Global Left Midweek - November 17, 2021

Liberia’s health workers are waging a dual struggle: battling the COVID-19 pandemic, while fighting for their rights and salaries. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic the National Health Workers Union of Liberia had to implement a stay-at-home action for better pay and better working conditions for the benefit of both patients and caregivers.

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Chilean Communists Pledge Left Unity in Election

Daniel Jadue / Jacobin (New York)

Despite major differences between the Chilean Communist Party and the progressive Broad Front, a significant part of the Communist Party is now pledging their support for Boric’s campaign in the upcoming November 21 general election — which, according to recent polls, is building up to be a race between the far right and the Left.

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China’s Xi Makes His Bid to Stand with Mao and Deng

Helen Roxburgh and Laurie Chen / Hong Kong Free Press

Some 350 members of the powerful Central Committee passed a resolution on “Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party’s Centennial Struggle” — only the third historical sum-up of its kind in its 100-year history. The previous two were issued under former leaders Mao Zedong, in 1945, and Deng Xiaoping, in 1981.

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Lessons from Québec Election

Karl Nerenberg / rabble.ca (Toronto)

If Valérie Plante and Projet Montréal can succeed in pursuing a different sort of governance strategy, one based on the long-term well-being of the entire city, they could serve as an inspiration and model for the rest of us.

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Polish Women Confront Abortion Law

Thousands in the Streets Michał Wojtczuk and Jakub Kibitlewski / Wyzorcza.pl (Warsaw)

“It’s Turning Anti-Government” Maya Oppenheim / The Independent (London)

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Far Left Front Gains National Seats in Argentina

Alfonso de Villalobos / Tiempo (Buenos Aries)

[Moderator’s note: This is a shortened version of an article translated by Portside. Read the original in Spanish here.]

The four parties that make up the Frente de Izquierda y de los Trabajadores-Unidad (FIT-U) celebrated what they called the “best election in the history of the left in Argentina.” The result was already shaping up after the primaries in which they obtained 6% of votes in Autonomous Buenos Aires city and about 5% in Buenos Aires Province. They needed to increase that vote by about a point and a half in those districts to achieve the goal of securing three seats in the lower house of the national congress. They did better than that.

With 7.76% of the votes in the city, for the first time, FIT-U entered Congress from that district with the candidacy of Myriam Bregman of the Socialist Workers Party (PTS) who, based on the rotating arrangement that has governed the coalition since its founding, will be replaced by Vanina Biasi of the Partido Obrero (PO). With a slightly higher vote they also managed to enter two legislators from the City of Buenos Aires, Gabriel Solano of the PO and Alejandrina Barry of the PTS.

In the Province of Buenos Aires, with 6.75% of the votes, Nicolás del Caño del PTS and Romina del Plá del PO renewed their seats in Congress for the second time. In addition to winning two provincial deputy races for the second electoral section, they counted vote by vote to enter councilors in the most impoverished districts of the suburbs such as La Matanza where they reached 9.67% of the votes, Merlo (10.51%), Moreno (9.31%), Jose C. Paz (9.29%) and Coronel Pringles with a shocking 19.7%. If confirmed, for the FIT-U it is a qualitative step forward in its strategic fight to conquer the vote of the rank and file of Buenos Aires Peronism.

But the strawberry for dessert was the historic win that the FIT-U made in Jujuy [a northwest province]. There, according to provisional scrutiny, Alejandro Vilca entered as a national deputy for one of the three seats that were disputed in the province governed by Gerardo Morales. Vilca is a municipal garbage collector [....]

The FIT-U consolidated itself as the third national force with a presence in 24 provinces, and achieved results close to 8% overall, with 8.6% in Chubut, 8.2% in Neuquén, and 7.1% in Santa Cruz. [...]

In a press conference, Myriam Bregman [...] pointed out that “the national government is paying the consequences of the [fiscal] adjustment it carried out, and was confronted by the FIT-U, with an alternative program to that of the capitalist forces. The people know that this left will never vote for an anti-popular measure. [...In] this City that they say is right-wing, [...] for the first time we are conquering an a official seat [...]. We did it without hiding our ideas before public opinion but by supporting each of the struggles of the workers of this city. [...] Our real fight is for socialism, that's why we were able to sustain a coalition for ten years independent of the bosses’ parties. It’s not magic, it’s principles and a strong commitment to struggle.”

Gabriel Solano, for his part, pointed out that [...] “Where Peronism felt impregnable, now the left, with the flags of socialism, are here to defend the workers. It is not only a turn of an electorate sector to repudiate something, it is deeper.” [...]

Romina del Plá insisted that “the election leaves us with a mandate to strengthen organization in every corner of the country [...] starting with confronting and rejecting the agreement with the IMF and the payment of that usurious, fraudulent and illegitimate debt.”

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How Gramsci Went Global

Marzia Maccaferri / Tribune (London)

His sophisticated analysis shows social power as a more complex matrix than a simple matter of domination and subordination. He showed how institutions as well as cultural production play a subtle role. Gramsci is read across the world, from India to Argentina, Spain, and the African continent, and from the US to Britain.