Americas

During her stay in Buenos Aires at the end of June, El Militante Argentina interviewed the Cuban revolutionary Celia Hart. In this interview, Celia tells us about the role of Fidel in the Cuban revolution and the perspectives for Cuba, about the relevance of the ideas of Che and Leon Trotsky, and about the Venezuelan revolution and the tasks for Latin American revolutionaries.

On Wednesday, August 1st, around 200 people demonstrated for over an hour at the doors of the Mexican diplomatic mission in Barcelona, Spain, demanding the release of the political prisoner from Militante, Adán Mejía.

On June 25, miners from El Salvador, Andina, El Teniente and Ventana mines carried out a total strike, which was successful despite brutal police repression. Ever since, the tension at the mines and confrontations with the police have been increasing due to the aggressive and repressive attitude the company and the Bachelet government have adopted.

After the recent resurgence of the mass movement in Oaxaca the authorities have responded by launching a wave of brutal repression. Many activists have been arrested. Among these is a comrade of the Militante Marxist Tendency and APPO activist. Workers and youth in all countries should protest strongly!

One year after the revolutionary events in Oaxaca, Mexico, the movement has erupted again. The Mexican ruling class thought they had put an end to the movement with a wave of repression, but they were wrong. The underlying problems that provoked the movement have not gone again. See also in Spanish.

One year after the tumultuous events in Oaxaca, Mexico, we publish an article by a militant who participated in the insurrection. See also in Spanish.

On Wednesday July 11, Perú was paralised by a National Day of Struggle called by the General Confederation of Peruvian Workers (CGTP). These protests could mean the beginning of the end for the Alan García government, which could be overthrown by the mass movement, just as other governments in Ecuador, Bolivia and Argentina have been overthrown in recent years, as part of the revolutionary wave that is engulfing Latin America.

We have received the latest Bulletin of the Occupied Factories in Brazil (in Portuguese and PDF format) dedicated to the struggle to regain control of CIPLA and Interfibra after the judge imposed an administrator and sacked all the delegates to the Factory Councils. Download the bulletin here.

On June 29, the workers of Flasko received good news: the federal judge José Maria Barreto Pedrazolli, from the Campinas/SP circuit, ruled that the electricity company CPFL should reestablish electricity supply "in the face of clear danger of damage" to the factory.

The Workers International League enthusiastically endorses ANSWER's May 31 call for a peaceful, legal, united front antiwar demonstration. The basic unifying slogan "End the War Now!" can effectively mobilize the millions of workers and youth who want the war ended immediately.

After weeks of political show-boating, the Democrats have voted to continue the war in Iraq. Editorial for the American Socialist Appeal no. 31.

After years of Bush’s open-ended war on working people at home and abroad, many on the “left” are desperate for an alternative. For many, that alternative is Barack Obama, a Democratic Senator from Illinois. However, far from being a “progressive” alternative, Obama is at his core a typical representative of the bosses’ political parties.

In this video interview (in Spanish), Serge Goulart, the national coordinator of the Occupied Factories Movement in Brazil gives an overview of the latest situation of the struggle against the decision of the Lula government to organise a judicial-police intervention against CIPLA and Interfibra and the attacks on the workers at Flaskó.

This audio file, recorded on the 11th June at the Socialist Appeal London aggregate, hears Rob Lyon talk on the National Question in relation to the current and historical situation in Quebec.

The court appointed administrator at Cipla has been at it again. After being expelled from Flasko after an attempt to sack the Factory Committee there, he has now threatened to “crush” the workers. Facing pressure from all side, the workers at Flasko are standing firm in the defence of workers’ control, their jobs, and their factories.

Miner’s Memorial Day took place this past weekend on Vancouver Island to celebrate the memory of Ginger Goodwin and the struggles of the miners. A good contingent of youth were present to take part in meetings and discussions.

June 24, 1967, entered the memory of the Bolivian people and of the entire world as one of the cruelest episodes in history. The Mineworkers Trade Union Federation of Bolivia (FSTMB) sent us a message commemorating these events. See also in Spanish.

 

The war in Vietnam, which completely transformed the situation in the U.S.A., did not begin in a planned way. The U.S.A. was sucked into it almost by accident. It began with a covert operation, the sending of officers and “advisers” to prop up an unpopular and corrupt government against its own people. This is the usual style of U.S. imperialism! The regime of Ngo Dinh Diem was guilty of vicious repression in South Vietnam. Buddhist monks burned themselves alive in protest. Finally, Diem was assassinated by his own generals.