Mali Ejects the French Military

IN the first two weeks of May 2022, the Malian military government ejected the French military and withdrew from the French political project, G5 Sahel. Deep resentment spread across Mali because of the civilian casualties from French military attacks and because of the French government’s arrogant attitude towards the Malian government. Colonel Assimi Goïta, who leads the military junta, said that the agreement with the French ‘brought neither peace, nor security, nor reconciliation’ and that the population aspires ‘to stop the flow of Malian blood’.

The Ignored Dilemmas of Humanity

A NEW report comes out with a troubling headline: that annual global expenditure on weapons has gone over $2 trillion. The United States leads the pack, with its spending greater than that of the next ten countries combined. If you add in the US intelligence budget and the money that the United States spends on its nuclear arsenal, then US annual military spending by itself is above $1 trillion.

US Strategy in Indo-Pacific

DAYS before the Ukrainian war commenced, the US announced its new Indo-Pacific Strategy (February 2022). This document is not only about China, but is also about India. Viewed along with the recently concluded US-India 2+2 ministerial talks (11 April), it becomes clear that the Indo-Pacific strategy of the US and its various defence deals with India binds both the countries inseparably together.The latest US Indo-Pacific strategy recognises the present international reality, where the US, in spite of its desire, can no more boast of its earlier strength.

Sri Lanka’s Aragalaya

ARAGALAYA in Sinhala broadly means struggle. The country is struggling to meet its fuel, food and financial commitments. People are on the streets, in struggle against the government that had failed them. They are demanding immediate resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and all the 225 members of the parliament, including Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. The catchy slogan of this popular struggle is, ‘Gota Go Home’, implying President Gotabaya should leave office. All attempts made by the president to appease the protesters have failed.

The War in Ukraine is a War over Europe

THE war in Ukraine is not a simple war. This is not a war merely between two neighbours about a border dispute, for instance. It is a complex war, a war not only between Russia and Ukraine but also a war that involves the United States and NATO (the Trojan Horse of the United States). The battlefield is Ukraine, but it is not only Ukraine.

Could Colombia Have a Left-Wing Government?

ON March 13, 2022, Colombia’s Left-wing electoral coalition (Pacto Histórico por Colombia) held its primary election. The Pacto Histórico (or Historical Pact) is a coalition of twenty different political parties and formations from the far-Left, Comunes, to the centre-Left’s Todos Somos Colombia and the Communist Party of Colombia.

Left Turn in Chile

GABRIEL Boric took oath as the president of Chile on March 11. This marks the ushering of a new chapter in the history of Chile.Boric is the youngest president of Chile, elected at the age of 35 years (the minimum age required to contest for presidency). He represents the alliance, Apruebo Dignidad, which includes Boric’s party Frente Amplio (Broad Front), the Communist Party of Chile and other smaller social movements. After Salvador Allende, Boric is the first to win the election in alliance with the Communist Party.Along with Boric, his new cabinet also assumed office on March 11.

Ukraine: Fire that the US Lit

THE role of US and NATO in the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia is discussed in these columns earlier. This is about how the larger impact of US intervention in Europe is expressing itself.One of the first things that the US did to Eastern Europe after the collapse of the socialist bloc countries and the Soviet Union in the 1990s, was to push them into capitalist exploitation. They were soon converted into markets for imperialist countries, while their State sector industrial enterprises were consciously dismantled.

Red Books Day 2022

IN 1999, Fidel Castro of Cuba travelled to Caracas, Venezuela, to deliver an important speech at the central university. The USSR had collapsed, Fidel said, and the ‘extremely powerful empire’, the United States and its global tentacles, mounted a ‘ceaseless ideological battle with all their resources’. Structures of globalisation weakened the national projects of many states, whose agendas were increasingly set by the International Monetary Fund and by transnational corporations. We are a ‘people armed with just ideas’, Fidel said, ‘endowed with a great political consciousness’.

Conference of Association of Indian Communists

THE 19th conference of the AIC concluded with ‘one mind, one heart and one vision’. AIC, the overseas wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) held its national conference on February 5-6, 2022.

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