Portside

1. Thousands Turn Out for IWD
2. Think Pieces
3. Mass Strike in Greece
4. Video: First Nations vs Big Oil in Canada
5. Documentary: A Voice for Western Sahara Independence
6. Anti-Trump Backlash Growing
7. Uruguay: A New Left Administration
8. Die Linke: Party and Movement
9. Africa on Strike
10. A New Deal for Russia?

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Thousands Turn Out for IWD

Al Jazeera (Doha)

Demonstrators have taken to the streets across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas to mark International Women’s Day, with many demanding an end to gender-based violence and inequality. In cities like Buenos Aires, those warnings were particularly grave, as protesters railed against austerity plans put forth by President Javier Milei that they say will roll back services for women.

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Think Pieces

 • The Age of Neofascism   Gilbert Achcar / Historical Materialism (London)

 • Nonprofits and Neoliberalism   Udi Greenberg / Boston Review

 • The Complex Reality of Ukrainian Society   Pauline Migevant and Daria Saburova / Europe Solitaire Sans Frontières (Paris)

 • Social Care is Social Justice   Donald Macaskill / Scottish Care (Glasgow)

 • Xi Jinping on Art and Literature   Xi Jinping / Friends of Socialist China (London)

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Mass Strike in Greece

Panagiotis Sotiris / Historical Materialism

On the morning of 28 February, the images were without precedent. Once could see people flooding the centre of Athens and Thessaloniki and every city and town in Greece. It was a real general strike, most shops were closed and people that usually refrained from such gatherings felt that they had a moral duty to be there. 

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Video: First Nations vs Big Oil in Canada

Brandi Marin / The Real News Network (Baltimore)

The oil boom in Alberta, Canada has brought Big Oil in confrontation with First Nations for decades. This year, the struggle of the Woodland Cree united Treaty 8 First Nations and local non-Indigenous industry owners to stop construction of new oil wells by Obsidian Energy.

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Documentary: A Voice for Western Sahara Independence

Mohamedsalem Werad / RFI (Paris)

A powerful new documentary at France’s Fipadoc festival reveals Western Sahara’s fight for independence through the story of Mariem Hassan, whose music became the voice of her people's resistance until her death in 2015. 

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Anti-Trump Backlash Growing

Peter Beaumont / The Guardian (London)

A growing international move to boycott the US is spreading from Scandinavia to Canada to the UK and beyond as consumers turn against US goods. Most prominent so far has been the rejection by European car buyers of the Teslas produced by Elon Musk. The past week has seen daily reports of cultural and other forms of boycotts and disinvestment.

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Uruguay: A New Left Administration

Matilde Campodonico and Isabel Debre / Associated Press (New York)

Yamandú Orsi took office as Uruguay’s new president, at the helm of a government that has pledged to strengthen the social safety net while reversing years of economic stagnation. The inauguration of Orsi, 57, marks the return of Uruguay’s Broad Front — a center-left mix of moderates, communists and hardline trade unionists.

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Die Linke: Party and Movement

 • Inside the Resurgence   Grace Blakeley / Jacobin (Brooklyn)

 • Room for an Alternative?   Loren Balhorn and William Shoki / Africa is a Country (New York)
 

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Africa on Strike

Bettina Engels / London School of Economics

African trade unions are actors in struggles for radical change to political and economic structures. Yet, they primarily represent the interests of regular contracted workers in the formal sector. This is a minority of the working people worldwide, which reflects the dubious narrow notion of labour under capitalism. Despite this, Africa is home to dynamic and evolving forms of industrial action. 

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A New Deal for Russia?

Boris Kagarlitsky / Links (Sydney)

From the penal colony where he is serving a five-year sentence for “justification of terrorism,” Boris Kagarlitsky has actively participated in the detailed analysis of the New Deal proposal for Russia developed by a group of leftist economists. The New Deal program asserts that Russia will inevitably enter an era of major transformations. The coming changes will impact all spheres of public life.