It has been said, “The Revolution is an idea; you can’t kill an idea.” The thousands who gathered in Idlib city on March 15, the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the Syrian Revolution, lived that truth.
World in View
World in View: Academic tragedies
May 7, 2021A wildfire that broke out April 18, 2021, forced the evacuation of the University of Cape Town, South Africa’s campus and destroyed a major part of the library. The Jagger Reading Room housed thousands of historic African films, letters, and manuscripts, many relating to the anti-apartheid struggle. Also lost were thousands of indigenous artworks and over 85,000 books.
World in View: Africa in the crosshairs of world imperialism
The capitalist world remains in a deep crisis and now faces a crossroads. U.S., Chinese, and European imperialism all have aging populations and mounting debt . They need to find new sources of labor and natural resources to plunder. Africa, with the youngest population of any major region and abundant mineral wealth, is a target.
World in View: COVID-19 decimates India
A second wave of COVID-19 is devastating India. Each day over 300,000 new cases are reported, and over 3,000 people die. In the midst of this, the farmers’ protests continue as thousands remain camped outside Delhi. The Modi government has accused the camps of being “super-spreader” events, while farmers say the government is using the pandemic to demobilize its opponents.
World in View: Historic mass strike of India’s farmers
January 30, 2021An estimated 250 million Indian farmers have been on strike since last September in opposition to a series of new laws, proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
World in View: Iran: assassination, imperialism, ‘conspiracy’
Iranian nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated as his car convoy passed through the town of Absard on Nov. 27. No suspect was apprehended. Speculation fell on Israel, the U.S., and Iranian oppositionists.
World in View: EU contradictions
There is danger of neo-fascist parties gaining or taking control in several European countries including Germany, France, The Netherlands and Italy.
World in view: Massacre in Tigray
Thousands have died—including an undetermined number of civilians—and tens of thousands become refugees in the current conflict between Ethiopia’s central government and the regional government of Tigray. The central government of Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is being aided in its war by the Eritrean regime of long-time dictator Isaias Afwerki.
World in View: EU enables fascism
November 25, 2020The European Union has once more proved its feckless inability to halt the destruction of democracy by Hungary and Poland, who caused a crisis by vetoing the EU budget, needed to fund the bloc’s COVID-19 recovery plan.
World in View: ISIS in Mozambique
November 24, 2020In early November, terrorists linked to the “Islamic State,” beheaded up to 50 villagers, men and boys, in Mozambique’s northern province of Cabo Delgado. They are looking to exploit extensive energy resources, along with mineral wealth. High unemployment helps fuel the insurgency.
World in view: Belarus thaws in a world in flames
August 29, 2020President Alexander Lukashenko, “Europe’s last dictator,” has ruled Belarus for 26 years. His time may be up, as hundreds of thousands of protesters have filled the streets of the capital, Minsk.
World in View: World economy falls
August 28, 2020As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, for the first time on record all sections of the world economy are expected to contract in 2020.
World in View: Remembering ruth weiss (1928-2020)
One of the great originals, poet ruth weiss touched many bases, expressing the underlying humanism of a generation of great artists.
World in view, July-August 2020: COVID-19: U.S. nursing home genocide
July 1, 2020Residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities–0.6% of the population–have made up an estimated 43% of U.S. deaths from COVID-19. In any other situation these numbers would raise the specter of genocide.
World in view, July-August 2020: Syria’s problem is Assad, not sanctions
The lie of a Syrian “renaissance” has disappeared and discontent manifested even in regime-controlled areas. Assad blames U.S. sanctions, but the problem isn’t sanctions. It’s genocide.
World in view, July-August 2020: Asian brinksmanship
Two flashpoints in Asia between North and South Korea and between India and China erupted in threats and deadly clashes.
World in view, July-August 2020: Memmi’s century
The great Tunisian-Jewish French writer Albert Memmi passed away May 20. Memmi’s complex identity registered the tensions of his century.
World in view: In Syria, righteous hours expose evil years
March 17, 2020Free Syrians continue to fight the regime and Russia, and regime supporters keep pressing for genocide. They cannot coexist.
World in view: Notes on a pandemic
Every aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic can be expected to highlight the class nature of society. The more important thing to remember is human solidarity.
World in view: France, Ireland, & ‘the idea of Europe’
March 11, 2020With Brexit, the rise of the far right, Macron’s vacuous French nationalism, and Sinn Fein’s victory in Irish elections, the “idea of Europe” is under great strain.
World in view: South Africa cuts
March 6, 2020South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa plans to cut the wages of public sector workers. He has come to represent the contradictions of post-apartheid society.
World in View: Putin after Putin?
January 21, 2020Russian President Vladimir Putin is laying the groundwork for his own continued hold on state power.
World in View: Reactionary Brexit
The Dec. 12 general elections in Britain were a victory for world reaction, reinforcing the racist 2016 vote to leave the European Union.
World in View: Mass protest challenges India’s Modi
Massive protests in India met the Citizenship Amendment Act, which introduces religious qualifications for immigrants to become citizens and excludes Muslims.
