Patrice Lumumba (1925–1961)
by Sean Jacobs
56 years ago today, Congolese prime minister and anticolonial leader Patrice Lumumba was assassinated.
Patrice Lumumba was prime minister of a newly independent Congo for only seven months between 1960 and 1961 before he was murdered, fifty-six years ago today. He was thirty-six.
Yet Lumumba’s short political life — as with figures like Thomas Sankara and Steve Biko, who had equally short lives — is still a touchstone for debates about what is politically possible in postcolonial Africa, the role of charismatic leaders, and the fate of progressive politics elsewhere.
The CADTM draws attention to two IMF documents dating from March and May 2010 that were kept secret. These authentic documents were placed at the disposal of the Truth Committee on Greek Public Debt by Zoe Konstantopoulou, the President of the Hellenic Parliament in office from 6 February to 3 October 2015.
As a Syrian who has always identified politically with the left, I am particularly appalled by those men and women who call themselves left-wingers — and are therefore supposed to stand in solidarity with struggles for justice worldwide — and yet openly support the regime of the Assads, father and son, who are chiefly responsible for the Syrian disaster.
En matière de déni de démocratie, il y a eu évidemment l’illustre précédent du résultat, jamais respecté, du referendum français de 2005 sur la constitution européenne. Mais quand même, ce qui s’est passé en Grèce en ce funeste mois de juillet 2015 n’a pas son pareil dans l’histoire de l’Europe (anti)démocratique. Jugez-en vous-même…
If the very worst happens, it won’t be because we didn’t know that it might happen. We have all been amply warned. 
Fed up with slow (or in some cases, 
The present study shows that the Greek crisis that broke out in 2010 originated in private banks, not in excessive public spending. The so-called bail-out was designed to serve the interests of private bankers and those of dominant countries in the Eurozone. Greece adopting the euro played a major role among the various factors that contributed to the crisis. The analysis developed here was first presented in Athens on 6 November 2016 during a meeting of the Truth Committee on Greek Public Debt.
Six years ago, on 17 December 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi immolated himself in the Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid. Bouazizi did not know that by this extreme form of protest, he was setting not only himself or his town on fire, nor his province or even his Tunisian homeland alone, but the whole Arab region. Indeed, his protest inspired millions of others—“from the Ocean to the Gulf” as the saying went in the heyday of Arab nationalism—to protest their regimes and the status quo.
Gilbert Achcar (GA): Two reasons: one general and one practical. The general reason is the need to assess the new counter-revolutionary phase in the Arab upheaval, which started in 2013. Since early on, I have been describing what began in December 2010 in Tunisia and spread to the whole Arab-speaking region in 2011 as a “long-term revolutionary process” that will necessarily go through a succession of contrasting phases. My previous book, The People Want: A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising—which came out in 2013 and was kindly reviewed by Maha Abdelrahman for Jadaliyya—analyzed the economic, social and political roots of the regional upheaval and its dynamics, along with an assessment of its first two years. Morbid Symptoms is a sequel to The People Want, assessing the reactionary phase that has been unfolding since the turning point of 2013.
The abomination that is the destruction of Aleppo, of its people and of its buildings and services will be remembered for centuries to come, should humanity have the good fortune to last that long.
Cela fait plusieurs semaines que je me dis que je vais t’écrire, et ce sont les événements tragiques d’Alep et ta réaction à ces événements, ou parfois ta non-réaction, qui ont fini par me persuader que l’heure était venue de m’adresser à toi. Pas nécessairement dans le but de te convaincre, car je crois que malheureusement il est déjà trop tard. Mais au moins, comme ça, les choses seront dites et tu ne pourras pas dire que tu ne savais pas.
Aujourd’hui s’ouvre à nouveau, au Luxembourg, le procès d’Antoine Deltour, Raphaël Halet et Édouard Perrin, les deux lanceurs d’alerte et le journaliste, grâce auxquels le scandale LuxLeaks a pu éclater au grand jour. En juin 2016, É. Perrin avait été acquitté mais le parquet luxembourgeois a décidé de faire appel. A. Deltour et R. Halet, quant à eux, condamnés respectivement à 12 mois et 9 mois de prison avec sursis et à des amendes, ont fait appel. Ce verdict est en effet tout simplement scandaleux, sanctionnant un acte citoyen courageux : la mise à jour d’un système de fraude fiscale de grande ampleur via des centaines d’accords secrets entre des multinationales et l’administration fiscale luxembourgeoise (« tax ruling »), par l’intermédiaire du cabinet d’audit Price waterhouse Coopers (PwC).
Cuéntenles a sus hijas e hijos quién es Marcos Ana. Porque de lo contrario, salvo que hayan tenido la suerte de conocerlo en alguna de sus visitas a colegios e institutos, es probable que no sepan quién es. Pese a algunos homenajes y reconocimientos recientes, este jueves eran muchos los que buscaban en Google quién es ese tal Marcos Ana. Y esa ignorancia da la medida de los agujeros que sigue teniendo la memoria colectiva de este país, sobre todo con los antifascistas, y más con los comunistas.
François Fillon est un adepte de la stratégie du choc. Abrogation des 35 heures et de l’ISF, fiscalité réduite pour le capital, retraite à 65 ans, réforme de l’assurance chômage, droit du travail… Il veut mener sa révolution néolibérale en deux mois. Au risque d’un choc récessif détonant.
They will blame 
Republican Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential elections not only brings to power the most rightwing president in our nation’s modern history, but because he is an idiosyncratic political outsider, it also points to a very uncertain future. Still we can be sure that his victory will lead to attacks on the working class, on the black and Latino communities, on women, and on LGBT folk.
More than 580 elected representatives, including councillors, MPs and MEPs have signed the Oviedo Manifesto, an association against illegitimate debts that was presented to the Spanish Parliament on Wednesday, October 19, 2016.
Both the Syrian regime's war on a pro-democracy uprising and the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen are aimed at burying the aspirations of the Arab Spring, writes Gilbert Achcar, author most recently of 
Les victoires face au rouleau compresseur néolibéral sont si rares qu’il faut savoir les savourer et les célébrer quand d’aventure elles se présentent. Le Parlement de la Wallonie a refusé de donner à l’Etat belge le feu vert pour la signature du CETA et le gouvernement wallon refuse de céder aux ultimatums, aux menaces et aux pressions émanant de l’Union Européenne, du gouvernement belge, des milieux d’affaire et du gouvernement flamand.