Au Maroc, les militants du Rif écopent d’une vie en prison

PAR RACHIDA EL AZZOUZI (Mediapart)

Les peines prononcées à l'encontre des militants du hirak du Rif, ce mouvement social marocain d’une ampleur inédite en 18 ans de règne de Mohammed VI, sont très lourdes. Ils s’étaient levés contre l’injustice d’un système qui les écrase et marginalise leur région, la privant d’écoles, d’hôpitaux, de routes, d’usines..., au soir de la mort d’un jeune qui aurait pu être eux : Mohcine Fikri, 31 ans, vendeur de poissons broyé par une benne à ordures alors qu’il tentait de sauver 500 kilos d’espadon pêchés illégalement que lui avaient saisis les gendarmes. Et ils sont en train de le payer très cher.

20 de septiembre 2017: Movilizaciones y represion en Catalunya (Documental)

Dirigido por Jaume Roures y producido por MEDIAPRO, ofrece una visión inédita de los hechos que sucedieron en la Conselleria d’Economia i Hisenda en Barcelona el 20 de septiembre de 2017. El documental analiza y muestra con imágenes y testimonios el papel que tuvieron Jordi Sànchez y Jordi Cuixart, presidentes entonces de la Assemblea Nacional Catalana y de Òmnium Cultural, durante una concentración que duró más de 15 horas, así como el asedio a la sede de la CUP por parte de la Policía Nacional y la actuación que tuvieron los Mossos d’Esquadra durante toda la jornada.

Greece: the so called debt reduction is a sleight of hand

Eric Toussaint interviewed by Marie Brette for TV5 Monde

Eric Toussaint, what do you think of the agreement between the Eurozone ministers? Has Greece got through the crisis?

E.T.: The crisis is not at all over. What’s more, from the point of view of the European leaders the situation is not particularly brilliant either. To claim a reduction of debt, when in fact it is a ten year delay in repayments to some of Greece’s European partners, is to seek to create an illusion. The sums due to the IMF, the ECB, European Stability Mechanism and to private creditors are not concerned in the arrangement. They continue as usual. The IMF has made €5 billion in profits on Greek debt since 2010 and the ECB has made €8 billion. The measures that spread out repayments over a longer period are a consolation prize to the Tsipras government that has faithfully applied the hard austerity driven reforms demanded by the creditors over the last three years. Tsipras needs to be able to tell the Greek people that the austerity programme is finally working. At the same time the antisocial policies imposed by the creditors are to be reinforced. The Greek leaders wanted to show by the agreement made on 22 June that private investment funds could safely purchase Greek securities after the end of august under full institutional guaranties.

JOEL KOVEL, IN MEMORIAM

by Michael Löwy

The passing away of Joel Kovel is a great loss not only for us, his friends and collaborators, but for the broad international ecosocialist movement, of which he was a towering pioneer.

I first met Joel at an International Marxist Conference at the University of Nanterre (Paris) , convened in 2001 by my friends of the Journal Actuel Marx. We immediately sympathised, and found a common interest : the urgent need to bring together the "Red" and the "Green", under the aegis of a new concept : Ecosocialism. We felt that the most of the Left had not yet understood the need for an ecological turn, and we believed one should attempt to contribute to such a re-orientation. The Fourth International, to which I was associated, had just decided to adopt an ecosocialist programm, and Joel felt encouraged by this decision.

The Belgian Supreme Court announces its verdict:
CADTM wins total victory against the vulture fund NML Capital

by CADTM

Demonstration in front of the Belgian Supreme Court in Brussels. Photo: Julien Bauwens.

Press release

Total victory for CADTM, Committee for the abolition of Illegitimate Debt, the CNCD – 11.11.11 and its Flemish counterpart represented by Oliver Stein from the chambers of the Progress Lawyers Network. Today 31 May 2018 the Belgian Supreme Court rejected the request brought by NML Capital Ltd seeking to overturn the act of law passed by the Belgian government on 12 July 2015 “relating to the struggle against Vulture Funds’ activities”  [1] thus confirming this law which is unique throughout the World. It is a victory for the peoples of the World in the face of a voracious profiteer of unregulated finance.

The Direction of the South Korean Labor Movement since the 2016 Candlelight Vigils

by Song Ho-joon

In November 2016 candlelight vigils began to flare up in South Korea. Millions of people joined the movement and within a couple of months they succeeded in ousting the ultra-right wing Park Geun-hye administration. The advent of the Moon Jae-in liberal government created a new political environment in which gaining some reforms within the system seemed to be possible. This new milieu generated a concern among labor activists about how they had to carry out their revolutionary goals. Applying a theory about reform and revolution to reality in a concrete way is not an easy task, unless one simply believes that any action to obtain a reform is wrong and the labor movement thus must work only for a radical solution.

Colombo Declaration on Illegitimate Debts 7^th CADTM South Asia Workshop

17 April by CADTM

Participants to the 7^th CADTM South Asia regional workshop in Colombo 6-8^th April 2018

We, the participants of the 7^th CADTM South Asia workshop from Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Japan as well as from Belgium and France gathered at Colombo, Sri Lanka from 6-8 April 2018 acknowledge and affirm that illegitimate debt is a mechanism used to transfer wealth created by toilers to the benefit of capitalists and other exploiting classes. We also declare that public debt (both external and internal) involves a massive transfer of wealth from the peoples of the South and the North to the creditors, while the local dominant classes have their cut in the transfer.

