Iran’s Feminist Revolution – A conversation with local Iranian organisers
Masha Amini (or Jina Amini, her Kurdish name) was 22 years old when she was arrested in Tehran on 13 September 2022 by the Guidance Patrol (or “morality police”) of Iran for not wearing her hijab “correctly”. Three days later, she died in hospital. Leaked medical scans suggest this was a result of beatings by […]
Ill-Fates and Phosphate: Complicity in the Occupation of Western Sahara
In Morocco-occupied Western Sahara lies what the UN has labelled “Africa’s last colony”. In the last few decades over 160,000 people have been displaced (particularly into camps in Algeria), and others killed or disappeared for the crime of existing on resource-rich land. The desert landscape of Western Sahara is extremely rich in phosphate, a valuable […]
‘Lets Have This Fight’: Sudan Resisting a Coup
“A sense of relief” is how Sudanese political activist Muzan Alneel, speaking via Zoom from the capital, Khartoum, describes the mood on the streets of Sudan in the first hours of the coup on 25 October. “I remember seeing people come into the street singing, like they’re singing against the coup and they’re singing against […]
Ten Years after the Arab Spring
Ten years ago today, a young fruit vendor in Tunisia, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on fire after being harassed by the police. Shortly thereafter, protests started in Tunisia and quickly spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa. What can socialists learn from the Arab Spring and its aftermath? Ten years ago, in a small […]
Reaction and Resistance in the Middle East
For a while in January it looked as if the United States was about to plunge the Middle East into another dangerous round of war. First there was the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, an act of war, and clear violation of US and international law. The contempt the US ruling class – Democratic and […]
A new decade begins in crisis
Trump’s assassination of Iran’s top general Qasem Soleimani by drone strike at a civilian airport, has caused an uproar and may lead to a regional war, with Iran striking back at US Military bases in the region. Every detail that comes out in this crisis is more shocking than the last. But focusing on the […]
An Act of Cultural Resistance
The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story by Ramzy Baroud (Pluto Press, London 2018) Ramzy Baroud’s The Last Earth is a collection of eight narratives told by ordinary Palestinians who have, in their own way, struggled against the violence inflicted upon their country by Israel over the past one hundred years. The book bears witness to […]
Rallying for Syria
Around 80 people gathered in Aotea square today in Auckland representing different groups supporting the free peoples of Syria and condemning the barbaric and brutal attacks of Assad and his Russian backers. In Wellington on Friday 30 people held a rally outside the Russian Consul to protest Russia’s involvement in the bombings. The crimes in […]
Wellington solidarity with Syria
Around 60 people gathered outside the Russian embassy in Karori on Saturday afternoon to protest Russia’s military support for the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. The Russian state is helping to maintain the Assad dictatorship by providing crucial air support in the regime’s attempts to crush the Syrian revolution. Since September last year, Russian air […]
Why we support the Palestinian rebellion
Young Palestinians across the Occupied Territories have continued to clash with the Israeli military, while inside Israel more than 20,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel have taken to the streets to call for an end to the country’s apartheid and occupation polices. Thirty-three Palestinians are now dead, including 7 children. Thousands more are injured. As each day passes, more […]
