South Africa: Since 1994, a massive wealth shift from already poor to the 'uber-rich'
By Dale T. McKinley, Johannesburg
Swaziland: South Africa's high commissioner rejects democratic transformation
The Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) is banned and its leaders were arrested and prevented from celebrating Workers' Day (May 1) this year.
France: Front de Gauche calls huge march against austerity, for democratic renewal
Jean-Luc Mélenchon addresses the May 5, 2013, mobilisation in Paris. Part 2 below.
By Dick Nichols
Latin America's Turbulent Transitions: The Future of Twenty-First Century Socialism
Winter Soldier reveals the chilling reality of the Vietnam War
By David T. Rowlands
May 10, 2013 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Between January 31 and February 2, 1971, over a hundred ex-US service personnel who had served in Vietnam between 1963 and 1970 gathered in Detroit for a three-day media conference. Organised by the activist group Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), the Winter Soldier Investigation (WSI) was intended to educate the American public about the scale of US atrocities in Vietnam, emphasising the direct relationship between such atrocities and official military policies.
Malaysia: 120,000 protest fraudulent election (+ photos)
Most wore black to mourn the BN's killing of democracy. Photo by Lee Yu Kyung.
By Peter Boyle, photos by Lee Yu Kyung
May 8, 2013 -- Green Left Weekly -- Up to 120,000 people packed and overflowed a large stadium in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur on May 8 to protest the fraudulent re-election of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) government on May 5. The crowd defied a police threat to arrest all who attended the opposition-called rally. The police did not dare confront the huge crowd but since the rally have called in 28 rally speakers for questioning.
The crowd also had to brave BN threats to provoke ethnic clashes by branding the stronger opposition vote a "Chinese tsunami" – a slander against the multi-ethnic opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR).
The opposition plans to hold more rallies in other cities in the following days.
South Africa’s ‘sub-imperial’ seductions
By Patrick Bond
What to do about the debt and the euro? A manifesto
Yet, these policies are rational from the point of view of the bourgeoisie. They are a brutal way -- a shock therapy -- for restoring the profits, for guaranteeing the financial rents and for implementing the neoliberal counter-reforms. What is going on is fundamentally the validation by the states of the financial claims on future production and GDP. That is why the crisis takes the form of a sovereign debt crisis.
Malaysia: For a united opposition to Barisan Nasional election fraud
Kuala Lumpur, May 8, 2013. Tens of thousands of Malaysians protest government's electoral fraud.
By S. Arutchelvan, secretary general, Parti Sosialis Malaysia
Hong Kong dockers claim victory after 40-day strike; Interview with dockers' leader
Workers and protesters holding a defaced portrait of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing march on May Day, May 1, 2013. Thousands of workers, local labour rights groups, socialists and striking dockworkers joined in. The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions said a record 5000 people took part in its march from Victoria Park to government headquarters before ending near tycoon Li Ka-shing’s Cheung Kong Center.
By Ellen David Friedman
May 7, 2013 -- Labor Notes -- The 40-day strike of more than 500 dockworkers at the Port of Hong Kong ended on May 6 with a settlement that included a 9.8 per cent wage increase, non-retaliation against strikers and a written agreement, all of which had been fiercely resisted by the four contractors targeted in the strike.
Strikers accepted the offer by a 90 per cent vote.