Global Left Midweek - Focus on Africa
- Lumumba +60
- Tunisia Protests
- Uganda Election
- Sudan Unrest
- Angola’s Liberator Veterans
- South Africa: Reclaiming the City
- India’s Protesting Farmers
- Support Palestinian Strikers
- West Papua Freedom Fight
- French Protests Continue: Pictures
- Brazil’s Martyrs Remembered
Eric Toussaint / Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt (Liège)
On 17 January 1961, Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of Congo, was tortured and then executed, along with several of his comrades, by Congolese leaders complicit with Western powers, as well as by Belgian police and soldiers. He was only 35 years old.
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Tunisia Protests
Middle East Eye
Protesters rallied in Tunisia’s capital and other cities on Tuesday against unemployment and corruption, and revived the chant “the people want the fall of the regime” that rang out a decade ago and led to the ouster of longtime leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
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Uganda Election
Opposition Grows Rodney Muhumuza / AP (New York)
Bobi Wine, the Ghetto President Pitasanna Shanmugathas / Review of African Political Economy (London)
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Sudan Unrest
Unions Launch Anti-Government Campaign Pavan Kulkarni / Peoples Dispatch (New Delhi)
Women’s Rights Activist Waad Bahjat Faces Trial / Radio Dabanga (Khartoum)
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Angola’s Liberator Veterans
Selina Makana / Africa is a Country (New York)
Many ex-combatants see a vast chasm between MPLA’s wartime rhetoric and postwar reality. Far from glorifying their patriotism, testimonies reveal veterans’ refusal to identify with egregiously kleptocratic party elites and the current state of Angolan politics.
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South Africa: Reclaiming the City
Steven Robins / Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)
The occupation and repurposing of Cape Town’s vacant Woodstock Hospital into Cissie Gool House is an exercise in patient and long-term ‘slow activism’.
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India’s Farmers Fight On
They Shall Not Be Moved Sudha Ramachandran / The Diplomat (Washington DC)
Video: Women Farmers’ Day Peoples Dispatch
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West Papua Freedom Fight
Jason MacLeod / Jacobin (New York)
The struggle is being waged over three domains: inside the occupied territory of West Papua; inside the territory of the occupier, Indonesia; and outside the country, led by Papuans in exile, and backed by a growing network of solidarity groups.
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Support Palestinian Strikers
New Unions (West Bank)
Palestinian workers at the Israeli settlement factory of Yamit Sinoun started an open strike demanding the company to respect their rights. The Palestine New Federation of Trade Unions calls on unions and human rights groups to support the strike.
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French Protests Continue: Pictures
Al Jazeera (Doha)
Tens of thousands of protesters marched across France to denounce a security bill that would restrict the filming of police and posting of images on social media, something critics say would impact the ability to document cases of police brutality.
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Brazil’s Martyrs Remembered
Marielle Franco Igor Carvalho and Lu Sudré / Brasil de Fato (São Paulo)
Chico Mendes Erick Gimenes and Lucas Weber / Brasil de Fato