International Viewpoint

THE CALAMITOUS MALFEASANCE of the outgoing Trump regime's response to the coronavirus pandemic threatens to obscure deeper realities of this global as well as U.S. crisis. The incoming Biden-Harris team faces a deeper and more menacing emergence of both public health and the economy than the 2008-09 financial meltdown that confronted president Obama's first year.

Scores of thousands of young people took over dozens of cities and towns in Nigeria for two weeks. This rebellion, with the slogan and hashtag #EndSARS, was sparked by the reported killing of a young man by the special anti-robbery squad (SARS), in Ughelli, a town in the Niger delta region on 3 October.
With each passing day, the supposedly “leaderless” movement waxed stronger. And while #EndSARS remained the primary and binding demand, calls for more radical measures to #EndInjustice (...)

For weeks a major conflict has been going on, which the press is not talking about, or perhaps it is too far away, over there... in Kanaky.

For “anyone interested in getting a deeper understanding of how the 2019 rebellion of Hong Kong fits into the bigger China picture and what might be coming around the corner”.

“There are few better guides than Planetary Mine to the possible economic and technological futures of Latin American likely to emerge in the wake of COVID-19”

“Parker makes us perceive opaque bifurcations, ideological shifts and new official narratives covering diverse form of integration within – but also still resistances to – the new capitalist world (dis)order.”

Do you remember last spring? The "first wave", flags, songs on balconies, "everything will be fine"? Someone even thought - and said - that something good should come out of this story, that nothing could ever be the same again. A kind of promise of change was in the air. Rubbish!

A preview of Biden's foreign policy, arguing that what is coming is not simply a return to Obama-era multilateralism, but an attempt to deepen Trump's focus on the great power rivalries, especially with China.

Massive mobilisation in the face of structural reforms in the agricultural world.

The December issue of the South African journal Amandla! is now out.

“Another left is possible, but we will have to become less ‘normal'.”

Safety fears over Covid in schools: Scottish teachers vote for industrial action as Labour London Councils call for early school closures

“Teachers need to educate, agitate, and organize on this issue, as they have done so courageously in the past decade, to protect public education,” a conclusion not only applicable to the United States.

“We will never forget. We will never forgive. And we demand rehabilitation and reparations now.”

“Organizing workers today raises new challenges, as many have precarious jobs and large numbers are undocumented immigrants. Our work is cut out for us.”

“One thing is certain, however: the pro-democracy movement, by its capacity to endure and to innovate, has opened a gaping breach in the domination of the military-monarchical order. It has never ceased to amaze with its resilience and inventiveness. We can only salute it for what it has already accomplished and support it as much as we can for what it can still accomplish.”

The repressive rules in force on the mainland are being rapidly extended to Hong Kong, but a fightback continues and needs international solidarity.

“The left must demand that Starmer pulls back from this position and at least leave the door open for a fightback against the consequences of Brexit, which is a retrograde step of historic proportions.”

While Emmanuel Macron is receiving the Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah al-Sissi in Paris, the French president is continuing to be active on the Lebanese dossier to implement the “reforms” demanded by Paris and the World Bank in particular.

“It may seem farfetched, but the crisis of the US electoral system is real.”