The victory of the Rejection option on the wording of the new Chilean Constitution has raised a number of questions for internationalists. How is it possible that the struggle for the new Constitution, that was demanded by the mass popular revolt of 2019 and which was followed by a resounding victory of almost 80% in the first plebiscite that opened the constitutional process, achieved only 38% popular approval a short time later?

What one year ago seemed like it would be a formality to ratify the constitutional process ended up being a crushing defeat for progressive Chilean forces. The Rechazo (reject) vote beat the Apruebo (approve) vote by nearly 25 percentage points in a referendum with mandatory voting—in contrast to recent elections—and record turnout. Rechazo groups celebrated the win against “revanchism” and “radical Octoberism” (a reference to the 2019 uprising) and a constitution they considered “refoundational” and contrary to “the soul of Chile” and “Chileans’ common sense.”

Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) has recently launched a campaign called ‘Pemulihan Nasional’, also known as a ‘National Rejuvenation’, aimed at providing necessary steps in order for Malaysia to rise out of the challenges brought forth by the COVID-19 pandemic. We have proposed 5 pillars for this campaign and the second pillar, which focuses on introducing a job guarantee scheme, will be elaborately broken down in this article.

Much of the knowledge, and especially that which comes from academia and media, is extremely problematic. It is often too empirical, lacking the ability to provide general explanations of phenomena under study.

How has the war (once again) made the Russian Communist Party a conservative force? Why should the left in Russia participate in municipal elections? Will mass political movements appear in Russia? Activist and professor of sociology Aleksandra Zapolski and co-founder of the “Nomination” platform and Moscow State University lecturer Mikhail Lobanov share their predictions ahead of the September elections.

Tara Bilous is a Ukrainian socialist, editor of the left-wing publication Commons: Journal of Social Criticism, and an activist with the organization Sotsyalnyi Rukh (“Social Movement”). After Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, Bilous signed up for the Territorial Defense Forces.

Vera Iastrebova, a Donetsk lawyer and labor movement activist, reported on social media on February 26 that mothers and wives in the Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” were desperately seeking ways to protect their menfolk from compulsory mobilization in the now-unfolding war.

This article was originally published in 2016, in a special issue of the journal International Critical Thought (vol. 6, no. 4) that addressed the topic of “Russia, Ukraine and Contemporary Imperialism”.

On 31 August 2022, news of Mikhail Gorbachev's death at age 91 filtered into Japan in the midst of sweltering heat and the spread of COVID-19. The Perestroika and Glasnost that Gorbachev carried out after 1985, when he became general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, are still praised as full-scale attempts to break away from Stalinism.

The war in Ukraine has provoked sharp differences among people on the left and peace activists. Federico Fuentes spoke to veteran British socialist and Anti*Capitalist Resistance member Phil Hearse about how these differences reflect deep underlying controversies about the world crisis.

Six months into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, where is the Ukrainian resistance at? What is the general mood in Ukraine regarding possible negotiations and NATO? And what has the war meant for progressive forces in the country? Speaking from Ukraine, Vladyslav Starodubtsev, an activist with democratic socialist organisation Sotsialnyi Rukh (Social Movement), discusses these issues with Federico Fuentes.