Sudan: Communists vow to bring down ‘dictatorial regime’ as nation wide bread protests continue

Morning Star | January 23, 2018

Protests at soaring bread prices are continuing in Sudan’s main cities, the communist party said last night as it vowed to bring down the country’s “dictatorial regime.”

The Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) political bureau said the protests against International Monetary Fund-pushed austerity measures were still going on despite the jailing of six of its leaders in the past two weeks.

SCP general secretary Muhammad Mukhtar al-Khatieb was arrested last Wednesday.

Brazil: Solidarity with former president Lula

Tomorrow Lula da Silva will be tried on appeal on trumped-up charges. MARIANA NOVIELLO explains why we should be supporting him

by Mariana Noviello

Morning Star | January 23, 2018

 

Former president of Brazil Lula da Silva

OVER 150,000 have signed the petition entitled “Elections without Lula is fraud,” among them legal professionals, academics, politicians, artists and union leaders across the world.

Tomorrow, the case against the former president of Brazil, Lula da Silva, will be tried on appeal.

A further attempt to divide Syria that will only lead to more death and suffering

TURKEY’S assault on the Syrian Kurdish community of Afrin continues.

Morning Star | January 23, 2018

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

TURKEY’S assault on the Syrian Kurdish community of Afrin continues. It represents a further and very dangerous escalation of military interventions by Nato powers in Syria.

Turkey’s claimed objective is to establish a 20-mile deep buffer zone along southern border with Syria.

“Struggle And Create: My Days With Com. Shankar Guha Niyogi” : Chapter 1- Niyogi And His Mission

by Dr Punyabrata Gun

Countercurrents.org | January 21, 2018

CHAPTER ONE  – NIYOGI AND HIS MISSION[1]

I used to say, somewhat in amusement and somewhat grievingly, “I belong to the B-team of Niyogi”.

The A-team consisted of Binayak da (Dr Binayak Sen)  and Ashish da (Dr Ashish Kumar Kundu). Saibal da (Dr Saibal Jana), Chanchala di ( Dr Chanchala Samajdar) and I used to manage the affairs of the hospital. Binayak da and Ashish da did the organizational work—Binayak da fully and Ashish da partly.

“Struggle And Create: My Days With Com. Shankar Guha Niyogi” – Chapter 2: The Story of Shaheed Hospital

by Dr Punyabrata Gun

Countercurrents.org  | January 23, 2018

Six prosperous doctors of different generations in my family inspired me to be a doctor. After I entered Medical College, the Medical College Democratic Students’ Association taught me to dream anew of being a very different kind of doctor…a doctor like Dr. Norman Bethune, like Dr. Dwarkanath Kotnis. But where would I go? There was no anti-Franco resistance in Spain or liberation struggle in China awaiting me. I wrote to a representative of the Sandinista government in Nicaragua expressing my wish to work with them, but there was no reply. In the end, three years after completing my medical education, I got the opportunity to work at Shaheed Hospital.

Death by Inequality: Poverty and Racism Are Killing America’s Children

by Richard Eskow

Campaign for America’s Future  | January 23, 2018

A new report concludes 600,000 children have died in the United States for no reason over a 50-year period. Thousands more will die this year, and next year, and the year after that. 600,000 is a lot of people. it’s more than the population of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Or Oakland, California. Or Minneapolis, Minnesota. Or Omaha, Miami, Atlanta, and Milwaukee.

An entire city of children has been lost.

This is the real “death tax.” It’s a tax on poverty, a tax on race, a tax on political powerlessness. And it’s paid with the lives of the innocent.

Inequality, Revolution, and Drones That Kill

by Paul Buchheit

Common Dreams | January 22, 2018

The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots has called for a ban on lethal autonomous weapons systems before they have the potential to proliferate. (Photo: Oli Scarff/Getty)

When average Americans were oppressed in the 18th century, they knew where the plutocrats lived, and they didn’t have military-style police forces holding them back. The Stamp Act drove the New York masses to ransack the houses of Governor Cadwallader Colden and the British major who was pointing army artillery toward the local town. Another mob looted the house of pro-English aristocrat Thomas Hutchinson, carrying away his fine furnishings and emptying his wine cellar in part of what the British called a “war of plunder” to take away the “distinction of rich and poor.”

U.S.: What Farmworkers Can Teach Hollywood About Ending Sexual Harassment

by  Greg Kaufmann

TalkPoverty.org | January 22, 2018

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Getty Images

What could Hollywood’s brightest stars learn from farmworkers in Florida’s tomato fields? When it comes to creating a workplace where women are empowered to report sexual harassment—and receive justice rather than retaliation when they do so—the farmworkers of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) offer a proven model. That the group created this solution in a town known less than a decade ago as “ground zero for modern slavery” makes it all the more remarkable and promising for other industries.

U.S.: Voter Suppression Laws a Concern in 2018, Though Many States Looking to Expand Access

Brennan Center for Justice | January 22, 2018

NEW YORK – A first look at voting laws introduced in state legislatures across the country finds that voter suppression efforts continue to be a concern at the outset of a pivotal election year. The Trump administration is promoting a similar agenda at the national level. At the same time, lawmakers are also making a significant push to expand access to the polls, according to a new analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.

In the first analysis of its kind in 2018, the Brennan Center’s Voting Laws Roundupshows that lawmakers in eight states have introduced at least 16 bills making it harder to vote, and 35 restrictive bills in 14 states have carried over from previous legislative sessions. If passed, the laws would increase restrictions on voter registration and limit early and absentee voting opportunities, among other changes.

José Martí, soul of the Cuban Revolution

by W.T. Whitney JR.

People’s World | January 22, 2018

Fidel Castro, center, at the May Day 1960 parade in Havana at the Jose Marti Monument. | AP

Cubans celebrate José Martí’s birthday every year, and preparations this year are elaborate. As before, there will be a torchlight parade in Havana to mark the 165th anniversary of his birth on January 28, 1853. Youth organizations are organizing tours of places throughout the island identified with Martí. Commemorative meetings and symposia are taking place, along with voluntary work projects and torchlight parades in other cities.