​Catalogne

Féroce répression des Comités de Défense de la République accusés de ...“terrorisme”!

Par Yorgos Mitralias

Les épigones de Franco à Madrid ne cachent plus leurs intentions: Faire absolument tout pour écraser le peuple catalan qui persiste à résister. Et décidés comme ils sont de frapper très fort, ils s’attaquent maintenant non plus aux personnalités de l’indépendantisme catalan -d’ailleurs en exil ou en prison-, mais à la masse “anonyme” de militants, au peuple de cette Catalogne intrépide qui ne se rend pas, aux Comités de Défense de la République!

Et l’accusation portée contre ces militants des CDR déjà arrêtés, emprisonnés ou recherchés est on ne peut plus éloquente: Rébellion et... terrorisme! “Terroristes” donc les CDR qui ont fait de la non-violence la règle d’or de leur conduite et aussi “terrorisme” la résistance pacifique aux provocations et autres agressions répétées des prétoriens de la Guardia Civil. “Terrorisme” les manifestations indépendantistes et “terrorisme” et “rébellion” les formes de lutte totalement pacifiques comme les barrages routiers ou les chaînes humaines devant et autour les bâtiments publics. Et évidemment, “terrorisme” l’organisation des grèves générales que les CDR ont déjà préparées et dirigées ou qu’ils appellent aujourd’hui de tous leurs vœux. On ne sait pas si on devrait rire de l’hystérie répressive de M. Rajoy ou pleurer des lendemains cauchemardesques que promet son actuel extrémisme antidémocratique…

Comunicado del sindicalismo de clase en solidaridad con Cataluña
Basta de represión al pueblo catalan

Los sindicatos firmantes en representación de la clase trabajadora de varias naciones queremos manifestar el siguiente ante los graves hechos que nuevamente están sucediendo en Cataluña.

La situación que se está viviendo hoy en día en Cataluña es de auténtica excepcionalidad política con una falta de democracia que nos hace recordar épocas que aunque son por todos y todas conocidas no dejan de restar gravedad a la situación.

Rio de Janeiro (Brazil):

Our comrade Marielle Franco murdered

by Inprecor, International Viewpoint, PSOL

Activist of the LGTB movement, the World March of Women, City Councilor of the Party Socialism and Liberty (PSOL) in Rio de Janeiro and in charge of the commission of inquiry into the violence perpetrated by the army and the police against young people Afro-descendants in Rio, Marielle Franco was murdered the night of March 14, 2018. [1]

She was 38 years old and, according to political scientist Maurício Santoro, she “embodies a hope of renewal, at a time when most political leaders in Rio are in prison or about to be,” for corruption.

ESTADO ESPAÑOL

Huelga feminista del 8M:

Las mujeres escribimos la Historia
en primera persona del plural

por Fátima Martín

El 8 de marzo de 2018, Día Internacional de la Mujer Trabajadora, en la primera huelga feminista del Estado español, las mujeres escribimos la Historia en primera persona del plural al margen de partidos y sindicatos tradicionales. Millones de mujeres de todas las edades, urbanas y rurales, de diversas profesiones, razas e identidades sexuales salimos a la calle a la huelga laboral, de cuidados, de consumo y educativa. Sabedoras de que “si nosotras paramos, se para el mundo”, el 8M, con la fuerza de una convocatoria global trabajada en común desde atrás, juntas, “paramos el mundo y “gritamos ¡BASTA! ante todas las violencias que nos atraviesan”.

WOMEN'S STRIKE 8 MARCH 2018

Statement from the International Women’s Strike in the United States.

On 8 March, we will go on strike against gender violence – against the men who commit violence and against the system that protects them.

Last year on 8 March we, women of every kind, marched, stopped work and took over the streets in fifty countries across the world. In the United States we rallied, marched, left the dishes to the men, in all the major cities of this country and countless smaller ones. We shut down three school districts to prove to the world, once again, that while we sustain society we also have the power to shut it down.

Arctic warming: scientists alarmed by 'crazy' temperature rises

Record warmth in the Arctic this month could yet prove to be a freak occurrence, but experts warn the warming event is unprecedented

Jonathan Watts Global environment editor THE GUARDIAN

‘This is an anomaly among anomalies’: temperatures in parts of the Arctic have recently risen well above average.

An alarming heatwave in the sunless winter Arctic is causing blizzards in Europe and forcing scientists to reconsider even their most pessimistic forecasts of climate change.

Although it could yet prove to be a freak event, the primary concern is that global warming is eroding the polar vortex, the powerful winds that once insulated the frozen north.

Tunisia: “The promised economic miracle never happened” – A continuation of the uprisings of 2011

by Gilbert Achcar

For the specialist of the Arab world Gilbert Achcar, the Tunisian revolt was “foreseeable”. And it is a continuation of the uprisings of 2011.

Originally from Lebanon, which he left in 1983 for Paris, Berlin and now London, at the School of Oriental and African Studies, where he is professor of international and political relations, Gilbert Achcar has been observing the upheavals of the Arab world for two decades. The author of The People Want: A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising (London, SAQI, 2013) and Morbid Symptoms: Relapse in the Arab Uprising (London, SAQI, 2016) takes a Marxist approach to the analysis of the uprisings of 2011. According to him, the current protests are a logical extension of them.