Portside

1. The Threat to Venezuela
2. Multi-Polar or Anti-Polar?
3. More on Nepal, Indonesia, Philippines
4. Sheinbaum’s Government Report
5. West Papua Bound for Independence
6. China’s Strike Wave
7. Bolsonaro, His Fall
8. UK Trade Union Heads Defend Palestine Action
9. Chile: CP Candidate Jara Leads Polls
10. Vietnam’s New Administrative Map

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The Threat to Venezuela

Mark Weisbrot / Newsweek (New York)

The strike on the Venezuelan boat represents a new kind of war, in which our government claims the right to summarily execute civilians from the air in what legal experts, including from the military, consider illegal killings. Referring to the alleged drug trafficking boat, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said “Instead of interdicting it, on the president’s orders, we blew it up. And it will happen again.”

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Multi-Polar or Anti-Polar?

Patrick Bond / Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (Berlin)

Critics from the independent Left are doubtful about multipolarity. The critics ally with progressive local opponents of BRICS regimes, especially against their ruling classes and big corporations. The result may be an “anti-polar” (or at minimum “non-polar”) version of internationalism, in explicit opposition to both imperialist unipolarity and subimperialist multipolarity. 

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More on Nepal, Indonesia, Philippines

 • Nepal Joins Regional Wave of Protest   Sankha Subhra Biswas / Links (Sydney)

 • From Colombo to Kathmandu   Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Gaurav Pokharel / The Guardian (London)

 • Indonesia’s Uprising   National Collective of the People’s Liberation Party / Asian Labour Review (London)

 • Indonesians Join Protest Worldwide   Natasya Salim / Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Sydney)

 • Is the Philippines Next?   Jason Gutierrez / Asia Times (Hong Kong)

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Sheinbaum’s Government Report

Claudia Sheinbaum / Mexico Solidarity Media (Mexico City)

The dark neoliberal night has been left behind. It was a model that held that the State should not intervene in development nor concern itself with redistributing wealth, but merely create a favorable business environment. Without an active State role aimed at ensuring social justice, the concentration of wealth only deepens inequality and leaves millions in poverty.

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West Papua Bound for Independence

Paul Gregoire / Sydney Criminal Lawyers

“Indonesia is in chaos, as massive protests have erupted over corruption, economic hardship, and police brutality,” declared West Papuan provisional government president Benny Wenda in a 1 September 2025 statement. “I call on all my people to get ready for another escalation back home. West Papua is ready to depart from this dying empire.”

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China’s Strike Wave

Andra Ferrario / Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières (Paris)

In the last thirty-three days, China’s manufacturing sector has been swept by an unusual sequence of strikes: twenty-two collective mobilisations across various sectors, from pharmaceuticals to textiles, from aerospace to semiconductors. These are not isolated episodes, but symptoms of widespread malaise.

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Bolsonaro, His Fall

Forrest Hylton / London Review of Books

The verdict was historic in the strong sense: unlike in Argentina and Uruguay, there has been no judicial reckoning with dictatorship in Brazil until now The time to celebrate had come. The doorwoman and cleaning man were smiling and laughing as they hosed off the front steps, discussing how Trump, Bolsonaro and the Brazilian military had met their match in Brazil’s Supreme Court.

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UK Trade Union Heads Defend Palestine Action

Skwawkbox / The Canary (London)

On Wednesday 10 September, the same day that Keir Starmer met Israeli president Isaac Herzog, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) at its annual meeting – which represents over 5 million workers – unanimously passed a motion calling on the Starmer regime to repeal its proscription order banning Palestine Action, a non-violent UK direct action group, as terrorists.

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Chile: CP Candidate Jara Leads Polls

Nyki Duda / Jacobin (Brooklyn)

More than 50 years after Augusto Pinochet’s coup, apologists for its neoliberal dictatorship are close to taking office. But Communist Jeannette Jara could block them from taking power.

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Vietnam’s New Administrative Map

Hai Thanh Nguyen and Phan Le / East Asia Forum (Canberra)

On 1 July 2025, Vietnam implemented its largest administrative reform since reunification, consolidating provinces, abolishing districts and streamlining bureaucracy. The reform reorients development strategies, centralises political power and opens opportunities for infrastructure investment, while posing challenges in balancing centralisation with effective decision-making.