Gerry Emmett writes on the history leading to the recent uprising in Puerto Rico, which forced governor Ricardo Rosselló to resign.
World in View
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.
World in View: U.S. prisoners strike
Prisoners in at least 17 U.S. states, and one Canadian prison, took part in a nationwide strike beginning Aug. 21, 2018. The strike presented a list of 10 demands that have been pushed into the national and international consciousness.
World in View: Europe in crisis: Swedish neo-Nazis rise
Europe is at a dangerous crossroads with the rise of Far Right parties rooted in racism and hatred of immigrants. In Sweden’s Sept. 9 elections, the Sweden Democrats, a party rooted in neo-Nazism, received 17.6% of the vote.
World in View: What’s next for Nicaragua?
July 24, 2018Nicaragua is in deep crisis. Almost 150 have been killed by government forces, and thousands injured. The Nicaraguan masses will need to create an emancipatory alternative.
World in View: Gaza, Israel and Trump
Since protests began on March 30, at least 135 Palestinians have been murdered by Israeli sharpshooters who targeted medical workers and youth.
World in View: Colombia’s election
The election of right-winger Iván Duque is a threat to the peace agreement that ended Colombia’s decades-long war between the government and the country’s largest guerrilla insurgency.
World in View: Reaction and racism in the ‘new’ Europe
Update on the reaction, racism and anti-immigrant and anti-refugee laws growing in Poland, Italy and Hungary.
World In View: Iran’s working class speaks from prison
May 9, 2018The pretenses of Iran’s greedy and murderous ruling class continue to be exposed by political prisoners like Esmail Abdi, teachers’ union activist, and Narges Mohammadi, engineer and women’s rights proponent.
World In View: Colombia Humana raises questions
Colombia Humana presidential candidate Gustavo Petro, a former M19 guerrilla, has caught the imagination of Indigenous people, Afrocolombians, and many other poor Colombians.
World In View: Gaza March of Return challenges Israel
The March of Return is a Palestinian national event—reaching toward a new politics that would transcend the failures both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.
World In View: Moishe Postone, 1942-2018
In Memoriam for Moishe Postone whose critique of anti-Semitism as a fetishized form of anticapitalism came alive for those struggling with the betrayal of the Syrian Revolution by many “Leftists.”
World In View: UK’s present racism
In April UK Prime Minister Theresa May and her Conservative government were forced to apologize for the racist persecution of Caribbean-born citizens.
World in View: Arctic ice meltoff
March 12, 2018Some climate scientists estimate that the Arctic may be ice-free in summer within a few decades. Nations are already assuming this will happen, as seen by their competition for mineral rights.
World in View: Reaction rises in Brazil and Costa Rica
Racist and homophobic politicians have moved from the fringes to contend for state power in Brazil. Fabricio Alvarado in Costa Rica and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil represent a further step down an anti-human path.
World in View: Libya and Italy chaos
On Feb. 7, 2018, many Libyans celebrated the seventh anniversary of the revolution that overthrew long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi. But the dictator’s toxic influence has outlived him.
World in View: Syria and International solidarity
As this is being written, Russian and Assad regime war planes continue to pound the working-class communities of East Ghouta. Every idea of human solidarity, every faith or philosophy, is being tested.
World in View: Visage of Hitler rises in Austria
February 2, 2018Far Right racist parties have continued to make inroads into mainstream politics. 40,000 people marched in Austria against the new governing coalition of the anti-immigrant Austrian People’s Party and the neo-Nazi Freedom Party.
World in View: Australia’s castaways
Since 2012 Australia has held around 2,000 refugees and asylum seekers in brutal detention camps. Afghans, Iranians, Iraqis, Uighurs, Rohingya and Kurds, thrown together, have been subjected to stress, violence, and rape.
World in View: Zimbabwe’s coup
One goal of the military coup of Nov. 24, 2017, that deposed Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe was to end a growing protest movement.
World in View: Another brutal winter of war in Yemen
Yemenis face another winter of war, hunger, disease, and the brunt of Saudi and Iranian imperial rivalry. Over half the population urgently needs humanitarian assistance.
World in View: Honduran election
The U.S.-supported right-wing Honduran president, Juan Orlando Hernandez, stole the Nov. 26, 2017, election. At least 31 people were killed by military police people after they took to the streets in response.
World in View: When war opens the door to famine
September 3, 2017A general view of the humanitarian crises caused by civil war in South Sudan, Yemen, Somalia and Nigeria.
World in View: European voters hold off fascism
June 30, 2017The recent elections in France and Britain have been a welcome setback for that fascist Right which saw Trump and Brexit as a cresting wave carrying them to state power.
World in View: Saudi threat to Qatar
Qatar isn’t Yemen, and the Saudis won’t attack it. Qatar will not accept the Saudi demands.
World in View: Nigerian girls freed
Following long negotiations, the fundamentalist cult Boko Haram released 82 Chibok schoolgirls it kidnapped in 2014, but questions and deep divisions in Nigerian society remain.
World in View: Venezuela crisis demands a new vision
Despite difficulties, there are tendencies within the Left in Venezuela and Latin American who are critical of Maduro and trying to work out support of the Venezuelan masses, along with opposition to neoliberalism and U.S. imperialism.
World in View: Colombian uprising
During years of peace negotiations between the government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, grassroots groups pushed for issues of racial and economic justice. With Colombia entering a new stage, the struggle continues.
World in View: Cuban Revolution’s dual heritage
January 30, 2017The 1959 Cuban Revolution represented a great divide in Latin America. But the grave contradictions in its aftermath leave a dual heritage that must be comprehended and overcome if we are to work out a truly emancipatory future for Latin America.
World in View: The past is prologue
The first mass Black protest meeting in the U.S. was held at Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church in Philadelphia, in January 1817—200 years ago.
World in View: Brazilians resist return to neoliberalism
Since a neoliberal legislative coup by the Brazilian Congress removed President Rousseff of the Workers’ Party from office, there has been a campaign to reverse many of the social gains implemented during the administrations of Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva and Rousseff.