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NEWS AND ANALYSIS
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Read the latest news and analysis from Alternatives International!
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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 (...) -
27 March 2020, by
Coronavirus: “In a Plague Year”
As coronavirus spreads rapidly around the world, outpacing our capacity for testing let alone treatment, the long-anticipated monster is finally at the door. And with global capitalism so (...) -
27 March 2020, by
Anti-Capitalist Politics in the Time of COVID-19
As Marxist geographer David Harvey argues, forty years of neoliberalism has left the public totally exposed and ill prepared to face a public health crisis on the scale of coronavirus. When (...) -
12 March 2020, by
Inoculating Against Globalization: Coronavirus and the Search for Alternatives
Social developments constantly surprise. The latest anxieties over the economic contradictions of extreme globalization haven’t been triggered by a trade war, inter-imperial rivalry, a financial (...) -
3 March 2020, by
Let Us Heal Our Dilli
Date of visit: February 27, 2020 Team: Farah Naqvi, Sarojini N, Navsharan Singh, Naveen Chander Areas/Mohallas visited: Bhajanpura, Chand Bagh, Gokulpuri, Chaman Park, Shiv Vihar, Main (...) -
29 February 2020, by
Demonstration to Denounce Muslim Genocide in Delhi, India
Montreal, February 29, 2020. At 1pm, on Sunday, March 1st, at Metro Parc, Indians and Canadians based in Montreal are demonstrating to denounce the genocide in Delhi, in solidarity with the (...) -
29 February 2020, by
After Losing Delhi Election, BJP Wreaking Vengeance On City’s Minorities
The rout of the BJP in the Delhi election, while very welcome, should not blind one to the fact that the real political struggle is taking place in the streets not in the electoral arena. This (...) -
26 February 2020, by
Algerian Hirak After One Year
Still the Same Determination… Despite Blurry Future Algerians are celebrating this week one year since the beginning of the Hirak on 22 February 2019, a protest movement that was triggered (...) -
26 February 2020, by
Far Right Vigilantes Attack Land Defenders and Organized Workers
“Rule of Law” and Class Violence Fascism is bare knuckle capitalism. A key element of fascist mobilizations is a fighting street force. Vigilantes ready and willing to attacked organized members (...) -
23 February 2020, by
Why Public Transit Should Be Free For All
Drivers in Canada often complain of a “war on cars” that is supposedly being waged in cities throughout the country. This metaphorical war is non-existent, but that’s unfortunate because such a war (...) -
21 February 2020, by
Eco Socialism or Social Ecology the Answer to Eco Capitalism
This is the fourth and the final article in this series, the first three were published in the December 2019 and January and February 2020 issues of the AIJ. As we have become aware of this (...) -
20 February 2020, by
Indigenous Resistance Shakes the Canadian State
In early February, the RCMP, Canada’s colonial police force, raided the land defender camps of the Wet’suwet’en people in British Columbia, in order to clear the way for pipeline construction. (...) -
14 February 2020, by
India’s Citizenship Act and the Politics of Belonging
“My daughter and I have been going to India almost every year since she was four years old. This past year when we went, she told me, ‘Ma, this is not the India that I remember.’ I feel she is (...) -
4 February 2020, by
Here We Are!
On the social and political situation in France in 2020. On est là / On est là / Même si Macron ne veut pas nous on est là/ Pour l’honneur des travailleurs / Et pour un monde meilleur / Même si (...) -
3 February 2020, by
An Insurgent Constitutionalism is Driving Popular Politics in India Today
Probably for the first time in the history of the republic, it is not jurists and lawyers who are interpreting the constitution. The street has taken their place. In his perceptive commentary, (...) -
3 February 2020, by
The ‘Deal of the Century’ is Apartheid
With great fanfare, President Trump finally unveiled his long-anticipated Middle East peace proposal. The proposal was labeled ‘The Deal of the Century’ because it was supposed to offer an (...) -
29 January 2020, by
Democracy in Peril: The Rise of Authoritarianism and the Advent of Neo-Fascism
This is the third article in the series of four, the first two were published in the December 2019 and January 2020 issues of the AIJ. As we entered the New Year we were witness to a series of (...) -
29 January 2020, by
Attempt to Compromise Independent Probe into Bhima Koregaon Case
On 24 January 2020, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led central government abruptly transferred the inquiry into the Bhima Koregaon case from the Pune Police, in the state of Maharashtra to the (...) -
22 January 2020, by
Stand With Millions In India: Defend Secularism & Democracy From Hindutva Fascism!
On 26th January 2020, Republic Day in India, we, the residents of Tiohtiá:ke (unceded Indigenous territory otherwise known as Montreal), will join people around the globe who stand in solidarity (...) -
22 January 2020, by
We Must Support the Revolution in Iraq!
