World

Dr Fernando Martirena from the Centre of Investigation in Structures and Materials (CIDEM) research institute at the University of Santa Clara, Cuba, recently visited Australia to speak to a number of meetings organised by the Australian Green Development Forum.

After such a long period of time in a vacuum, uncertain of how to respond to change caused by neoliberal economic policies, little by little, democracy movement activists have been able to wrest back the political podium.

The below article is abridged from a speech given by Mano Navaratnam from the Tamil Ealam Women’s Organisation (TEWO) at an October 30 Melbourne film screening of My Daughter the Terrorist, organised with the Socialist Alliance. The Tamil people, whose homeland is in the north and east of Sri Lanka, have been waging a long struggle for national self-determination against the Sri Lankan state.

The Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM), formed only in 1996, shocked Malaysia’s political establishment by winning two seats in the March 8 general elections. Nasir Hashim was elected to the Selangor state legislative assembly and Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj was elected to the national parliament.

On November 17, the Service Employees Industrial Union (SEIU) announced that it would be holding an advisory ballot of members in California to determine the future of the United Healthcare Workers–West (UHW-W), which with 150,000 members is the SEIU’s third largest local.

In October, a three-member delegation of Australian unionists visited the Western Saharawi refugee camps in the Hamada desert, South West Algeria. Western Sahara has been illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975.

The November 27 terrorist assault on Mumbai’s five-star hotels was well planned, but did not require a great deal of logistic intelligence: all the targets were soft.

Having captured the imagination of progressives across the globe with scenes of indigenous uprisings confronting right-wing governments and multinationals, Bolivia has become a key focus point of discussion within the left regarding strategies for change.

Supporters and opponents of Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution have come out with differing assessments post the November 23 regional elections, which Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had defined as the most important electoral contest yet for the process of change.

President Hugo Chavez’s governing party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), got mixed results in the regional and local elections held on November 23, winning strongly in 17 out of 23 states, but losing the country’s two most populous states and the Capital District of Caracas.

Fishing boats have become the latest target in Israel’s war on the Palestinian territory of Gaza.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called for a “revolution within the revolution”, at an 8000 strong United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) rally on November 18.