- India: Code Red for Workers
- More on Rearmament and Ukraine
- Women’s Fight in Iran
- LGBTQ Rage in Hungary, UK
- Mutual Aid in War Torn Sudan
- Māori Rights Victory in NZ
- Red Wave in Finland
- South Africa: Transformative Left Politics
- Portugal’s Carnation Revolution — 1975 and Today
- Can China Save the World?
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India: Code Red for Workers
T.K. Rajalakshmi / Frontline (Mumbai)
Ten central trade unions, including unions affiliated to the Congress, the Left parties, and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), have called for a strike on May 20 against the implementation of new labor codes. The unions will be joined by unorganised workers’ unions and employees’ federations.
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More on Rearmament and Ukraine
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Women’s Fight in Iran
Shabnam von Hein / Deutsche Welle (Berlin)
Despite repression, more and more women can be seen on the streets of major cities like Tehran and Mashhad without a headscarf, refusing to be told how to present themselves in public. “The ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ movement has transformed us.”
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LGBTQ Rage in Hungary, UK
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Mutual Aid in War Torn Sudan
Philip Kleinfeld / The New Humanitarian (Geneva)
The fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces – driven by an effort to crush Sudan’s revolution – has produced the world’s largest displacement crisis, uprooting over 12 million people. The backbone of relief efforts has been youth-driven and neighbourhood-based mutual aid groups known as emergency response rooms, which were set up at the outset of the war.
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Māori Rights Victory in NZ
Todd Symons / CNN (Atlanta)
New Zealand politicians broke out in song after striking down a right-wing-backed proposal that opponents feared would erode indigenous rights. Tens of thousands of people – predominantly from the Māori community – had already taken to the streets to oppose the bill, which sought to redefine the terms of a treaty that British colonialists signed more than 180 years ago.
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Red Wave in Finland
Mike Watson / Jacobin (Brooklyn)
Chair of the right-wing populist Finns Party Riikka Purra admitted defeat on results night, describing a “red wave” sweeping Finland. While the Social Democratic Party increased its percentage share, the democratic socialist Left Alliance and the Green League did not suffer as a result, as in previous elections.
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South Africa: Transformative Left Politics
Hein Marais / Africa is a Country (New York)
The latest book by Vishwas Satgar, one of South Africa’s leading figures on the left, is a trove for anyone seeking a clearer understanding of the country’s hobbled efforts to step free of its past and a beacon for seeing past the gloom. A Love Letter to the Many gathers three decades of writing and reflection.
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Portugal’s Carnation Revolution — 1975 and Today
Raquel Varela / Socialist Project (Toronto)
On April 25, 2024, the 50th anniversary of the crucial coup d’état by the Armed Forces Movement, 600 thousand people, dominated by workers, families, and young people, rallied to celebrate the ‘conquests of the Revolution’, the last genuinely socialist revolution in 20th-century Europe. It was one of the largest popular demonstrations the country has seen in 50 years.
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Can China Save the World?
- Maybe Lu Xinyu / Peoples Dispatch (New Delhi)
- Maybe Not Sean Kenji Starrs / Transnational Institute (Amsterdam)