On October 1, 2019, a popular protest movement ("Tishreen" revolution) erupted throughout Iraq, mainly in Baghdad and the cities of Basra, Najaf, Nasriyeh and Diwaniya. Led mainly by youth, (...) -
13 January 2020, by
Obsessing Over ‘Geopolitics’ Dehumanizes Middle East Freedom Struggles
The debate around Soleimani’s assassination ignores months of inspiring protests against local and foreign oppressors in the region. It is unclear whether the U.S.’s assassination of Iranian (...) -
31 December 2019, by
Welcome to 2020 India: In BJP Ruled States, Police Recreating Nazi Thugs Atrocities Against Minorities and Protestors
We are acutely aware of the unprecedented, non-violent yet militant struggles breaking out all over the country against the arbitrary and undemocratic actions of the Central Government of Prime (...) -
31 December 2019, by
The Urgency to Struggle Against the Rise of Nuclear Weapons and the Militarization of the Planet
This is the second article in the series of four, the first was published in the December 2019 issue of the AIJ. The implosion of the Soviet Union took the world by surprise but it also gave (...) -
29 December 2019, by
COP-Out: The Military and Climate Change/Justice
The world situation is much worse than generally acknowledged. This December, the coinciding meetings of NATO and of the climate change Conference of the Parties (COP25) were barely reported, (...) -
27 December 2019, by
Gender Equality: Still a Long Way Down the Line
“Mind the Gap!!” In 1993, the UN General Assembly issued the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, defining such violence as “any act of gender-based violence that results, or (...) -
23 December 2019, by
Statement by Montreal Academic Community Against Police Brutality in India, CAA, NRC
We, the members of the Montreal academic community, stand in solidarity with students exercising their fundamental right to dissent and protest across India. We condemn the brutality unleashed (...) -
21 December 2019, by
Statement by Montreal Residents Against Police Brutality in India, CAA, NRC
We, the residents and citizens of Tiohtiá:ke (e.g. unceded Indigenous territory otherwise known as Montreal), stand in solidarity with students and citizens exercising their fundamental democratic (...) -
18 December 2019, by
PADS Denounces Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens
People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) strongly condemns the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed by the Parliament on Dec 11,2019. Modi government used its brute majority to (...) -
12 December 2019, by
In Marseille, the French Left is Finally Uniting
For years, divisions on France’s left have helped Emmanuel Macron and Marine le Pen dominate the political terrain. But in the country’s second city, grassroots pressure has forced them to put (...) -
12 December 2019, by
Iraq’s Communists Given New Life by Protests
Compared to the ostentatiously huge buildings afforded to some of the parties in Baghdad, the headquarters of the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) are relatively humble. The building comprises a shop, (...) -
11 December 2019, by
Debate: Fascism Is Not Simply Imposed From Above
It is time to call this regime by its name. What we are seeing is not procedural or substantive fascism; this is fascism. We woke up today to professor Arjun Appadurai’s insightful piece in The (...) -
11 December 2019, by
35th Anniversary of Bhopal Disaster – Problem is Systemic
“People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money, and fairy tales of eternal economic (...) -
9 December 2019, by
Why a ’Green New Deal’ Must be Decolonial
The Green New Deal will not work unless it dismantles neocolonial structures exploiting nature and people. Discussions of a Green New Deal (GND) have been all the rage these days, as hundreds (...) -
2 December 2019, by
The Struggle Against Climate Change and the Need for Ecology
The position paper by Donald Cuccioletta titled “The Capitalist Crisis and The Case for Eco Socialism” will consist of four articles, which will touch the different crises that are weakening and (...) -
29 November 2019, by
Origins of the Crisis: On the Coup in Bolivia
Regarding recent events in Bolivia, some things are simple: Was it a coup? Yes. On Sunday, November 10, the commander-in-chief of Bolivia’s armed forces, General Williams Kaliman, publicly told (...) -
27 November 2019, by
The Neoliberal Miracle Under Fire
Unexpected turmoil erupted in Chile on October 18th, when high school students mobilized against a subway fare increase. On October 25th, another two million Chileans joined them in opposition to (...) -
25 November 2019, by
Attacking Palestine’s Future
Traveling across Palestine, as I did to give lectures earlier this year, means following a perpetually fresh trail of repression. Omnipresent are the prison guard towers, the barbed wire, the (...) -
22 November 2019, by
In Egypt, Nothing Has Changed — But Perhaps Everything Has
Can we venture to declare that Egypt has arrived at a new and dangerous turning point? Yes and no. For although nothing significant has materialized recently, the specter of a major shift looms. (...) -
16 November 2019, by
Voices of Non-Violence in a Wilderness of Violence
Attempts are being made by well-meaning civil society activists to examine and explore potentialities of the tactics of non-violent protests against the current BJP (Bhartiya Janata Party) regime (...) -
3 November 2019, by
India’s Moral Cancer- Delhi’s November 1984 Sikh Genocide
It is 35 years back that the massacre of Sikhs took place mostly in Delhi but also in many North Indian towns in the first week of November to ‘teach them a lesson’ i.e. to beat them to submission (...) -
31 October 2019, by
Kashmir: Three Months Later
For the vast majority of the people of Kashmir, the agony continues with no end in sight. Dribs and drabs of the reduction of oppressive measures, like restoration of landline telephones that few (...) -
28 October 2019, by
Revolution and Counterrevolution in Rojava
As I write, the revolution in Rojava is under existential threat. This threat was aggravated by a controversial roller coaster of recent events. After a late Sunday night phone conversation (...) -
28 October 2019, by
A Brief History of Politeness
From political speech to social media tirades, for half a decade or more now, the use of rude language, gestures and threats has become ubiquitous around the globe. The complete absence of (...) -
26 October 2019, by
Iraqi Women Journalists Forum Takes Part in Demonstrations: Demands Protection of Journalists and Demonstrators
IWJF took part in protests in Baghdad and the provinces on Friday 25th October to demand constitutional rights, change the government, and hold early elections. The demonstrations in Baghdad (...) -
24 October 2019, by
Our Brezhnev Moment
Neoliberalism has stalled, so the fanatics in government are using Brexit to revive it. At first sight it’s incomprehensible. Why risk everything for a no-deal Brexit? Breaking up their own (...)
