Social movements

Post-Bouteflika Algeria: For a Democratic Transition

6 July 2019 - by Jérôme Duval

In Algeria, the slogan Yatnahaw ga’, “that they all blow off”, sums up the widely shared popular will to put an end to the “Bouteflika system”. It is a question of setting in motion a process of transition to a Second Republic. In homage to Ramzi Yettou, a victim of repression who died at the age (...)
Chase those crazy baldheads out of town: Resisting the rise of authoritarianism in occupied Haiti

12 June 2019 - by Kolektif Anakawona

Editorial Statement: As protesters prepare for another manifestation on Sunday, June 9, LeftEast publishes this piece on the current events in Haiti by the Anakawona Collective in cooperation with Commune. “To change things, we need to be outraged./ If we are outraged, we will organize./ If we (...)
The Sudanese revolution is our honour! Down with the Transitional Military Council!

6 June 2019 - by CADTM International

Since mid-December 2018, Sudan has been going through a major popular uprising. The social explosion has been driven by poverty, precarious living conditions and unemployment (which strongly affects young people, as elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa). It was triggered by the record (...)
Call for mobilization to defend our alternatives against the G7

6 June 2019 - by Alternatives G7

France is the host country of the next G7 meeting to be held in Biarritz from 24 to 26 August 2019. For decades, the G7 has played the role of an economic and financial directorate alongside the IMF, the WTO and the World Bank. Today, it is the space where seven of the world’s greatest (...)
Welcome to the new Algerian revolution: an interview with Hamza Hamouchene

22 April 2019 - by Hamza Hamouchene

In 2011, a wave of revolutionary struggle swept the Middle East and North Africa, often bringing down dictatorships that had governed for decades. Millions protested on the streets, occupied public spaces and demanded “bread, freedom and social justice”. Having broken through the fear produced by (...)
Algeria in revolt: “We woke up and you will pay!”

9 April 2019 - by Hamza Hamouchene

The abdication of President Bouteflika is a historic victory for the Algerian people — but the struggle for a true democratic transition is far from over. What is happening in Algeria is truly historic. The people won the first battle in their struggle to radically overhaul the system. (...)
Socialise Housing across Europe!

5 April 2019 - by Collective

Tomorrow, Saturday 6 April, many actions will take place across Europe to cry out loudly that it is time to stop the financialisation of housing and to defend the right to decent housing for all. CADTM supports these actions and signed this call made by several European associations (Portugal, (...)
“We will not be silenced” – Women’s stories from the frontline of Sudan’s revolution must be told

25 March 2019 - by Sondos Al Ali, Nazik Awad

Women are leading Sudan’s revolt against religious fundamentalism. As in Egypt and Saudi Arabia they face a violent backlash. But they must win. Sudanese women are fighting back against the Islamist state of Sudan after 30 years of oppression and humiliation. Major hikes in basic living (...)
The “Hirak” Movement in Algeria Against Bouteflika’s “Mandate of Shame”

8 March 2019 - by Jérôme Duval

Announced as a candidate for a fifth term, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who celebrated his 82nd birthday on Saturday, 2nd March has been hospitalised in a clinic in Switzerland since Sunday, 24th February. The Algerian head of state, who could not have been quieter since he fell (...)
Rage and Liberation. Bulgarian women against violence

11 February 2019 - by LevFem

March 8th – The Weekly Striker n. 1 : Rage and Liberation. Bulgarian women against violence For the third year, the global women’s strike is landing on dozens of countries on the 8th of march. The unexpected and enduring strength of this movement is testified by the tremendous circulation of (...)
The Sudan uprising: “This is a people’s revolution”

1 February 2019 - by Mohammed Elnaiem

In Sudan, a multifaceted civil opposition is posing a serious threat to the continued existence of Bashir’s dictatorial regime after weeks of protests. If a hospital is not a sanctuary for an injured person, what is? And what level of hatred, what kind of viciousness can be satisfied by the (...)
In Zimbabwe, capitalist crisis + ultra-neoliberal policy = “Mugabesque” authoritarianism

28 January 2019 - by Patrick Bond

Once again, a formidable burst of state brutality against Zimbabwe’s citizenry has left at least a dozen corpses, scores of serious injuries, mass arrests, Internet suspension and a furious citizenry. The 14-17 January nationwide protests were called by trade unions against an unprecedented fuel (...)
Crackdown on the French Yellow Vest Movement: an Undeclared State of Emergency

