Over 1,351 Climate Strikes in 110 Countries Planned for Friday as Global Revolt Escalates

by Julia Conley

Common Dreams | May 21, 2019

Two months after what was reportedly the largest international climate demonstration ever, young people around the world are expected to make history again on Friday with a second global climate strike.

Sixteen-year-old Greta Thunberg, who began the global movement in which students around the world have walked out of their classrooms on a weekly basis since last fall to demand climate action, reported Tuesday that at least 1,351 separate strikes are now scheduled to take place all over the world on Friday.

Longread: Eyewitness in Venezuela – a 14-Year Perspective

by Peter Lackowski

Red Revolution Media | May 22, 2019

I was in Venezuela from April 26 to May 5, 2019. It was the fifth time I have been there in a span of 14 years, so I was able to put things I saw on this trip in that context.

My first visit was in 2005. I saw people begging, sleeping in doorways, street venders filling not just sidewalks, even whole streets in some areas.

But I also saw bundles of books being distributed house to house, following a campaign to teach everyone to read. I visited clinics in poor neighbourhoods staffed by Cuban medical personnel. I saw independent radio stations run by people in their communities, broadcasting local news, and providing a platform for commentary on current events. Stores had basic foods at affordable, subsidized prices. “Missions,” funded directly by oil revenues so as to bypass government ministries, were addressing social problems that bureaucracies from the pre-Chávez government failed to resolve.

‘We Will Not Be Complicit’: Protesting Assault on Yemen, Italian Dock Workers Refuse to Load Saudi Weapons Vessel

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

Common Dreams | May 21, 2019

Protesters and workers on strike prevent a Saudi ship Bahri Yanbu, that was prevented by French rights group ACAT from loading a weapons cargo at the French port of Le Havre due to concerns they might be used against civilians in Yemen, from loading cargo at the Port of Genoa, Italy May 20, 2019. (Photo: Massimo Pinca/Reuters)

In an act of defiance against Saudi Arabia’s brutal assault on Yemen—which is being carried out with the support of the United States and European nations—Italian union workers on Monday refused to load a Saudi vessel reportedly filled with weapons that could be used to fuel the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

“We will not be complicit in what is happening in Yemen,” union leaders said in a statement.

According to Reuters, dockworkers attempted to have the Saudi ship—officially called the the Bahri Yanbu—barred from entering the Port of Genoa.

Call for Solidarity Delegation to Caracas August-19 to 28 -2019

 REVOLUCIONALIMENTARIA | April 20, 2019

What’s going on right now in Venezuela? Come see for yourself by connecting with the grassroots movements at the heart of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution.

The Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle of New York, In partnership with Sustainable Agriculture of Louisville (SAL),US Food Sovereignty Alliance invites historians, artists, videographers, writers, political analysts, and other activists who sympathize with the Bolivarian Revolution to join a delegation to Caracas, Venezuela this coming August. Witness:

There’s Far More Diversity in Venezuela’s ‘Muzzled’ Media Than in US Corporate Press

by Lucas Koerner and Ricardo Vaz

FAIR | May 20, 2019

The international corporate media have long displayed a peculiar creativity with the facts in their Venezuela reporting, to the point that coverage of the nation’s crisis has become perhaps the world’s most lucrative fictional genre. Ciara Nugent’s recent piece for Time(4/16/19), headlined “‘Venezuelans Are Starving for Information’: The Battle to Get News in a Country in Chaos,” distinguished itself as a veritable masterpiece of this literary fad.

The Yellow Vests of France: Six Months of Struggle

by Richard Greeman

I am writing you from Montpellier, France, where I am a participant-observer in the Yellow Vest (Gilets jaunes) movement, which is still going strong after six months, despite a dearth of information in the international media.

But why should you take the time to learn more about the Yellow Vests? The answer is that France has for more than two centuries been the classic model for social innovation, and this unique, original social movement has enormous international significance. The Yellow Vests have already succeeded in shattering the capitalist myth of ‘representative democracy’ in the age of neoliberalism. Their uprising has unmasked the lies and violence of republican government, as well as the duplicity of representative institutions like political parties, bureaucratic unions, and the mainstream media.

Children in conflict zones and imperialism

by Farooque Chowdhury

Countercurrents | May 21, 2019

Children in conflict zones are one of the most affected “parties” in today’s world. They, especially children from the poor-households pay the most.

A recently released report – Stop the War on Children (2019) – by the Save the Children, UK highlights many facts related to the children in conflict zones. It’s a commendable effort in defense of children.

At least 100,000 infants die every year in ten conflict-zones, says report

Countercurrents | May 20, 2019

Every year in just ten conflict-affected countries at least 100,000 infants die who in the absence of conflict would survive, says a new report British charity Save the Children.

The study applied the findings in The Lancet’s study to the ten worst conflict-affected countries, which estimates that in the last five years alone more than 550,000 infants have died due to the reverberating impact of conflict. The total for children under five is 870,000.