International Viewpoint

Steve Maia Caniço is a 24-year-old man who has been missing since 21 June following a violent police charge during the annual Fête de la Musique in Nantes. More than a month has passed, and the question remains: where is Steve? This was the question asked, in particular, by hundreds of people, friends, relatives and others, who were outraged by this umpteenth case of police violence, which once again resulted in a tragedy, at a rally held in Nantes on 20 July.

- 2. News from around the world / France

On Wednesday 12 May, 25,000 teachers in Oregon walked off their jobs, shutting down at least 600 schools across the state as part of a campaign for smaller class sizes, more nurses and guidance counselors, and better funding for public education (paid for by taxing the rich).

- 3. Women / USA, Italy, Women

We express our solidarity with the people of Puerto Rico in their struggle against the corrupt government of Governor Ricardo Rosselló. Friday [19 July] marked seven days of massive protests demanding the resignation of the governor and his associates. Despite tear gas attacks, rubber bullets, beatings and police arrests, the protests have grown in the capital San Juan and have spread to all corners of the island. On Wednesday, 17 July more than 350,000 people marched through the streets of the capital, an unprecedented rally.

- IV534 - July 2019 / Puerto Rico

In the aftermath of what has often been referred to as the "Arab Spring", the European Union (EU) gave much more attention to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region, especially to Tunisia, where the democratic transition was more likely to bring about hope, as its peaceful political advances stand in contrast to most of the Arab Region's tragic chaos. Taking into consideration its unique experience and geopolitical position, the EU has had a strong belief that Tunisia needs assistance to overcome its critical economic problems and social unrest.

- IV534 - July 2019 / Europe, Tunisia, European Union

This contribution has been published in the July-August issue of Sozialistische Zeitung (SoZ) which is published since 1986 in Cologne.*

- IV534 - July 2019 / Marxism

We can't win socialism without workers fighting back. The rank-and-file strategy gives us the tools to do that. Socialism's recent resurgence has revived core debates about socialist politics and strategy: what do socialists want, and how do we get there? Whether figuring out how socialists should relate to electoral politics, how and to what extent socialists should push for reforms from the state, how socialists should engage with broader social movements, or simply what it means (...) - IV534 - July 2019 / Trade unions

The U.S. trade war with China and Washington's prolonged standoff with Russia — over matters from Iran to Venezuela to arms control — are increasingly driving Moscow and Beijing toward each other. Chinese President Xi Jinping is attending the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum June 6-7, but not before meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow earlier in the week. China and Russia have signed economic deals that span everything from 5G networks to hydropower plant construction to establishing a joint research and technology innovation fund.

- IV534 - July 2019 / USA, Russia, China

The closest thing to a Hitler rally most people alive today will have seen was Donald Trump's audience in Greenville chanting “send her back”. An enraged white mob was pouring out its racist fury against Ilhan Omar and Trump was basking in their mutual hatred of her. These people are the heirs of southern lynch mobs and church bombers. It's virtually inevitable that before the year is over some Trump supporters will start murdering migrants and black Americans. That is the logic of his choice of rhetoric.

- IV534 - July 2019 / USA, Britain, Racism

An international solidarity campaign has been ongoing since late May, following the bloody repression of the Pashtun Tahfuz Movement (PTM) by the Pakistani army. It is important to continue this, as the stakes are so high.

- IV534 - July 2019 / Pakistan

What does it require to get management to take a sexual harassment complaint seriously? If the recent National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (Numsa) strike is anything to go by, it takes about 290 striking workers remaining underground without food and clean water for nine days.

- IV534 - July 2019 / Women, South Africa

A correspondent of Europe Solidaire Sans Frontière (ESSF) spoke to Au Loong-Yu on the situation in Hong Kong.

- IV534 - July 2019 / China, Youth and student movements, Hong Kong

Eighty thousand public school educators in Chile are out on an indefinite strike. Their target is the country's neoliberal education system — a cruel legacy of the Pinochet dictatorship that overthrew Salvador Allende.

- IV534 - July 2019 / Chile

“I've travelled 24 hours, from Manila to Rio, to be here, yet politically I feel I haven't left home.” Walden Bello, leading light of the ‘anti-globalisation movement' and former Filipino congressman reflected on the rise of authoritarian right-wing ‘strong men' from the Philippines to Brazil. I joined him in Brazil to assess what has changed in the 20 years since mass protests in Seattle brought the World Trade Organisation to a standstill, and announced the birth of a new, international movement to the world. “But 20 years ago, Seattle was an exclusively left-wing affair” Bello continued. “We need to understand how the far right managed to eat our lunch.”

- IV534 - July 2019 / Brazil, Britain, Philippines, India, Far Right, United Arab Emirates

The New York Times recently profiled life on the Amazon shop floor — chaperoned by Amazon management. Perhaps not shockingly, the result was a fawning portrait of work at Amazon that only a boss could love.

- IV534 - July 2019 / USA

Public debate about gangs doesn't really grapple with why ganging practices and cultures have been a part of the fabric of South African society, at least since the union of 1910.

- IV534 - July 2019 / South Africa

Let's build on all the new elements and openings created by the Sudanese and Algerian uprisings. Let's create regional and international links on this basis to change the course of events in the Middle East and North Africa from endless wars, authoritarian capitalism, religious fundamentalism and imperialism to an emancipatory direction.

- IV534 - July 2019 / Algeria, Sudan

The outcome of the 7 July legislative elections has brought a surprise, which the French media had not foreseen. Certainly, the right-wing New Democracy (ND) party has won a big victory - about 2,250,000 votes and 39.85 per cent (1,526,000 and 28.09 per cent in the September 2015 legislative elections; 1,873,000 and 33.12 per cent in the May 2019 European elections). With 158 seats and leading in most regions, it can form the new government on its own, that was its goal. It is a big success, based on strong support from the media linked to the big bosses, for the heir to the Mitsotakis dynasty.

- IV534 - July 2019 / Greece

On October 8, 2018 twin disasters were announced on opposite sides of the world:

• In Brazil, as votes were counted from the first round of presidential elections, Jair Bolsonaro won 46% of the vote — enough to make it clear he would probably cruise to a second-round victory three weeks later.

• In Incheon, South Korea, the Intergovern¬mental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) revealed the findings of its special report: limiting global warming to 1.5° C “would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society” within the current generation.

- IV534 - July 2019 / USA, Brazil, Ecology and the Environment

Somewhere in the depths of his prodigious ignorance, it evidently dawned on Donald Trump that his national security advisor and the Secretary of State are pushing the United States toward war with Iran. That's exactly the kind of ruinous conflict that Trump said he'd avoid when he became President — but on an even larger scale than his predecessors' disastrous adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan.

- IV534 - July 2019 / Palestine, USA, China, Venezuela, Cuba, Israel, Iran

Recent uprisings in Sudan and Algeria have avoided mistakes of 2011.

- IV534 - July 2019 / Syria, Algeria, Libya, Arab Revolutions, Sudan