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Global Left Midweek - September 23, 2020

Elections in Bolivia, Uprising in Thailand, Palestine on the defensive. Reports, remembrances and reminders from the international left.

"To be free you need to know how to take risks. Freedom is a risk.",
  1. Rossana Rossanda 1924-2020
  2. Myesha Jenkins 1948-2020
  3. Why Internationalism is Necessary
  4. Progressive International Summit
  5. Palestine After the Bahrain/UAE/Israel Pact
  6. The Battle For Bolivia 
  7. Meet South Africa’s Covid Social Movement
  8. Thai Students Defy the Monarchy
  9. Spain: Neighborhoods Protest Lockdown Bias 
  10. Who Ordered the Killing of Basra’s Activists?

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The Woman Who Looked History in the Eye

Rossana Rossanda / Jacobin (New York)

On the death of the profound revolutionary journalist and activist, her memory of the founding of il manifesto offers an example for our time.

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Myesha Jenkins, Poet of Love and Liberation

Johannesburg Review of Books

Jenkins moved to South Africa from Los Angeles in 1993, after many years as an anti-apartheid activist. She co-founded the Feela Sistah! Spoken Word Collective, which broke new ground that contributed to a ‘seismic shift that transformed national culture through poetry’.

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Why Internationalism is Essential

Jennie-Laure Sully / rabble.ca (Toronto)

It is urgent to strengthen our social movements by developing an internationalist political conscience. “Think globally, act locally,” has become an empty slogan for many. 

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Progressive International Summit

The New Indian Express (Chennai)

Progressive International held its first ever two-day summit which brought together the organisation’s council from around 70 organisations from over 40 countries to plan collective actions. 

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Palestine After the Bahrain/UAE/Israel Pact

Video: Anger in the Streets  Peoples Dispatch (New Delhi)

Prospects For Unity  Ali Adam / The New Arab (London)

Prospects For Change Marwa Fatafta and Alaa Tartir / Foreign Policy (Washington)

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The Battle For Bolivia 

Coup Leaders On the Defensive Jihan Abdalla / Al Jazeera (Doha)

Death Squads Hit MAS Canvassers teleSUR (Caracas)

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Meet South Africa’s Covid Social Movement

Kate Alexander / Review of African Political Economy (London)

The C19 People’s Coalition has demonstrated the capacity for working-class activists and their sympathizers to mobilize for social justice even under the conditions of a draconian lockdown.

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Thailand Protests Challenge the Monarchy

Authorities Threaten Crackdown  Panarat Thepgumpanat and Matthew Tostevin / Reuters (London)

Behind the Uprising  Judha Su and Benjamin Tausig / Progressive International

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Spain: Lockdown Protests Charge Bias Against Poor

Miguel Cantón and Ignacio Gallello / El País (Madrid)

“The primary healthcare system is completely overwhelmed and public transportation is packed in the neighborhoods where people who can’t work from home live.”

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Who Ordered the Killing of Basra’s Activists? 

Suadad al-Salhy / Middle East Eye (London)

In Iraq, anti-government protests had begun again last month, with calls for the killers of demonstrators to be identified and brought to justice.