On May 2, 2022, a statement was made by Mali’s military spokesperson Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga on the country’s national television, where he said that Mali was ending the defense accords it had with France, effectively making the presence of French troops in Mali illegal. The statement was written by the military leadership of the country, which has been in power since May 2021.

Colonel Maïga said that there were three reasons why Mali’s military had taken this dramatic decision. The first was that they were reacting to France’s “unilateral attitude,” reflected in the way France’s military operated in Mali and in the June 2021 decision by French President Emmanuel Macron to withdraw French forces from the country “without consulting Mali.” France’s military forces moved to nearby Niger thereafter and continued to fly French military planes over Malian airspace. These violations of Malian airspace “despite the establishment of a temporary no-fly zone by the Malian military authorities” constituted the second reason for the new declaration, according to the statement. Thirdly, Mali’s military had asked the French in December 2021 to revise the France-Mali Defense Cooperation treaty. Apparently, France’s answer to relatively minor revisions from Mali on April 29 displeased the military, which then issued its statement a few days later.

‘Neither Peace, Nor Security, Nor Reconciliation’

Over the past few years, French forces in Mali have earned a reputation for ruthless use of aerial power that has resulted in countless civilian casualties. A dramatic incident took place on January 3, 2021, in the village of Bounti in the central Mopti region of Mali, not far from Burkina Faso. A French drone strike killed 19 civilians who were part of a wedding party. France’s Defense Minister Florence Parly said, “The French armed forces targeted a terrorist group, which had been formally identified as such.” However, an investigation by the United Nations mission in Mali (the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, or MINUSMA) found that the French drone fired at a marriage celebration attended by about 100 people (which might have included five armed persons).

Two months later, on March 5, 2021, in the village of Talataye, east of Bounti, a French airstrike killed three teenage children and injured two others, who were all out hunting birds. The father of the three deceased children—Adamou Ag Hamadou, a shepherd—said that the children had taken their cattle to drink water and then had gone off to hunt birds with their two hunting rifles. “When I arrived at the scene of the airstrike,” Ag Hamadou remembered, “there were other people from this [hunting] camp. From 1 p.m. until 6 p.m., we were able to collect the pieces of their bodies that we buried.”

These are some of the most dramatic incidents. Others litter the debate over the French military intervention in Mali, but few of these stories make it beyond the country’s borders. There are several reasons for the global indifference to these civilian deaths, one of them being that these atrocities perpetrated by Western states during their interventions in Africa do not elicit outrage from the international press, and another is that the French have consistently denied even well-proven incidents of what should be considered war crimes.

For example, on June 8, 2019, French soldiers fired at a car in Razelma, outside Timbuktu, killing three civilians (one of them a young child). The French military made a bizarre statement about the killing. On the one hand, the French said that the killing was “unintentional.” But then, on the other hand, the French authorities said that the car was suspicious because the car did not stop despite warning shots being fired at it. Eyewitnesses said that the driver of the car was helping a family move to Agaghayassane and that they were not linked to any terrorist group. Ahmad Ag Handoune, who is a relative of those killed in this attack and who drove up to the site after the incident, said that the French soldiers “took gasoline and then poured it on the vehicle to set everything on fire so that nothing was identifiable.”

Protests against the French military presence have been taking place for over a year, and it is plausible to say that the May 2021 military coup, which installed the present military leadership of the country to power, was partly due to both the failure of the French intervention in Mali to bring about stability and its excesses. 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.”

No Way Forward

On the day that the Malians said that the presence of French troops on their soil was illegal with the ending of the defense accords, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres paid a visit to neighboring Niger. When France’s army withdrew from Mali, they relocated to Niger, whose president, Mohamed Bazoum, tweeted his welcome to these troops. Guterres, standing beside Bazoum, said that terrorism is “not just a regional or African issue, but one that threatens the whole world.”

