Subjects Archives: Movements

In conversation with the Chief Minister who just completed 1,000 days in office

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

Under the guise of ‘humanitarian aid’ and the struggle for ‘democracy’, the United States has justified dozens of military and political interventions in the world during the 20th and 21st centuries.

An important Latin American political theorist argues that right-wing “internationalism” requires a leftist response that also reaches beyond national boundaries.

We are certainly worried about the U.S. plans to arm militants in order to destabilise the situation in Venezuela and, frankly speaking, invade this sovereign country.

As socialists rally in the United States over their country’s backing of a right wing coup in Venezuela, the supposedly socialist members of Congress–Senator Bernie Sanders (VT) and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)–are hitting talking points that worry critics like Roger Waters and activists in the streets alike.

Not to be dramatic, but it’s probably the best thing we’ve ever read.

The Great Recession of 2008 marked the end of a lengthy period of international economic growth and rapidly increasing international trade. Now, some ten years later, economic activity, including trade and foreign direct investment, remains far below pre-crisis levels with little sign of revival.

The U.S. left makes celebrities of self-styled “socialists” that have no solidarity with real strugglers against imperialism in the world.

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).

Let us call things by their proper names: this is not humanitarian aid. If the U.S. had really wanted to help the people of Venezuela, they would have acted via UN agencies accredited in the country, as other states successfully do.

This is an essay in six voices, from long-time activists who participate in the North American ecosocialist network System Change Not Climate Change.

A few days after the Time story, CNBC (6/22/16) carried a claim that there was no acetaminophen to be found anywhere, either: “Basic things like Tylenol aren’t even available.”

The Americans have offered to hold separate consultations on Venezuelan issues. We agreed. However, they have since abandoned them under false pretexts. – Nikolai Patrushev

The U.S. is moving special forces and equipment to the Venezuelan border and is seeking, along with its NATO allies, to deliver weapons and ammunition to the opposition in the South American country, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman María Zajárova.

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.

It’s some achievement to get me sympathising with Mark Zuckerberg. But denunciations from a powerful combination of a parliamentary committee in the UK and self-appointed watchdogs of the new media like the Guardian almost managed it. – Jonathan Cook

Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders won’t align with Venezuela out of fear of being labeled “authoritarian” by the ruling elite.

Jeb Sprague entered the offices of 21Air, a shadowy air cargo company accused of ferrying arms to Venezuela, and demanded answers about its role in the U.S.-led coup

Phil Hearse explores the worldwide allegiances which bind rising fascist movements across the world into a coordinated force.