The Fidel Castro I know

The Nobel Prize for Literature winner offers his observations of a good friend

by Gabriel García Márquez

Granma | August 30, 2019

Photo: Granma Archives

His devotion to words. His power of seduction. He looks for problems wherever they may be. The impetus of inspiration is characteristic of his style. Books reflect very well the breadth of his tastes. He quit smoking to have the moral authority to fight smoking. He likes to prepare cooking recipes with a kind of scientific fervor. He stays in excellent physical condition with several hours of daily workouts and frequent swimming. Invincible patience. Iron discipline. The power of his imagination prepares him for the unexpected. Learning to rest is as important as learning to work.

The U.S. government allocates millions of dollars to obstruct Cuban medical cooperation

Statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba

Granma | August 29, 2019

Photo: MINREX

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounces and strongly condemns the United States government’s recent aggression against Cuba through a USAID program to finance projects and seek information to discredit and sabotage Cuba’s international health care cooperation in dozens of countries, benefitting millions of people. This plan joins the disgraceful pressure exerted on several governments to hamper Cuban cooperation, and previous attempts with the same purpose such as the special “parole” program meant to rob human resources trained in Cuba.

Protests against Johnson’s ‘smash and grab’ coup to take place across Britain

by Peter Lazenby

Morning Star | August 29, 2019

PROTESTS are planned across Britain against Boris Johnson’s “smash and grab” coup in suspending Parliament.

More demonstrations are expected in major towns and cities after spontaneous protests were sparked by the PM’s prorogation announcement on Wednesday.

UK: Harness the power of the workers, urge trade unionists

by Marcus Barnett

Morning Star | August 29, 2019

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell

BORIS JOHNSON can be brought down by “harnessing the power” of a united working class, the leader of Britain’s Civil Service union has said, as shadow chancellor John McDonnell warns that the people will not tolerate the suspension of Parliament.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka hit out today at the “cabal of hard-right, free market fanatics” plotting for an election win to “wreak havoc on this country.”

Venezuelans Gather Eight Million Signatures Against US Blockade

teleSUR | September 01, 2019

The number of signatures against the U.S. blockade has been achieved in record time | Photo: AVN

The signing of the document is part, along with marches and protests, of the global ‘No More Trump’ campaign

At least eight million Venezuelans added their signatures to a document rejecting the U.S. blockade, which will be presented to the United Nations, according to official reports.

Fight Corruption, Stop Impunity New Plan for Mexican Govt: AMLO

teleSUR | September 01, 2019

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador delivers his first state of the union at National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, September 1, 2019. | Photo: Reuters

“If you ask me to express in one sentence what the new government’s plan is all about: end corruption and impunity,” AMLO said.

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, reiterated Sunday during the first official state of the union that the main plan for his government is to end corruption and impunity, two of the main wrongs that have affected the country in recent decades and undermined its economic development.

Immanuel Wallerstein, Anti-Capitalist Intellectual, Dies at 88

teleSUR | September 01, 2019

Wallerstein who was a renowned critic of capitalism and whose ideas were aimed at fighting for justice and change wrote dozens of books, papers, and commentaries.  | Photo: Economic Sociology

Wallerstein was a renowned critic of capitalism whose work was aimed at fighting for justice and change.

United States sociologist, economic-historian and world-system analyst Immanuel Wallerstein died Saturday at the age of 88.

Looking back to move forward: The first Pan-African Cultural Festival in Algeria, 1969

by Abayomi Azikiwe

Pambazuka News | August 31, 2019

Pan-African Cultural Festival

Five decades ago thousands gathered in Algiers to recommit to revolutionary transformation around the world.

Fifty years ago, this year from 21-31 July 1969 in the capital of Algeria, thousands of people gathered for a ground-breaking Pan-African Cultural Festival (PACF).

Official delegations were sent to the manifestation from over 30 independent and contested nations on the African continent. A strong contingent of artists, intellectuals, journalists and political activists from the United States were also in attendance.

The U.S. is trying to turn Hong Kong into a corporatized state

by Rainer Shea

Many protesters are being instructed to provoke harsh responses from the police, thereby providing more slanderous grist for the American propaganda mill which will then paint China as a repressive, anti-democratic power. The frequent use of American flags also indicates their ignorance and subjection to US manipulation.

I’m very grateful for the fact that my ideological development as a socialist has led me towards the principled anti-imperialist worldview which informs my opposition to the project for colonialist insurrection in Hong Kong. I could easily have gone in the opposite direction; for a while, I routinely sought out the authority of the World Socialist Website, the Trotskyist publication that’s given very sympathetic coverage to the anti-Beijing protesters. But my views on Hong Kong have developed the opposite way that the U.S. empire and its narrative enforcers in outlets like the WSWS have tried to steer me towards.

The fight against climate change is an anti-colonialist struggle

by Rainer Shea

With this month’s burning of the Amazon as a result of the actions of the fascist Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, the first world has gotten a glimpse of the horrors that the world’s poor and indigenous people have long been experiencing at the hands of capitalism and colonialism. Because the Amazon’s existence is crucial for preventing climate apocalypse, the world outside of the region’s indigenous community now feels threatened by the consequences of profit-motivated white supremacy.