Portside

1. The Protests in Puerto Rico Are About Life and Death
2. Algeria’s Military Ruler Ramps Up Crackdown on Uprising
3. Japan: Two Severely Disabled Candidates Win Seats in Upper House
4. Italy: Proletarianization in the 21st Century
5. Video: National Strike in Ecuador
6. Nicaragua: A Veteran Reflects
7. New Leader for Parti Sosialis Malaysia
8. Spain: LGBTQ Activists vs. Rising Right Parties

The Protests in Puerto Rico Are About Life and Death

Marisol LeBrón / NACLA Report (New York)

The ongoing protests in Puerto Rico are not just about profane chat messages—they are a response to a broader context of violence, degradation, and exploitation.

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Algeria’s Military Ruler Ramps Up Crackdown on Uprising

Heba Saleh / Financial Times (London)

Algeria’s military chief and de facto ruler has ramped up the crackdown on the five-month popular uprising that has ended the authoritarian rule of Abdelaziz Bouteflika but failed to result in a democratic transition for Africa’s largest country.

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Japan: Two Severely Disabled Candidates Win Seats in Upper House

Kyodo News (Minato, Japan)

Reiwa Shinsengumi candidates Yasuhiko Funago, 61, who has Lou Gehrig's disease, and 54-year-old Eiko Kimura, a cerebral palsy sufferer, were elected after being placed first and second on the group's proportional representation list.

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Italy: Proletarianization in the 21st Century

Christian Raimo / Il Manifesto Global (Rome)

The proletariat is not a remote 19th century anthropological category, conjuring up factory workers with eyes full of soot. Today we are realizing that even many of those who aspired to be part of the bourgeoisie have become proletarianized.

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Video: National Strike in Ecuador

Peoples Dispatch (New Delhi)

A massive extended national strike against the neoliberal economic policies of President Lenín Moreno and the government’s agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

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Nicaragua: A Veteran Reflects

Luis Carrión Cruz / Havana Times

Envío magazine invited one of the nine comandantes on the original FSLN National directorate, deputy minister of the interior and minister of the economy during the 1980s, and in the leadership of the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) since 2005, to share his assessment of the current situation.

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New Leader for Parti Sosialis Malaysia

Free Malaysia Today (Kuala Lumpur)

“Giant-killer” Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj was elected as the new chairman of Parti Socialis Malaysia today and pledged that PSM will go full steam ahead on climate change, affordable housing and better public transport.

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Spain: LGBTQ Activists vs. Rising Right Parties

Lucía Franco, Pablo León, Javier Marmisa, Susana Urra / Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières (Paris)

Volunteers speak out after the far-right Vox party requests the names of people who conduct LGBTQ workshops at public schools.