Social movements

Armenia’s unfinished revolution

25 May 2018 - by Armen Abagyan

Bells of triumph are ringing in the streets of Yerevan following the deposition of now-former Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan. Ding-dong, the wicked witch is dead. The spectre of totalitarian rule and unbridled corruption enervating the already impoverished Armenian people is no more. Such is the (...)
The World Social Forum is dead! Long live the World Social Forum?

26 March 2018 - by Francine Mestrum

This was my conclusion, but it did not last for long, just the first days of the Forum. Today, I am not that sure anymore. Maybe we are stuck with the old apolitical forum and with a powerless International Council. What does this mean for the future? Salvador de Bahia in Brazil is a wonderful (...)
New Era in War on Workers: The Ramaphosa Presidency in South Africa

19 March 2018 - by Irvin Jim

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) views the appointment of Cyril Ramaphosa to the position of President of the Republic of South Africa, as a new era in the war against workers and the working class majority in the country. It is also important for us to state that we (...)
For our dead, not a minute of silence, but rather a whole life of struggle!

17 March 2018 - by World March of Women

The World March of Women expresses its sadness and deep indignation at the murder of Marielle Franco, a feminist militant and city councillor of PSOL - Partido Socialismo e Liberdade in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She was shot dead inside her car on Wednesday, March 14. In this moment (...)
International Day for Women’s Rights: Debt is not just a financial instrument, it is also a gendered tool

15 March 2018 - by Marie-Laure Coulmin Koutsaftis

Wherever austerity and structural adjustment policies are implemented allegedly to face a foreign debt, they prevent women’s empowerment and destroy women’s rights whereas actually women are the true creditors at both national and international levels. The #MeToo hashtag should not conceal the (...)
8M Manifesto: We become more when we are united. Together we are more

8 March 2018 - by La Huelga Feminista

Every March 8th we honour the women’s alliance to struggle for our conquered rights. In the past, It was because of many women fighting together that we succeeded and got some of the rights we have today. A long genealogy of activists, suffragettes and unionist women has fought before us. Among (...)
The Greek left and its “Macedonian” drift or how we open the door to the fascist menace!

6 March 2018 - by Yorgos Mitralias

So, it is a “distasteful surprise” that Thedorakis publicly rubs himself up against apologists for racism, anti-Semitism, anti- communism and the nightmare of “ethnic purity”? Undoubtedly distasteful, but not a surprise. And if the problem were only Mikis, it would not be much harm. However, since (...)
#Wethewomenjournalistsstop

5 March 2018 - by Feminist collective

We, the women journalists from dozens of media and communication agencies, press offices, and, in general, workers from media and journalism companies, support the feminist general strike that has been called for this coming March 8. In addition, we urge all our female co-workers to join the (...)
Women across the globe are planning to strike on March 8. Here’s why

3 March 2018 - by Cinzia Arruzza , Tithi Bhattacharya, Sarah Jaffe

We’re now into the second year of the Trump administration, and the last year has been filled with ups and downs, important victories, successful holding campaigns, and painful defeats. We’ve learned a lot, but there is always more to learn, more to be done. In this now-weekly series, we talk (...)
International Women’s Day Declaration, 2018

1 March 2018 - by World March of Women

On the 8th of March2018, International Women’s Day, we from the World March of Women, diverse women from all peoples, races and ages, come together once again to reaffirm that we will keep marching until we are all free from all the oppression from the patriarchal, capitalist and colonial (...)
Tunisia: protesting austerity, demanding sovereignty

26 February 2018 - by Hamza Hamouchene

The recent protests show that Tunisia is still a cauldron of popular resistance against neoliberal and neo-colonial attacks on the country’s sovereignty. Around 800 people were arrested, dozens were injured and at least one person was killed in a violent police crackdown on the protests that (...)
Tunisia: “The promised economic miracle never happened” – A continuation of the uprisings of 2011

30 January 2018 - by Gilbert Achcar

For the specialist of the Arab world Gilbert Achcar, the Tunisian revolt was “foreseeable”. And it is a continuation of the uprisings of 2011. Originally from Lebanon, which he left in 1983 for Paris, Berlin and now London, at the School of Oriental and African Studies, where he is professor of (...)
Tunisia: January, the month of logical revolts