No one denies the fact that the chaos in the Sahel region of Africa was deepened by the 2011 NATO war against Libya. Mali’s earlier challenges—including a decades-long Tuareg insurgency and conflicts between Fulani herders and Dogon farmers—were now convulsed by the entry of arms and men from Libya and Algeria. Three jihadi groups appeared in the country as if from nowhere—Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Movement for the Unification of Jihad in the African West, and Ansar Dine. They used the older tensions to seize northern Mali in 2012 and declared the state of Azawad. French military intervention followed in January 2013.

Iyad Ag Ghali, a Tuareg leader from Kidal, fought in Libya and Mali. In the early 2000s, Ag Ghali set up the Alliance for Democracy and Change, which advocated for Tuareg rights. “Soft-spoken and reserved,” said a 2007 U.S. Embassy cable about him. “Ag Ghali showed nothing of the cold-blooded warrior persona created by the Malian press.” After a brief stint as a diplomat to Saudi Arabia, Ag Ghali returned to Mali, befriended Amadou Koufa, the leader of the Macina Liberation Front, and drifted into the world of Sahelian jihad. In a famous 2017 audio message, Amadou Koufa said, “The day that France started the war against us, no Fulani or anyone else was practicing jihad.” That kind of warfare was a product of NATO’s war on Libya and the arrival of Al Qaeda, and later ISIS, to seek local franchise with local grievances to nurture their ambitions.

Conflicts in Mali, as the former President Alpha Oumar Konaré said over a decade ago, are inflamed due to the suffocation of the country’s economy. Neither did the country receive any debt relief nor infrastructure support from the West or international organizations. This landlocked state of more than 20 million people imports 70 percent of its food, the prices for which have skyrocketed in recent weeks, and could further worsen food insecurity in Mali. Part of the instability of the post-NATO war has been the military coups in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso. Mali faces harsh sanctions from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), sanctions that will only deepen the crisis and provoke greater conflict north of Mali’s capital, Bamako.

Anti-French sentiment is not the whole story in Mali. What France and other global leaders need to recognize is that there are many larger questions at the root of the issues Malians face—questions around their livelihood and their dignity, which need to be answered to secure a better future for the country.

This article was produced by Globetrotter. Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter. He is the chief editor of LeftWord Books and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He is a senior non-resident fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China. He has written more than 20 books, including The Darker Nations and The Poorer Nations. His latest book is Washington Bullets, with an introduction by Evo Morales Ayma.

May 11 – At the invitation of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) and the World Peace Council (WPC), the VII International Seminar for Peace and Abolition of Foreign Military Bases was held. Delegates from anti-imperialist, peace and solidarity movements gathered since Wednesday to debate current issues of peace work within the framework of the WPC’s “Regional Continental Meeting of the Americas and the Caribbean.” The event was attended by delegates from 23 countries and 70 Cubans.

After a welcome by the governor of Guantánamo Province, Emilio Matos Mosqueda, the president of ICAP, Fernando González Llort, opened the seminar with the words: “The planet needs peace now more than ever, and to achieve it we need unity.” He thanked those present for their solidarity with Cuba. Silvio Platero, leader of the Cuban peace movement, added that the meeting was taking place “under difficult conditions” because the United States was stepping up its aggression against Cuba and other Latin American countries. This also includes tightening economic sanctions under the blockade that has lasted for more than 60 years.

Return demanded

The seminar is taking place “in a complex context characterized by the increasing aggressiveness and interference of U.S. imperialism and NATO, media propaganda wars, military conflicts and tensions in the world,” said González. The Cuban people therefore demand compliance with the United Nations Charter by “returning occupied territories to their rightful owners.” The area of ​​the U.S. Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, which has been occupied by the U.S. since 1903, is “the oldest imperialist outpost in the world,” which Washington uses to supply the U.S. fleet with logistical supplies and has repeatedly been “the starting point for invasions of Latin American countries and the whole world.”

