Millions to strike across India against Modi’s neoliberal policies

Morning Star | January 07, 2019

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi leaves 10 Downing Street, London, in April 2018

MILLIONS are set to walk out across India tomorrow as a two-day national strike begins against the neoliberal policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-wing regime.

Centre of Indian Trade Unions (Citu) general secretary Tapan Sen said: “Public-sector employees, unorganised sector workers, port and dock workers and bank and insurance employees are going to observe the nationwide protest against the growing economic crisis, price rises and acute unemployment.”

Cuba: José Ramón Fernández Álvarez dies

Granma | January 07, 2019

Photo: Granma archives

The Hero of the Republic of Cuba and retired Brigadier General, José Ramón Fernández Álvarez, passed away in the early hours of Sunday, January 6, at the age of 95.

Familiarly known as “El Gallego Fernández,” he was born November 4, 1923, in Santiago de Cuba. From a young age he participated in the revolutionary struggle against the Batista dictatorship, in conspiratorial movements with different military and political groups. He was imprisoned for almost three years on the Isle of Pines for these activities.

Africa in review 2018: Electoral politics, social stability and the need for genuine economic development

by Abayomi Azikiwe

Pambazuka News | January 03, 2019

From the Democratic Republic of Congo to Sudan the need for continental solutions is apparent.

Introduction

There is much to be learned from developments on the African continent in 2018 where the nation states and masses of people are continuing their quest for authentic national liberation and unity. This is a first in a series of articles which highlight aspects of events on the continent, which point to the necessity of building an independent existence for working class, peasantry and youth that can guarantee a prosperous future free of the legacy of slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism.

Iranian trade unionist demands debate over torture

Morning Star | January 07, 2019

IRANIAN trade unionist Esmail Bakhshi challenged a government official to a live televised debate over the use of physical and psychological torture in prisons yesterday.

In an Instagram post he addressed Iran’s Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi demanding to know why he was tortured “to the verge of death” after he was arrested for taking strike action at the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Factory.

Journalists gather in Turkey to remember colleague who was beaten to death

Morning Star | January 07, 2019

JOURNALISTS will gather in Turkey tomorrow to commemorate the anniversary of the death of Evrensel journalist Metin Goktepe, who was tortured and beaten to death by police officers in 1996.

The service at the Atisalani Esenler Kemer Cemetery will be attended by current Evrensel journalists, along with trade unions and other supporters.

Did US build Isis missiles that hit British soldiers in Syria?

by Steve Sweeney

Morning Star | January 07, 2019

Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army soldiers gather near the northern Syrian city of Manbij in December 2018

MISSILES used in an Isis attack in which two British soldiers were seriously injured in Syria yesterday may have been sold to the jihadists after being supplied by the United States to opposition groups.

The pair were hit in a missile attack launched on a Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) base in Deir Ezzor, northern Syria. A fighter from the largely Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) was killed in the blast.

South Africa: The ANC: The Story of a Liberation Movement That’s Lost Its Lustre

by Steven Friedman

FILE PHOTO: African National Congress suppoters chant slogans during ANC president Jacob Zuma’s election campaign in Atteridgeville a township located to the west of Pretoria, South Africa July 5, 2016. Credit: Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko

South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) celebrates its 107th birthday this year against a backdrop of an election campaign it’s likely to win handily – but which is likely to mask its longer-term decline.

January 8 is the day the ANC was founded. It observes it by issuing a statement compiled by its national executive committee which sets out its plans for the year. The statement, once the subject of endless analysis, is now often better at saying what the ANC would like to do than what it really will.

200 Years after his birth, Karl Marx lives on in the hills of Gorkhaland

groundxero | December 25, 2018

On 23rd December, Laali Guraas, a bi-monthly newsletter in Nepali language that is being published from the Darjeeling hills for the last 5 years, together with the Phulbari Sahitya Samiti, conducted a cultural festival “Srijana Utsav” to commemorate the 200th birth anniversary of Karl Marx. Several cultural, social and political organisations from the hills and Dooars, came together for the program that took place at the scenic Tribeni junction of Teesta and Rongit rivers, in the the Himalayan hills of Gorkhaland. The program that was centered mainly on the issues and struggles of tea garden workers in the region, was attended by workers from several tea gardens in the hills, including workers committees from the Peshok and Dhotre gardens. A GroundXero report.

How Critics of Trumps’ Syria Withdrawal Fueled the Rise of ISIS

by Max Blumenthal

President Donald Trump’s announcement of an imminent withdrawal of US troops from northeastern Syria summoned a predictable paroxysm of outrage from Washington’s foreign policy establishment. Former Secretary of State and self-described “hair icon” Hillary Clinton perfectly distilled the bipartisan freakout into a single tweet, accusing Trump of “isolationism” and “playing into Russia and Iran’s hands.”

U.K: Thousands of schools struggling financially as government fails to fulfil promises, NEU claims

by Marcus Barnett

Morning Star | January 07, 2019

THOUSANDS of schools are struggling financially because the government has failed to live up to funding promises that were already “woefully inadequate,” a teachers’ union claimed today.

Education ministers have not even matched past promises on funding that were already not good enough, new analysis by the National Education Union (NEU) shows.