No caricatures: the new far right party in Brazil
Miguel Borba de Sá looks at the prospects for far right politics in Brazil. Miguel is an International Relations lecturer and radical socialist militant from the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL) based in Rio de Janeiro. He is a member of the Institute for Alternative Policies for the Southern Cone and the Jubilee South Americas network. […]
Being honest about Venezuela
Mike Gonzalez writes on the crisis in Venezuela and the implosion of the Bolivarian project. This article was first published by Jacobin Magazine. Venezuela descends deeper into a political and economic crisis every day. The death toll rises relentlessly, and the vicious street battles show no signs of abating. On June 27, looters trashed the city of Maracay; […]
The General Strike of 2017 and the Brazilian political crisis
By Mariana Tamari and Miguel Borba de Sá, militants of the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL) and post-graduate students in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.1 The General Strike that stopped Brazil on Friday April 28 was the first of its kind for 20 years. According to the Workers Central Trade Union (CUT) 40 million people from […]
“Ni Una Menos” – No Woman Left Behind
Suzie Wylie writing from Argentina discusses the Ni Una Menos movement On 8 October, 16-year-old Lucia Pérez was drugged, brutally raped, tortured and killed by 3 men in the Argentinian seaside city of Mar del Plata. Her heart stopped as a result of the pain she endured during the brutal attack. The men cleaned and dressed […]
Fidel Castro (1926-2016)
Following Fidel Castro’s death, Mike Gonzalez assesses his legacy He was, by any standards, a giant of a man. In his frail late years his presence still resonated across Latin America, even among the generations that did not experience the exhilarating shock of the Cuban revolution of 1959. But that event is the source of […]
revolutionary reflections | Venezuela: for sale to the highest bidder?
The theory of state capitalism has played a critical role in the International Socialist tradition’s critique of regimes claiming to be socialist. In the first of the new Revolutionary Reflections articles, Mike Gonzalez presents an account of the latest developments in Venezuela which draw on that tradition to make sense of changes that are taking […]
A flawed revolutionary icon – a review of The Politics of Che Guevara
Mike Gonzalez reviews Samuel Farber’s recent book, The politics of Che Guevara, published by Haymarket Books. For two generations of activists, Ernesto Che Guevara has symbolized a kind of selfless heroism. His relative youth at his death in 1967 (he was 38) conserved his air of rebelliousness and the image of a man interested only in the […]
Selling Brazil – review of Dave Zirin’s “Brazil’s Dance with the Devil”
Ruth Lorimer reviews Brazil’s Dance with the Devil: The World Cup, The Olympics and the Fight for Democracy by Dave Zirin, published by Haymarket Books.
The right to water: an interview with Mike Gonzalez
Mike Gonzalez and Marienella Yanes are the authors of The Last Drop: The Politics of Water (Pluto: 2015). Mike talked to Nick Evans about the fight to put the world’s water back under democratic control, and the wider connections between climate change and class struggle. Water Protests in Cochabamba, Bolivia in 2000 How does looking at […]
A tribute to the anonymous and unsanctioned creativity of the slums
Mike Gonzalez explains how Empty Lot, an installation at Tate Modern by Mexican artist Abraham Cruzvillegas, reflects the social realities of Latin American megacities. It begins at night; silent figures crouching in an empty lot. It will usually be on a hillside, on an abandoned piece of building land in a public space – fenced but […]
Politics in the age of austerity: from above or below?
Neil Davidson discusses the disintegration of social democracy and the impasse of the revolutionary left, and asks what attitude revolutionaries should take towards social democratic parties.
Cuba: coming in from the cold?
After 17 Cuban prisoners were freed by the US in December, Mike Gonzalez charts the recent deal between Washington and Havana and asks if this really is the end of an era with the lifting of the embargo As an internationally recognized artist, you would expect Leonardo Padura Fuentes, Cuba’s outstanding contemporary writer, to be aware […]
Book review: paramilitarism and neoliberalism in Colombia
Neoliberalism and extreme violence go hand in hand in Colombia – Olivia Arigho Stiles reviews an important contribution to debates about Latin America. Jasmin Hristov Paramilitarism and Neoliberalism: Violent Systems of Capital Accumulation in Colombia and Beyond Pluto Press, 2014 £45 In recent years Latin America has formed the locus of debates over neoliberalism, while also […]
Trafficking and sex work in Latin America: are women really being rescued?
Jessica Gutiérrez is a therapist working with survivors of sexual violence based in Buenos Aires. She describes how her experience of a brothel raid in Mexico radically altered her views on trafficking for sexual exploitation. (photo: an “operativo de rescate” [rescue operation] in Chiapas, Mexico, 2010 – see Spanish language report in Prensa Libre) A few […]
Solidarity Call from Brazil Trade Union
rs21 has been approached by the Brazilian trade union federation CSP-Conlutas with the following message for solidarity on the eve of the World Cup, which we are happy to share. Please send solidarity messages and motions to didi@cspconlutas.org.br and dirceutravesso1@gmail.com. See below for a model motion. STATEMENT FROM CSP-Conlutas: ***On the Eve of the World Cup*** A […]
Gabriel García Márquez: magic and memory
Mike Gonzalez writes Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez, who has died aged 87, was a globally recognised name even before he won his Nobel Prize in literature on 8 December 1982. His greatest work One Hundred Years of Solitude was translated into 20 languages within a couple of years of its 1967 publication. His journalism, stories and novels captivated an international audience. Yet […]
A response from Venezeula
Dan Gent, writes from Venezuela having witnessed the events surrounding the opposition riots. It is offered as a comradely response to Mike Gonzalez’s Letters from Venezuela. This piece was originally published on the Comrade Markin blog where there are more photos that Dan has taken in Venezuela. Opposition protests have rocked Venezuela for over a […]
Brazilian workers paralyse refinery construction
Ali S reports from Brazil on the continuing strike by COMPERJ workers in Itaborai, Rio de Janeiro: “Radio Peão” – a set of codified rumours between workers – has been central to the continued paralysis in the construction of Brazil’s second biggest oil refinery. Almost the entire work force of 30,000 workers have walked out. […]
Mike Gonzalez: Second letter from Caracas
The mass movements have saved the revolution over and over again – in their mobilisations, in their defence of production, in their massive electoral support, and in their solidarity.
Is Venezuela burning? A letter from Caracas
Caracas is seeing an uprising of the middle classes and the rich. The working class neighbourhoods remain loyal to the government, but also deeply cynical about the extraordinary corruption of the heirs of Chavez.
Protest returns to Brazil
Thousands took to the streets to protest the cost of the World Cup at a time when public services are seeing no improvement despite economic boom in the country.