Under the banner “Guantánamo – World Capital for the Restoration of Peace,” WPC President Maria do Socorro Gomes condemned the “unlawful appropriation of Cuban territory” and the atrocities commited in the Guantanamo torture camp. “This deeply affects all of us who defend human rights and peace,” she said. In the Russia-Ukraine conflict, too, NATO played the decisive role “as the spark of the war.” The president called for “breaking the siege of the media that distorts the truth.” The WPC is “against the permanent establishment of military bases in sovereign countries.” They serve “the exercise of domination.”

With around 800 U.S. military bases in 100 countries around the world, U.S. policy was at the center of the debates. As a representative from the U.S., Gloria Verdieu spoke for the Socialist Unity Party and the group Women In Struggle and recalled the developments since the last international seminar in 2019. Cuba has achieved a lot despite the coronavirus pandemic. The implementation of its immunization program has not only benefited the Cuban people, but also those most in need of vaccines and medical supplies around the world through the dispatch of doctors and medicines.

“But what did the U.S. rulers do during this time?” asked Verdieu. They failed in their attempts to contain the coronavirus “because they are relying on the market instead of pursuing a democratic and common approach with the international community,” said the socialist. “Too little and too late” have they helped to fight the virus, especially on the African continent.

Danger of a world war

Now the U.S. government is exacerbating the crisis by misappropriating another $33 billion needed to fight the spread of the virus “to finance a proxy war in Ukraine, including arming Nazi regiments there.” This only exacerbates “NATO’s hunger for oil profits and regime change in Russia and China,” according to Verdieu. Since the unilateral dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, NATO has expanded from 17 to 30 member states. The 1999 bombing war against Yugoslavia claimed thousands of lives. 

“The recent U.S.-NATO proxy war, in which the media acts as a propaganda force,” Verdieu said, not only carries a serious risk of triggering World War III, but “exacerbates the national and international crises of global warming, critical health care shortages and hunger – crises that affect children the most.”

At the conclusion of the seminar on Thursday, delegates visited Caimanera, a small fishing village that borders the illegal U.S. naval base, to get an idea of ​​the area cordoned-off by the U.S. military. There, in the presence of the villagers, the final communiqué was read. The goal is to “strengthen the unity of the global campaign against U.S. and NATO foreign military bases” through “massive national actions coordinated with other anti-war and environmental organizations” to “denounce the possession and growth of military bases in our region and around the world.”

Background: Guantanamo Bay

In 1898, during the Spanish-American War, the U.S. conquered areas of the old colonial power Spain and occupied Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines. Although Cuba was formally granted independence in the “Peace of Paris,” Washington took the island under its “military administration” and, through the Platt Amendment of 1901, contractually secured a right of intervention “in the event of internal unrest” and the territorial claim of a port for the U.S. Navy. In 1903, the U.S. and Cuba signed a 99-year contract for the 117.6 square kilometer area in Guantanamo Bay as a “coal loading station” for their steam-powered war fleet at a lease price of $2,000 a year. Washington’s condition was “complete jurisdiction and control” over the area.

Source: junge Welt 

On Wednesday, May 11, senior Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, 51 years old, was killed by Israeli security forces while she was covering a raid in the Jenin refugee camp in occupied West Bank. She was shot in the face despite wearing a press vest which identified her as a journalist. Another Palestinian journalist and Akleh’s colleague Ali al-Samoudi was also wounded in the shooting. He was shot in the back and was admitted to a hospital where he was reported to be out of danger.

In response to the grave human rights violations and violation to the freedom of press over twenty progressive news outlets, including TeleSUR TV and Pan African TV, signed the following statement condemning the assassination of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh:

We, a group of progressive news publications from around the world, condemn the brutal assassination of our colleague Shireen Abu Akleh at the hands of the Israeli Occupation Forces.

Shireen, a skilled and sensitive journalist at Al Jazeera, was covering a violent raid on the Jenin refugee camp by Israeli forces when she, and other journalists, were shot at by Israeli snipers despite being clearly identified as a journalist. Shireen, who was wearing a helmet and a bullet-proof vest, was killed by a shot to the face. Her colleague Ali al-Samoudi was also shot and injured but is recovering.

