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«Current Concerns», n°1, January 11, 2019

319. France — Revolt of the common people

Zurich (Switzerland) | 29 January 2019
Yellow Vests: Future scenario, by Myret Zaki / Urgent search for an industrial policy! by Jacques Myard / “The Italians would like to decide for themselves how to live”. Direct democracy of Switzerland is a landmark for the new Italy / The United States refuse to fight for the transnational financiers, by Thierry Meyssan / The purchase decision. How Macron became president … or why to prefer a reading lamp / Time to get out of Syria, by Eric Margolis / US President wants to pull out troops …but Germany, France and Great Britain insist on continuing the war effort, by Karl Müller / Right to self-determination, sovereignty, Lisbon treaty, by Alfred de Zayas / Framework agreement Switzerland-EU. Union Citizens’ Directive and ban on state aid as next heavy load, by Marianne Wüthrich / State economic development would be jeopardised, Interview with Simon Hirsbrunner / Traditionally and generous Switzerland’s immigration policy – determined by the people. Historical background, by Werner (...)

Emmanuel Macron in response to the social crisis. His televised speech

by Emmanuel Macron

Paris (France) | 10 December 2018
My people, the men and women of France! Here we are together with our country and future in mind. The events over the last few weeks in France and overseas have profoundly troubled the Nation. They have mixed legitimate demands and an outpouring of violence that simply cannot be accepted. Can I tell you right now that this violence will not be pardoned in any way.
All of us have been spectators to the game that the opportunists are playing. They are trying to exploit and distort sincere (...)

Édouard Philippe’s Speech in Response to the Riots

by Édouard Philippe

4 December 2018
For more than three weeks, tens of thousands of French have expressed their anger, on roundabouts, tolls, near commercial areas or on the streets of a number of cities in France.
This anger comes from far. It has been brewing for a long time; it has often remained silent, held back by modesty and pride. Today it is expressed forcefully by a movement. You’d have to deaf and blind not to hear or see this anger. Like the President of the Republic, like all parliamentarians, I understand this (...)

1 December 2018: Insurrection Day in the centre of Paris, Marseille and Avignon

3 December 2018
The French Movement, the “Yellow Gilets” has been tirelessly demonstrating throughout France without a break since 17 November 2018. On 1 December, it organized its second national demonstration in Paris.
This resulted in riots and arson. These started on the Champs-Élysées, and broke out in several other districts, right in the heart of Paris. During the afternoon, disorder spread to the South of France, erupting in the cities of Marseille and Avignon. This resulted in more than a hundred (...)

The Movement of the Yellow Gilets spreads in France, Belgium and Bulgaria

26 November 2018
On Saturday 17 November 2018, the “Yellow Gilets” movement sprung to life in metropolitan France and has leapt across waters to the overseas departments and crossed land borders to Belgium and Bulgaria.
The French Minister for Home Affairs thinks that number of demonstrators would have peaked on 18 November at 17.00 at 287 710 people. There is no other available statistic, so we cannot check out this figure. Furthermore, from the time the demonstrators organize guard duty, it takes (...)

Al-Abadi declares a state of emergency in Iraq

20 July 2018
Demonstrations are taking place in Southern Iraq denouncing the lack of essential services that the government should guarantee.
At the weekend, Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi declared a state of emergency anticipating that the social movement would catch fire in the capital.
The protests started out crying out for electricity. Now, it is 45 to 48o C in the Southern Iraq. You simply cannot work at this temperature without air conditioning.
Demonstrations are gaining momentum to (...)

Hugo Chávez, Sabaneta’s boy… Dreaming of being armed

by Jorge Wejebe Cobo

Havana (Cuba) | 5 August 2017
It was on 28 July 1954, in Sabaneta de Barinas, Venezuela that one of the most important revolutionary leaders in Latin America’s history was born: Hugo Chávez Frías.
His mother, Elena Frías, brought him into the world, yet only remained with him until he was delivered. Story has it that, as a child growing up, he enjoyed listening to the stories related by his grandmother about the heroes that liberated his country and those who confronted the injustices inflicted by dictatorial governments (...)

