The Americas

Darcus Howe on "The inevitable revolt"

Darcus Howe is an activist, one time British Black Panther and presenter of the Devil's Advocate series on television. He spoke to Mark Osborn about the panthers legacy and black politics in America. Download PDF

Chile: how the army killed reform

On 11 September 1973, a bloody military coup in Chile ousted the Popular Unity government of President Salvador Allende. Allende was killed defending the Presidential Palace during the coup. Workers in the factories attempted to defend themselves against the military attacks — but they were not sufficiently organised or sufficiently armed, to stop the onslaught. The military regime of General Pinochet which followed tortured and killed hundreds of thousands of working-class militants and political activists. Allende’s Popular Unity (UP) coalition government was elected in 1970. The two main...

Don't deport Fernanda Milan!

Fernanda Milan is a 22-year-old transgender woman and activist from Guatemala. In 2009, Fernanda fled persecution to seek safety and asylum in Denmark. Fernanda has now been told that Danish law does not recognise gender identity as a motive for persecution. This is despite a 2011 Directive of the European Parliament (2011/95/EU Article 10d), which specifically mentions gender identity as a reason for persecution. Fernanda has been informed she will be deported back to Guatemala on 17 September. During her detention in the Sandholmlejren Centre for asylum seekers, Fernanda suffered appalling...

Marley as artist and activist

Jade Baker looks at the life of Bob Marley and how it is portrayed in a new biopic of the musician, directed by Kevin MacDonald. Bob Marley was and remains one of the world’s most popular musicians. He was also an advocate for the rights of black people, spoke up against poverty and a fighter against western oppression. Bob Marley, the film, tells the story well. The film touches most poignantly on the conflict Marley’s mixed-race identity posed and the effect it had on his creative output and ideological outlook later on in life. It is also the story of the poverty-stricken and reggae-infused...

The Marxism of José Carlos Mariátegui

Latin America appears to have long been in the thrall of ‘barbaric’ Marxism: the stale Stalinism of the official Communist Parties, the populist Stalinism of the Castro current, the national reformism of the Sandinistas and more recently the Bonapartism of Chavistas. But there is a rich and...

Students of the world

After a strike by 2,000 workers and students at the American University in Cairo (AUC), which lasted more than a week, university bosses issued a statement on Monday 19 September in which they appeared to concede the strikers’ main demands. The strike had focused on winning a cap on fees, a reversal of a recent 9% fees hike, greater student representation in the running of the university and a series of workers’ demands including wage increases and a reduction in working hours. The AUC said: “The American University in Cairo reached an agreement today with the Independent Syndicate...

Latin American left: spotlight on Ecuador and Brazil

Following the attempted coup by a section of the police against the government of Rafael Correa in Ecuador, the Mexican section of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International (the Workers Revolutionary Party — PRT in Spanish) issued a statement of opposition through the FI’s International Viewpoint . It called for “demonstrations of support and solidarity […] in front of the Ecuadorean embassy in Mexico City”. The statement is also clear in rejecting the notion, asserted in some bourgeois media sources, that the upheaval was a legitimate protest by policeman around changes to pay and...

Merseyside TUC Chile solidarity

A joint trade union effort has been established to help the people of Chile after the earthquake which left over 700 dead and thousands homeless and destitute. Merseyside TUC has joined the Merseyside Chile Solidarity Campaign and the FBU (firefighters) in launching a massive aid programme to help the people of Chile to resolve and rebuild their lives and communities. A 44ft container, which has already been half filled, will be shipped in 20 days to a small town close to the quake's epicentre off the coast of Chile's second largest city, Concepcion. Dichato was almost completely flattened by...

Workers of the world: Zanon and other reports

Zanon victory; US union recognition law setback; Korean occupation ends; Chilean miners' strike Zanon victory Workers at the occupied Zanon ceramics factory in Neuqen, Argentina, have won a major legal victory. The provincial parliament has voted 26 to 9 to accept that the factory is expropriated and handed over to the workers’ co-operative to manage legally and indefinitely. The workers of the Zanon factory in Argentina occupied the factory in 2001, following a boss’s lock-out, and have run it since then under workers’ control. The workers renamed the factory FASINPAT (Factory without a Boss)...

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