Portside

1. Women Life Freedom
2. France Hits the Bricks
3. Brazil: Election Challenges
4. Protests Sweep Europe
5. Haiti Upsurge
6. Cuba Perseveres
7. Kagarlitsky: Putin Escalates
8. Botswana National Front
9. CP China’s 20th Congress
10. Thomas Sankara Still Inspires

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Women Life Freedom

• Iran’s Women on Freedom: ‘This Cause Won’t Die’   Scott Peterson / Christian Science Monitor (Boston)
   

• Schoolchildren Join Protests   Nadeen Ebrahim / CNN (New York)

• Oil Workers Say ‘Down With Khamenei’​​​​​   Akhtar Safi / People’​​​​​s World (New York)

• In Kurdish, Jin Jiyan Azadi   Sarah Glynn / Bella Caledonia (Edinburgh)

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France Hits the Bricks

Al Jazeera (Doha)

Thousands of people have taken to the streets across France and commuters faced delays as unions staged a nationwide strike for higher salaries, following weeks of walkouts that have hobbled oil refineries and sparked petrol shortages around the country.

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Brazil: The Challenges in the Second Round

Research Group on Brazilian Politics / Socialist Project (Toronto)

If Lula wins, his administration may be pulled even more strongly towards the centre-right, with significant concessions being needed to secure governability. If Bolsonaro wins, there will be an intensification of the neo-fascist agenda. For the poor majority of the population, the next four years will be a period of continuous struggle, requiring organization to protect social and political rights.

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Protests Sweep Europe

Nick Corbishley / Naked Capitalism (New York)

The long-anticipated “hot autumn” begins as the European economy teeters on the edge of a largely self-inflicted stagflationary depression. As economic conditions rapidly deteriorate in Europe in the coming weeks and months, protests are likely to grow in both size and intensity. 

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Haiti Upsurge

Tanya Wadhwa / Peoples Dispatch (New Delhi)

Hundreds of thousands of Haitians flooded the streets across the country, demanding the resignation of President Ariel Henry and rejecting his request for international military assistance to fight criminal gangs. Citizens organized massive demonstrations, marches and roadblocks in all ten departments of the country. 

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Cuba Perseveres

• Crises, Beliefs and Political Creation   Rafael Hernández / OnCubaNews (Havana)
   
• Infrastructure Frustration   Ruaridh Nicoll / The Guardian (London)

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Putin Escalates

Boris Kagarlitsky / Russian Dissent

Since systemic changes are not only undesirable for those in power, but most importantly, it is precisely for the sake of preventing them that the so-called special operation was even begun, the rulers can have no serious understanding and analysis of what is happening.

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Botswana National Front

Zebilon Maine / SABCNews (Johannesburg)

Duma Boko, president of Botswana National Front, gave the South African Communist Party-organised Che Guevara Memorial Lecture in Mahikeng in the North West. Yoko took aim at the leadership of Botswana’s current president, Mokgweetsi Masisi, saying that since Masisi took the reins from Ian Khama, the state of democracy in Botswana has declined.

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CP China’s 20th Congress

• What You Need to Know   Helen Davidson / The Guardian
   
• A Party Member’s Pre-Congress Diary   Long Ling / London Review of Books

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Thomas Sankara Still Inspires

Owen Schalk / Canadian Dimension (Winnipeg)

Sankara, as president of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987, implemented a socialist, anti-imperialist agenda aimed at cultivating a self-sufficient economy run by the Burkinabè people, for the Burkinabè people. His agenda included, among other things, refusal to pay Burkina Faso’s debts to Western-run institutions.