Global Left Midweek - February 13, 2019

France: Unions and Yellow Vests, Senfo Tonkam Speaks, Repression in Russia and China, Mexican Electrical Workers, Canadian Class-Warriors, Students Fight On in Albania

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Students hit the streets in Tirana,Photo: Shuttlestock
  1. France: CGT and Yellow Vests in Joint Strike
  2. Cameroonian Viewpoint: Senfo Tonkam
  3. Russia: Torturing Anti-Fascists
  4. The Rebirth of Mexico’s Electrical Workers
  5. Sanders, AOC, and the Canadian Left
  6. Beijing: Confession Videos Used to Incriminate Marxist Students
  7. Albanian Students Fight On

France: Red and Yellow Vests in Joint Strike

Alison Hird / RFI (Paris)

A day of strike action was called by the hard left CGT trade union. And for the first time Yellow Vests were among their ranks. Some want more convergence but it won't be easy.

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Cameroonian Viewpoint: Senfo Tonkam

Pambazuka News (Oxford)

An interview with the Pan-African organizer and theorist living in exile in Germany.

 

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Russia Normalises Torture in Case Against Anti-Fascists

Gabriel Levy / Red Pepper (London)

Young activists remain in detention awaiting trial, charged with organising a terrorist group and illegal possession of weapons. The prosecution’s main evidence comprises statements taken after the accused were tortured with electric shockers, hung upside down, throttled and beaten up for hours on end.

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The Rebirth of Mexico’s Electrical Workers

David Bacon / NACLA Report (New York)

The Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) is Mexico’s most important independent union on the Left. Ten years ago, it was nearly destroyed. Today, its members are rebuilding through a new labor cooperative. 

 

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Sanders, AOC and the Canadian Left

Christo Aivalis / Canadian Dimension (Winnipeg)

The economic elite have never supported the CCF-NDP, and they never will. We’ll be branded as class-warriors and socialists no matter what our policies, however ambitious or modest. We need to embrace the image we have.

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Activist 'Confessions' Strike Fear Into Students

Christian Shepherd / Reuters (London)

Protesters were barricaded in classrooms, where they were shown videos of recent graduates, including one from their own university, “confessing” to working with an “illegal organization” to arrange protests in southern China.

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Albanian Students Fight On

Arlind Qori / transform! Europe (Vienna)

The students are asking for a thorough democratisation of university life. They are demanding that the percentage of their vote in electing university authorities be equal to the professors’.