World

  • US teenager dies from police taser

    Brett Elder died after police used a taser on him in Bay City, Michigan on March 22. The 15 year old was tasered after police were called to break up a fight in a city apartment. After first taking Elder into custody, police later took him to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

  • Danish activists convicted for selling T-shirts

    Denmark’s supreme court found six activists guilty of financing terrorism on March 25. The activists had sold T-shirts bearing logos of two left-wing groups listed as terrorist organisations under EU law: the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

  • The doublespeak of the IMF

    The international crisis that erupted in the northern summer of 2008 demolished all the neoliberal dogmas and exposed the deception behind them. Unable to deny their failure, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) claim they no longer uphold the set of neoliberal policies known as the “Washington Consensus”.

  • From Melbourne to Gaza

    It took Kamahl Mashni six minutes to decide to join the Viva Palestina aid convoy headed to Gaza from Britain on Valentine’s Day.

  • France: Besancenot in top 50 to 'frame' future of capitalism

    French revolutionary socialist and leader of the New Anti-capitalist Party, Olivier Besancenot, was listed among the 50 people who will “frame the debate” on the future of capitalism in an article in the British Financial Times on March 10. Besancenot is part of a list dominated by capitalist politicians, central bankers, financial investors and mainstream economists.

  • Guatemala: Evidence of human rights abuses released

    The article below is abridged from a March 17 statement by the National Security Archive, which is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at the George Washington University. The NSA is calling for the release of military files and an investigation into the “intellectual authors” of the abduction and disappearance of activists by the US-backed military dictatorships in the 1980s.

  • El Salvador: International observers limit right-wing fraud

    Officials of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) thanked members of the international observation team on March 16 for their work in limiting electoral fraud committed by the previous ruling right-wing Arena party in the presidential elections on March 15.

  • France: General strike shakes government

    On March 19, record numbers of people took to the streets as part of a general strike against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s anti-worker economic policies, a British Guardian article said the following day.

  • Martinique general strike ends in victory

    A 38-day general strike in the Caribbean colony of Martinique ended on March 14 with the signing of a protocol between the government and the February 5 Collective, a coalition of unions and other social movements named after the day the strike began.

  • Madagascar: Systemic crisis underpins turmoil

    Following a series of anti-government protests that were brutally repressed — with more than 100 people killed since January 26 — the military forced the corrupt and brutal Madagascan President Marc Ravalomanana to step down.