Statements released by Israeli officials and mainstream media attempting to shift responsibility for her death away from Israeli forces are irresponsible. Further, her death is not an anomaly nor accidental. Over the last several years, Palestinian journalists have been repeatedly targeted by the Israeli state, suffering judicial harassment and violence at the hands of Israeli forces. We also remember Yaser Murtaja, a Palestinian videographer and photo journalist, who was killed when covering the Great March of Return in the Gaza Strip on April 7, 2018.

We stand with the people of Palestine who continue to resist the violent Israeli apartheid regime and the brave journalists who put their lives on the line to tell their stories.

Palestine Chronicle
Ajans Près Popilè Ayisyèn (Haiti)
Agencia Latinoamericana de Información – ALAI
Al-Mayadeen (Lebanon)
ARG Medios (Argentina)
Barricada TV (Argentina)
Brasil de Fato (Brazil)
Breakthrough News (United States)
Capire
Cartago TV (Argentina)
Colombia Informa (Colombia)
Dialogos do Sul (Brazil)
El Ciudadano (Chile)
The Insight Newspaper (Ghana)
Jornalistas Livres (Brazil)
Kawsachun News (Bolivia)
Liberation News (United States)
Madaar
Nativa (Bolivia)
NewsClick (India)
New Frame (South Africa)
Pan African Television (Ghana)
Peoples Dispatch
Pressenza International Press Agency
Radyo Rezistans (Haití)
Reporteros de Investigación (Honduras)
Resumen Latinoamericano (Argentina, Cuba and United States)
Struggle-La Lucha (United States)
TeleSUR TV

(Español) Israel debe poner fin a sus ataques asesinos contra periodistas y personas palestinas

Nosotros y nosotras, un grupo de medios de comunicación progresistas de todo el mundo, condenamos el brutal asesinato de nuestra colega Shireen Abu Akleh a manos de las Fuerzas de Ocupación israelíes.

Shireen, una reconocida y sensible periodista de Al Jazeera, estaba cubriendo una violenta redada de las fuerzas israelíes en el campamento de refugiados de Jenin, cuando ella y otros periodistas, fueron baleados por francotiradores israelíes a pesar de estar claramente identificados como periodistas. Shireen, que llevaba casco y chaleco antibalas, murió de un disparo en la cara. Su colega Ali al-Samoudi también recibió un disparo y resultó herido, pero se encuentra en recuperación.

De manera irresponsable, funcionarios israelíes y medios de comunicación hegemónicos han intentado exculpar a las fuerzas israelíes por la muerte de Shireen. Sin embargo, su muerte no es una excepción ni un accidente. A lo largo de los últimos años, los y las periodistas palestinos han sido reiteradamente objetivos del Estado israelí, sufriendo acoso judicial y violencia a manos de las fuerzas del país. Recordamos también a Yaser Murtaja, videógrafo y fotoperiodista palestino, asesinado cuando cubría la Gran Marcha del Retorno en la Franja de Gaza el 7 de abril de 2018.

Nos solidarizamos con el pueblo Palestino que sigue resistiendo al violento régimen de apartheid israelí y con los y las valientes periodistas que se juegan la vida para contar sus historias.

Source: Peoples Dispatch

FRIDAY AT 6 PM
Emergency Rally

Dear readers and friends,

Your help is urgently needed at this time.

Struggle-La Lucha’s John Parker is in the Lugansk People’s Republic, reporting from the frontline of the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine. John is interviewing Donbass residents who’ve lived under eight years of Ukrainian bombing and occupation, bearing witness to war crimes committed by Ukraine in the name of NATO expansion. He’s traveling alongside Ukrainian activists forced into exile after the U.S.-backed Maidan coup in 2014.

