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NEWS AND ANALYSIS
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Read the latest news and analysis from Alternatives International!
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17 April, by
The #GotaGoHome Protest Movement: Significance, Potential, and Challenges
After 31st March, 2022, Sri Lanka’s politics is no longer what it has been. It seems to have entered a qualitatively new phase. It is still too early to say anything definite about the true (...) -
21 March, by
The War in Ukraine
This text is intended to introduce a debate within Alternatives. It argues that this conflict will change everything, including in our area of solidarity and international cooperation. As in any (...) -
13 March, by
The War in Ukraine: Truth is the Whole
Two maxims come to mind as I sit to write about the war in Ukraine: ‘Truth is in the whole’ and ‘Truth is the first victim of war.’ The picture from the Canadian government and the major western (...) -
11 March, by
Remembering Pierre Beaudet
Our friend and comrade Pierre Beaudet is no more. He passed away on 8 March 2022. Founding Director of Alternatives, Pierre was a man of multiple passions. A voracious reader with (...) -
6 February, by
The Left is Nowhere on COVID: And That’s a Big Problem
They have failed to step into the current political climate and counter far-right protests, and get workers the income, housing and other social support they need. As bands of well-funded (...) -
2 February, by
The Left Is in Grave Danger
As we enter Day 5 of the so called "Freedom Convoy’s’ siege of Ottawa it is alarming to see so many Canadians buying into the agenda of the organisers of this protest. On the surface it appears to (...) -
1 February, by
Why Was Mahatma Gandhi Killed?
This January 30, let us remind ourselves of the motive behind the Mahatma’s assassination. An ideological argument was sought to be cut short with a revolver. The debate continues... As is (...) -
28 January, by
The Demise of the World Social Forum
The International Renewal Group denounces the WSF’s irrelevance due to being unable to adapt to changes We, the members of the International Renewal Group, have been part of the founders of the (...) -
6 January, by
Don’t Be Fooled, BJP’s Counter-Offensive Against Farmers Is Very Much Still On
The forced surrender and public humiliation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the politico-economic battle over the farm laws engenders feelings of revenge against the farmers. It might seem (...) -
21 November 2021, by
The Battle Has Been Won, But The War Is Still On
After over 15 months of farmers protests, Modi has finally been made to accept defeat and to come out and announce the repeal of the three farm laws. Indeed, this is a historic win. After (...) -
29 October 2021, by
‘No way back’ to Military Dictatorship Declare Sudanese Activists
The coup launched by Sudanese military leaders on the morning of 25 October is being resisted by mass protests amid calls for total civil disobedience and a political general strike. After mass (...) -
6 October 2021
Condemn the Murder of Protesting Farmers in India
The South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD), the Indian Farmers and Workers Support Group and the Punjabi Literary and Cultural Association, Winnipeg strongly condemn the brutal (...) -
2 October 2021, by
Shift in European Politics Towards Green Left
It is for the first time in global history that science is influencing political change. The science of climate change is now so well established and irrefutable that it has completely silenced (...) -