Qatar abolishes slavery

15 December 2016
The Emirate of Qatar has announced that on 12 December 2016, its sovereign, the Emir Tamim ben Hamad Al Thani, had abrogated the Kafala.
The Kafala assigned every foreign worker to an owner who confiscated his identity papers. The latter had complete power to determine who would employ him and under what conditions, as well as the authority to determine if he leave the country or not.
From now on, contractual law will apply. However, we still do not know how 2.1 million immigrants (...)

Brazil: Workers Struggle Trumps Sports Spectacle

by James Petras

3 June 2014
The escalating protests in Brazil are symptomatic of the wealth disparities between the ruling class and the masses. More than just food baskets, Brazilian people demand social justice and are up in arms over their government’s lavishly wasteful spending on the 2014 football World Cup.

Conversation with Ernesto Villegas, minister of information for Venezuela

“The Bolivarian Revolution will follow the course and the direction that President Chávez marked out”

by Salim Lamrani

Caracas (Venezuela) | 9 April 2013
On the eve of the new presidential election scheduled in Venezuela on account of the recent death of President Hugo Chávez, who had just obtained a new presidential mandate, the French intellectual Salim Lamrani talks to Minister Ernesto Villegas. The current Venezuelan Minister of Communication and Information analyses Hugo Chavez’s legacy and explains why he is confident that Nicolás Maduro will be victorious in the election and that the Bolivarian Revolution will keep going forward.

The "Maple Spring"

Quebec students spearhead pan-Canadian uprising against austerity

by Joshua Blakeney

Lethbridge (Canada) | 7 June 2012
Catapulting the Canadian province of Quebec into the spotlight, the four-month old student protests have become a symbol of the most powerful challenge to neoliberalism on the North American continent. Recognizing that the students’ demands for an accessible and democratic public education constitute an implicit challenge to their entire social and economic strategy, the reaction of the Quebec government and Canadian elite has been implacable. Joshua Blakeney pinpoints the significance of the student struggle, sketching a picture tinged with hues of Pinochet’s Chile.

Massive anti-NATO protests in Chicago

21 May 2012
Thousands of people rallied in Chicago against NATO on the opening day of its Summit meeting.
The massive anti-NATO demonstrations aim to boycott the event. Thousands of peaceful protesters, including peace activists and war veterans, have marched through the second largest city in the U.S. carrying banners against NATO and demanding the dissolution of the Alliance.
Several demonstrations were staged throughout the entire week leading up to the largest protest action of the year for the (...)

Market massacres

by Marco Revelli

13 May 2012
The sociobiologist and philosopher Henri Laborit once enunciated the hypothesis that human beings confronting oppression had only three choices: submission, struggle or flight. Within the frame of his sociobiological analysis, suicide constituted the most extreme form of flight. In the face of the programmed crisis being unleashed across Europe, may the victims of injustice never forget that the best antidote for the suffering engendered by any system is to combat it.

Bahrain: the silenced revolt

Havana (Cuba) | 7 April 2012
While the Western media resort to every trick in the book to get people to believe in the narrative that an alleged popular uprising in Syria has been quelled in blood, mum’s the word with regard to the brutal suppression of the democratic movement in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen and Morocco. In this piece, Cuban journalist Dalia Gonzalez Delgado discusses the reasons behind the complacency shown by the "friends" of democracy and freedom towards the Kingdom of Bahrain.

An open letter to international public opinion

The truth about Greece

by Míkis Theodorákis

Athens (Greece) | 25 February 2012
Composer and resistance icon Mikis Theodorakis lambastes the joint strategy devised by Greek politicians and financial institutions with the objective of pillaging the country. He explains how Greece was gradually put under IMF tutelage by Dominique Strauss-Khan and former Prime Minister Papandreou. While the Western media point the finger at Syria, Russia and China, a financial government has taken over the reins of power in Greece and in Europe.

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