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Inspired by the unfolding socialist revolution in Venezuela, as well as the continuing example of socialist Cuba, Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal is a journal for "Socialism of the 21st century", and the discussions and debates flowing from that powerful example of socialist renewal.
Links is also proud to be the sister publication of Green Left Weekly, the world's leading red-green newspaper, and we urge readers to visit that site regularly.
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Nepal: Urgent appeal for earthquake victims
![](/web/20150429032204im_/http://links.org.au/files/Nepalquake.png)
By Bharat Nepal, Sydney
April 28, 2015 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- As you all know a very devastating earthquake hit Nepal on April 25. More than 5000 people were killed and more than 6000 are still missing. Outside of Kathmandu is also badly affected, however due to remoteness damage has still not been fully appraised.
There is great need for health care, food and water. I am coordinating to raise funds in Australia to address this crisis.
If you can please support by donating to the following account, all money raised will be sent to National Disaster Relief Fund in Nepal.
Organisation name: Australia Nepal Public Link Inc.
National Australia Bank
BSB 082 342
A/c. no. 83 719 7693
Please state: Earthquake support as transaction ID
Thank you so much.
Regards,
Bharat Nepal, president Australia Nepal Public Link Inc. (http://www.anpl.org.au/)
Australia: ‘People are capable of running society themselves’-- socialist councillor Sue Bolton
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20150429032204im_/http://www.suesmorelandreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/copy-cropped-Sue2.jpg)
Click for more on left electoral politics at the municipal level and for more on the Australian Socialist Alliance
April 23, 2015 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Socialist Alliance councillor Sue Bolton spoke to Dave Holmes about her work as an elected socialist local councillor in Moreland, a municipality in Melbourne, Australia.
* * *
You were elected to the Moreland City Council for Socialist Alliance in October 2012. Many of the themes and issues raised in your campaign struck a chord with a wide range of people. There was also a fair bit of accident and luck: you headed up a ballot with 24 names on it and the ALP ticket was split.
There were two main reasons why I was elected. One was that our campaign theme, “community need not developer greed”, struck a chord with residents who didn’t know either Socialist Alliance or me because many residents are directly effected by developer greed.
Scotland: Labour’s love lost? Behind the Scottish Labour Party's looming collapse
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20150429032204im_/http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/10/25/1382719434434/Tony-Benn-and-Ralph-Milib-009.jpg)
Tony Benn discussing politics with Ralph Miliband (right) at the Socialist Society Conference, Chesterfield in 1988. Photograph: John Harris/reportdigital.co.uk.
By Andrew Perchard
April 16, 2015 -- History Workshop, posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- In the midst of last year’s Scottish independence referendum campaign, a friend and fellow historian of modern Britain, visiting from the north west of England, recounted his Damascene moment in grasping the national conversation in Scotland.
He had been visiting friends several weeks before and was taken to a bar one night in a former mining village in central Scotland. There he had been struck by the overwhelming number of those in the bar, whose politics he typically associated with the Labour Party, who openly declared they would be voting in favour of Scottish independence.
Devotion and resistance: Bizhan Jazani and the Iranian Fedaii
Historian Doug Enaa Greene's lecture on the Iranian Marxist theorist Bizhan Jazani, presented to the Center for Marxist Education see https://www.facebook.com/CenterForMarxistEducation
By Doug Enaa Greene
April 30, 2015 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- The popular image of the Iranian Revolution in the United States focuses on a series of stereotypical bearded mullahs, an exotic and backward oriental society, and of course the seizure of the US embassy by frenzied masses. While it is true that the current government of Iran is a theocratic Islamic state that hijacked the revolution that brought down the US-backed Shah. There is another story, of brave and dedicated communist revolutionaries who sought the liberation of their people from capitalism, imperialism and the establishment of a revolutionary socialist state. Communists like the brilliant Bizhan Jazani, who thought seriously and sincerely about how to make a revolution in Iran.
ANZACs: New film reveals what should not be forgotten -- or forgiven
See also "Australia & New Zealand: The imperialist reality behind ANZAC myth". For more on World War I, click HERE
Film by John Rainford and Peter Ewer
April 24, 2015 -- Green Left TV/Green Left Weekly//Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- As the 100th anniversary of the ANZAC's ill-fated Gallipoli campaign approaches, this timely short film cuts through the myth making, and shows with damning facts how lives were used as fodder as strategic and tactical blunders led to the slaughter of so many.
It reveals the context behind the Gallipoli campaign - a war fought because the world had been cut up into colonies by the major powers who were now battling for the spoils.