24 September 2021, by
20 Years After Durban: Africans and Afro-Descendants Still Colonized or Emancipated?
At the end of the Durban -2001- conference, the international community, many NGOs, social movements and members of what it is agreed, in the UN corridors, to call « civil society », subscribed to (...) -
10 September 2021, by
Heil Xi Jinping!: Celebrating the 100th birth anniversary of the Communist Party of China
My using the term `Heil’ to greet Xi , recalling Hitler, may sound offensive to those who believe that China is a Communist state. But judging by the ominous signs emanating from that country, I (...) -
3 September 2021, by
Twenty Years of the Afghanistan Occupation Ends: A New Phase of Struggle Begins
In 2007, I travelled throughout Afghanistan with an Afghan-Canadian research partner,(1) and we asked more than one hundred Afghans: What do you think about the international intervention in (...) -
1 September 2021, by
Colonialism and the Epistemology of Ignorance: A Lesson from Afghanistan
The abrupt and chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in mid-August filled the news around the world. With more or less variations, these were the main topics: humiliation for the U.S. and its (...) -
30 August 2021, by
Afghan People Abandoned by President Joe Biden
After twenty years of war, led by a NATO coalition headed by the United States, the abandoned Afghans are looking to the international community for help, while apprehending what the future will (...) -
17 August 2021, by
Debacle in Afghanistan
The fall of Kabul to the Taliban on 15 August 2021 is a major political and ideological defeat for the American Empire. The crowded helicopters carrying US Embassy staff to Kabul airport were (...) -
12 August 2021, by
Canada’s Colonialism Extends Through Its Foreign Policy
Bilateral free trade agreements are not often at the heart of public focus around political firestorms today, however trade accords can speak profoundly to both the inherent priorities and long (...) -
12 August 2021, by
Agrarian Crisis and the Longest Farmers’ Protest in Indian History
“The farmers not only know how to farm, but they also know how to protect their fields,” said a farm leader from Punjab at the protest site on the outskirts of Delhi, where protesting farmers have (...) -
12 August 2021, by
Feminist Protests in Palestine
Palestine looks back on a long history of women organizing dating back to as early as 1917, as well as a vibrant history of women’s social and political participation in the country. Nevertheless, (...) -
12 August 2021, by
After the Blast
It has been just over a year since the devastating explosion at Beirut’s port on 4 August 2020, which destroyed several neighbourhoods and shattered the national psyche. The blast was all too (...) -
12 August 2021, by
Genocide and Colonialism: Challenging the Canadian State
Public opinion has been shaken by the “discovery” of unmarked graves of children who died in residential schools. The word “discovery” has to be placed in quotation marks because Indigenous (...) -
12 August 2021, by
Mohammad Ali Shah
With the passing away of Mohammad Ali Shah we have lost a dear comrade, friend and an untiring fighter for human rights of the most marginalized section of Pakistani society. He was a veritable (...) -
4 July 2021
Punjabi Writers, Activists Say Self-Proclaimed Sikh Leaders Can’t Take Away Women’s Rights
We, the undersigned, express our deep concern over the recent turn of events around young adult Kashmiri Sikh women who married Muslim men, and often converted to Islam, after exercising their (...) -
27 June 2021, by
Gramsci at the Delhi Border: Indian Farmers and the Revolution against Inevitability
In October 1917, a young Italian communist named Antonio Gramsci observed the Russian Revolution from afar with a mixture of amazement and confusion. He was thrilled that the Bolsheviks had (...) -
8 June 2021, by
Whither Farmers’ Struggles in India?
The ongoing struggle of farmers in India is the most significant mass mobilization in decades and represents the biggest challenge to the government of Narendra Modi since it first came to power (...) -
17 May 2021, by
Colombia’s Leaders Want to Stain Their Country with the Blood of the Working Class
As police and military forces in Colombia use violence to try to repress the massive mobilizations that grew out of a national strike, demonstrators have seen flagrant violations of their human (...) -
1 May 2021, by
The Paris Commune –Yesterday and Today – 1871-2021
‘Although we like to think in linear terms, history has its own cunning that carries us along strange and mysterious paths. Long forgotten, ‘defeated; movements and their ideals sometimes emerge (...) -
1 May 2021, by
The Paris Commune and Alterglobalism
The Paris Commune is a universal moment. We rediscover each time its significance in relation to the new questions that arise in building the future. A specific event of extraordinary density (...) -
1 May 2021, by
Embers of the Paris Commune
This year we are celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune of 1871 - the biggest urban insurrection of the nineteenth century, that led to the setting up of a grass roots based (...) -
1 May 2021, by
The Paris Commune and the Irish Freedom Struggle
In honour of the 150th anniversary of “La commune de Paris” To the contemporary left, the Paris Commune is an iconic event. However, like the Latin prayers I used to mumble as a Catholic altar (...) -
1 May 2021, by
The Paris Commune 1871: 150th Year Anniversary of the First Socialist Government
The French Revolution of 1789 opened up a period of French history that led to the first socialist government, The Paris Commune 1871. The French Revolution of 1789 ushered in an attempt, (...) -
1 May 2021, by
As Disaster Strikes, India Teeters on the Brink
In the internet age, news of disasters is difficult to hide even for authoritarian regimes that try to stifle dissent or conceal images that show them in a bad light. The videos from India freely (...) -
1 May 2021, by
Crossing the Threshold
I went through the Erez border crossing for the first time in 2006. The ultra-sophisticated architecture of this highly secured facility made of concrete, steel, wire and armored glass reminds (...) -
1 May 2021, by
I.A. Rehman: Tribute to a Great Peace and Human Rights Activist
It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of long-time comrade and human rights activist I.A. Rehman in Lahore on April 12, 2021. Mr. Rehman, a veteran communist, was a co-founder (...) -
31 March 2021, by
Revisiting Ayodhya: A Multi-Religious Historical Site Turned into The Capital of a Majoritarian Hindu Religious Empire
Now that the foundation stone for the building of the Rama temple has been laid at his birthplace in Ayodhya, it is time to recall the history of Rama’s birth. The present hype over the occasion (...) -
31 March 2021, by
Ethiopia: Between Famine and Military Stalemate
During the liberation war from the mid-seventies to the early 1990s, Paulos Tesfagiorgis was head of the Eritrean Relief Agency (ERA), the central organism that organized the provision of goods (...) -
31 March 2021, by
The Struggle for Water Justice is a Struggle for Gender and Racial Justice
The essay is published in honour of World Water Day, which has been held every year on March 22 since 1993. The goal of this day is to celebrate water and raise awareness of the 2.2 billion (...) -
31 March 2021, by
Accelerating Decay
Spring is in the air, and Brussels should be buzzing with activity. Remember von der Leyen’s Next Generation EU (NGEU for short), the €750 billion ‘Corona recovery fund’ borrowed from the owners of (...) -
31 March 2021, by
Stop Fueling War in Yemen
On March 26, Members of anti-war organizations World BEYOND War, Labour Against the Arms Trade, and People for Peace London blocked railway tracks near General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada, a (...) -
27 February 2021, by
Impact of the Farmers Agitation on India’s International Image
India’s current image in most of the mainstream western media is that of an authoritarian state: a state unwilling to tolerate any dissent or criticism of its actions and policies; a state that (...) -
21 February 2021, by
The Systemic Capitalist Crisis and the Advent of Neo-fascism
The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic has shown without a doubt how the capitalist class has not responded and cannot respond to the devastating consequences produced by the corona virus across our (...) -
19 February 2021, by
In Defence of Ken Loach
So, it’s come to that: Ken Loach is now the target of a character assassination campaign waged by those who will stop at nothing to shield the apartheid policies of Israel. Their message to people (...) -
19 February 2021, by
Living Socialism Today: Remembering Leo Panitch
Standing outside a conference with a group of devotees, a famous political scientist brags that there’s only two people in the world he’s afraid of: his mother and Leo Panitch. To anyone who knows (...) -
18 February 2021, by
Humour in the Time of COVID-19
Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote his novel `Love in the Time of Cholera’ in 1985. It ends with the tale of a couple of elderly lovers persuading the captain of the ship by which they were travelling (...) -
1 February 2021, by
Global Pandemics as Historical Catalysts and Literary Allegories
The outbreak of Coronavirus all over the world has set alarm bells ringing among policy makers, economists, scientists medical practitioners, politicians – in other words, all those who set the (...) -
1 February 2021, by
Israel at the Current Global Juncture
How does Israel fit in with current global emergencies and unprecedented dangers, those being the worsening provision of food, water, shelter, and healthcare for the global population, the (...) -
1 February 2021, by
Left and the Populists
Subhoranjan Dasgupta interviews eminent political scientist and founder of the Calcutta Research Group, Ranabir Samaddar. Subhoranjan Dasgupta (SD): The General Secretary of CPIML (Liberation) (...) -
1 February 2021, by
The Conflict in Ethiopia: A Humanitarian Disaster
In conversation with Paulos Tesfagiorgis, Pierre Beaudet While over 950,000 people are on the move in the northern province of Tigray, a huge humanitarian disaster is already hitting Tigrayans (...) -
1 February 2021, by
Review: The Fascism This Time
What does progressive patriotism look like? Theo Horesh’s book The Fascism This Time provides a timely blueprint for what must be done to nourish and reinvigorate the democratic spirit of (...) -
1 February 2021, by
South Africa: Vaccine Apartheid or Equality?
