International Viewpoint

“The election of Lasso as president opens a new stage in the implementation of policies that will be even more favourable to Ecuadorian Big Capital, to foreign multinational corporations, to an alliance among right-wing presidents in Latin America and to the pursuit or indeed reinforcement of US domination on the continent.”

In this interview, Franck Gaudichaud considers the social and political dynamics of the recent period, and also current issues in the region.

“It implies that something has gone terribly wrong with the nation's effort to break with its authoritarian past, and that the protesters, much like their predecessors in 1998, are flooding the streets to save the country from its undoing.”

The movement against anti-Asian violence must not become yet another bargaining chip between two repressive super powers.

In Atlanta, Georgia on March 16 a gunman killed eight people, in three spas, six of them Asian women. Then on March 22 in Boulder, Colorado, a man with a gun killed ten people. On March 31, 2021, in Orange, California, a gunman murdered four people, one a nine-year-old boy. Since the Atlanta shooting, there have been at least twenty mass shootings in the United States.

On 26 March, thousands of delivery workers took part in a historic one-day strike that marked an important step in the struggle for the recognition of riders' rights.
The “No Delivery Day” was supported by many platform customers, consumers and collectives who decided to boycott the services in solidarity with the delivery workers. The drivers' protest was also massively supported by the rank-and-file unions (Clap, riders Cobas, Sial Cobas, Si Cobas) and the sectoral unions (Uiltucs, Nidil (...)

A huge desire for freedom and democracy was expressed in Hong Kong in 2019. For the government, it is now time for revenge and to bring the population into line with the standards in force on the Chinese mainland. The new electoral rules promulgated on 30 March aim to complete the elimination of all forms of counter-power.

The logic of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” is a recipe for empty cynicism.

“Our main enemy, of course, in our own country, it is the regime of Putin and his friends with their billion-dollar fortunes. No war but a class war!”

“The multi-faceted crisis will continue and deepen. In this context, there will be greater opportunities to present a radical ecosocialist and revolutionary alternative.”

“The absence of a structured, independent, democratic, progressive and inclusive Syrian political opposition, which could attract the popular classes, made it difficult for various sectors of the population to unite and challenge the regime again and at the national level.”

“No other country today has such a murderous dictatorship at work attempting to shatter such an exceptionally broad democratic resistance. A situation which implies an imperative duty of solidarity.”

“However, women in Turkey are more organized, locally and internationally connected and united than ever, despite the challenge of fighting against a mentality that occupies the absolute majority of the Parliament and dominates every single sphere of life.”

“While these reforms deserve critical support, they do not stop the inequalities of capitalism or the violence of imperialism that drives migration, nor do they liberate the immigrants from exploitation.”

“We are getting by because people around us have been our strength,” adds Sirvikramjeet. “If only this government had half the empathy shown by the farming community, it would have repealed the three farm laws.”

“The current crisis, I believe, is no longer the crisis of Ennahda's legitimacy, but rather the crisis of the absence of an alternative, with the inability of the left forces – like the centrist forces - to organize and propose an alternative.”

“This exceptional mobilization shows the frustration of a youth without a future, victim of a deterioration of its living conditions. The answer lies in a deep social transformation of the country, which is absent from Ousmane Sonko's agenda when we see his party's programme.”

“What best fits the needs of the Puerto Rican people would be their political organization as an independent republic, capable of determining the economic and social policies best adapted to a socially just and ecologically sound development, in collaboration with other peoples, and in particular, in collaboration with the people of the United States.”

“But the young and joyful crowd from Newroz to Diyarbakir and in all the cities of the region, waving thousands of HDP flags, was there yesterday to remind him that the game is far from being won.”

An interview with historian Mathilde Larrère on the role of women in the Paris Commune.