Global Left Midweek – August 14, 2024
- Gaza War’s Impact on the European Left
- Thailand: Rebels Without a Pause
- UK Antiracist Protests
- Guatemala on the Razor’s Edge
- Papua Tribes Fight For Their Land
- Bolivia: The Failed Coup and Conflicted Leadership
- Serbia’s Party of the Radical Left
- Nigeria Labour Congress Defies the Government
- Resistance Art in Bangladesh
- New Left Formation in Venezuela Prompted By Election
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Gaza War’s Impact on the European Left
Nessim Achouche / Jacobin (Brooklyn)
Ahead of the recent French elections, pundits widely expected voters to punish France Insoumise for its strong pro-Gaza stance. It didn’t happen. Around Europe, left-wing voters are galvanized by parties who defy the pro-Israel mainstream.
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Thailand: Rebels Without a Pause
Khaosod English (Bangkok)
After the Move Forward Party was ordered to dissolve by the Constitutional Court, all 143 Move Forward Party MPs have registered as members of the People’s Party with 100% participation on August 9, 2024. This is similar to when the Future Forward Party was dissolved and changed its name to the Move Forward Party in 2020.
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UK Antiracist Protests
- Standing Up to Racism Again / Deutsche Welle (Berlin)
- Take a Look at the August 7 Demos / Stuff (Wellington)
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Guatemala on the Razor’s Edge
José Álvarez Díaz / Equal Times (Brussels)
Arévalo was the first Guatemalan president to mention Indigenous peoples in his inaugural address, and his subordinates have kept their commitment to meet with a group of Indigenous authorities every month. But after half a dozen meetings, they are still busy with formalities “and a lot of bureaucracy,” when “the needs of the people are well known, there is no need for so much protocol”.
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Papua Tribes Fight For Their Land
Barnaby Lo / Al Jazeera (Doha)
The image “All Eyes on Papua” has been spreading across social media. It’s turning attention to Papua, a province of Indonesia. The slogan refers to the campaign of the indigenous people of Awyu and Moi in Papua, whose forest is at risk of being cleared for palm oil plantations.
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Bolivia: The Failed Coup and Conflicted Leadership
Pablo Stefanoni / Spectre (Brooklyn)
Images of the military forcibly entering the Government Palace have been broadcast around the world, sowing confusion in Bolivia. The failed coup by a faction within the Army, repudiated nationally and internationally, took place in the context of the erosion of Luis Arce’s administration, itself large the result of internal discord within the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party.
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Serbia’s Party of the Radical Left
Marko Crnobrnja and Sopo Japaridze / LeftEast
Ever since the fall of socialism, Serbia has had virtually no left-wing parties. The legacy of the workers’ struggle and radical politics, reaching to the 1870s, had been up to that point upheld by the League of Communists of Serbia, a national branch of the ruling party of Yugoslavia. In 1990 the League became the Socialist Party of Serbia. Left-wing politics had to start from scratch.
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Nigeria Labour Congress Defies the Government
Mary Izuaka and Ayodeji Adegboyega / Premium Times (Abuja, Nigeria)
The NLC noted that the government cannot hope to stop a democratic protest by threatening the people who are already losing their lives to the “unrepentant massacre of unarmed protesters” by the police but by concrete actions and reasonable dialogue.
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Resistance Art in Bangladesh
Rezwan / Global Voices (Amsterdam)
In the context of the shrinking space for freedom of expression, Bangladesh has a rich history of street art that reflects various social, economic and political crises in the country. During the protests, numerous graffiti artworks emerged on the walls and streets of major cities.
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New Left Formation in Venezuela Prompted By Election
Tribune Popular (Caracas)
[Excerpted and translated by Portside. Lea el texto original aquí]
This Monday, August 12, a group of political, social and workers’ organizations announced the constitution of the Popular Democratic Front; an initiative in defense of constitutional rights and guarantees, which arises after the serious political crisis that has left the electoral process of last July 28.
The Popular Democratic Front is promoted by the La Otra Campaña platform, the Communist Party of Venezuela, the People-Centered Party, Anti-Imperialist Voices, the Popular Alternative Movement, the Popular Historical Block, the National Working Class Struggle Front, the EnComún collective and the PPT-APR.
It is “an open effort and in the process of construction,” their spokespeople explained at a press conference.
In a document presented to public opinion, they specified that their actions are “part of the unrestricted defense of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela; their charter of human rights; their guarantees for the exercise of self-determination and national sovereignty; their economic model that seeks a fair distribution of wealth; and their political model, deeply democratic, that stimulates the participation and protagonism of the people.”
In the statement, they assured that the organizations that are part of this front, were able to verify “in polling stations in different territories of the country, where Chavismo was a majority in the recent past, the defeat of President Maduro.”
The activists rejected the repression against popular mobilizations and denounced the criminalization processes carried out by the Government.
“It is evident that the indignation generated in the popular sectors by the official announcement of the results of the presidential election will not disappear due to the repression, but on the contrary, this new form of violence against protesters will stir up anger and further delegitimize the criminal justice system and the State in general,” they explained.