We are in the middle of a global shortage of supplies of COVID-19 vaccines. We are reliving the saga that happened early in the pandemic around access to personal protective equipment (PPE), (...) -
18 January 2021, by
Challenges for Justice in Palestine
Sunday, January 24, 2021 at 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM UTC Zoom link It seems that in Palestine old is new and new is more of the old. Justice remains elusive, a mirage in the fields of resistance. (...) -
21 December 2020, by
Leo Panitch (1945-2020)
Leo had recently been diagnosed with multiple myeloma—a type of cancer that affects the plasma cells located in the bone marrow. Justifiably optimistic about treatment, he had the misfortune to (...) -
25 November 2020, by
Thirty Sixth Anniversary of the Bhopal Disaster
The cusp between Dec 2nd and 3rd marks the 36th anniversary of the Bhopal Disaster that occurred at the Union Carbide pesticide factory in the city of Bhopal, India. Tanks containing 40 tonnes of (...) -
31 October 2020, by
How Can Socialists Help Stop Trump?
Eric Blanc interviews Leo Panitch about the upcoming presidential election in the US. Eric Blanc (EB): I would love to hear your take on the question of whether or not socialists should be (...) -
30 October 2020, by
How Low Can a Country Go?
How low can the country go? To what moral depths can the “world’s largest democracy” descend? These questions emerge naturally in the aftermath of two horrific events: the rape and killing of a (...) -
19 October 2020, by
Why is the Israeli Military Still Recruiting in Canada?
For three quarters of a century Canadians have been recruited inside this country to fight in Israel’s military There’s a Canadian law that makes it illegal for the armed forces of any foreign (...) -
17 October 2020, by
Will Escaping Americans Test Canada’s Capacity for Sympathy?
When Donald Trump was elected in 2016, I started hearing from American friends that they were thinking of migrating to Canada. Sensing that most of them didn’t really mean it, I would joke in (...) -
5 October 2020, by
Internationalism or Extinction
Returning to the major crises we face at this historic moment, all are international, and two internationals are forming to confront them. One is opening today: the Progressive International. The (...) -
1 October 2020, by
India’s March to a Police State Intensifies
Last month’s editorial focused on how India, often billed as the world’s largest democracy, was marching towards an authoritarian police state. It was argued that while the formal institutions of (...) -
1 September 2020, by
Two International Webinars on Kashmir
Kashmir is under siege. Seven million people are under virtual lockdown for nine months since the BJP government abrogated Articles 370 and 35 reducing the former Princely state of Jammu and (...) -
1 September 2020, by
A Nation Rendered Numb
Amid multiple lockdowns, Kashmiris confront and contest an escalating campaign to dismantle their sovereignty. Close to midnight on August 4, 2019, police vehicles fitted with megaphones (...) -
1 September 2020, by
The Menace Brought By August 5, 2019 Still Hangs Heavy a Year Later
The past year under the BJP has helped us in Kashmir to grasp, up close, what an attempt at total political domination looks like. On August 5, 2019, the Narendra Modi government revoked Jammu (...) -
1 September 2020, by
Authoritarianism & Lockdown Time in Occupied Kashmir and India
Pandemics generate their own vocabularies, and the “novel coronavirus” is no exception. In the United States the vocabulary of COVID-19 of “sheltering-in-place” and “lockdowns” resonates with Cold War (...) -
1 September 2020, by
Changing the Domicile in Jammu and Kashmir: BJP’s Long Term Plan to Colonise Kashmir
That the Modi Government will bring in a law altering the definition of resident or domicile in Jammu and Kashmir was a foregone conclusion. The RSS could not live with the fact that Jammu and (...) -
1 September 2020
Majoritarian State: How Hindu Nationalism is Changing India
Edited by Angana P. Chatterji and Thomas Blom Hansen and Christophe Jaffrelot A trenchant assessment of Narendra Modi’s BJP government and its impact on India. Description Majoritarian (...) -