26 January 2018 - by Fausto Giudice

It was predictable, it was foreseen and it happened: Tunisia exploded from below on Monday, the 8th of January. In all parts of the country, marginalised youths attacked police stations, supermarkets, authorities – tax centres, municipalities, governorates - and blocked trains, and clashed with (...)
Labour strikes in Serbia: the Pit of Foreign Investment

22 January 2018 - by Aleksandar Matković

A number of strikes in recent months points to wrong policies for subsidizing private investment and curtailing labor rights. The entire economic politics of the Serbian Government is based on two assumptions, both of which are false. Firstly, that the existing labour market problems cannot be (...)
The Rage of the Poor in Iran

10 January 2018 - by Araz Bağban

The protests against the high cost of living in the cities of Khorasan province on December 28th soon spread to many cities of Iran incredibly quick and almost turned into a revolt within a week. The protests primarily targeted the high cost of living, financial difficulties and corruption. (...)
The IMF mission to Iran expressed enthusiastic support for elimination of the universal cash transfer

7 January 2018 - by Peter Bakvis

Some colleagues will have seen the communiqué issued by the ITUC on Thursday concerning the widespread protests in Iran, underscoring the “spiralling inflation and the continued decline in real incomes” in the country (see the full comuniqué below). Several media have similarly identified (...)
Final statement of the Peoples’ Summit “WTO Out, Building Sovereignty”

29 December 2017 - by Confluencia fuera OMC

The Peoples’ Summit “WTO Out, Building Sovereignty” gathered on December 11-13, 2017 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, against the XI Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in this city. The networks and trade unions, human rights, territorial, students, women, political, (...)
The Bamako Seminar, The CADTM network reinforces the struggle against illegitimate debt !

27 December 2017 - by Nathan Legrand, Fatima Zahra El Beghiti

The CADTM International network delegations met in Bamako, Mali, from 15 to 25 November 2017 to follow several political training and coordination activities. Indeed the third “women, debt and microcredit” seminar, the annual CADTM training session, was held at the same time and in the same (...)
Enough is Enough!

6 November 2017 - by Ende Gelände

Buir, Germany, November 5th 2017 Ende Gelände blocked the Hambach coal mine today, the German energy giant RWE had to stop three excavators and one conveyor belt. Ende Gelände action sends out powerful signal for an immediate exit from coal in the run-up to the 23rd UN climate summit. In the (...)
Morocco – Petition: Free the Hirak political prisoners

6 November 2017 - by Collective

The death of Mohcine Fikri - a fish vendor crushed in a garbage truck on October, 28th, 2016 while trying to retrieve his confiscated merchandise in Al Hoceima - has paved the way for the rise of ‘Hirak’, a popular movement of the Rif that fights for social justice and the right to equal (...)
The treaty on transnational corporations and human rights enters “negotiation mode”

2 November 2017 - by Stop corporate impunity

Geneva: November 1, 2017 – The Global Campaign welcomes the end of a successful week of intense work moving towards decisive negotiations on a binding treaty on transnational corporations (TNCs) and human rights, despite challenges from the EU with support from the US. More than 100 states and (...)
Binding treaty on transnational corporations and human rights: press conference and action at opening of the week of mobilization in Geneva

26 October 2017 - by Radio Mundo Real, Karin Nansen

Hundreds of social movements and organizations demanded on Monday in Geneva (Switzerland) that countries commit and make substantial advances in the process of UN negotiations towards a binding treaty on transnational corporations and human rights violations. The social groups, gathered in the (...)
Hirak: The new name of the Rif rebellion by Soraya El Kahlaoui

13 October 2017 - by Soraya El Kahlaui

This article was commissioned and paid by The Funambulist for its 13th issue (Sept-Oct. 2017) “Queers, Feminists & Interiors” as part of its guest columns section. We invite you to consider ordering the full issue in its digital or print+digital version. On October 28, 2016, fishmonger (...)
Catalonia’s Paradox – October 1 shook Catalonia and the Spanish state. What happens now?

10 October 2017 - by Josep Maria Antentas

October 1 has passed, closing a period of the shared history between Catalonia and the Spanish state and beginning an uncertain future. It was a day when all the tension building over the five-year independence process came to a head. The numbers speak volumes. 2,262,424 votes cast. With an (...)
For the right of peoples’ Self-Determination: support for Catalonia

2 October 2017 - by World March of Women

Catalan women and men have been building for years a democratic process to exercise their right to self-determination to which every people is entitled. In the last five or six years of this process social mobilizations have been massive, turning this legitimate claim into a sovereignty process (...)