Portside

1. BRICS+ in the Capitalist World System
2. Panamanians Say Hands Off
3. The Palestinian Authority and the People’s Fight
4. Fighting the Far Right in Germany and Austria
5. Congo Basin Alliance
6. Zapatista Army
7. Ecosocialists Meet in UK
8. Maduro: Sí or No?
9. Greenlanders Speak Out
10. Malala Attacks Taliban’s Gender Apartheid

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BRICS+ in the Capitalist World System

Janine Walter / Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (Berlin)

From a progressive perspective, the phenomenon of Global South nations striving for independence from Western-dominated institutions that do not work to their advantage is to be welcomed. Yet so far there has also been a notable absence of transformative political approaches — approaches serving to benefit not only elites, but the majority of the population of member countries.

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Panamanians Say Hands Off

Elida Moreno / Reuters (London)

Hundreds of Panamanians marched on Thursday to mark the anniversary of a deadly uprising against U.S. control of the Panama Canal in 1964, with some protesters burning an effigy of President-elect Donald Trump who has threatened to retake the vital global waterway.

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The Palestinian Authority and the People’s Fight

Ramzy Baroud / CounterPunch (Petrolia CA)

The PA’s strategy of appeasing Israel through ‘security coordination’ has done little to hinder Israel’s systematic land grab and the continued construction of illegal settlements. To the contrary, such ‘coordination’ has emboldened Israel and its unruly settlers.

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Fighting the Far Right in Germany and Austria

 • Thousands Confront AfD   Fanny Brodersen and Geir Moulson / Associated Press (New York)

 • Mass Demo in Vienna   / France 24 (Paris)

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Congo Basin Alliance

Adem Ay / Waging Nonviolence (Brooklyn)

A petition from activists in the Democratic Republic of Congo called on German ministers to push the Congolese government into protecting their rainforests and peatlands from oil exploration. It attracted 65,000 signatures and birthed the Congo Basin Alliance, a new group focused on linking climate activists in Europe and Central Africa. 

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Zapatista Army

 • Subcommandante Marcos is Back   Andrea Cegna / il manifesto Global (Rome)

 • Zapatismo at 30   Ted Siefer / Nonprofit Quarterly (Boston)

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Ecosocialists Meet in UK

Ecosocialism Conference 2024 (London)

On 7 December 2024, over 150 people gathered at London South Bank University with some joining online to discuss building an international ecosocialist movement. The day ended with a conference-wide session on strategy, which launched an Ecosocialist Action Network focused on campaigning to build a mass campaign to address the climate emergency.

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Maduro: Sí or No?

 • The Stakes with Maduro’s Inauguration   Stephanie Weatherbee Brito and Vivian Fernandes / Peoples Dispatch (New Delhi)

 • “This is Not a Left-Wing Government”   Atenea Jiménez and Simón Rodríguez / Venezuelan Voices

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Greenlanders Speak Out

Jedidajah Otte and Jem Bartholomew / The Guardian (London)

Trump’s comments on acquiring or annexing Greenland come amid a debate around the territory’s potential independence from Denmark. Egede, the prime minister, supports independence, and a 2019 poll from academics at the University of Copenhagen found that 67.7% of Greenlandic adults wanted independence from Denmark at some point in the future.

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Malala Attacks Taliban’s Gender Apartheid

Dawn (Karachi)

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai on Sunday said that the Taliban did not see women as “human beings” and had created a system of “gender apartheid” by cloaking their crimes in cultural and religious justification.