The film shows exactly why the terrible ANZAC Cove campaign should never be forgotten — and the crimes of the warmongers responsible never forgiven.
Greece: European powers tighten the noose
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20150429032204im_/http://static1.demotix.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/a_scale_large/6900-4/photos/1424076689-antiausterity-rally-in-solidarity-with-greece-syriza-party_6912044.jpg)
For more analysis and discussion on SYRIZA's struggle against austerity, click HERE
By Stathis Kouvelakis
April 25, 2015 -- International Viewpoint, posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Events in Greece have taken a dramatic turn, and insolvency is at the gates. On April 20, the Greek government issued a decree forcing local authorities to place cash reserves at the Bank of Greece.
Two days later, Dimitris Mardas, the deputy minister of finance in charge of state revenue, declared that €400 million was missing to pay for pensions and salaries at the end of the month. A few hours later, he said the money was found and that he was now trying to constitute cash reserves. But according to sources, Mardas informed SYRIZA members of parliament at a meeting that same day that the state reserves wouldn’t be able to make all payments in May.
South Africa: Xenophobia or Afrophobia?
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20150429032204im_/http://allafrica.com/download/pic/main/main/csiid/00260289:6c579f50d6099143c50b7f18e462d662:arc614x376:w285:us1.png)
By Denja Yaqub, assistant secretary, Nigeria Labour Congress
April 20, 2015 -- Vanguard (Nigeria), posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Until 1994, for over a century, South Africa was locked against the rest of Africa and indeed the country and her people were not easily accessible to the rest of the world as the white minority used its might to impose racial segregation, which denied the majority black of everything, including quality of life. The rest of the world rose in support of the black majority in popular agitation for the liberation of a country held in the worst and unusual form of domination in all spheres of life.
The "support" given by the rest of the world was not because it was South Africa. It was because a part of humanity with legitimate rights to their land had been deprived and decimated only because they have resources of global economic values and not just because of the colour of their skin. Everyone saw the anti-apartheid struggle as a liberation struggle, an integral part of the global struggle against oppression, all forms of oppression.
Spain: Will fall of former IMF boss destroy People’s Party?
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20150429032204im_/http://estaticos01.elmundo.es/assets/multimedia/imagenes/2015/04/17/14292712422295.jpg)
For more on politics in Spain, click HERE.
By Dick Nichols, Barcelona
April 27, 2015 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- On April 16, a central member of the Spanish economic and political establishment came crashing down. Rodrigo Rato, former deputy prime minister in the 1996-2004 People’s Party (PP) government of José María Aznar and head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 2004 to 2007, was detained on suspicion of tax evasion, concealment of assets and fraud. At the same time it became public that Rato had also taken advantage of a 2012 government amnesty for tax cheats.
Although the former treasurer is no longer in detention, TV coverage of Rato being pushed into a police car like any other suspect continues to dominate comment in the bars and on the social media. Many commentators judge that his detention marks a turning point in Spanish politics.
Marta Harnecker interviewed: From Allende’s Chile to Chávez’s Venezuela
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20150429032204im_/http://www.aporrea.org/imagenes/2013/05/marta_harnecker.jpg)
Marta Harnecker interviewed by Isabel Rauber, introduction and translation by Richard Fidler
April 21, 2015 -- Life on the Left, posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with permission -- Marta Harnecker (above), a Marxist writer and lecturer of Chilean origin, is one of the foremost international exponents of the revolutionary process in Latin America today.
In the following interview she outlines some of the lessons she has derived from her experience with the Popular Unity government of Chile’s Salvador Allende (1970-73) that are applicable to current attempts in Latin America to build “an alternative society to capitalism that is essentially democratic”.
Saudi Arabia’s lesser known exports after oil: Wahhabism and pro-imperialism
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20150429032204im_/http://washingtonnote.com/twn_up_fls/King%20Abdullah%20Barack%20Obama.jpg)
US President Barack Obama fetes the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
By Rupen Savoulian
April 19, 2015 -- Antipodean Atheist, posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with author's permission -- Saudi Arabia’s aerial offensive against Yemen has continued for the fourth week at the time of writing. Yemen is undergoing a humanitarian crisis, with millions of Yemenis lacking basic access to food, clean drinking water and health care. The Saudi bombardment has only worsened the plight of the Yemenis, with schools destroyed, hospitals and health-care facilities targeted, and electricity supplies cut off. Basic infrastructure is being shattered, thus precipitating a catastrophic health situation for Yemeni residents.