21 January 2019 - by Jérôme Duval

According to Vincent Brengarth, a lawyer at the Paris Bar, in recent years we have been witnessing a disturbing drift in police repression in France, more specifically since November 2015 when the state of emergency was pronounced and extended several times, before being integrated into common (...)
Alliance statement: Solidarity with the popular uprising in Sudan

14 January 2019 - by Alliance of Middle Eastern Socialists

We the Alliance of Middle East Socialists support the ongoing uprising which erupted across Sudan starting December 19th, 2018. The protests were set off by the lifting of subsidies on bread, wheat, and electricity as well as spiking inflation. The United Nations Development Program has (...)
Adam Smith and the Yellow Vest Movement

23 December 2018 - by Eric Toussaint

It is sad to see how completely misrepresented Adam Smith (1723-1790) is when pundits call upon him to vindicate neoliberalism and the status quo. It seems many have not really bothered to read his works. Some passages in Adam Smith’s major work, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the (...)
Macron’s Announcements: Smoking to preserve tax injustice and gifts to the rich

13 December 2018 - by Attac France

While the whole country has a strong desire for more social and fiscal justice, Emmanuel Macron has finally spoken out, after three weeks of silence, but refuses to change course. Behind some “social” measures that hide a weakening of social protection and the refusal of a general increase in (...)
Against the repression of social movements in Greece – an international call

11 December 2018 - by Collective

One of the myths spread by the Greek government and its supporters abroad is that, unlike its predecessors, it does not resort to repression in the face of opposition and resistance to its policies. It is true that the Syriza government has never had to deal with mass mobilizations comparable (...)
Gilets jaunes (yellow vests): learning from history and acting now

11 December 2018 - by Eric Toussaint

Some consider that if you are involved in a movement against a tax (supposed, in theory at least, to redistribute wealth) rather than for higher wages, say (in the broad sense, including social security), you are part of a right-wing movement. This is not so: many revolutionary movements (...)
We denounce the ideological persecution and the attempt to intimidate us

16 November 2018 - by ATTAC/CADTM Argentina

From ATTAC Argentina, we tell them “you will not be able to INTIMIDATE us”. ATTAC is an organization known worldwide for its activism against tax havens and money laundering. It is absurd and disgusting that a government filled with crooks, who have accounts abroad, tries to stain an organization (...)
Stop the EU’s Services Notification Procedure - municipalities need democratic space to protect the interests of citizens!

15 November 2018 - by Collective

A coalition of more than 75 civil society groups, unions, mayors and progressive parties running major European cities has come out to oppose a controversial proposed EU directive that has been pushed by business lobbies and would create major new obstacles for progressive municipal policies (...)
We denounce the government’s cyber-espionage of Argentinian social movements. Spying is illegal!

12 November 2018 - by ATTAC/CADTM Argentina

From ATTAC Argentina, we denounce the “cyber-espionage” put in place by the Argentinian government against the social organizations which are members of the Confluence Fuera G20 / IMF (G20 and IMF – Out), as reported in several newspapers. We repudiate this action by the government, the Ministry (...)
#NotHim, not now, not ever Statement on the election of Jair Bolsonaro

31 October 2018 - by Attac Europe

To all those movements, activists and marginalised communities in Brazil who have woken up this morning to the nightmare of a Bolsonaro presidency, we send our solidarity and support. No kind of electoral mandate makes it acceptable or democratic to rise to power through the aggressive (...)
“What lasted for 3000 years has been destroyed in 30”: the struggle for food sovereignty in Tunisia

29 October 2018 - by Max Ajl

Today (16 October 2018) is the International Day of Action for Peoples’ Food Sovereignty, organised by La Via Campesina. In this article, Max Ajl reports from Tunisia on the struggles for food sovereignty there, and on what it means for the Global South. Gabès, the Tunisian South’s garden-city, (...)
Declaration of the Global Campaign for the closing of the 4^th session of the open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights

22 October 2018 - by Stop corporate impunity

Mr. President, The Global Campaign to reclaim peoples’ sovereignty, dismantle corporate power and stop impunity (Global Campaign), an international network of more than 250 members representing social movements and affected communities and organizations by the activities of the transnational (...)
Italy: RiMaflow, an exemplary workers’ struggle of the 21^st century

22 October 2018 - by Nadia De Mond

Repression fell on the RiMaflow factory, place of an emblematic fight. The president of the cooperative, Massimo Lettieri, was arrested and is still in detention, while the cooperative fights to survive. A call for solidarity has been launched. RiMaflow is located in the declining industrial (...)