Tag: Revolution

Sudan’s Revolution Enters Its Second Phase: Disrupting The State

A few hours after the military coup in Sudan on 25 October 2021, its leader, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, appeared on television to announce the dissolution of the Sovereign Council, the governmental body composed of military and civilian representatives, which had been formed in the wake of the 2018 revolution. In a typical justification for coups in the country, Al-Burhan declared a state of emergency, describing the takeover as a “corrective step”.

The 2018 revolution was the third in Sudan’s modern history. They have all followed a pattern of ousting a dictator, followed by a transitional period, elections, and then a new military coup that once again interrupts the path towards democratic rule.

We Are Human, But In The Dark We Wish For Light

For over a decade, Alaa Abd el-Fattah has been in and out of Egypt’s prisons, never free of the harassment of the military state apparatus. In 2011, during the high point of the revolution, Alaa emerged as an important voice of his generation and since then has been a steady moral compass despite his country’s attempts to suffocate his voice. On 25 January 2014, to commemorate the third anniversary of the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak’s government, Alaa and the poet Ahmed Douma wrote a moving epistle from their dungeon in Tora Prison, Cairo. This prison, which houses Alaa and other political prisoners, is not far from the beautiful Nile and – depending on Cairo’s traffic – not too far from the Garden City office of Mada Masr, where the epistle was published.

Criminal Justice and Prisons Egypt Human Rights Revolution

60 Years After His Death, Fanon’s Ideas Remain The Weapons Of The Oppressed

Born and raised in what is still France’s Caribbean island colony of Martinique, Fanon was exposed to and shaped by the everyday class and race relations that characterized the island in the early 20th century. Forced to join a segregated column of Black troops, he fought in World War II. Upon continuing his studies in post-war France, he came face to face with the racism that dominates the European world. In his first book, Black Skin, White Masks (1952), Fanon reflects on coming of age in a world, where, “For the black man there is only one destiny. And it is white.” At the time of publication, Fanon had just turned 27.

In 1953, the Martiniquais psychiatrist was assigned to Algeria, where he treated patients who were severely traumatized by the violence French colonialism had spun into motion.

Colonialism Frantz Fanon Oppression Revolution

The World Stands With Cuba

The US-backed counter-revolutionary protests planned for November 15 in Cuba fell flat as the Caribbean country reopened its borders to tourists and its schools on the same day. The Cuban people blatantly rejected being a part of the US destabilization attempt and proved that they are more concerned about the reopening of the economy and the return to normalcy after a year and a half of restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A small number of people in a few cities took to the streets as a part of the “Civic March for Change”, called for by an NGO called Archipiélago in 10 cities across Cuba. Videos shared on social media showed that these “organized protests” were quickly overshadowed by pro-revolutionary supporters.

Cuba International Solidarity Revolution US Imperialism

Militant Solidarity With Cuba On Display In 80+ Cities Worldwide

Solidarity movements with Cuba, political parties, social groups, and Cuban emigrants in other countries celebrated on Monday the restart of the school year on the island, its economic-productive revival, and the Cuban people’s determination to defend their Revolution against destabilizing attempts plotted from the United States.

Cuban President, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, said through Twitter that “solidarity actions in more than 80 cities support the will of the Cuban people to build their own future.”

In an act in front of the headquarters of the Cuban diplomatic representation in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, political parties and social movements supported the reopening of activities and rejected the recent acts of interference by the White House.

Cuba International Solidarity Revolution US Imperialism

Cuban Intelligence Chief Says ‘US Government Preparing Final Blow’

Fabián Escalante helped establish Cuba’s state security services. He headed Cuba’s Department of State Security from 1976 to 1996, served as vice minister of the Interior Ministry, and after 1993 led the Cuban Security Studies Center. His views on threats from the U.S. government and on protecting Cuba’s Revolution carry weight.

Writing Sept. 23 on Cuba’s Pupila Insomne website, Escalante notes that “the internal counterrevolution is reorganizing its forces and is on the offensive.” They were “calling for a ‘national strike’ for October 11…to secure the ‘liberation of political prisoners.’” He insists that, afterwards, “a group of ‘activists,’ presumably counterrevolutionaries,” will be seeking authorization from Havana municipal authorities “for a peaceful march against ‘violence’ in November.”

Cuba Democracy Revolution US Imperialism

On Rituals And Revolutions In The Mines Of Bolivia

The small K’illi K’illi park sits at the top of one of the hillsides cradling the valley that is home to Bolivia’s administrative capital La Paz, providing a striking view of the city below. To the east lies Illimani, a towering, snow-covered mountain. Below and to the west is the tree-lined Plaza Murillo, home to the seat of government and the site of dozens of coups and countless protests. Across the valley, set on the sweeping plains of the altiplano, is El Alto, a booming home to millions of largely Aymara working-class people.

The hills hold the rich past of this city in the clouds. Indigenous rebel Túpac Katari launched crucial assaults on Spanish-controlled colonial La Paz from K’illi K’illi during his army’s 1781 siege. After his brutal quartering by the Spanish, Katari’s head was put on display on this same hill to terrorize his followers.

