More children in central Sahel will face severe hunger in June-August 2023: Survey

The number of hungry people in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso is projected to cross 7.5 million

Madhumita Paul

Down To Earth | March 17, 2023

 Photo: iStock

More than seven million children will suffer from severe hunger in central Sahel during the June-August 2023 lean season, according to a new joint survey by non-profit, Save the Children and other agencies in the region.

The number of hungry people in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso is projected to cross 7.5 million, being in the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) crisis level 3 or worse by mid-2023. 

That is a significant rise from the level of 5.3 million people between October-December 2022.

Children account for up to 50 per cent of the population in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, according to the United Nations population data. 

Rising Food, Rents, Energy Prices Threatened Rights Of People In UK, Says Human Rights Watch

Countercurrents | January 13, 2023

The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said: Rising food, rents, and energy prices, and inadequate social protections threatened the rights of people on the lowest incomes, including to food and housing.

The HRW has warned: The UK could become known as a “human rights abuser,” if it does not reverse a series of controversial laws.

The NGO criticized Britain’s treatment of illegal immigrants, protesters, welfare recipients, and ethnic minorities, among others.

The NGO’s World Report 2023 (https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2023/country-chapters/united-kingdom) said:

Argentina goalie says it’s us against the world

Morning Star | December 14, 2022

Argentina’s goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez (centre) with Cristian Romero (left) and (tight) Lionel Messi sing the national anthem prior to the World Cup semifinal match against Croatia

WHILE the rest of us may be rooting for old stager Lionel Messi and his Argentina supporting cast to win the trophy he deserves — a bit like an Oscar for lifetime achievement rather than for this year’s best performance — the Argentina camp are happy to build a different, more paranoid, narrative for the World Cup in Qatar: it’s us against the world.

Goalie Emiliano Martinez, the excellent backstop for Aston Villa who has become one of Messi’s co-stars during the tournament, was chosen to face the media today and he reflected the dressing-room line: Argentina’s “fighters” are ready for one last battle in their quest for glory at a World Cup where he believes “everyone wanted us to lose.”

Was Marilyn Monroe a communist?

IN DEFENSE OF COMMUNISM | October 19, 2022

At first sight the title’s question seems ridiculous: What does a Hollywood bombshell with a “ditzy blonde” persona have to do with communist ideology? But sixty years since her death, a controversial Netflix movie (“Blonde”) based on her life raises, once again, the issue of Marilyn Monroe’s socio-political views which the U.S. cinema industry fears to address.

Was Marilyn Monroe a communist-sympathizer? Did she have any close ties with Communist Party members? What were her views on the Soviet Union, on Fidel Castro’s Cuba and the People’s Republic of China? There isn’t a straightforward answer to these questions. Back in 2012, files that document the FBI’s close scrutiny on Monroe were released. 

Protests greet Hillary Clinton’s appointment as chancellor of Queen’s University

Morning Star | September 30, 2021

The former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton is installed as the chancellor of Queen’s University during a ceremony at the Belfast academic institution

QUEEN’S University in Belfast has come under fire for appointing former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton as its chancellor, with cries of “war criminal” heard at her inauguration.

Ms Clinton took to Twitter after Friday’s ceremony, writing: “Just call me Madam
Chancellor.”

“Butcher of Libya is actually much more fitting,” Lebanese political commentator Sarah Abdallah replied on Monday to her more than quarter of a million followers.

Jan Myrdal

PEOPLE 

Sumanta Banerjee

Frontier | Vol. 53, No. 28, Jan 10 – 16, 2021

I met Jan Myrdal for the first time in Delhi in 1980–through my friend Gautam Navlakha (who is now languishing in a jail in Maharashtra) , and the late C V Subba Rao (professor in a Delhi college, who led the civil liberties movement during the 1970-80 years in Delhi ). Both of us at that time were involved in the human rights movement through our organisation PUDR (People’s Union of Democratic Rights). Jan had come to India that year, with his daughter Eva, at the invitation of one of the then CPI (M-L) leader, Chandrapulla Reddy, to visit the villages in parts of Andhra Pradesh, claimed to be ‘liberated’ by the Maoists from the hold of the oppressive landlords. He roamed around those villages, found out for himself the facts, and later wrote the book: ‘India Awaits’ (1984). It exposed to the world the new experiments that were being carried out in the backwaters of India. During his stay in Delhi, we spent evenings having long discussions and debates over the future of the Left movement–usually at Gautam’s place in Greater Kailash.

2020: Unprecedented Struggles, Renewed Hope for Victories

PEOPLE’S STRUGGLES  

Peoples Dispatch | December 31, 2020

2020 brought unexpected and unforeseen challenges. It tore away the fantasies of the capitalist regimes who amid the worst global healthcare crisis in history, still put profits over people. People’s movements and socialist governments showed that a different world is possible, and that we must fight for it.

One Hundred Years of Indian Communism

COMMUNISM AND INDIA

Prabhat Patnaik

International Development Economics Associates | October 18, 2020

A theoretical analysis of the prevailing situation, from which the proletariat’s relationship with different segments of the bourgeoisie and the peasantry is derived, and with it the Communist Party’s tactics towards other political forces, is central to the Party’s praxis. A study of this praxis over the last one hundred years of the existence of communism in India, though highly instructive, is beyond my scope here. I shall be concerned only with some phases of this long history.

There is No Shortcut to an Ecosocialist Future

ECOSOCIALIST FUTURE

Voting for liberals won’t work. Nor will isolated actions by small groups. Building mass movements is hard work, but it is the only way to win

Fred Fuentes

Climate and Capitalism | October 21, 2020

Winning broad support for a radical challenge to the triple crisis requires patient work.

(Republished, with permission, from Australia’s ecosocialist newspaper, Green Left)

Faced with a global triple crisis — health, economic and climate — it is no wonder most people believe the world is heading in the wrong direction. But who people blame for this situation and their responses have varied.

Socialists believe the capitalist system is at the heart of these crises and that the solution lies in replacing it with a democratic socialist society.

Canda: Is Our Right to Peaceful Protest Disappearing?

Council of Canadians | January 25, 2020

Demonstrators hold signs to protest the construction of TransCanada’s Coastal GasLink through unceded Wet’suwet’en territory. (Photo: Unist’ot’en Camp/Facebook)

 

The right to protest is an important part of Canadian democracy and the right to free expression.

Section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the freedom of expression, freedom of association, and the freedom of peaceful assembly. Protests are a way for people to express themselves for or against decisions made by government or other powerful institutions. People have taken to the streets throughout history to stand up for what they believe in.