Africa

February 22, 2011 -- Solidarity rally in Sydney with the Libyan people in their struggle for democracy. Photo by Pip Hinman. See an article about this action here: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/46782.

Statement by the Socialist Alliance (Australia) in solidarity with the people's uprisings in Libya and the Arab world

February 26, 2011 -- The Socialist Alliance extends its full solidarity to the people of Libya now being brutally repressed for demanding an end to the corrupt and unjust regime of dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

February 19, 2011 -- With the help of Socialist Alliance members in the growing Sudanese community in Australia, Green Left Weekly -- Australia's leading socialist newspaper -- publishes a regular Arabic language supplement. The Flame covers news from the Arabic-speaking world as well as news and issues from within Australia. Editor-in-chief is Soubhi Iskander is a comrade who has endured years of imprisonment and torture at the hands of the repressive government in Sudan.

Italy' President Silvio Berlusconi and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

By Peter Boyle

Updated February 25, 2011 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal/Green Left Weekly -- On February 22, Muammar Gaddafi was boasting on state TV that the Libyan people were with him and that he was the Libyan revolution, even while his dwindling army of special guards and hired mercenaries attempted to drown a popular revolution in blood.

Civilians were strafed and bombed from helicopters and planes. Snipers with high-powered rifles fired into unarmed crowds. Two pilots flew their fighter jets to Malta rather than bomb their own people and another two are reported to have crashed their jets rather than attack civilians. Sections of the armed forces, several diplomats and a couple of ministers have abandoned the regime and, at the time of the writing, the east of Libya was in the hands of popular revolutionary committees.

Solidarity statement by the Socialist Party of Malaysia with the people's uprising in Libya and the rest of Arab world against authoritarian regimes

February 22, 2011 -- The Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) condemns the brutal repression committed by Muammar al-Gaddafi’s regime against its people who revolt against injustices and corruptions.

46 arrested activists charged with treason, tortured

February 25, 2011 -- It has now been confirmed that detained labour movement activist and leading member of the International Socialist Organization Zimbabwe Munyaradzi Gwisai (pictured) and 45 other activists detained by the Zimbabwe state on February 19 have been charged with treason. If found guilty of treason, the activists risk a sentence of death or life imprisonment. They are being tortured to extract bogus confessions. The arrests followed a raid on a closed meeting that was discussing the implications of the revolutions in the Arab world. Gwisai is director of the Labor Law Centre and former Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) MP.

By the 14th January Front*

February 14, 2011 -- The Tunisian revolution is the first of the 21st century. Its shock waves have shaken dictators and Western governments. But it has yet to overturn the ancien regime, and the neocolonial state apparatus that supports it. As an expression of popular unrest it has been fed by the anger of a diverse classes, at least until January 14, 2011. Since that date there has been increasing polarisation between the forces who back the revolution and those of the counterrevolution.

Those on the latter side are attempting to safeguard their constitution and its institutions. With the collaboration with liberal fringes of the democratic movement, Western agents, Islamists and the leftovers of the ancien regime, they are trying to stem the social movement. The provisional government of "national unity" is peopled by former members of Ben Ali’s power structure. This includes a prime minister (from 1999), Mohamed Ghannouchi, who was the architect of neoliberal policies dictated by imperialist financial bodies.

Since 2008, rising food prices have resulted in 40 mass riots throughout the globe and the United Nations reports that 37 countries currently face a food crisis.

By Billy Wharton

February 14, 2011 -- Socialist Webzine -- Hidden beneath the spectacular street battles that forced the Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak out of office was a trigger that exists in dozens of countries throughout the world – food. Or, more specifically, the lack of it. While commentators focus on the corruption of the dictatorship, or the viral effects of the Tunisian moment or the something akin to an Arab political awakening, the inability of the Egyptian regime to ensure a steady flow of food staples should be viewed as a critical factor driving this seemingly spontaneous movement for freedom.

February 18, 2011 – There has been much written in the main

By Fidel Castro Ruz

Anti-Mubarak graffitti on a tank.Tahrir Square.

Below is the editorial of the Sudanese Communist Party's newspaper Al Midan on the victory of the people's revolution in Egypt. This is a "rough translation" by Abohoraira Ali, from the original article in Arabic at http://www.midan.net/almidan/?p=21194.

Solidarity with the people's revolution in Egypt

February 13, 2011 -- Congratulations to the Egyptian people for their wonderful result in standing strong against the dictator Mubarak. We put our fists in the air in solidarity with the brave freedom fighters. They taught a big lesson to the security forces and police in the battles fought courageously by the people in Tahrir Square. Through the blood of martyrs, they shook the regime and forced Mubarak to step down.