Bolivia culture Miners Revolution

The Sound Of His Approaching Step Wakes Me And I See My Land’s Deprivation

On Wednesday, 8 September, party workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India’s ruling political party, attacked three buildings in the Melarmath area of Agartala (Tripura). These attacks targeted the offices of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the communist newspaper Daily Deshar Katha, and two private media houses Pratibadi Kalam and PN-24. The violence took place in broad daylight as the police stood by and watched. Across Tripura, fifty-four other offices of the communists were attacked.

The Communist Party – CPI(M) – and the media houses had been critical of the BJP-led state government. The CPI(M) and other organisations took to the streets to protest a range of policies; these protests have drawn considerable support from the population.

India Political Violence Revolution Right wing extremism

My Friend Michael Ratner

Michael admired courageous people who live their lives without contradictions. John Brown was one such person. Brown and his band of 19 men captured the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia hoping to spark a slave uprising and arm themselves with the captured weapons. It didn’t work. Brown was surrounded, wounded, captured, tried for treason, and hanged.

Michael admired Vladimir Ilyich Lenin who helped lead the 1917 Russian Revolution which overthrew capitalism. Lenin had hoped that the revolution would spread to the rest of Europe and prevent a capitalist restoration. We know what happened in 1991.

Michael admired Che Guevara. Che lead a division of rebel troops in Cuba 1959. They captured a military supply train in the famous battle of Santa Clara. The island was cut in half and the Americans supported puppet dictator Fulgencio Batista fled to the Dominican Republic.

Legal Activism Legal System Michael Ratner Revolution

How Amilcar Cabral Shaped Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy

Amílcar L Cabral was born 12 September 1924 in Bafatá, Guinea-Bissau, one of Portugal’s African colonies. He was murdered on 20 January 1973 by fascist Portuguese assassins just months before the national liberation movement, in which he played a central role, won the independence of Guinea-Bissau.

Cabral and the other leaders of the movement understood that they were fighting in a larger anticolonial struggle and global class war and, as such, that their immediate enemies were not only the colonial governments of particular countries, but Portuguese colonialism in general. For 500 years, Portuguese colonialism was built upon the slave trade and the systematic pillaging of its African colonies: Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, São Tomé e Príncipe, Angola and Cape Verde.

Amilcar Cabral Brazil Paulo Freire Revolution

A Meeting With Historical Combatants

A few days ago I had the honor of participating in a meeting of historical combatants of the Southern Front, in a community in the department of Rivas. There is so much to tell that the words fail me and my heart trembles.

But really, slipping through the crowd at a meeting of historical fighters anywhere in Nicaragua, one makes a deep journey into the open veins of the people of Nicaragua and Our America. Because in Nicaragua even under the stones you find history, heroism, conviction and faith that the world can be a better place and that it is possible to change society with the strength of everyone. But it is not just faith, it is concrete experiences of struggle for life and genuine peace.

The heat was exhausting and the field was covered with an intense green.

Nicaragua Revolution Sandinista US Imperialism

What They Don’t Say About Cuba

The old-style information war that we have been experiencing for this last week against Cuba, did not start with Biden. Since 2017, the US has been incessantly and inaccurately talking about a social explosion in Cuba with its magical solution of a “humanitarian intervention.” At the same time, Trump progressed in his litany of adding more sanctions to the blockade, 243 to be exact, which have been kept intact by the current administration.

In February 2020, the friends of Luis Almagro, Secretary-General of the OAS, and the Florida congressmen, in between taking selfies with the most despicable fascists of the far-right, launched a social media campaign called “Crisis in Cuba: Repression, Hunger, and Coronavirus.” At that moment, there wasn’t a single case of COVID-19 on the island. Nor was there a lack of, as there is now, of food or medicine.

Cuba Media Revolution US Imperialism

Cuban Leader Warns Of US-Backed Opportunists Seeking To Destabilise

Mr Diaz-Canel, who spoke to protesters in the municipality of San Antonio de los Banos, said that US-backed opposition figures are using the situation to destabilise the country. “The protests involve many revolutionary citizens who want an explanation for the current situation in the country, but are also contaminated by groups of opportunists who take advantage of the current crisis to undermine order and generate chaos,” he said in a televised address.

Cuba Revolution US Imperialism US Sanctions

Preventing A Return To Normal Amidst The Current Catastrophe

Towards the beginning of our most recent global catastrophe, writer A.M. Gittlitz published I Want to Believe: Posadism, UFOs and Apocalypse Communism, the result of his years-long research on the infamous theorist of revolutionary disaster J. Posadas (1912-1981). Combining intellectual biography and cultural analysis, Gittlitz’s book tells the story of Argentine Trotskyist Homero Rómulo Cristalli Frasnelli — better known under the pseudonym J. Posadas — and his many dedicated followers, traversing multiple continents across decades.

I Want to Believe is a cautionary political tale of a radical post-war tendency marked by zealous fanaticism, an enigmatic insurgent horizon caught between utopia and annihilation and the cruelest of gaps separating sincere revolutionary desire and delusional irrelevance.

Class Struggle Communism Revolution Socialism

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