As Colombia approaches presidential elections next year, the US decision to decertify the country in the war on drugs plays into the hands of its allies on the political right, writes NICK MacWILLIAM
The ongoing horrors of Manipur should concern us all
The shocking videos of women being abused as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing must provoke us to finally take action on this brutal injustice, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE MP
Student members of the Congress Party hold candles in Kolkata as they stand in solidarity with the people of Manipur during a protest rally demanding that Prime Minister Modi visit the affected areas
The move against alleged PKK members that sparked outrage as a community centre in north London was raided last year has now come to trial, writes TONY BURKE, but in the meantime, the peace process abroad has changed the situation almost entirely
A new report points a way to overcome complacent framing of climate issues, ‘by sparking a wider public reckoning with climate realities,’ and reconnecting with working-class people. IAN SINCLAIR reports
We cannot understand today’s world without understanding the rise of China – and we cannot understand China without understanding how it was shaped by the second world war, writes JENNY CLEGG
NICK WRIGHT reports from Italy, where 80 cities saw Gaza strikes as unions paralysed transport and massive crowds clashed with police in Milan — but France is also kicking off, and Westminster, in a very different way, is facing a crisis of legitimacy too
Escalating anti-China rhetoric from the West has a clear purpose – to manufacture consent for the new cold war, and potentially a hot one, argues CARLOS MARTINEZ
IN Manipur, it seems the state has ceased to exist; recent months have seen horrific events with widespread violence against Dalit communities and other minorities reaching horrific levels, with hundreds killed and injured.
The violence has also been gendered: as is so often the case, women are facing the worst. In Manipur, minority women have been raped and publicly humiliated as a weapon of war.
The latest outrage was documented in a viral video widely circulated on social media and reported upon by the international media of two Kuki-Zo women being sexually assaulted, paraded naked and raped, with disturbing footage showing the women weeping, crying in pain and begging their attackers to show mercy.
As more stories emerge, 80-year-old widow Sorokhaibam Ibetombi was burned alive, locked in her home by an armed mob who set it alight, and Thiendam Vaiphei was murdered at the hands of another mob who burned her and cut her throat.
This violence, particularly against women, is sadly not a new phenomenon. A 2014 report by the International Dalit Solidarity Network noted that “violence against Dalit women is systematically utilised to deny them opportunities, choices and freedoms at multiple levels, undermining not only Dalit women’s dignity and self-respect but also their right to development.” The report goes on to argue that:
More from this author
CLAUDIA WEBBE argues that Labour gains nothing from its adoption of right-wing stances on immigration, and seems instead to be deliberately paving the way for the far right to become an established force in British politics, as it has already in Europe
The Met Police arrested a staggering 890 people, many elderly, disabled, and even blind in a single demonstration — all to back up the government’s unhinged campaign against non-violent civil disobedience at the behest of Israel, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE
CLAUDIA WEBBE says a UN agency’s finding that Gaza’s famine, killing up to 400 people a day, is entirely man-made must prompt a renewed revolt against our government’s complicity in this horror
Starmer’s decision to suspend Diane Abbott yet again demonstrates a determination to maintain and propagate a hierarchy of racism, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE
