We Are Cuba Viva, The Country That Insists On Resisting and Emerging Victorious

UNDAUNTED CUBA

Granma | January 22, 2021

Photo: Ismael Batista

The hostile foreign policies of outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump (2017-2021) included an unprecedented number of measures and actions against Cuba. All spheres of our society and the daily lives of citizens suffered the impact of this aggression, further aggravated by the pandemic.

During his four years in office, more than 240 measures were adopted, with special emphasis on creating obstacles to sources of hard currency income and disrupting our trade relations.

Cuba Readies 100 Million Doses of Anti-COVID Vaccine

CUBA’S COVID-19 VACCINE

Miguel Febles Hernández

Granma | January 22, 2021

Photo: ACN

The general director of the Finlay Vaccine Institute, Vicente Vérez Bencomo, announced, at a press conference with accredited foreign agencies in attendance, that Cuba is creating capacity to produce 100 million doses of the Soberana 02 injectable vaccine against COVID-19.

He reiterated that the objective is to satisfy the needs of the country and also those of other nations interested in acquiring the vaccine, which thus far include Vietnam, Iran, Venezuela, Pakistan and India. In the case of our country, he clarified, administration will be free of cost, with the intention of immunizing the entire population this year.

Lenin

REMEMBERING LENIN

Ernesto Estévez Rams

Granma | January 21, 2021

Photo: Pinterest

Describing the October Revolution in Russia, John Reed, in the prologue of his extraordinary book Ten Days that Shook the World, describes the forces vying for power, in the midst of a Revolution that had not yet managed to define its destiny.

On the one hand, what he calls the possessing classes who aspired to remove the Czar and replace him with a bourgeois power, in the style of the Western democracies of the United States and France; on the other, the Bolsheviks, who saw the Revolution as based on the class struggle and insisted on the necessity of the Soviets taking power.

What Will Be Different Under Joe Biden?

JOE BIDEN PRESIDENCY 

Peoples Dispatch | January 22, 2021

The end of the Trump-era is being hailed as the end of a dark age. What’s going to be different under Biden? Some of his executive orders do reverse some of the more contentious stances that Trump took. His cabinet nominations, however, suggest, no fundamental change will take place…

American Trust in The Mainstream Media Hits An All-Time Low

U.S. POLITICS AND SOCIETY

Countercurrents | January 22, 2021

New data from Edelman shows that American trust in media is at all-time low.

While 56% believe that journalists and reporters are purposely trying to mislead, 58% think news organizations are more interested in ideology than facts, and only 18% of Republicans trust the media versus 57% of Democrats.

As a whole, 46% of Americans of all political stripes say they trust the media.

China Sanctions Trump Administration Officials Including Pompeo, Bolton and Bannon

CHINA AND USA

Peoples Dispatch | January 21, 2021

(From left to right) Former US president Donald Trump with Mike Pompeo and John Bolton at a White House meeting in April 2019. (Photo: White House)

The government of China has issued sanctions against former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and 27 others from the administration of former US president Donald Trump. The sanctions were announced by the Chinese foreign ministry on Wednesday, January 20, as the Trump administration stepped down to make way for the new Joe Biden administration.

The sanctions named high-level officials and diplomats from the Trump administration, who China has charged of having “seriously violated China’s sovereignty” and being “mainly responsible for such US moves on China-related issues.”

Farm Law Talks: Made to ‘Wait 3 Hours by Centre,’ Farmers’ Stick to Repeal Demand in 11th Round

INDIAN FARMERS’ MOVEMENT 

The Wire | January 22, 2021

Farmers at Singhu border during their ongoing agitation against the new farm laws, in New Delhi, Friday, Jan. 22, 2021. Photo: PTI

New Delhi: The 11th round of meetings between the Centre and agitating farmers’ unions was held at the Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on Friday, a day after farmers’ unions said no to the Centre’s proposal to suspend the controversial farm laws for one and a half years.

The farmers’ unions officially communicated their decision to the Centre in the meeting.

Responding to the decision taken by the joint farmers’ front to stick to their demand of the repeal of laws and reject the Centre’s offer, the Centre reportedly told the farmers to reconsider their decision because it has exhausted all options for them.

Farmers’ Protests Reflect Existential Crisis of Indian Agriculture

FARMERS’ MOVEMENT IN INDIA

Colin Todhunter

Countercurrents | January 21, 2021

With over 800 million people, rural India is arguably the most interesting and complex place on the planet but is plagued by farmer suicides, child malnourishment, growing unemployment, increased informalisation, indebtedness and an overall collapse of agriculture.

Given that India is still an agrarian-based society, renowned journalist P Sainath says what is taking place can be described as a crisis of civilisation proportions and can be explained in just five words: hijack of agriculture by corporations. He notes the process by which it is being done in five words too: predatory commercialisation of the countryside. And another five words to describe the outcome: biggest displacement in our history.

Syria Demands Immediate Withdrawal of US Forces

RESISTING IMPERIALIST INTERVENTION 

Peoples Dispatch | January 21, 2021

Syria’s ambassador to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari, Credit: Syrian Arab News Agency

Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations and its deputy foreign minister, Bashar al-Jaafari, demanded the immediate withdrawal of all US troops from the country that are illegally occupying parts of Syrian territory and plundering the country’s oil and gas resources. He was speaking at a virtual conference of the UN Security Council on Wednesday, January 20.

Al-Jaafari also accused the US of aiding and supporting terrorist organizations such as ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra who still control parts of Syria’s Idlib province, in their attacks on the Syrian people. He alleged that occupation forces and terrorist groups act together to loot Syria’s economic resources or burn and plunder items when confronted, Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported.

Liberty from ‘All Forms of Bondage’: Subhas Chandra Bose the Marxist

NETAJI 

Sumeru Roy Chaudhury

The Wire | January 23, 2021

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Photo: Public domain image

In the year 1930, Subhas Chandra Bose composed a long, handwritten letter to the revolutionary leader Barindra Kumar Ghosh, a younger brother of Shri Aurobindo. In it, he set out his belief in class struggle:

“During all these years we have meant and explained by freedom, political freedom alone; but henceforth we have to declare that we do not want to liberate people merely from political bondage. We want to liberate them from all forms of bondage. The struggle for Independence has as its aim the removal of the triple bondage of political, economic and social oppression. When all shackles are removed, we can proceed to build a new society on the basis of communism. This principal aim of our freedom struggle is to build a free and classless society.”

These words should come as no surprise. Over the three decades of his political life, Bose consistently expressed his faith in socialism, not of the Fabian or Gandhian brand, but based on Marxist theory.