Despite considerable expense, logistical challenges and personal risk to himself, John undertook this journey because it is so important for workers and oppressed communities here to get factual information about the conflict that is being censored by Washington, the corporate monopoly media and Big Tech social media companies. He knows that the people’s movement must challenge the U.S. government’s diversion of billions of dollars needed for housing, education, health care and pandemic control at home to a bloody war for Big Energy profits. Washington’s alliance with neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Ukraine must be exposed as we continue the fight racist police terror here.

John Parker brings considerable know-how to the job. He is currently the Socialist Unity Party candidate for U.S. Senate in California on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket. In the past, he traveled to other hot spots in countries targeted by U.S. imperialism, including Iraq and Sudan alongside former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark. Most recently, he attended the inauguration of President Xiomara Castro in Honduras at the invitation of the Libre Party.

Struggle-La Lucha’s coverage of the war crisis in Ukraine and Donbass has been absolutely unique in the U.S. Our writers have followed the anti-fascist struggle of the Donbass republics and Ukrainian underground for many years. We raised the alarm last year that Washington was deliberately creating a situation that would force Russia to respond militarily to prevent a genocidal Ukrainian invasion of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. While other alternative media quickly fell in line with the U.S. anti-Russia narrative, we continue to fearlessly speak out and print the truth: that Washington’s proxy war against Russia threatens not only the people of Donbass and Ukraine, but Europe, Asia, Africa, in fact the whole world.

It’s not just words. We organized the first webinar to bring the voices of Donbass to the U.S. anti-war movement; held protests and community educational events when larger anti-war groups were unwilling to take the streets; and now, John Parker’s visit to Russia and Donbass to bring a message of solidarity to the people resisting the U.S. and NATO and to bring back truthful information to people here at home.

We need your help to keep doing this vital work. Because of U.S. sanctions and restrictions, travel to the region costs thousands of dollars. Please donate generously to help cover the cost of John’s trip to the front line and enable us to continue this essential work.

Donate to Struggle-La Lucha online or make a check payable to Struggle-La Lucha and send to: 703 East 37th St., Baltimore Maryland 21218.

A huge thank you,

Struggle-La Lucha writers and staff

(5/7/22) edited 8:30am Cuba Time

On Friday morning an explosion occurred at the Saratoga Hotel in Old Havana. While details are still emerging, officials have ruled out the possibility that it was an attack and attribute it to gas being transferred from a truck. At the moment 50 adults and 14 children have been hospitalized, and 21 adults and 1 minor have lost their lives. Not only has the Saratoga Hotel suffered structural damage, but so have 23 other nearby buildings, including 15 apartments which completely collapsed. The headquarters of the Yoruba Association and the Baptist Church have also been damaged.

The speed and efficiency with which Cuba has been able to mobilize in response is a testament to strong organization and the resilience of the island. In the chaos, five priorities for the Cuban government have emerged: (1) take care of the affected families, (2) recovery of the hotel and damaged homes, (3) relocation of the children from the school located next to the hotel and recovery of that educational center, (4) rescue of all affected facilities, and (5) timely information to the population.

Tragedy has been met with everyday citizens “who attended the place with a lot of discipline and willing[ness] to help in anything”, according to Reinaldo Garcia Zapata, Governor of Havana. This included young people joining the search for missing parties and lending their hands to dig through the rubble that remains. By 8 pm Eastern, Havana blood banks received 1,500 donations.

The National Network on Cuba offers our condolences to all those directly affected, the Cuban people, their government and their Party. We stand in solidarity with all Cubans across the island who are reeling from this recent tragedy, and struggle daily to defend their national sovereignty against the ongoing U.S. blockade that impacts every part of Cuban life.

We call on our NNOC member organizations, U.S. elected officials, and all people of goodwill to strengthen our efforts to end the U.S. economic, financial, commercial and media war against this island. Cuba is a beacon for the preservation and defense of life and human rights.