Ukraine: Eyewitness to the war zone of eastern Ukraine
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20150429032204im_/http://newcoldwar.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Russia-begin-April-16-2015-076-34-300x200.jpg)
Residents of "October" district of Donetsk city hard hit by Ukraine army shelling speak to visiting media group on April 16, 2015. Photo Roger Annis.
More on the political situation in Ukraine.
By Roger Annis, Donetsk
April 20, 2015 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal, a version of this article was first published at CounterPunch -- -- I have just returned from participating in a four-day reporting tour to the city of Donetsk and the countryside that lies between Donetsk and the Russian city of Rostov to the south and east.
Scottish Socialist Party launches 2015 manifesto
![defy_the_bedroom_tax](http://web.archive.org./web/20150429032204im_/http://www.scottishsocialistparty.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/defy_the_bedroom_tax-1024x730.jpg)
For more on the Scottish Socialist Party, click HERE. Click HERE for more on left politics in Scotland
April 16, 2015 -- Scottish Socialist Party, posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- A commitment to a £10 an hour minimum living wage for all, defiance of austerity and the eradication of insecure zero-hour contracts are at the heart of the Scottish Socialist Party’s manifesto, launched today at the Augustine Church in Edinburgh.
On the demand for a £10 an hour living wage, to be implemented immediately:
“The other parties contesting these elections may cry crocodile tears about this widening divergence in earnings between working people and their bosses but they stand full square behind the neoliberal economic system that manufactures such inequalities. A competitive, modern Scottish economy cannot be constructed on slave wages.”
Other measures proposed include vastly expanded carer rights:
The ticking time bomb of Swaziland
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20150429032204im_/http://transformsa.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Zuma-Swazi-King-2.jpg)
South Africa's ANC President Jacob Zuma gives Swaziland tyrant Mswati III the red-carpet treatment.
For more on Swaziland, click HERE.
By Terry Bell, Cape Town
April 19, 2015 -- Terry Bell Writes, posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with permission -- The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), campaigning groups and labour-supporting members of the European parliament this month launched protests about the continued harassment and jailing of trade unionists and democracy campaigners in Swaziland. ITUC general secretary Sharan Burrow has noted that, in Swaziland, “Violations against the fundamental rights of workers have become systemic.”
But apart from a few verbal sallies from non-governmental groups, there has been silence from South Africa. And this should be deeply worrying to those who are concerned about deepening democracy on the continent and in ensuring that a wealthy, often corrupt — if not entirely melanin deficient — elite do not continue to dominate.
Thailand junta's backward, anti-democratic draft constitution
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20150429032204im_/http://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1399802/prayuth-chan-ocha.jpg)
By Giles Ji Ungpakorn
April 19, 2015 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Thailand's military junta’s new draft constitution is a pathetic, backward, anti-democratic and infantile document.
Just like the rantings of generalissimo Prayut Chan-ocha (pictured above), it is full of tub-thumping and shouting about the “duties” and “responsibilities” of Thai people to grovel to “Nation, Religion and King”. It is infantile in this because it is written by conservative idiots who think that by bullying the population into conforming to elite beliefs they can actually change peoples’ attitudes.
The infantilism gets worse when we get to part 2 of the constitution, which is headed; “Good Political Leaders and Good Representatives”. It doesn’t take much brain power to guess what the junta’s definition of “good” might be. High up on the list is loyalty to “Nation, Religion and King” and not being corrupt … blah blah blah. The whole thing sounds like some moral tale designed for a bad kindergarten.
Middle East: Saudi Arabia's US-backed war on Yemen
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20150429032204im_/https://ethnology.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/arabian.gif)
By Tony Iltis
April 13, 2015 -- Green Left Weekly, posted at Links International Joural of Socialist Renewal -- The United States is providing crucial support to regional ally Saudi Arabia ― a big buyer of US arms ― as it launches a new war in the Middle East by attacking neighbouring Yemen. A Saudi-led coalition of Western-aligned, mainly Sunni Islamist, Arab government's launched air, naval and ground military offensive against Yemen on March 25.
Saudi Arabian forces are being supported by military planes from the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan and Egypt, which is also supplying naval forces. The military intervention is in support of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, the Yemen president overthrown in January by a coalition led by Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthi movement. Ansar Allah is an armed movement based in the Zaydi religious minority, who are about 35% of Yemen's population.
The Saudi intervention has accelerated the civil war engulfing Yemen.
