Global Left Midweek — November 12, 2025
- The Threat to Cuba is Greater Than Ever
- How NGOs Undermined Myanmar Resistance
- COP30
- Women Organize in Sri Lanka
- UK Left in Turmoil
- Latin America Flashpoints
- Boris Kagarlitsky Speaks from Prison
- Odinga and the Kenyan Left
- Latvia: Protesters Demand an End to Gender Violence
- Kerala’s Victory Over Poverty
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The Threat to Cuba is Greater Than Ever
Roberto Livi / il manifesto Global (Rome)
Cuba is in a full-blown systemic crisis. However, the island’s government and political leadership are most worried because of another danger: the unprecedented aggressiveness of the current Trump administration (which includes not only the president himself but also the anti-Castro and anti-Bolivarian obsession of Secretary of State Marco Rubio and various Cuban-American hawks).
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How NGOs Undermined Myanmar Resistance
Mark Johnson / Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières (Paris)
The Euro-Burma Office and other Western ‘peacebuilding’ NGOs have fragmented Myanmar’s resistance movements through strategic EU and US funding that imposed external frameworks on indigenous struggles. Even well-intentioned solidarity can become complicit in imperial power relations when mediated through Western institutional structures, and funded by governments pursuing geopolitical interests.
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COP30
• Fighting for Climate Justice in Belém David Williams, Tetet Lauron and Katja Voigt / Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (Berlin)
• Power Shift Needed David Suzuki / David Suzuki Foundation (Vancouver)
• Global South Trade Union Statement 58 trade unions internationally
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Women Organize in Sri Lanka
Kaushalya Ariyarathne / Polity (Colombo)
The Gehenu Api Eka Mitata (‘Women, We Are One’) movement was inaugurated by the Progressive Women’s Collective. It is because this movement is the first of its kind in Sri Lanka that recording its experiences, strategies, challenges, and early impacts becomes essential. Such documentation captures a potentially transformative moment and offers potential lessons for future efforts aimed at enhancing gender equality.
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UK Left in Turmoil
• Is the Labour Party Splitting? Steve Battlemuch / labourpainsandgains (Nottingham)
• Did Your Party Drop the Ball? Richard Seymour / New Statesman (London)
• Greens in Wales Cemlyn Davies / BBC (London)
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Latin America Flashpoints
• Chile’s Election Torge Löding / Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
• Police Terror in Rio Favela Tom Phillips / The Guardian (London)
• MAS Defeat in Bolivia Aftermath Linda Farthing / Jacobin (Brooklyn)
• Day of the Salvadoran Trade Unionist Devin B. Martinez / Peoples Dispatch (New Delhi)
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Boris Kagarlitsky Speaks from Prison
Boris Kagalitsky and Andrey Rudoy / Links (Sydney)
[Moderator’s note: On November 8, the administration of Penal Colony No. 4 (IK-4) in Torzhok (Tver Region) sent Boris Kagarlitsky, an opponent of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and editor-in-chief of the internet platform Rabkor to solitary confinement for at least three days. The pretext for Kagarlitsky’s punishment is unknown, and at the time of writing it is not clear if and when his period of solitary confinment will end.]
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Odinga and the Kenyan Left
R.M. Anyona and Brian Mathenge / Africa is a Country (New York)
The death of Raila Odinga, Kenya’s most enduring opposition leader, invites a reckoning—not only with his contradictions, but with what his long struggle reveals about the unfinished work of liberation.
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Latvia: Protesters Demand an End to Gender Violence
Meduza (Riga)
More than 10,000 people gathered in the Latvian capital to protest a bill that would see the country exit the Istanbul Convention, an international treaty aimed at combating violence against women. The demonstration went ahead even after President Edgars Rinkēvičs refused to the sign the bill. Meduza visited the demonstration and asked participants why they decided to protest even after lawmakers backed down.
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Kerala’s Victory Over Poverty
Divya Pradeep / The Wire (New Delhi)
The Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front government announced that it had eliminated extreme poverty in Kerala. The state government’s leadership and commitment to eliminating extreme poverty are commendable, and whether the goal has actually been achieved becomes less important. Still, it is worth examining how this process was carried out and what its implications are.