Under NNOC, several solidarity projects have emerged over these last two years of the pandemic. Already, they include Puentes de Amor caravans, resolutions from cities across the country now representing more than 41 million U.S. residents, Project EL PAN food donations, the reconstruction campaigns that will be launched; solidarity and educational trips to Cuba like the May Day Brigade (which currently has a delegation in country and stands in support of the Cuban people), Venceremos Brigade and IFCO/Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravans, which bring people to learn and shine light on the truth about the heroic Cuban people and their revolutionary project.

It is no secret that Cuba is one of the few places in the world where the right to free health care, free education, sports and culture is constitutionally guaranteed; where you are not asked for your insurance before getting medical attention, nor thrown out because you can’t pay the medical bill, where the quality of education is not determined by property taxes and where foreclosures and evictions do not exist.

Let’s stand with Cuba as she has stood for so many other countries during times of peace and disaster! Let’s give her all we’ve got!

#VamosConTodo #FuerzaCuba

The world wants to see an end to the conflict in Ukraine. The NATO countries, however, want to prolong the conflict by increasing arms shipments to Ukraine and by declaring that they want to “weaken Russia.” The United States had already allocated $13.6 billion to arm Ukraine. Biden has just requested $33 billion more. By comparison, it would require $45 billion per year to end world hunger by 2030.

Even if negotiations take place and the war ends, an actual peaceful solution will not likely be possible. Nothing leads us to believe that geopolitical tensions will decrease, since behind the conflict around Ukraine is an attempt by the West to halt the development of China, to break its links with Russia, and to end China’s strategic partnerships with the Global South.

In March, commanders of the U.S. Africa Command (General Stephen J. Townsend) and Southern Command (General Laura Richardson) warned the U.S. Senate about the perceived dangers of increased Chinese and Russian influence in Africa as well as Latin America and the Caribbean. The generals recommended that the United States weaken the influence of Moscow and Beijing in these regions. This policy is part of the 2018 national security doctrine of the United States, which frames China and Russia as its “central challenges.”

No Cold War

Latin America does not want a new cold war. The region has already suffered from decades of military rule and austerity politics justified based on the so-called “communist threat.” Tens of thousands of people lost their lives and many tens of thousands more were imprisoned, tortured, and exiled only because they wanted to create sovereign countries and decent societies. This violence was a product of the U.S.-imposed cold war on Latin America.

Latin America wants peace. Peace can only be built on regional unity, a process that began 20 years ago after a cycle of popular uprisings, driven by the tsunami of neoliberal austerity, led to the election of progressive governments: Venezuela (1999), Brazil (2002), Argentina (2003), Uruguay (2005), Bolivia (2005), Ecuador (2007), and Paraguay (2008). These countries, joined by Cuba and Nicaragua, created a set of regional organizations: the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America–Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) in 2004, the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) in 2008, and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in 2011. These platforms were intended to increase regional trade and political integration. Their gains were met with increased aggression from Washington, which sought to undermine the process by attempting to overthrow the governments in many of the member countries and by dividing the regional blocs to suit Washington’s interests.

Brazil

Because of its size and its political relevance, Brazil was a key player in these early organizations. In 2009, Brazil joined with Russia, India, China, and South Africa to form BRICS, a new alliance with the goal to rearrange the power relations of global trade and politics.

Brazil’s role did not please the White House, which—avoiding the crudeness of a military coup—staged a successful operation, in alliance with sectors of the Brazilian elite, that used the Brazilian legislature, judiciary system, and media to overthrow the government of President Dilma Rousseff in 2016 and to cause the arrest of President Lula in 2018 (who was then leading the polls in the presidential election). Both were accused of a corruption scheme involving the Brazilian state oil company, and an investigation by Brazil’s judiciary known as Operation Car Wash ensued. The participation of both the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI in that investigation was revealed following a massive leak of the Telegram chats of Operation Car Wash’s lead prosecutor. However, before the U.S. interference was uncovered, the removal of Lula and Dilma from politics brought the right wing back to power in Brasília; Brazil no longer played a leading role in either the regional or the global projects that could weaken U.S. power. Brazil abandoned UNASUR and CELAC, and remains in BRICS only formally—as is also the case with India—weakening the perspective of strategic alliances of the Global South.