The World Health Organisation said on April 8 that at least 643 people had been killed and 2226 injured in Yemen between March 19 and April 6. The WHO said: “These are only health facility-based figures and casualty estimates are likely to continue to increase as additional cases are verified and reported.”
More than 334,000 people have been internally displaced and 254,400 have fled abroad.
'Extractivism' debate continues: Beyond lithium (and other poisons)
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20150429032204im_/http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/10291_Lithium_Mining.png)
The Uyuni Salt Flats in Bolivia are home to over half the world's lithium deposits.
For the complete "extractivism" discussion, click HERE.
By Don Fitz
April 17, 2015 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Policies that expand “extractivism” in progressive Latin American countries bring up a host of contradictions: How do the short-term benefits of financial gain from extraction compare to its long-term destructiveness? What options are available for reducing poverty without increasing mining, logging and GMO monocultures? Could the climate change effects of extraction actually hurt the world’s poor more than helping them? How can struggles against extractivism chart a path to economies based on human need rather corporate profits?
The lithium fantasy
Marta Harnecker: The origins of capitalist exploitation
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20150429032204im_/http://socialistworker.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/330/images/karl-marx4.jpg)
For more by or about Marta Harnecker, click HERE.
By Marta Harnecker, translated by María Poblete and Federico Fuentes
April 17, 2015 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- This text incorporates much of booklet #2 from the original series Cuadernos de Educación Popular (Booklets for Popular Education), which was titled “What is socialism?” and was written by Marta Harnecker in collaboration with Gabriela Uribe. This series was published in Chile during the Popular Unity government, lef by Salvador Allende, and was reprinted in various countries and languages. The text has been revised, some errors have been corrected, and supplementary examples and text boxes have been added, in order to make it easier to comprehend some of the complex ideas it tackles.
In this Booklet for Popular Education we hope to study the fundamental mechanism that explains why, under capitalism, you have a small group of people who possess a lot of wealth and enjoy an easy life, while a significant portion of workers find themselves in a very difficult situation.
Review: Why Scotland will never be the same again
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20150429032204im_/http://www.luath.co.uk/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/500x0/9d7aaf30d2a642e7a29e5e366ffcfb3a/9/7/9781910324479.jpg)
For more on Scotland and independence, click HERE.
The People’s Referendum: Why Scotland Will Never Be the Same Again
by Paul Geoghegan
Luath Press 2015
177 pages
Review by Alex Miller
April 16, 2015 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- The UK-wide general election for the Westminster parliament scheduled for May 7, 2015, looks set to be a very close, perhaps even closer than the 2010 election that resulted in the Labour Party being replaced by a Conservative Party-Liberal Democrat coalition government.
Raúl Castro: 'Cuba will continue to defend the ideas for which our people have sacrificed'
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20150429032204im_/http://www.cuba-solidarity.org.uk/images/news/raulpanama.jpg)
President Raúl Castro Ruz thanked the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean for their solidarity.
By Raúl Castro Ruz, president of Cuba
[Council of State transcript of Castro's speech to the Summit of the Americas in Panama.]
April 14, 2015 -- Granma, posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- It was high time I spoke here on behalf of Cuba. I was told at first that I could make an eight-minute speech; although I made a great effort, along with my foreign minister, to reduce it to eight minutes, and as I’m owed six summits from which we were excluded, six times eight, 48 (laughter and applause), I asked President Juan Carlos Varela [of Panama] a few moments before entering this magnificent hall, to allow me a few minutes more, especially after we have been hearing so many interesting speeches, and I am not only referring to that of President Obama, but also that of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, President Dilma Rousseff and others.
Kobayashi Takiji: Class struggle and proletarian literature in Japan
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20150429032204im_/http://booklikes.com/upload/post/9/3/931fe0554870c494085afa9de5b1202d.jpg)
The Crab Cannery Ship: and Other Novels of Struggle
By Kobayashi Takiji
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2013, 328 pages
[Scroll to the end for a video presentation of this article, and to Note 1 for Takiji Memorial: February 20, 2009, a three-part documentary tribute to Kobayashi Takiji, produced by Heather Bowen-Struyk.]
By Doug Enaa Greene
April 15, 2015 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- In 2008, one of the best-selling novels in Japan was an 80-year-old novel, Kanikosen (Crab Cannery Ship) by the communist author Kobayashi Takiji, detailing the wretched working conditions on a fishing ship and the crew's strike and determination to overthrow their oppressors. The novel, previously selling a moderate 5000 copies per year, shot up to sales of 500,000, along with the release of four manga versions reaching many more readers.
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