protests

Just as this piece was ready to go online, yet another blatant police shooting of a black US citizen in full sight has triggered angry protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Jacob Blake has been left paralysed from the waist down. Added to the re-run of nightime curfews, tooled-up police and National Guard lining up against protesters came a follower of "Blue Lives Matter": 17 year old Kyle Rittenhouse, with loaded rifle, promptly shot three people, killing two of them.

There is now “a state of emergency” in Beirut. No, not to deal with the devastating explosion in its port which left 200 people dead or missing, over 6,000 injured and 300,000 homeless. The “state of emergency” is to protect the political and economic elite from the anger of the Lebanese population who were already on their knees before the explosion on 4 August.

Recently we have written about the background and escalation of the current opposition movement in Belarus, but in the days that followed the situation has already changed by quite a bit – with various developments in the struggle against Lukashenko’s regime. Particularly interesting are the news on the industrial action front.

The following leaflet was given out in various cities across Italy on 6 June on the occasion of demonstrations by the various rank and file (Cobas) unions against the imposed return to work whilst the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage.