Global Left Midweek — August 12, 2026
- South Asia Overview
- Racism and Politics in France
- Silence Consumes the Arab World
- Africa Reports
- The Polisario Front in Washington’s Crosshairs
- Revolution Did Not Produce Nicaragua’s Dictatorship
- Cockroach Party Rocks India
- ALBA Movements Assemble in Havana
- Vietnam: Labor Newspaper Closed
- Víctor Jara Para Siempre
Sarwar Chowdhury, AA / The Asian Age (Delhi)
From anti-colonial struggles and peasant uprisings to labor movements and demands for social justice, socialist and communist ideologies once inspired millions across India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. Yet, despite its historical significance, leftist politics in South Asia has gradually lost much of its influence.
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Danièle Obono and Thomas Glasman / Tribune (London)
The far right seeks to racialise social problems and turn economic grievances into hostility towards migrants and minorities. Our response is to combine class politics with anti-racism. We want to mobilise workers, young people and racialised communities around a common programme of social transformation, while remaining uncompromising in our opposition to racism.
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Silence Consumes the Arab World
M. Reza Behnam / CounterPunch (Petrolia CA)
From Casablanca to Baghdad, millions have chanted slogans, waved flags and wept over the dispossession of their Palestinian brethren. Yet, when an industrial-scale invasion laid waste to Gaza, reducing neighborhoods to ash and children to statistics, the Arab world’s response to this ultimate crucible was a deafening unforgivable silence.
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Africa Reports
Between Feminism and Pan-Africanism Hilmelda Tenkeu / Africa is a Country (New York)
South Africa: Fighting Xenophobia Rehad Desai and Luke Sinwell / Zabalaza for Socialism (Johannesburg)
Saving Nigeria’s Kam Language Abdulrosheed Fadipe / Global Voices (The Hague)
Peasant Agroecology in Kenya David Otieno, Clifford Ochieng and Ryan Maxwell / Progressive International
Niger Refugees’ Long Protest Matt Benson / Waging Nonviolence (Brooklyn)
Interview: Nubian Activist Malasen Hamida Ouma Elvine Tina / Mongabay (Menlo Park CA)
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The Polisario Front in Washington’s Crosshairs
Mitchell Plitnick / ReThinking Foreign Policy (Germantown MD)
A bipartisan group of congresspeople are set to introduce a bill in the House of Representatives that would designate the Polisario Front a “terrorist organization.” The Front is a Sahrawi organization that has existed since 1973. Its aim to is to establish Sahrawi sovereignty over the territory of Western Sahara, which has been under occupation first by Spain and, since 1975, by Morocco.
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Revolution Did Not Produce Nicaragua’s Dictatorship
Mónica Baltodano / Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières (Paris)
Every 19 July, the same debate returns. The Ortega-Murillo dictatorship insists on presenting itself as heir to the Sandinista Popular Revolution. At the same time, part of the opposition accepts that narrative and ends up reinforcing it by asserting that the current regime is nothing more than the logical consequence of the 1979 revolution. Both versions are profoundly mistaken.
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Cockroach Party Rocks India
A New Online Battle Murali Krishnan / Deutsche Welle (Berlin)
How Satire Became Political Power Susan Ann Samuel / The Conversation (Melbourne)
Without Fear Aman Sethi / openDemocracy (London)
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ALBA Movements Assemble in Havana
Belén de los Santos / teleSUR (Caracas)
The IV Continental Assembly of ALBA Movimientos took place in Havana with 188 delegates from 27 countries, to define its agenda for the next four years. The meeting focused on strengthening coordination among social movements while reaffirming solidarity with Cuba and Palestine.
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Vietnam: Labor Newspaper Closed
Joe Buckley / New Mandala (Canberra)
After 51 years in print, the Người Lao động newspaper has been shut as part of a recentralisation and rationalisation of state-affiliated media in Vietnam. The paper, once led by the Ho Chi Minh City Labour Federation, was a key voice for workers’ interests throughout Vietnam’s post-1980s economic boom.
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Abby Zimet / Common Dreams (Portland ME)
In 1973, a day after Pinochet’s coup, Víctor Jara was seized, tortured, his hands broken to silence what was deemed music “more powerful than a thousand machine guns.” Now the last man responsible for mutilating and killing the iconic Chilean singer has been tracked down and brought to justice.