Taking refuge in struggle: protests and hunger strikes in four asylum seeker detention centres across the UK
A wave of protests and repression has spread across the UK's expansive asylum seeker detention complex, with four centres reporting unrest thus far. Detainee support groups report hunger strikes, sitdown protests and a flurry of organising in Harmondsworth, Colnbrook, Brook House and Campsfield, against both their lack of legal recourse and the squalid conditions in the detention centres.
Salt of the earth: PAH-occupied flat block in Cataluña is a foot in the door of something new for the involuntarily homeless
Latin Lib News podcast now online!
Venezuela: the killing of Sabino Romero
Announcing @latinlibnews: keeping you up to speed on Latin America in 140 characters
Lights in the dark: CNT and CGT members on indefinite strike against redundancies in Catalunya
Hurricane Sandy: Observatorio Crítico launches independent relief effort in Cuba
Translation of appeal for donations from Observatorio Crítico de Cuba, the independent Marxist grouping based in Cuba
The greatest trick the DWP ever pulled was convincing the poor benefits don't exist
A 2012 New Year Resolution: against the politics of abstraction and charity, for the real movement in our interests!
Book review: "Venezuela - Revolution as Spectacle" by Rafael Uzcátegui
In times of global austerity and reduced means, the concept of ‘revolution’ is once again in popular discourse, with recent events in North Africa being feted throughout the West. However, Rafael Uzcátegui’s engaging new book – packed, as it is, full of assertion supported by meticulously-sourced fact - stands as a stark reminder of the semantic vacuity of the term, in one Latin American country at least, and the similarities between the self-professed ‘revolutionary government’ of Venezuela and the capitalist economic model.
Venezuela: an election lost is an army gained
Ecuador: the President who cried "¡Golpe!”
Last Thursday, the world was briefly enthralled by events in Quito, Ecuador, where left-leaning President Rafael Correa called his followers out onto the streets via a hospital telephone, claiming that a police and military coup d’etat was in motion against his regime. However, upon closer examination, a different picture - one of popular anger with austerity measures and mass reduncancy - emerges...
Bi-Polar economics in Venezuela
In another inversion of leftist determinism, an attempt by Chávez' embattled administration to expropriate Venezuela's largest remaining private company was thwarted earlier this month, in part due to organised opposition by employees looking to protect both their jobs and their hard-won working conditions.
Venezuela and the postcolonial post-racism of the international left
Guns before butter: economic and energy solutions in the "socialist paradise" of Venezuela
Our men and women in Havana (are requesting good, published material)
It may seem quite modest to us, but some historical events have taken place in the "socialist paradise" of Cuba, demonstrating positive moves towards the ressucitation of independent, base-level social and workers' movements. Having hosted a long weekend of discussions and workshops, companeros in Havana are expected to open a library in the next couple of days - and they need your help!
No light, no water and now not very much money...what next for Venezuela?
Chavez: When red and yellow don't make green
Cuba: libertarians warn of impending "wave of repression"
The first ever Caracas Libertarian Bookfair
From 16-22 November, Caracas-based anarchist newspaper El Libertario hosted the first ever Libertarian Bookfair of its kind in Venezuela. Below is something of an evaluation of the week, plus some analysis of the political spectrum inside the country.