Global Left Midweek – July 17, 2024
- Tariq Ali Interviews Rashid Khalidi
- Worldwide Climate Struggle
- West African Juntas and Liberation
- LGBTQ Movement in Indonesia
- Sudan Unions Unite to End the War
- Sinistra Italiana Looks Ahead
- Samsung Strikers Make History
- Notes on France
- Brazil’s Landless Movement Joins 2024 Elections
- Kagarlitsky: The Left Needs Rebuilding
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Tariq Ali Interviews Rashid Khalidi
New Left Review (London)
As a result of the horrors that have been inflicted on Gaza over eight continuous months, and which are still being inflicted now, something new has happened. The displacement of three quarters of a million people in 1948 did not produce the same impact. The 1936–39 Arab Revolt is almost completely forgotten. None of those earlier events had anything like this effect.
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Worldwide Climate Struggle
- Climate Politics Today Richard Sandbrook / Socialist Project (Toronto)
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Puerto Rican Environmental Defenders María Mónica Monsalve S. / EL PAÍS (Madrid)
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Mother Nature in Cambodia Mong Palatino / Global Voices (Amsterdam)
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Blockade Australia Jordyn Beazley / The Guardian (London)
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Where UK Greens Are Going Nicholas Beuret / openDemocracy (London)
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West African Juntas and Liberation
Paul Martial / Amandla! (Cape Town)
Mali, then Burkina Faso, and finally Niger have experienced coups d’état and subsequently formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). These military juntas are pursuing a unified policy of international rapprochement. Some see these coup leaders as new heralds of Africa’s liberation. Unfortunately, the reality is quite different.
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LGBTQ Movement in Indonesia
Saskia E Wieringa / East Asia Forum (Canberra)
In Indonesia, the historical acceptance of sexual and gender diversity, including trans and same-sex practices, is currently under threat. Despite dwindling tolerance and societal hostility forcing many LGBT organisations into hiding, members of these groups continue to fight against oppression and intolerance.
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Sudan Unions Unite to End the War
Aseel Saleh / Peoples Dispatch (New Delhi)
The Sudanese Trade Union Front has announced the launch of its charter and national declaration calling for an end to the civil war in a press conference held June 30, according to Sudanese Communist Party newspaper Al-Maydan. The war has caused mass destruction since April 2023, leaving more than 14,000 people killed, 33,000 others wounded, and 11 million people displaced so far.
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Sinistra Italiana Looks Ahead
Giuliano Santoro / il manifesto Global (Rome)
The Italian Left (SI) held the party's first national congress after the European elections. Secretary Nicola Fratoianni argued against pursuing formulas: “Let's focus on the construction of the alternative, right in the middle of the political battle. The precondition for this is the united front in defense of the Constitution.”
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Samsung Strikers Make History
Park Tae-woo / Hankyoreh (Seoul)
Six days into the general strike by the National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU), someone in the KakaoTalk group chat operated by striking union members who work on the 8-inch semiconductor production line at Samsung’s Giheung plant posted a photo of their thumb, which has become deformed from their work. “My thumb is a badge of honor from the 8-inch production line.”
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Notes on France
- Labor Speaks Up / Associated Press (New York)
- Shutting Out the Far Right Eric Toussaint / Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt (Liège)
- “Here, Almost Everyone Voted for the NFP” Samia Lokmane / Middle East Eye (London)
- How It All Came Down Arthur Goldhammer / The New Republic (Washington DC)
- Oh Yes, We Won Jean-Luc Mélenchon / Jacobin (New York)
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Brazil’s Landless Movement Joins 2024 Elections
Igor Carvalho / Brasil da Fato (São Paulo)
The Landless Rural Workers’ Movement launched more than 700 pre-candidates to contest the 2024 municipal elections in October, when voters will choose the next mayors and city councilors of Brazilian municipalities. Attendees included representatives of the Communist Party of Brazil and the Workers’ Party, as well as the national president of the Socialism and Freedom Party, Paula Coradi.
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Kagarlitsky: The Left Needs Rebuilding
Boris Kagarlitsky / Links (Sydney)
The left movement will have to be constructed afresh, and not for the first time. The decisive thing, however, is the need for practical successes, not on the level of electoral victories but on that of genuinely successful and meaningful social changes, which can be pointed to as examples. The people who can achieve this will shape the political model of the movement for the years ahead.