Our association carries out permanent solidarity campaigns for five countries in South and South-East Asia, i.e. in one of the regions of the world most affected by a “polycrisis” that is getting worse and worse. There is no longer just the addition of multiple crises - climatic and ecological, health, socio-economic, political and geostrategic - each one already fraught with devastating consequences: they feed each other, constituting, by dint of interactions, a formidable global crisis whose effects are felt from the north to the south and from the east to the west of our planet. The poor, the marginalised, the workers are paying its price all over the world - a price which means, where our Asian partners are active, that successive layers of the population are plunging into great poverty, destitution and even famine.
Solidarity !
Latest articles
United States: Electric Vehicle Factories Are Overwhelmingly Nonunion. The UAW Strike Could Change That In the year since President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in August 2022, its incentives and tax credits for electric vehicles (EV) have accelerated the United States’ burgeoning swath of battery plants. The EV industry will receive an estimated $220 billion by 2031, and (...)
United States: Auto Workers Strike All of the Big Three Companies for the First Time The United Auto Workers (UAW), whose 450,000 members work principally in manufacturing and parts plants, has for the first time in its history struck all three of the largest U.S. companies, Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis (Chrysler and Jeep). The union is striking for a 40% wage increase (...)
Thirty Years of Oslo - 13 September 1993 and after On 13 September 1993 Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization Yasir Arafat signed the Oslo Accords at a White House ceremony officiated by United States President Bill Clinton. To mark the thirtieth anniversary of this agreement, and take stock (...)
China’s rise, ‘diminished dependency’ and imperialism in times of world disorder Esteban Mercatante is an Argentine Marxist economist, author of El imperialismo en tiempos de desorden mundial (“Imperialism in times of world disorder”), and an editorial board member of Ideas de Izquierda, where he has written extensively on the world economy and imperialism. In this (...)
Taiwan: Nurses Call For Implementation Of A Three Shift System, After 1,700 Quit This Year Nurses demonstrated in front of the legislature earlier this month. In particular, this was to call attention to the failure of the government to pass laws mandating a three-shift system for nurses.
Nurses and doctors were among those who had to handle the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic. (...)Karabakh: “It feels like the apocalypse” Yesterday Azerbaijan launched a military offensive against the Armenian enclave of Nagorno- Karabakh, bombing its cities and villages in a so-called “anti-terrorist operation”. Last night, in a televised address, Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, claimed complete victory.
Around 200 (...)Imprisoned labour organisers released after signing junta pledge It remains unclear whether the factory workers among the detainees, who were dismissed after requesting a pay increase, will be able to return to their jobs
A group of workers and their supporters, who were arrested after demanding higher wages in the garment industry earlier this year, (...)Chinese censors shut down key LGBTQ+ social media accounts Tencent’s social media platform WeChat permanently closes 6 major accounts.
Chinese government censors have shut down key LGBTQ+ social media accounts in a further crackdown on sexual minorities.
Public accounts for the Beijing Lala Salon, Wandouhuang, Transtory, Outstanding Partners, Ace (...)Indonesian delegation stages ’walk out’ during Benny Wenda speech at MSG in Vanuatu Wamena — The Republic of Indonesia delegation who are taking part in the 22nd Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Leaders Summit (KTT) in Port Vila, the capital city of Vanuatu, staged a “walk out” during a session on Wednesday August 23.
The reason for the walk out is not yet known but it (...)The Left and Ukraine: Anti-Imperialism or Alter-Imperialism? Seeking to navigate in an increasingly unstable and complex international situation, the left should keep three fundamental principles in mind:
-# Consistent anti-imperialism Recognition of the right of peoples to self-determination Support of the struggles of the exploited and the (...)Justin Trudeau’s India accusation complicates western efforts to rein in China Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations that India was involved in the murder of a Canadian citizen complicates efforts by Canada and its allies to woo India to counter-balance Chinese might.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegation that the Indian government was involved in the (...)We must fight for the future of Ukrainian education. Interview with the Direct Action student union
To mark Knowledge Day, Common spoke to activists from the Direct Action student union about the right to education in a country at war. They explain why they decided to relaunch the union, what the obstacles are to protecting students’ rights, (...)Report from Bangladesh on ESSF funded activities in 2022 and some historical background We would like to thank ESSF and all the donors for the support we received in 2022. This year, we thought it would be useful to introduce this report by presenting the current political context and some information about our own history. [€ 10 000 were sent through ESSF in 2022]
Last year (...)Libya floods: the drowning of Derna was a man-made disaster decades in the making One family’s ambition contributed to the fate of the city in eastern Libya.
In the early hours of September 11, residents of Derna in north-east Libya woke to the sound of loud explosions. After more than a decade of conflict – initially between the Gaddafi regime and local factions, then (...)Does the Pakistani left understand working class people? A lively discussion commenced on the Left after I posted a poster from our campaign which paid tribute to Imam Hussain (A.S). The poster was made by a working class comrade from the constituency who requested that I put it on my wall. It was no surprise to me that some elements, without trying (...)
Indonesia: A Wall Is Just A Wall, It Can Be Destroyed Serikat Tahanan, is an anti-authoritarian prisoners association, organising both inside and outside of eleven different prisons across Indonesia.They have worked to reach out to fellow convicted anti-authoritarian activists to advocate and educate the public about prison conditions in (...)
The Guardian Editor’s note : “The world is failing women and girls. It is failing boys and young men too“ Last Tuesday, a report revealed the extent of sexual assault against female surgeons ; on Wednesday a poll showed that sexual harassment was contributing to girls’ declining happiness ; at the weekend the Russell Brand revelations dominated the news cycle. On Sunday we heard how students are (...)
Myanmar: The machine that went rogue Learning from Myanmar’s unsuccessful ‘Third Force’ movement.
Early on the morning of 1 February 2021, a convoy of armoured vehicles carrying fully armed soldiers approached the parliament, where elected officials were ready to take office after another landslide victory for the ruling (...)War, identity, irony: how Russian aggression put central Europe back on the map A 1980s essay by Czech writer Milan Kundera on the peoples trapped between east and west is enjoying a new lease of life
“Are you a dissident?”, a journalist asked Milan Kundera, when he had became exiled in France from his native Czechoslovakia in the mid-1970s. “No, I am a writer,” (...)Azerbaijan: new unions emerge In places where existing trade unions fail to organise workers, new unions will often emerge to fill the gap. And those new unions will sometimes be the subject of state repression as a result.
This is what appears to be happening today in Azerbaijan.
The existing trade unions in the (...)