Elections in Russia, 2018: Managed Democracy?

By David Mandel

March 25, 2018 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Socialist Project  — This article examines the bases of popular support for recently re-elected Russian president Vladimir Putin. Although this support is strenuously “cultivated” by the regime by various illicit means, it nevertheless has a genuine basis that needs to be understood by people on the left who are trying to develop an enlightened position in the escalating confrontation between the “West” and Russia.

Mexico: Left debates upcoming presidential elections
By Nevin Siders October 14, 2017 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — Indubitably Mexico’s present conjuncture imposes great challenges on political organization and creativity which test consistency for strugglers with ecosocialist and human rights principles.
'If we stop, the world stops': Behind the millions-strong women’s strike that shook the Spanish state
By Julian Coppens and Dick Nichols March 20, 2018&
‘Inadmissible evidence’ — the truth about Sri Lanka
March 17, 2018 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — In recent years many people have fled Sri Lanka by boat and sought political asylum in Australia. Most are members of the island's Tamil minority. They are survivors of the war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who fought for an independent Tamil state but were defeated in 2009. The Australian government has begun sending back asylum seekers to Sri Lanka, claiming that Sri Lanka is now peaceful and democratic. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has produced two “country reports” on Sri Lanka, which purport to show that it is now safe to send people back. A group of people who disagree with this conclusion came together and produced a counter-report (see below). This document was launched on March 3 in Melbourne. Michael Cooke, one of the authors of the counter-report, gave the following speech at the launch.
Labour should grasp the Brexit nettle

By Alan Davies

March 17, 2018 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Socialist Resistance  — Claims of ‘unity’ by Theresa May after her ‘keynote’ Mansion House Brexit speech on Friday March 2 had stopped by Sunday when Michael Heseltine had dismissed it as just more ‘phrases, generalisations and platitudes’.

Are new Catalan elections coming despite pro-independence majority?
By Dick Nichols March 16, 2018 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — After the December 21 Catalan election reconfirmed a majority for independence, it seemed only a matter of time before a new administration would be sworn in. More than two months later however, the spectre of a repeat election troubles the political landscape.
Three central issues facing the Catalan independence movement
Introduction and translation by Richard Fidler March 16, 2018 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Life on the Left — Although parties supporting Catalonia’s independence from the Spanish monarchy won a majority of deputies in the autonomous community’s December 21 election, they have been unable to elect a Generalitat, or government, due in part to internal disagreements but primarily to blockages by the Spanish government and its courts.

A major obstacle is the fact that prominent leaders of the pro-independence forces are either imprisoned — four, including ANC leader Jordi Sànchez and ERC leader Oriol Junqueras, facing their 150th night in jail — or in European exile: former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and four of his former ministers, as well as former CUP leader Anna Gabriel.

La política británica en transición: la austeridad, Brexit y el desafío Corbyn
Originally published in English on Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal
Rosa Luxemburg and the revolutionary party revisited
By Eric Blanc March 10, 2018 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from John Riddell's Marxist essays and commentary  — This article re-examines Rosa Luxemburg’s approach to the party question by analysing the overlooked experience of her political intervention and organisation in Poland. In particular, I challenge the myth that Rosa Luxemburg advocated a ‘party of the whole class’, ‘spontaneism’ or consistent party democracy. The perspectives and practices of her party – the  Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL) – demonstrate that there were no steady strategic differences between Luxemburg and V.I. Lenin on the role of a revolutionary party. In practice, the most consequential divergence between their parties was that the Bolsheviks, unlike the SDKPiL, became more effective in mass workers’ struggles during and following the 1905 revolution.
Spain’s ‘transition to democracy’ as a passive revolution
By Doug Enaa GreeneMarch 10, 2018 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — After decisively defeating the Second Spanish Republic in 1939, the triumphant dictatorship of Francisco Franco presided over a regime of unbridled state terror, concentration camps and murder. Resistance survived during the long years of repression, but Franco was never beaten. By the time of Franco's death in 1975, the bourgeoisie recognized that fundamental reform was needed to deal with a militant labor movement, the leftist opposition and a mounting economic crisis. To that end, the post-Franco government began a process of “liberalization.” However, the Spanish bourgeoisie would not have been able to make the transition from fascism to a constitutional monarchy without the willing collaboration of the left-wing parties who renounced any other alternative in the interests of “national reconciliation.”
It was always #MeToo: Korea’s fight against sexual violence
By Hwang Jeong-eun March 3, 2018 — Links International Journal of Socialist
David Harvey nie l'impérialisme
par John Smith, traduit de l'anglais par Gabriel Stollsteiner 2 février 2018 —