World in View: Revolution and genocide in Idlib, Syria
If there are any two realities that absolutely compel human solidarity, it is the two that are manifest in Syria today—revolution, the human struggle for freedom against oppression—and genocide, the absolute negation of humanity.
World in View: Trump doctrine for a changed world
November 4, 2019Trump’s Oct. 23 speech on Syria lays out his counter-revolutionary vision of a changed world including his intention to reorient the U.S.’s PYD allies in line with world capitalism.
World in view: Pacific trafficking
Gerry Emmett denounces the assassination of U.S. human rights lawyer Rachelle Bergeron and its connection with human trafficking from the Pacific to U.S.
World in View: Ecuadorians resist austerity, repression
An overview of the 11 days of massive resistance in Ecuador.
World in View: Chile youth protests
An overview of the recent mass protests in Chile triggered by the increase in subway fares, symbolic of the growing inequality in Chilean society.
World in view: Puerto Ricans stand up for dignity
September 2, 2019Gerry Emmett writes on the history leading to the recent uprising in Puerto Rico, which forced governor Ricardo Rosselló to resign.
World in View: Sudan and Syria test revolutionaries
Gerry Emmett writes on the crossroads reached by the Sudanese Revolution, with the accord between the revolutionary Forces for Freedom and Change and the genocidal Transitional Military Council signed on Aug. 4. He sees a parallel between the Left’s response to the Sudanese Revolution and the Syrian Revolution.
World in View: The many implications of Jeffrey Epstein
Gerry Emmett dives into the Jeffrey Epstein affair, and sees a larger story about the decadent state of capitalist society.
World in View: A tale of two democracies in crisis
June 26, 2019Elections in India and the European Union show the deep crisis in bourgeois society.
Trump plays with fire in his ‘golden era’
Donald Trump’s threats to Iran analyzed in light of his use of capitalism’s lifeblood commodity, oil, and the continuity and discontinuity of U.S. imperialism.
Algerians in revolt
The creative presence of women, youth, workers and national minorities in the Algerian freedom movement promises much for the future.
World in View: Samir Flores murder
May 6, 2019Thousands marched in Mexico City, Feb. 22, to protest the murder of journalist and environmental activist Samir Flores Soberanes. He had been shot twice, execution style, on Feb. 20, at his home.
World in View: East Africa unity?
May 3, 2019Exploitative Chinese capital investment is what the East African Community economic zone has in common–a betrayal of their anthem “Jumiya Yetu,” which speaks of community.
World in View: Fascist massacre in New Zealand
Fascist mass murderer and terrorist who murdered New Zealand worshippers embodies today’s very dangerous ideological confusion, calling for genocide while also calling for workers’ rights and environmentalism.
World in View: European Union elections: mixed signals
Elections to the European Parliament will be held in late May and will be a measure of the strength of the far right, racist anti-immigrant parties that have been gaining political power on the continent.
World in View: Trump-Kim summit
March 13, 2019The second summit meeting between Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, in Hanoi on Feb. 27, ended without any new agreement. But it achieved what it aimed for as theater.
World in View: Haitians rise up against corruption
Haitians took to the streets Feb. 7 against a long-simmering background of anger at government corruption.
World in View: Netanyahu’s peril
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has allied with the fascist Jewish Strength party, disciples of Meir Kahane. This alliance has crossed a line for many former supporters.
World in View: Prisoners of Rukban
In the Rukban camp along the Jordan/Syria border, at least 41,000 displaced Syrians, including women and children, are suffering the ravages of winter weather, hunger, lack of medicine, and the terror of being threatened by the forces of the genocidal Bashar al-Assad regime.
World in View: Yemen torn by poverty, imperialism
January 28, 2019Yemen’s civil society organizations, representing the revolutionary hopes of 2011, have presented humane terms for a peace agreement. The state powers and non-state actors dependent upon them have their own ideas.
World in View: French ‘Yellow Vests’
The uprising of the gilets jaunes (Yellow Vests) against French President Emmanuel Macron embodies the unity and brutal disunity of our time.
World in View: Sudan rises against genocidal Bashir
Sudan’s genocidal President Omar al-Bashir is being challenged by nationwide protests. The Sudanese people’s struggle is humanity’s struggle.
World in View, November-December 2018: Counter-revolution redefines EU, OPEC
December 11, 2018In OPEC powers’ participation in the counter-revolutionary attacks on the revolutions in Syria and Yemen, and in the anti-immigrant reactionary reshaping of European politics, we see the next stage of bourgeois politics taking shape.
World in View, November-December 2018: Raed Fares
Raed Fares, revolutionary martyr of Kafranbel, Syria, is remembered after his assassination.
World in View: Israel’s reactionary nation-state law
September 26, 2018On July 18-19 the Israeli Knesset passed a law creating outrage among Arab and Druze citizens who see it as writing their second-class citizenship into law. It encourages the growth of illegal settlements on the West Bank and the continued dispossession of Palestinians.
World in View: Brazil museum burns
On Sept. 2, Brazil’s National Museum in Rio de Janeiro was devastated by fire after being subject to drastic budget cuts because of its location in the more working class North Zone, as opposed to the South Zone of Rio with its glitzy tourist beaches.