1 September 2020, by
The Geopolitics of the Oppressed
Mapping the occupation in Kashmir. 1. Sitting far away in Massachusetts, I spend hours on Google Earth zooming in and out of Kashmir. I type names of Kashmiri places in the search box and (...) -
1 August 2020, by
Trump, Bolsonaro, Modi: Three Horsemen of the Covid Pandemic Apocalypse
The countries that Trump, Bolsonaro and Modi, respectively, rule, are currently #1, 2, and 3 in the total number of coronavirus infections. Credible projections by some scientists suggest that (...) -
1 August 2020, by
Caste in the Diaspora
On June 30, 2020 a landmark case was filed by the California Fair Housing and Employment office in the federal court in San Jose, USA, against the IT giant Cisco, Inc. The case, filed on behalf (...) -
1 August 2020, by
India – China Clash and its Impact on South Asian Countries
As India is trying to manage the fallout from the first major border skirmish, since 1975, with China in which substantial number of troops were killed it would do well to assess its broader (...) -
1 August 2020, by
Hagia Sophia: From Museum to a Mosque-Times are a Changing
Last three decades have seen a drastic shift in the global political scenario. Earlier decades were marked by national liberation struggles; focus on the issues related to ‘this World’. Many a (...) -
1 August 2020, by
Pandemic Worsens, Resistance Will Follow
Two recent developments in the US seem to capture just how the destructive profit-driven irrationality of capitalism renders it incapable of effectively containing the present global pandemic. On (...) -
1 August 2020, by
INTERNATIONAL WEBINARS ON KASHMIR
INTERNATIONAL WEBINARS ON KASHMIR Part 1 Date: Sunday 23 August 2020 Time: 10 AM New York time/7:30 PM New Delhi time/4 PM Brussels time Moderator: Bill Fletcher Jr. Topic: “Perceptions (...) -
30 July 2020
OBITUARY: Chinmoy Banerjee (10 January 1940-29 July 2020)
VANCOUVER, BC (July 30, 2020) - It is with profound sadness that the Dr. Hari Sharma Foundation announces the passing of the Foundation’s President, Dr. Chinmoy Banerjee on July 29, 2020. “Chin (...) -
29 June 2020, by
A Long History of Dehumanizing The “Darker Brother”
I am the darker brother and “I, too, sing America” When the Black American poet, Langston Hughes (1902-1967), wrote his beautiful poem, “I, too, sing America”, Harlem Renaissance or “the New Negro (...) -
29 June 2020, by
Renaming India as Bharat: The Longstanding Hindutva Agenda
Though the Supreme Court refused to entertain on June 3 a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) for renaming India as ‘Bharat’ or ‘Hindustan’, it does not put an end to the longstanding Hindutva agenda on (...) -
26 June 2020, by
Modi Government: The Proverbial Snake with a Frog Stuck in its Throat
India’s prime minister Narendra Modi seems to have taken on something that he can neither chew and gulp down, nor disgorge. The recent confrontation with China at the ambiguously demarcated LAC (...) -
26 June 2020, by
All of Us Began with Marta Harnecker
In memory of Marta Harnecker, who passed away on June 14, 2019. During an interview, then-Bolivia Vice-President Álvaro García Linera and Spanish state parliamentarian Pablo Iglesias were (...) -
20 June 2020, by
The Statues of our Discontent
Statues look a lot like the past, which is why, whenever they are called into question, we turn to historians. The truth is that statues are a thing of the past only as long as they stand quietly (...) -
16 June 2020, by
Health Workers: From Praise to Protection
Crises sometimes bring out the best in society, and sometimes – or even at the same time – they clarify what is so darkly wrong within. In the particular case of the commitments and risks taken by (...) -
16 June 2020, by
Requiem for Democracy
Once again, after so many other times, Brazil’s wealthy would rather run the risk of descending into dictatorship (if that’s not what they wanted to begin with) rather than have the lower classes (...) -
31 May 2020, by
How New is the Green New Deal for the Global South?
