China has increased its oil purchases from Saudi Arabia by 43 percent in April. There is every indication that China will continue to increase its buys from the kingdom during the course of this year—to substitute for Iranian oil and, perhaps, for U.S. oil.

This week’s newsletter features an open letter to the President of Indonesia, written by Khamid Istakhori, General Secretary of Federasi SERBUK–a large trade union federation in Indonesia. He asks President Jokowi to use Indonesia’s presidency of the UNSC to denounce violations of international law against Venezuela.

Vijay Prashad looks at the purpose and impact of sanctions against Venezuela.

Professor Sandra Díaz, who teaches in Argentina’s National University of Cordoba and is the co-chair of the IPBES report, said that although bio-diversity and eco-diversity are ‘declining fast’, ‘we still have the means to ensure a sustainable future for people and the planet’.

When the late South African artist Tito Zungu wanted to depict the world of the migrant labourer, he settled on the envelope. It was by infrequent letters that the migrant would be able to be in touch with family – letters dictated to professional letter writers at one end, which would be read out by professional letter readers at the other.

n Venezuela, the political leadership of the oligarchy beg for the men in green to set aside the Constitution, as Juan Guiadó and the Venezuelan right-wing opposition attempted a military coup in Venezuela this Tuesday.

On 26 April 1937, twelve bombers of the German Condor Legion and the Italian Aviazione Legionaria flew low over the Basque country of Spain in the midst of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). They tore down over the small town of Guernica, where they let loose their fiery arsenal. Almost two thousand people died in this defenceless town.

The title of this newsletter comes from a poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, a poem called This Hour of Chain and Noose (Tauq o dar ka Mausam, 1951).

The work of a radical artist and intellectual should be carried out in the manner of a gentle breeze and mild rain. It cannot be done with haste. It should be done over a long period and done patiently.

Lula will likely eat what he ate on his first day in prison: bread and butter with his coffee. He will know that across the planet there will be demonstrations in his name. ‘Lula Livre’ (Free Lula) the people will cry out. You’re not alone, they will say, você não está sozinho. It will give him hope.

Once more, punctually, Israel—with the vengeance of Zeus—has begun to bomb Gaza, from which the sounds and smells of war are never absent due to Israeli bombings. It helps Israel that the United States is fully behind its policy of annihilation.

Disregard by the dominant powers of human lives in places such as Iraq has a long history. It goes back a hundred years.

The fight over the Amazon is not new, but the scale of its potential destruction has considerably increased. The protagonists of the murder of the Amazon are clear: capitalist firms of different scales and the political class that enables them.

Above all, we’d like to demand the right to dream. For us, the present is unacceptable. We demand the future.

The mood in Caracas (Venezuela) is sombre. It appears that the attempted coup against the government that began on 23 January is now substantially over (as the Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza tells me).

Last week, the people of Haiti erupted in protests over fuel price hikes. Behind the protests lie a story of corruption by the elite, blatantly insensitive IMF policies, predatory pricing by U.S. oil firms and the fallout of the economic war on Venezuela.

Is the President of Venezuela the President of Venezuela or is the President of the United States the President of Venezuela? There is absurdity here.

This Tricontinental Newsletter on a phrasebook for imperialism is intriguing if shorter than usual.

What happened to Chile in 1973 is precisely what the United States has attempted to do in many other countries of the Global South. The most recent target for the US government—and Western big business—is Venezuela.

Inequality is sexist. It is also transphobic and racist. This is a reality demonstrated by Oxfam’s recent report on wealth and inequality, and a reality well understood by the people who live it.