New Currency Arrives in Venezuela to Combat Financial ‘Mafias’

Telesur | 19 December, 2016

The Venezuelan government announced it has proof the U.S. Treasury Department has been responsible for the delays in the arrival of the new notes.

Venezuelan officials announced on Sunday the arrival of 13.5 million units of the new 500-bolivar bill, which the government has introduced as way to combat the “financial mafias” wreaking havoc on the country’s economy.

Jose Khan, vice president of the Central Bank of Venezuela, said that a plane had arrived at the Maiquetía (Simón Bolívar Internacional) Airport on Sunday from Sweden with 272 boxes of currency. He added that more than 60 million bills are still set to arrive by Dec. 27.

Argentine Transit Workers Strike, Grinding Buenos Aires to Halt

Telesur | 19 December, 2016

Public transit workers march to demand income tax reform, Dec. 19, 2016. | Photo: Twitter / @UPSA_Oficial

The income tax reform labor unions are demanding would impact more than 1.5 million workers in Argentina.

Public transit operators in Argentina launched a one-day national strike Monday morning, grinding commuting in the capital city Buenos Aires to a halt to demand changes in the income tax system in the face of what labor unions have criticized as slow progress toward reforms to benefit workers.

Unions blast latest anti-worker attack

by Conrad Landin 

Morning Star | 19 December, 2016

UNIONS slammed Britain’s media barons yesterday for starting yet another anti-union campaign at the very moment that rail workers are fighting a vital battle to protect passenger safety

Conductors on Southern Rail, which serves south London and south-east England, will down tools for 48 hours today in their latest protest against the deskilling of their jobs.

The RMT walkout follows a drivers’ strike last week over the same issue of driver-only train operation, which unions fear will lead to the second member of on-board staff being stripped out altogether.

IMF Chief Lagarde Found Guilty in French Tycoon Payout Trial

Telesur | 19 December, 2016

Judges found Lagarde acted with negligence when she was French finance minister in 2008. Her attorney plans to appeal the ruling.

“Art Should be in the Streets, and that’s Possible Thanks to the Revolution”

by Rachael Boothroyd Rojas and Pablo Kalaka

venezuelanalysis.com | 17 December, 2016

Artist and muralist Pablo “Kalaka” (Rachael Boothroyd Rojas/Venezuelanalysis.com).

Venezuelanalysis sat down with artist and muralist Pablo Kalaka to talk about his new exhibition “A Caribbean Question” in the National Museum of Contemporary Art, the changes in Venezuela’s art scene under Chavismo, along with the challenges and goals of revolutionary artists in Venezuela today.  

Fidel’s unwavering confidence in victory

by Darelia Díaz Borrero 

Granma | 19 December, 2016

Photo: Martínez Arias, Rafael

CINCO PALMAS, Granma.—Cinco Palmas once again celebrated its patriotism and commitment to the Revolution, precisely at this hallowed site where rebel troops led by Fidel and Raúl were reunited on December 18, 1956.

Left Right Left…

Left Politics in West Bengal: Examining The ‘Marxists’ and The ‘Maoists’ * By Partha Sarathi                      Publisher : Purbalok Publication PP 272; Rs 250.00

by Soumya Guhathakurta

Frontier | Vol. 49, No.23, Dec 11 – 17, 2016

The book* is the result of the author’s engagement with left politics in West Bengal since 1965-66. He was active with radical politics and he resigned from the “Maoist party” in 2001. The book is a quest to come to grips with the ideology, to chronicle the rise of the left in West Bengal and to analyse the Left’s performance in power. A close look is taken at the radicals as well as the left’s handling of gender and caste issues and the perpetual tension that exists between power, people and the party.