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Jacobin | Colombian elites are determined not to let leftist president Gustavo Petro serve out his full term. As top judicial officials target him and his cabinet, drug cartels and their links to the far right remain uninvestigated.
Jacobin | A new Pentagon policy bars the US Defense Department from working on films that cooperate with Chinese censorship demands. It’s a new front in the economic battle with China — and it ignores the Defense Department
The nations that brag the most about "democracy" routinely ignore the will of their people. Support for Israel's war crimes in Gaza is but one example of this phenomenon.
As the second anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war nears, public support for the war has reached an all-time low. Nonetheless, NATO is escalating tensions along Russia’s border with a four-month military exercise involving 90,000 troops from 32 countries. For the Global North, it is not the Ukrainian people’s wellbeing that matters but the geostrategic necessity to ‘weaken’ Russia and China. In reality, there will be no military triumph in Ukraine, which is why the war must end and negotiations commenced.
The widespread ownership of crypto currencies in countries like Turkey and Argentina has created the grounds for a very reactionary economic understanding among broad social segments, especially among young people.
Indonesia has got the classic formula for development in poor countries in the world of 21st century imperialism. Its economy is founded on basic commodity production that is highly capital intensive, severely damages the environment and does not provide many good jobs for the people, while the rich pay little tax and public services are limited. And the old Suharto elite remain in control.
Tribune | On the same day that climate scientists announced the world had breached the warming limit of 1.5 degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels, Starmer effectively announced that he had given up the fight against climate breakdown.
Vijay Prashad | CounterPunch | On February 9, 2024, Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his army would advance into Rafah, the last remaining city in Gaza not occupied by the Israelis. Most of the 2.3 million Palestinians who live in Gaza had fled to its southern border with Egypt after being told by the Israelis on October 13, 2023, that the north had to be abandoned and that the south would be a “safe zone.” As the Palestinians from the north, particularly from Gaza City, began their march south—often on foot—they were attacked by Israeli forces, who gave them no safe passage.
Jacobin | Each February 14, tourists flock to Terni, Italy, hometown of third-century martyr Saint Valentine. Yet Terni’s “city of love” identity is itself rather new, as politicians seek tourist dollars to replace its once-mighty steelworks.
CADTM | Series: 1944-2024, 80 years of interference from the World Bank and the IMF, that’s enough!
Canadian Dimension | Canadians are fed up with the private sector’s encroachment on health care as much as they are with backroom corporate deals that would negatively affect their rights as consumers. It took less than one week to kill what may have been an incredibly lucrative financial agreement. Progressives would be mindful to remember the power of sustained direct action and bad publicity.
Cory Doctorow: "So what's enshittification and why did it catch fire? It's my theory explaining how the internet was colonized by platforms, and why all those platforms are degrading so quickly and thoroughly, and why it matters – and what we can do about it."
Tricontinental | This February marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution, when Hugo Chávez took office in 1999. In 2024, Venezuela will hold its sixth general election since that time. Already the US has begun to delegitimise the vote and destabilise the country with the reimposition of sanctions. Such measures are illegal as they are imposed unilaterally, in contravention of the UN Charter. As one US official recently stated, Washington believes it is ‘the police of the world’.
Labor Notes | For decades, foreign-owned auto companies have flocked to the US South to exploit cheap, nonunion labor. It’s been a disaster for autoworkers and organized labor.
Prabhat Patnaik | There are well-known problems associated with the concept of gross domestic product as well as with its measurement.
CADTM | In July 2024, the World Bank and the IMF will be 80 years old. 80 years of financial neo-colonialism and the imposition of austerity policies in the name of debt repayment. 80 years is enough! The Bretton Woods institutions must be abolished and replaced by democratic institutions serving an ecological, feminist and anti-racist bifurcation. To mark these 80 years, we are republishing a series of articles every Wednesday until July, looking in detail at the history and damage caused by these two institutions.
Pakistan’s adults vote today but with no prospect of obtaining an end to the disaster that it is Pakistan capitalism and landlordism and its military rule.
People's World | Even as U.S. President Joe Biden declares Ukraine is a frontline democracy amidst its war with Russian invaders, Ukrainian unions would sharply differ with him.
Jacobin | Declining renewable energy prices have not led to a long-predicted renewables boom, because green energy still isn’t sufficiently profitable for private investors. Public investment and ownership is essential to driving a rapid green transition.
Geopolitical Economy Report | China is "the world's sole manufacturing superpower", an EU think tank says, making up 35% of global gross production, more than the 9 next largest manufacturers combined.