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Global Left Midweek – October 23, 2024

Elections elsewhere

A woman holds cardboard keys reading "Vulture out" and "Right to a roof", as people protest to demand lower housing rental prices and better living conditions in Madrid, Spain, October 13, 2024. Credit, ISABEL INFANTES / REUTERS
  1. Antiwar Protests and Resistance in Russia
  2. Elections Elsewhere
  3. Housing Movement in Spain
  4. Working Classes Come Together in Kenya
  5. Wages of War
  6. Unrest Continues in Martinique
  7. Climate Action International
  8. France’s Persecution of Pan-Africanist Kemi Sea
  9. Cuba’s Agony
  10. Life in the Comintern

 

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Antiwar Protests and Resistance in Russia

Ivan Astashin / Posle

Why are there no mass anti-war demonstrations in Russia? What do individual protest actions against Putin’s regime look like? How do people resist the logistics of war? Solidarity Zone activist Ivan Astashin recounts a short history of anti-war protest in Russia.

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Elections Elsewhere

 • Thai Progressives Write a New Script   David Hutt / The Diplomat (Arlington VA)

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 • La France Insoumise   John Mullen / Tempest (Brooklyn)

 • Tunisia Has a Big Problem   Aseel Saleh / Peoples Dispatch (New Delhi)

 • Sinn Féin Setbacks   Shawn Pogatchnik / Politico.eu (Brussels)

 • Another Look at Sri Lanka Election   Ahilan Kadirgamar and Devaka Gunawardena / International Development Economics Associates (Oxford)

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Housing Movement in Spain

Nina Cook / Euro Weekly News (Málaga)

On October 13, 2024, Madrid became the focal point of a massive protest as thousands took to the streets to demand action on Spain’s ongoing housing crisis. The protest, organised by several advocacy groups and supported by a wide array of social organisations, unions, and political parties, exposed the growing difficulties in securing affordable housing in the capital and across the country.

Lea un informe completo en español de EL PAÍS aquí.

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Working Classes Come Together in Kenya

Caroline Kimeu / New Lines (Washington DC)

Online opposition represented deep-seated public anger over how the country is run, as became clear when the social media protests spilled onto the streets and tens of thousands marched across the country. Everyone, from influencers to informal workers rallied behind the calls for lawmakers to rule out the tax proposals. The working poor showed up with fervor. 

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Wages of War

 • Governing Gaza   Said Zeedani / +972 (Tel Aviv)

 • European Jews for Palestine   Micol Meghnagi / il manifesto Global (Rome)

 • Call from Palestinian Unions   Workers in Palestine 

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Unrest Continues in Martinique

Paul Kirby / BBC News (London)

Martinique has been rocked by protests that have left four people dead in clashes and shops and businesses set alight or looted. Authorities in the French territory have extended an overnight curfew to next week. A deal to cut food prices has been rejected by the group behind the protests.

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Climate Action International

 • Palestine   Hamza Hamouchene / Red Pepper (London)

 • Zimbabwe   Aimee Gabay and Tatenda Chitagu / Mongabay (Menlo Park CA)

 • Honduras: Remembering Juan López   Giada Ferrucci / NACLA Report (New York)

 • Documentary: Witsuwit'en, Canada   / CBC Docs (Toronto)

 • Shipibo-Conibo of the Peruvian Amazon   Harriet Barber / The Guardian (London)

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France’s Persecution of Pan-Africanist Kemi Seba

Pavan Kulkarni / Peoples Dispatch

Masked men violently seized one of Francophone Africa’s leading anti-colonial activists, Kema Seba, in Paris on October 14. The 42-year-old is the President of Urgences Panafricanistes  (Pan-Africanist Emergencies) which has been on the frontline of the movement across France’s former colonies in West Africa against its continuing monetary stranglehold through its colonial currency of CFA-Franc.

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Cuba’s Agony

Al Jazeera (Doha)

Electricity is slowly returning to Havana, Cuba’s capital, days after a nationwide blackout plunged the country of 10 million into total darkness on Friday, causing the government to close all non-essential workplaces and cancel school classes until Thursday. Adding to concerns, Hurricane Oscar made landfall in eastern Cuba late Sunday afternoon as a Category 1 storm.

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Life in the Comintern

Aidan Beatty / Jacobin

The Communist International’s history is often told in terms of polemics among its leaders. But studying the biographies of lesser-known militants who came to Moscow gives a more real sense of the movement’s internal life and what it was like to belong to it.