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Global Left Midweek - August 26, 2020

Argentinians across political lines issue anti-IMF manifesto, and reports from Canada, Germany, Greece, India, Philippines, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, and Zambia

A protest against the IMF in Buenos Aires in 2018. The banner reads “Down with Austerity, Macri, IMF, the Governors. No to the Payment of the Debt” ,Photo credit: Dan Ozarow
  1. Argentina Manifesto
  2. Victor Grossman: Left Shift in German SPD?
  3. Rights Leader Killed in Philippines
  4. Socialist Leaders Released in Zambia
  5. Catalan Leader Speaks From Prison
  6. New Left Electoral Bloc in Venezuela
  7. Canada: Time For Basic Income?
  8. Trinidad and Tobago: Racial Tensions
  9. Greece: Artists Fight
  10. CPIM Slipping in West Bengal

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Argentina Manifesto

Translated by Portside / original in Radio Gráfica (Buenos Aires)

No en los hombres es donde debe esperarse el término de nuestros males: el mal está en las instituciones" (General José de San Martín, March 8, 1830)

We, the social, labor, and political organizations, small businesses and other forces that form the National Manifesto for Sovereignty, Labor and Production, on this August 17, seek to vindicate the patriotic heroism of General José de San Martín, in his fight for the Independence of our homeland and the sovereignty of our Nation. Today we embrace the demand of the Argentinian people and their leaders to unite to open a time of hope after having gone to the polls and defeated neoliberalism, as expressed in the perverse policies promoted by the ex-President, now a fugitive, Mauricio Macri.

We assume the title at the head of this statement, because we are convinced that the reaffirmation of those values ​​of sovereignty and independence must be deepened.

After having faced a first stage of discussion of the runaway foreign debt, we now have a second stage of negotiation ahead of us with those who share responsibility for having generated the debt and the economic disaster that our country is going through, the International Monetary Fund, which consciously served fundamentally to facilitate and encourage capital flight.

Therefore, it is essential for our People to prevent any type of conditioning or imposition of fiscal adjustments - as is traditional in that body - that undermine the need to strengthen the role of the State in a sovereign development of productive, fiscal, monetary and financial, food, energy of our country, as we proposed in the presentation of the Manifesto on May 1st.

It is necessary to strengthen this course with a greater level of participation of the free organizations of the people in the definition of public policies, and guarantee the construction of the minimum basis for a dignified life, justice for our people and reparation for all economic and social losses that neoliberalism imposed on us. This will only be possible with an active State that collects taxes on large fortunes and prioritizes the interests of those most in need, to ignite the engine of the economy, the internal market for the development of national industry and of production in the fields and in the city.

In the search to achieve greater well-being for our people, it is necessary to guarantee work with a minimum income, and with the coordinated participation of all organizations to achieve, together with the State, the right to a job and the strengthening of national production.

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Manifiesto Nacional por la Soberanía, el Trabajo y la Producción.

