Solidarity 423, 10 November 2016

“Anti-imperialist”? Or just right-wing?

The Philippines’ new president, Rodrigo Duterte, announced in Beijing on 21 October: “I announce my separation from the United States, both in military but economics also”. “America has lost it... I realigned myself in your [China’s] ideological flow and maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world: China, Philippines and Russia”. The Philippines, constituted as a political unit by the Spanish Empire in the 16th century, were ceded to the USA as a colony after the Spanish-American war of 1898, and then won independence in 1946. The...

Refugee deaths hit record

According to the latest UNHCR report, 2016 has seen the largest number of refugee deaths in the Mediterranean — almost 3,800 so far. Last year, the figure was 3,771 for the whole year. While the walls and barbed wire fences of Europe and the cynical deal with Turkey to “house” refugees have resulted in a significant fall in the numbers attempting the Mediterranean crossing, the numbers of deaths has risen! It was one death among every 269 people crossing last year. It is now one death for every 88 people. For those heading to Italy, one person dies for every 47 arrivals. With regard to Italy...

Calais refugees: solidarity still vital

About a year ago, I went with a small convoy to the “Jungle” camp in Calais. It was a very moving experience; people wanted to talk and the stories they told of what had brought them to the Jungle were hard to hear. Seeing human beings living in such squalid conditions amidst the wealth of Europe made me very angry. I could see why the volunteers working at the camp were giving their time. It would be easy to become immersed in such work. You would ameliorate conditions for some, but the world of capitalism and border will keep producing refugees and economic migrants. Visiting the camp...

Nottingham protest against crackdown in Turkey

Hundreds marched through the centre of Nottingham on Friday 4 November to protest against the arrest of at least 12 MPs from the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP). The protestors marched to local BBC offices to try to get Kurds voice heard as political freedoms in Turkey are drastically curtailed including the crackdown on the press and social media. The editors and staff of Cumhuriyet, the main opposition newspaper in the country, were also recently arrested. HDP arrests came after a car bombing killed nine people in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish south east — this has been used as an...

Solidarity with water protectors!

On 27 October. police attacked Native American water protectors in Standing Rock, North Dakota, after they had moved their encampment to be directly in the path of Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) construction. The attack follows arrests of nearly 130 on 22-23 October who were charged with crimes including aggravated assault, participating in a riot and resisting arrest. Protectors set up barricades with cars and old tires to try and stop officials from moving in. The state’s protection of a private pipeline and dismissal of the Lakota people’s treaty rights recalls the way officials were more...

Daesh stages murderous fightback in Mosul

With the assault on Mosul advancing quickly, Daesh have mounted a last ditch fightback. Seven eastern districts of Mosul have been lost; fighters who remain are hiding amongst the civilian population and launching repeated smaller guerilla style attacks on the approaching troops. 34,000 people have now fled the city. Daesh leader and supposed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has called unremitting opposition to the army, militias and Kurdish forces that are retaking Mosul. A spokesman for the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service told Reuters: “Sometimes they climb to the rooftops of houses where...

Mass gathering of European neo-Nazis

On 15 October, more than 5,000 neo-Nazis from all over Europe met in Unterwasser, a small mountain village in eastern Switzerland. Even though the Swiss police is supposed to monitor the activities of far right groups, it was only when busloads of Nazi skinheads crossed the border that they became aware of the event. Completely unable to match the far right’s forces, they stood idly by and watched whilst hundreds of thousands of Euros were collected to finance neo-Nazi structures in Europe, but mainly in Germany. The Nazis had rented out a local sports hall under the guise of organising a...

Labour should vote against Article 50

On 5 November Jeremy Corbyn told the Sunday Mirror that Labour will vote in Parliament against triggering “Article 50” — the formal procedure for Britain quitting the EU — unless the Tory government agrees to Labour’s “Brexit bottom line”. That, he said, is mainly continued UK membership of the “single market”, within which customs duties and checks are abolished and trade regulations are uniform. Better if he had said that the bottom line is freedom of movement in Europe — the freedom of EU-origin workers in Britain to stay here securely, for their friends and compatriots to join them, and...

Trump win shows a sick system

Donald Trump has won the US Presidential election. He won by tapping into the reality of and the fear of poverty and failure among millions of working-class Americans. He won by exploiting the deep racial divisions that have blighted the US for centuries. He attacked all Hispanic workers when calling Mexicans criminals and rapists. By scapegoating Muslims. He won because millions of Americans wanted to revolt against the political establishment. But this man is not the “blue collar billionaire” that his supporters dubbed him. Just a billionaire and also part of, the nastiest part, of the...

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