Portside

1. Achieving Earth for All
2. Fight or Starve
3. Post-Roe Strategy
4. Time is Short
5. What Happened to Hong Kong Protests
6. War Watch
7. Zero Hour in Sri Lanka
8. Albania’s Hard Road
9. The Enemy is Militarism
10. France: A Domestic Worker Joins the National Assembly

__________
Achieving Earth for All

Jayati Ghosh / Project Syndicate (Kings Park NY)

Because the changes needed to achieve sustainable well-being for everyone are so big, they require determined social movements with wide participation. But while history shows that inertia and defeatism can become self-fulfilling, it also shows that governments ultimately have to respond to popular pressure – or be replaced by it.

__________
Fight or Starve

Firstpost (Mumbai)

Sri Lanka is not alone. Rising inflation has pushed a lot of other nations to the brink of an economic collapse. Pakistan and Nepal find themselves with low forex; the soaring cost of living has led to protests in Argentina, Ghana, Kenya.

__________
Post-Roe Strategy

Yifat Susskind / Common Dreams (Portland ME)

As we build a long-term strategy for reproductive justice, we must look towards feminist allies around the world who are fighting for reproductive justice despite legal and political obstacles. From movements to decriminalize abortion in Colombia and Mexico, to frontline workers providing abortion care despite criminalization: their work illuminates a path.

__________
Time is Short

João Pedro Stedile / Monthly Review (New York)

We must implement methods of popular democracy and broad popular participation in each country to ensure that national states work in favor of the people, not capital. We urgently need to develop new international instruments of governance, not just for governments, but also including representatives of political and popular organizations in every region. 

__________
What Happened to Hong Kong Protests

Lea Mok / Hong Kong Free Press

Three years on from mass protests and unrest which rocked the city for months, Hong Kong’s government insists it has restored stability and predicts a bright future for its people. But the after-effects of the pro-democracy unrest, including a Beijing-imposed national security law and sweeping electoral changes, have permanently reshaped the city.

__________
War Watch

• Debating the War   Mike Phipps / Labour Hub (London)
   
• The Real Military Balance Between Russia and NATO   Anatol Lieven / Responsible Statecraft (Washington DC)
   
• Russian Partisans vs. the War Machine   Alisa Zemlyanskaya / The Insider (Riga)
   
• Ukrainian Workers’ War on Two Fronts   Dick Nichols / Green Left (Sydney)

__________
Zero Hour in Sri Lanka

• Emergency Regulations Imposed   Marianne David interviews Shamala Kumar / The Morning (Colombo)
   

• Political Phases and Faces of the ‘Aragalaya’   Sumudu Chamara / The Morning

• The Crisis and Minorities   Niro Kandasamy / The Conversation (Melbourne)

__________
Albania’s Hard Road

Daniel Finn interviews Lea Ypi / Jacobin (New York)

From its late break with the Ottoman Empire to the Cold War rule of Enver Hoxha, Albania has followed an unusual path through modern history. But the country’s experience of communism and postcommunism is full of valuable lessons for the politics of today.

__________
The Enemy is Militarism

Niamh Ní Bhriain / Transnational Institute (Amsterdam)

Although militarism enables and prolongs war, since the invasion of Ukraine, Western governments have ratcheted up defence spending, strengthened military alliances, and intensified divisive rhetoric. How did we get here and where will this unbridled militarism lead us?

__________
France: A Domestic Worker Joins the National Assembly

Africanews (Pointe-Noire, ‎Congo‎)

Rachel Keke led and won a 22-month battle for better pay and conditions at the hotel in Paris where she worked. The campaign secured her the respect of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s radical supporters. In her constituency on the outskirts of Paris, she defeated President Emmanuel Macron’s former sports minister Roxana Maracineanu by 177 votes.