On Sunday, Gustavo Petro became the first left-wing president in Colombian history. Here, Petro speaks about his dream of a new Colombia founded on principles of solidarity and human dignity.

Vijay Prashad | Anyone who stands for greater cooperation with China is vilified in the Western media as well as in Western-allied media from the Global South as an ‘agent’ of China or a promoter of ‘disinformation’. I responded to some of these allegations in South Africa’s The Sunday Times on 7 August 2022. The remainder of this newsletter reproduces that article.

In its first contested election in almost 10 years, Canada's largest private-sector union has elected Lana Payne as the new national president of Unifor. She is the first woman to hold the position.

Since August 2021, a wave of unionizations at Starbucks stores across the U.S. has caused many to wonder whether the labour movement is taking off. Prompted largely by the pandemic and driven by local organizing, unionization has brought Starbucks workers increased wages, better benefits, and greater protection. Despite significant pushback from the corporation, the unlikely yet sweeping success of the Starbucks unions proves what strong movements can do.

On August 5, the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) held its second Working Class Summit. This was the first gathering since July 2018, and since the COVID-19 pandemic, economic instability, and continued government incompetence and political incoherence has made things worse. Inequality, job loss, and social polarization are all heightened. The first summit’s declaration called for a mobilization of workers in opposition to the “crisis of late stage capitalism.” In this summit, SAFTU has called for a national strike across South Africa for August 24 against the rising costs of living, load shedding, more privatization of state assets, and the wider economic crisis.