Portside

1. May Day is Here
2. Brazil, Poland, South Korea: Ousting Autocrats
3. Vietnam’s 50 Years Since Liberation
4. Mobilizing Rage in Turkey
5. Colombia: Petro vs Petrol
6. Albania’s New Left
7. Reflections on the Nonaligned Movement
8. LGBTQ Fight from Uganda to Sri Lanka
9. Indian and Pakistani Left are on Alert
10. New Democratic Wipeout as Canadians Rally Against Trump

__________
May Day is Here

Eric Hobsbawm / Tribune (London)

In one way May 1 is significant because it helps to explain why Marx became so influential in labour movements composed of men and women who had not heard of him before, but recognised his call to become conscious of themselves as a class and to organise as such. In another, it is important, because it demonstrates the historic power of grassroots thought and feeling.

__________
Brazil, Poland, South Korea: Ousting Autocrats

John Feffer / Foreign Policy in Focus (Washington DC)

It took a decade to get rid of Milosevic in Serbia, nearly two decades to oust Pinochet in Chile, slightly more than two decades to overthrow Marcos in the Philippines, and more than a half-century to depose the Assad regime in Syria. But in recent years, more compressed resistance defeated autocrats in Brazil, Poland, and South Korea. What can we learn from them?

__________
Vietnam’s 50 Years Since Liberation

• Never Forget   Ngô Thanh Nhàn and Juliet Ucelli / Liberation Road Notes (New York)
   
• Sprint to 2030   Phan Xuân Dũng / East Asia Forum (Canberra)
   
• The Scarred Environment   Pamela McElwee / The Conversation (Waltham MA)

__________
Mobilizing Rage in Turkey

Başak Kocadost / Global Labour Column (Johannesburg)

The Justice and Development Party government’s targeting of the mainstream opposition through Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu signals a new phase in the country’s authoritarian consolidation. This move has driven hundreds of thousands into the streets, convinced that even the most basic democratic right — the right to vote and be elected — is being openly stripped away from them.

__________
Colombia: Petro vs Petrol

Patricia Rodríguez / NACLA Report (New York)

The Petro administration has made the goal of ending fossil fuel extraction a central part of its agenda. For the communities most impacted by the oil and gas industry, crafting a collaborative, democratic, and just energy policy is a key part of combating the violence and dispossession that these industries and the state have historically brought to their lands.

__________
Albania’s New Left

Barbara Steiner and Jani Marka / transform! Europe (Vienna)

In December 2022, Organizata Politike decided to take a new step and enter electoral politics, founding the party Lëvizja BASHKË – Movement Together. The party ran in the 2023 local elections in Tirana. The result was surprisingly strong – we came third, gaining around 5% of the vote. This was very encouraging for such a new party, with no funding or media coverage.

__________
Reflections on the Nonaligned Movement

Ahilan Kadirgamar / Daily Mirror (Colombo)

Archie Singham wrote a fascinating account of the NAM conference in Colombo. While one saw the decline of the colonial powers in Europe, one also saw the emergence of a newly reconstructed capitalism led by the United States. Many of the nations of the world, and indeed even the capitalist nations, opposed colonialism, but very few of the capitalist nations would oppose imperialism.

__________
LGBTQ Fight from Uganda to Sri Lanka

Clarisse Sih and Bibbi Abruzzini / Global Voices (The Hague)

Across Africa, 31 countries still criminalize homosexuality. These laws, often rooted in colonial-era statutes, continue to endanger and oppress millions of LGBTQ+ individuals across the continent. Advocacy groups like Sexual Minorities Uganda have been instrumental in rallying international solidarity and raising awareness about the plight of LGBTQ+ communities in Africa.

__________
Indian and Pakistani Left are on Alert

Peoples Dispatch (New Delhi)

Left and progressive forces in India and Pakistan have condemned the recent attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir wherein 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed by unidentified armed men on April 22. They warned against attempts by right-wing forces to capitalize on the attack to spread hatred. Large rallies were organized by Kashmiris across the state.

__________
New Democratic Wipeout as Canadians Rally Against Trump

David Moscrop / New Statesman (London)

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh struggled to keep his emotions in check late Monday night as he took the stage at his campaign headquarters in Burnaby, B.C., to deliver the bad news: his fight is over. Poised to finish third in his own riding, Singh's party is projected to lose 17 of the 24 seats, leaving the New Democrats without official party status, having fallen short of the 12-MP minimum.