The Green New Deal manifestos in the US and UK are among the most progressive proposals coming out of the industrialised world, but they remain flawed from the perspective of the colonised Global (...) -
31 May 2020, by
Will Big Brother Ever Give Up Watching Us?
“Surveillance is permanent in its effects, even if it is discontinuous in its actions.” (Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish) Because of the global health crisis related to the Coronavirus (...) -
31 May 2020, by
Busting the Myth around Alcohol
The other day, I came across a rather interesting news item. A BJP woman leader of Hyderabad Ms. Prasanna, while driving back home was blocked by a crowd queuing in front of a liquor shop. She (...) -
31 May 2020, by
The Desire to Return to the Routine After the Pandemic? A Case Against
May 11 marked two months since WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. Many of us long for a return to the routine. Here we argue against this longing. It is not easy to speak about (...) -
17 May 2020, by
The True Price of Oil
Oil has reached its true price, let’s leave it in its true place: in the ground On April 20, in the United States, the price of a WTI crude barrel (West Texas Intermediate Crude) fell below the (...) -
14 May 2020, by
Statement by Anticapitalistas
On 28 March, an internal voting process ended in which Anticapitalistas decided to leave Podemos. Seventy-nine per cent of the membership participated; of these 89 per cent voted in favour, 3 per (...) -
8 May 2020, by
Zeroing in on Responses to Economic Crisis
After the 2008 financial crisis, the burden of adjustment was passed on to the middle classes and the poor. This time, it will unavoidably fall on the rich whose lifestyles of consumption and (...) -
1 May 2020, by
We Need a Collective Response to the Collective Dilemma of Coronavirus
The crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity for us to think again about Marx’s idea of human freedom. As David Harvey writes in Jacobin, emergency steps to get through the (...) -
1 May 2020, by
COVID-19: Rohingya Refugees in India Are Battling Islamophobia and Starvation
The refugees will not be covered under the relief measures announced by governments and their settlements are prone to outbreaks if even a single person is infected. Nearly all Rohingya (...) -
1 May 2020, by
Underlying Conditions
At nearly 18 per cent officially, and probably higher, the prevalence of diabetes among Palestinian refugees in the West Bank is one of the highest in the world. The official rate in Gaza is 16 (...) -
1 May 2020, by
Will the Pandemic Be The Wakeup Call?
Despite the unexpected hundreds of thousands of deaths, people seem to have the same recurrent question: what will the world be like after the Coronavirus pandemic? There will be, I think, two (...) -
1 May 2020, by
Religious Rites in the Time of COVID-19
It has now been confirmed that one of the primary causes of the global spread of coronavirus is the trend of religious congregations and rituals followed by the faithful all over the world, (...) -
11 April 2020, by
India’s Untouchability Epidemic Refuses to Stop for Coronavirus
The world has responded to the Covid-19 crisis by proposing social distancing. But Indian society’s social discrimination still has no cure. Subhashini Ali underlines this with details from recent (...) -
6 April 2020, by
Corona - Our Debt to Darwin
CHARLES Darwin is a name Pakistanis are taught to hate. School teachers and university professors tasked with teaching his evolutionary theory usually skip the subject or, if they go ahead, first (...) -
4 April 2020, by
Venezuela’s Coronavirus Response Might Surprise Some
Within a few hours of being launched, over 800 Venezuelans in the U.S. registered for an emergency flight from Miami to Caracas through a website run by the Venezuelan government. This flight, (...) -
4 April 2020, by
This Pandemic IS Ecological Breakdown: Different Tempo, Same Song
Comparisons between the toll of COVID-19 and climate change are not helpful because they view each as two separate “things” In late 2019, a novel coronavirus (SARS CoV-2) emerged from a wet (...) -
4 April 2020, by
Some Reflections on the Pandemic and Globalization
The Situation A Pandemic is by definition a global issue. This is not the first pandemic, including in the recent past. How can we explain, when the number of deaths is relatively low compared (...)