Turning tide

In recent years, Latin America has experienced a new wave of progressive governments. The idea of regional integration has returned to the table. After four years without a summit meeting, CELAC reconvened in September 2021 under the leadership of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Argentine President Alberto Fernández. Should Gustavo Petro win the Colombian presidential election in May 2022, and Lula win his campaign for reelection to Brazil’s presidency in October 2022, for the first time in decades, the four largest economies in Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia) would be governed by the center-left, notably supporters of Latin American and Caribbean integration. Lula has said that if he wins the presidency, Brazil will return to CELAC and will resume an active stance in BRICS.

The Global South might be prepared to reemerge by the end of the year and create space for itself within the world order. Evidence for this is in the lack of unanimity that greeted NATO’s attempt to create the largest coalition to sanction Russia. This NATO project has aroused a backlash around the Global South. Even governments that condemn the war (such as Argentina, Brazil, India, and South Africa) do not agree with NATO’s unilateral sanction policy and prefer to support negotiations for a peaceful solution. The idea of resuming a movement of the nonaligned — inspired by the initiative launched at the conference held in Bandung, Indonesia, in 1955 — has found resonance in numerous circles.

Their intention is correct. They seek to de-escalate global political tensions, which are a threat to the sovereignty of countries and tend to negatively impact the global economy. The spirit of nonconfrontation, and peace, of the Bandung Conference is urgent today.

But the Non-Aligned Movement emerged as a refusal by Third World countries to choose a side in the polarization between the United States and USSR during the Cold War. They were fighting for their sovereignty and the right to have relations with the countries of both systems, without their foreign policy being decided in Washington or Moscow.

This is not the current scenario. Only the Washington-Brussels axis (and allies) demand alignment with their so-called “rules-based international order.” Those who do not align suffer from sanctions applied against dozens of countries (devastating entire economies, such as those of Venezuela and Cuba), illegal confiscation of hundreds of billions of dollars in assets (as in the cases of Venezuela, Iran, Afghanistan, and Russia), invasions and interference resulting in genocidal wars (as in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Afghanistan), and outside support for “color revolutions” (from Ukraine in 2014 to Brazil in 2016). The demand for alignment comes only from the West, not from China or Russia.

Humanity faces urgent challenges, such as inequality, hunger, the climate crisis, and the threat of new pandemics. To overcome them, regional alliances in the Global South must be able to institute a new multipolarity in global politics. But the usual suspects may have other plans for humanity.

This article was produced by the Morning Star and Globetrotter. Marco Fernandes is a researcher at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research (a pillar of the International Peoples’ Assembly). He is a member of the No Cold War campaign and is a co-founder and co-editor of News on China (Dongsheng). He lives in Shanghai.

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May 7 – Yesterday we were at the current front line in the Lugansk People’s Republic. We were successful and got lots of interviews from folks who are in shelters who have nowhere else to go because of the bombings of their homes by the U.S.-armed Ukrainian forces.

You can see many apartment buildings bombed and hear stories of people’s shock at seeing Ukrainian soldiers shooting at civilians, who are mostly Russian, but not all. One woman told us that she is of Ukrainian ethnicity but denounces what the Ukrainian government is doing. Everyone I spoke to said that if it wasn’t for the Russian soldiers there, they may not even be alive.

While we were downstairs where people were gathered for their protection, a shell was lodged at another apartment near us. You can hear the booms of bombs so frequently it becomes like white noise.

And, given the nature of many of the Ukrainian troops in the Azov regiment, Right Sector and other neo-Nazi groupings that are in many cases leading the military – given that – perhaps the phrase “white noise” is very appropriate.