CTA Autónoma – UTEP (Unión de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras de la Economía Popular) – Federación Argentina de Trabajadores de la Industria del Cuero y Afines y Federación Gráfica Bonaerense (CGT) – MNER (Movimiento Nacional de Empresas Recuperadas) – Consejo Productivo Nacional (Pymes) FEMPINRA (Federación Marítima Portuaria y de La Industria Naval de La República Argentina) – Federación de Inquilinos Nacional – Vía Campesina, La Cámpora, Movimiento Evita, Unidad Popular, Movimiento Octubres, Somos Barrios de Pie, Grupo Bolívar, Peronismo Militante – CTEP, CCC, Barrios de Pie, Frente Patria Grande, MTE, Frente Popular Darío Santillán, La Dignidad, CN Martín Fierro, OLP, Barrios de Pie-Libres del Sur, Kolina, CEEN Central de Entidades Empresarias Nacionales, ENAC Empresarios Nacionales para el Desarrollo Argentino, APYME, Sindicato de Canillitas Reg. Oeste, ATILRA, CGT Regional del Oeste (Merlo, Moreno, Marcos Paz), UTT (Unión de Trabajadores de la Tierra), Mesa de Unidad PyME ATE, AAPM, CONADU-H, FENAT (Federación Nacional territorial), MAR (Movimiento Argentina Rebelde), MAP (Movimiento de Acción Popular), CTD Aníbal Verón, FUBADEYO, CHE PIBE, Asociación Amas de Casa del País, Foro por la Niñez, Mesa Federal Peronismo 26 De Julio, Frente Social 17 de Octubre, SECEIC, AECPRA, CISPREN, SITRAIC, UCRA, SOEIL Ing. Ledesma, STA- Ing. El Tabacal, SOEASI- Ing. San Isidro, APJBO, SITEBA, NOS (Gastronómicos), UETTEL, Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Industria (CNTI-CTAA), SIPREBA, Asociación del Personal Superior de Energía (APSEE), Federación de Cooperativas de Trabajo Evita, Barrios Peronistas, Seamos Libres, FEDUN, Fed. SITECH. Docentes Chaco, UTEM Docentes Misiones, ADUCA Docentes Catamarca, SITEMCO Municipales Corrientes, UTEM Municipales V. María, Sin. Pe.Se. Do. Río Negro y Neuquén, SINDECAF San Juan, SINDECAF San Nicolás, APECAF Río IV, FAG Federación de Guardavidas, ABP Buzos Profesionales, GOA Odontológicos, PIPPSIR Psicólogos, SEI Inmobiliarios, ATSN Seguridad Neuquén, SUTRA Seguridad misiones, SIVISA Seguridad Salta, SATIVA (Vidrio), SUCEV (Costureros), SOMPTNTA, NUSISA (Salud privada), FETRAES Federación de Trabajadores de la Economía Social, UTRACOS (Comercio), ANTA (Trabajadores Autogestionados), Organización 22 de Agosto, Frente Pueblo en Lucha, Frente Social Nueva Independencia, MTL, Frente Desocupado Eva Perón, Movimiento Villero, Peronismo 26 de Julio, Encuentro Peronista, Palermo K, Coordinadora 25 de Mayo, Avanza, Venceremos, Frente de Organizaciones Populares (FOP), Federación de Organizaciones de Base (FOB), Frente Social 17 de Octubre, Pueblo Unido, FACTA (Federación Argentina de Cooperativas de Trabajadores autogestionados), FEDECABA (Federación De Cooperativas Autogestionadas de Buenos Aires), Federación Sindicatos de Trabajadores Municipales de Santa Fe (FESTRAM), Corriente Nacional del Pensamiento Político, Usina del Pensamiento Nacional, Movimiento Misioneros de Francisco, Centro Nueva Tierra, Organización Social y Política Los Pibes, SUMRA (Sindicato Único Cadete y Mensajeros República Argentina), Barrios Fuertes, Movimiento Lucha y Rebelión, Movimiento Nacional Compromiso Social, Liberación Popular, Frente Social Peronista, Barrios Unidos, konfluencia Popular, La Barriada, APSEE Asociación del Personal Superior de Empresas de Energía, AFoPe (Agrupación Forestal Peronista), Pariendo Una Nueva Sociedad, Federación Trabajadores Agrarios de la Actividad Primaria (FETAAP), Corriente Peronista 13 de Abril, NOSTAR (Remiseros), LLANKAJ MAKI (Originarios de Jujuy), Movimiento Territorial Liberación- Partido Comunista – Federación Juvenil Comunista, Centro de Ex Combatientes de Malvinas La Plata CECIM La Plata.

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Left Shift in German SPD?

Victor Grossman / The Left Berlin

SPD, Die Linke, and the Greens now work together in governing the city-states of Berlin and Bremen and the state of Thuringia; why not on a national level?

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Rights Leader Killed in Philippines

Ted Regencia / Al Jazeera (Doha)

Zara Alvarez, former education director of the human rights alliance Karapatan, died on the spot after being shot six times. She was the 13th member of the organisation killed since mid-2016, when Duterte came to power.

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Socialist Leaders Released in Zambia

Peoples Dispatch (New Delhi)

Cosmas Musumali was arrested along with nearly 30 other party workers while conducting a meeting. With the parliamentary by-elections only a month away, the ruling Patriotic Front has been cracking down on mobilizations and meetings by the opposition.

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Catalan Leader Speaks From Prison

Jordi Cuixart / Socialist Worker (London)

Cuixart, president of Omnium Cutural, the biggest pro-independence organisation in Catalonia, is serving a nine-year sentence for organising peaceful protests and defending Catalonia’s right to decide on its future.

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New Left Electoral Bloc in Venezuela

Paul Dobson / Venezuelanalysis (Caracas)

For the first time, the Homeland for All Party and Communist Party will lead an alternative coalition in parliamentary races December 6. The coalition will not include previous allies such as the ruling PSUV or smaller parties which are expected to back the government’s set of candidates.

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Canada: Time For Basic Income?

Dan Darrah / Canadian Dimension (Winnipeg)

The left has been grappling for basic income for decades, though its popularity of late is largely growing—not just among progressives, but on all sides of the political spectrum. 

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Trinidad and Tobago: Racial Tensions

Tanya Wadhwa / Peoples Dispatch

The Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union rejected racial divisions between Afro-Trinbagonians and Indo-Trinbagonians. People on the ground fear that there is a high risk of violence breaking out.

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Greece: Artists Fight

Laetitia Moreni / Equal Times (Brussels)

The national movement Support Art Workers, which has been bringing together people working in the culture sector, has given independent artists an opportunity to make their voices heard.

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CPIM Slipping in West Bengal

Snigdhendu Bhattacharya / The Wire (New Delhi)

In an internal letter, the party expressed serious concern about the diminishing youth share and proposed building up ‘militant movements’ and correcting errors on the part of the leadership.