`Foro Social Latinamericano', Green Left Weekly's Spanish-language supplement, November 2010 issue
The tide of rebellion and revolution now sweeping Latin America is posing a serious challenge to imperialism’s brutal global rule. For anyone who wants an end to war, exploitation and oppression, Latin America’s struggles to create alternatives are crucially important.
Australia's leading socialist newspaper Green Left Weekly is strongly committed to supporting the growing “people’s power” movement in Latin America. We are proud of the fact that GLW is the only Australian newspaper to have a permanent bureau in Latin America, based in Caracas, Venezuela. Through our weekly articles on developments in the region, GLW strives to counter the corporate media’s many lies about Latin America’s revolutions, and to give a voice in English to the people’s movements for change.
Cubans discuss economic changes: `It is the people who will decide'
[For more analysis and discussion on the economic changes in Cuba, click HERE.]
November 19, 2010 -- Granma -- The 6th congress of the Communist Party of Cuba will take place in April 2011 and the only topic of discussion will be the analysis of the country's economic and social model. Prior to the congress, from December 2010 through February 2011, a process of popular debate will unfold based on a fundamental party document entitled "The Economic and Social Policy Development Project", which is already in the hands of the people, a sampling of whose opinions Granma offers.
`This is genuine socialist democracy'
France: Movement debates next steps in resistance to government attacks
By Chris Latham
November 14, 2010 -- Green Left Weekly -- President Nicolas Sarkozy enacted a new law on November 10 that increases the retirement age of French workers. The move came just days after more than a million workers and students mobilised across France against the law.
The November 6 protests were the eighth national strike and protests since September 7 against the bill — although it was the easily the smallest of the mobilisations.
The protest highlighted the depth of ongoing popular anger over the changes, which were pushed through parliament on October 27. However, the decline in the size of the protests reflects growing divisions in the movement over its direction now the law has been passed.
Sarkozy enacted the law just hours after it had been approved by the Constitutional Council. There had been hopes among some union leaders and left groups that the council would reject the bill.
Thailand: Red Shirts flood centre of Bangkok again
Ratchaprasong is a sea of Red Shirts again. Photos by Khun Kamberg CBN Press.
[Read more articles about Thailand HERE.]
By Peter Boyle, photos by CBN Press
November 19, 2010 – Thousands of supporters of the Thailand’s Red Shirt (the popular name for supporters of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship) movement once again turned Bangkok’s busy Ratchaprasong Intersection into a sea of red.They turned out in their thousands (see video of the crowd posted by Richard Barrow to Twitter here) to mark six months since the Thai military bloodily attacked and dispersed a mass protest camp that occupied the area in April and May this year. More than 90 people were killed, thousands injured and hundreds or protesters are still imprisoned.
Haiti: Sham `selection' serves interests of wealthy elite and foreign powers
By the Canada Haiti Action Network
November 12, 2010 -- The Canada Haiti Action Network (CHAN) is once again expressing its grave concerns about exclusionary elections in Haiti.[1] It joins with the many Haitians as well as human rights organisations in Haiti and abroad in condemning these elections as serving the interests of Haiti's wealthy elite and the foreign powers that have dominated Haiti's past and present.
Malaysia: `No one is indispensable we often hear, but for the PSM ... Bala is indispensable'
G. Balasundram.
By Rani Rasiah, Socialist Party of Malaysia deputy secretary general
Thailand: Red Shirts plan another major rally
November 14 commemoration of the assassination of rebel general Khattiya Sawatdipho (popularly known as Seh Daeng) at Lumpini Park, Bangkok. Photo by "Klaus Crimson" (reprinted with permission).
By Peter Boyle
November 18, 2010 -- Supporters of Thailand’s opposition Red Shirt movement are preparing another major mobilisation, on November 19, 2010, to commemorate six months since the military repression of their mass protest camp in Bangkok’s Ratchaprasong Intersection.
The Red Shirts have being holding several build-up actions around the country including mass bike rides of red-shirted supporters in several cities and towns. And on Sunday November 14 some 1500 Red Shirt supporters rallied in front of the Rama VI statue Bangkok’s Lumpini Park to mark the assassination of rebel general Khattiya Sawatdipho (popularly known as Seh Daeng) six months ago as he gave an interview to a New York Times journalist in the Red Shirts protest camp at Ratchaprasong.
New Zealand: The battle for Mana -- a new left votes
November 11, 2010 -- Matt McCarten’s Mana by-election campaign has taken up the issue of housing, identifying many empty state houses in the electorate, while families are homeless. Four campaigners were arrested after they took over an empty house.
By Joe Carolan
South Africa: Workers' factory takeover to defend jobs enters second month
November 17 video made by Workers' World Media, Cape Town.
Victor Serge: From the defeated past to the expectant future
By Suzi Weissman[1]
[This paper was presented at a conference in Nottingham, England, in 2009. It is posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with Suzi Weissman’s permission. See also "Victor Serge: `dishonest authoritarian', `anti-worker anarchist' or revolutionary Bolshevik?"]
The Crisis of the Democratic System: How to Overthrow the Dictatorshipis Giles Ji Ungpakorn’s latest book in Thai. Due to the level of repression in Thailand, it is produced as an e-book to be freely distributed. It is loosely based on his English book: Thailand’s Crisis and the fight for Democracy. Download วิกฤตการเมืองประชาธิปไตย เราจะโค่นอำมาตย์อย่างไร โดย ใจ อึ๊งภากรณ์ HERE.
Excerpts: