Category: International Relations
-
From Unorganized Street Protests to Organizing Unions
The Birth of a New Trade Union Movement in Hong Kong For several months in 2019, the world’s news media was front-paging the Hong Kong anti-extradition bill movement almost on a daily basis. However, toward the end of the year, with the street violence subsiding and the fierce battles at two universities ending in the defeat … Keep reading »
Trump’s Withdrawal From WHO: A Cover-Up for His Abject Failure on COVID-19
Gutting the WHO, the only instrument of global cooperation during a pandemic, is a road to disaster. Keep reading »
Laos Has Tackled COVID-19, But It Is Drowning in Debt to International Finance
On June 11, Laos (Lao People’s Democratic Republic) – a country of 7 million in Southeast Asia – said it had temporarily prevailed over COVID-19. Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith said that his country had “gained an important victory in the first campaign against this vicious enemy.” The first cases of COVID-19 detected in Laos were … Keep reading »
The Fortress World: After the Pandemic, Which Future?
We were already on the way to variations of Fortress World before COVID-19: right-wing, authoritarian/fascist regimes have been able to capture political power riding on the immiseration, anxieties, and frustration resulting from global capitalism and corporate globalization, while progressive political-societal forces have been unable to unite resistance and create spaces for alternative systems to flourish. … Keep reading »
France: In the Wake of Last Sunday’s ‘Green Wave’
On Sunday, the 28th of June, voters across France went to the polls to decide the municipal governments of 4,820 communes, including all of the country’s largest cities. The vote took place a record-breaking 100 days after the first round election, in which around 35,000 communes voted in the EU’s largest single municipal election. With … Keep reading »
Past Imperfect, Future Unknown: Europe After Brexit and the Crisis
Better Brexit than Jeremy Corbyn. This was probably the view of well-heeled Brits who would have rather remained in the EU. It was also the tenor of German media reporting on the elections to Britain’s lower-house of Parliament last November. In the run-up to the elections, Corbyn was almost continuously portrayed as a British version … Keep reading »
Meng, Huawei and Canadian Law: Soap, Rinse and Dry-Laundered
Prologue One of the graver risks for big-time criminals is that investigators will be able to identify them and their deeds by ‘following the money’. The criminals have to hide the proceeds of their crimes. This is done by depositing their monies into legitimate finance houses and businesses. It often requires some fancy book-keeping tricks … Keep reading »
The Coronavirus and the Class Character of German Politics
The Pope, former UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon, Madonna and many others are in agreement: we’re all in the same boat with regard to the ‘Corona crisis’. But as the saying goes, some are rowing while others steer the boat. This article looks at German policies during the crisis from the perspective of how they … Keep reading »
India’s Kerala Is Combating COVID-19 Through Participatory Governance
The effective handling of the COVID-19 pandemic by the left-ruled Indian state of Kerala has garnered widespread attention across the world. For a small state, successful control over the pandemic has to do with its people-centrist policies and participatory governance, in tandem with a collaborative public sector. Keep reading »
The Deadly Consequences of Neoliberalism: The Covid-19 Pandemic in Germany
The Covid-19 pandemic is relentlessly uncovering the weaknesses of the German healthcare system and the deadly consequences of neoliberal policies. Keep reading »
Finance Versus the People in the Era of the Pandemic
The current pandemic has brought to the fore, and with exceptional clarity, the fundamental contradiction underlying contemporary globalization, namely, the contradiction between the interests of finance and those of the people. Indeed this contradiction, which characterizes the era of globalization as a whole, has now come to a head. It is becoming clearly visible in … Keep reading »
Colombia, the Oligarchs and Washington
Last year, on November 21, the Colombian people took to the streets in massive numbers to reject the policies of the government led by President Iván Duque. In particular, the people called on the government to withdraw two policies. First, the people wanted the right-wing government of Duque to advance the 2016 peace accords between … Keep reading »