1. We declare our solidarity with the mass protests that have swept Iran in recent days. These are the latest in a cycle of protests that began with the Green movement of 2009-10 and embraced, most recently, the Women, Life, Freedom demonstrations of 2022. Today economic grievances and the political rejection of the Islamic Republican regime have fused. These protests are entirely justified by the denial of basic democratic freedoms and the growing material deprivation suffered by the mass of the population. We demand an end to the savage repression the protesters are suffering. 

2. We refuse the temptation to view this movement solely through the lens of geopolitics. The Iranian regime presents itself as a steadfast opponent of US imperialism. At the same time, however, as it is shooting down thousands of demonstrators, the regime is seeking negotiations with the ...

1. The US raids on Venezuela on the night of 2-3 January and the kidnapping and imprisonment of President Nicolás Maduro are naked acts of imperialist aggression. Donald Trump’s declaration that ‘we are going to run Venezuela’ sums up the arrogance of US power. His justifications – that Maduro is the boss of a drug cartel, that his regime is undemocratic, etc – are, to use one of his favourite words, fake. This is about removing a regime that, especially under Hugo Chávez, has long been a thorn in Washington’s side and seizing the largest oil reserves in the world. Trump gloats: ‘We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in.’ He has exposed the hollowness of his denunciations of previous US administrations’ ‘forever wars’ and attempts at regime change.

2. The ...

1. International Socialists in Africa salute the spirit of popular struggle lit in Kenya by youths who have taken to the streets in large numbers once more, despite the massive repression by the Kenyan state, led by President Ruto. This resistance is a beacon in an era marked by capitalist crises and mounting revolts. It calls for solidarity that unites us together in fightback against capitalism and imperialism in Africa, Palestine and worldwide. We draw the attention of the world once more to the fact that the Kenyan security forces killed over 16 protesters in June, and at least 31 more people on 7 July during the “Saba Saba” protests. Over 100 people were wounded as well, and 532 people arrested, while security forces also abducted ...

1 Early in the morning of 18 February the Turkish police rounded up 52 Kurdish and leftist activists as part of a wave of mass arrests. In a series of coordinated operations across ten provinces, numerous journalists, artists, and politicians were detained, and their access to legal representation was blocked. Over 300 people have been arrested since 14 February, and fears have been expressed that thousands more will fall victim to this clampdown.

2 The arrests on 18 February resulted from an investigation into the Peoples’ Democratic Congress (PDC). This was founded in 2011 when there were peace talks between the Kurdish freedom movement and the Turkish state headed by the AKP government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. It is a coalition of leftist and democratic parties, including the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), Its founders included many leftists ...