Portside

1. Upsurge: The Wages of Neoliberalism
2. Peru Explodes
3. Palestine: The Nakba Day Triumph
4. Focus on ANC
5. China Between Imperialism and Draconian Rule
6. ALBA-TCP Leaders Speak
7. South Korean Women Stand Up for Gender Equality
8. Italian Peace Movement Debates Ukraine War
9. Swaziland Transport Workers Strike
10. Audio: Pro Revolution Soccer

__________
Upsurge: The Wages of Neoliberalism

Prabhat Patnaik / NewsClick (New Delhi)

The availability of huge amounts of liquidity at very low-interest rates greatly reduces the risks for corporates associated with jacking up their profit margins. American corporations jacked up their margins at the first opportunity, precipitating the current inflation. It is this direct assault on their living standards that workers everywhere are vehemently protesting against. 

__________
Two Takes on Peruvian Explosion

• Peru in Flames   Alberto Gálvez Olaechea / New Politics (New York)
   
• Escalating Crisis   Alejandra Dinegro Martínez / NACLA Report (New York)

__________
Palestine: The Nakba Day Triumph

Ramzy Baroud / Palestine Chronicle (Mountlake Terrace WA)

The next Nakba Day will be officially commemorated by the UN General Assembly. The decision by the world’s largest democratic institution is significant, if not a game changer. Thanks to ordinary Palestinians, those who have held on to the keys and deeds to their original homes and land in historic Palestine, history is finally being rewritten, back to its original and accurate form.

__________
Focus on ANC

• Ramaphosa’s Narrow Victory   Stephen Grootes / Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)
   
• Downward Spiral   Rebone Tau / Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (Berlin)
   
• The Main Issue   Raymond Suttner / Daily Maverick
   
• Marikana + 10   Joseph Mullen / Review of African Political Economy (London)
   
• No Shortcuts   Niall Reddy / Africa is a Country (New York)

__________
China Between Imperialism and Draconian Rule

Daniel Falcone / Truthout (Sacramento)

Rebecca E. Karl, a scholar of modern China at New York University, explains the events around the recent fire in Urumqi, the second largest city in China’s northwestern province of Xinjiang, and the middle-class reaction to the strident and rigid COVID policies authorized by the state.

__________
ALBA-TCP Leaders Speak

Translated by Walter Lippmann / CubaNews (Los Angeles)

Representatives of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People’s Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP) gathered in Havana, where the left government bloc’s 18th anniversary was commemorated at the Sixth Extraordinary Session of the National Assembly of People's Power, Cuba’s parliament.

__________
South Korean Women Stand Up for Gender Equality

Jean Mackenzie / BBC News (London)

President Yoon scrapped government gender quotas, declaring people would be hired on merit, not sex. He is now trying to abolish the government's Gender Equality Ministry, which supports women and victims of sexual assault, claiming it is obsolete. More than 800 organisations have come together to protest against the closure, arguing it could have a damaging impact on women's lives.

__________
Italian Peace Movement Debates Ukraine War

Dick Nichols / Green Left (Sydney)

At the Italian Peace and Disarmament Network-organised “Europe for Peace” in Rome, the biggest anti-war march in Italy for a decade, a clear majority of progressives and anti-war activists reject their governments’ call for a ‘rules-based order’ and an expanded NATO, and oppose further weapons shipments to Ukraine.

__________
Swaziland Transport Workers Strike

Pavan Kulkarni / Peoples Dispatch (New Delhi)

Swaziland’s Deputy PM Themba Masuku has threatened to imprison Sticks Nkambule, the leader of transport workers’ union whose members withdrew labor and brought Swaziland to a halt on December 13-14.

__________
Audio: Pro Revolution Soccer

Chal Ravens / Novara Media (London)

Tom Williams and Keir Milburn wonder about the future of international football and ask the most important question of all: what is to be done? David Wearing explains how brands, broadcasters and western powers all benefit from “the violence inherent in the system” and puts forward his vision of football as a force for good.