Europe newsletter: news from the social movements and the left

United Nations OHCHR: Honour slain French teacher Samuel Paty by defending rights, defying fundamentalism – UN experts

GENEVA (15 October 2021) – On the first anniversary of the murder of French school teacher Samuel Paty, UN experts paid tribute to his commitment to teaching human rights values and said the best way to honour him is to defy fundamentalism and defend human rights.
Mr. Paty was beheaded by an extremist on 16 October 2020 near the school where he taught in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, outside of Paris, following a social media campaign that misrepresented his attempts to teach freedom of (...)

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Die Linke's Defeat Is a Dire Warning for the Left

In September's German election, the socialist Die Linke party slumped to under 5 percent support. If the Left is to recover, it needs to show that it's still on the side of disenfranchised working-class voters.
There's no sense putting lipstick on a pig: the German federal election, in which the socialist party Die Linke won only 4.9 percent of the vote, was an unmitigated disaster for the Left.
In the September 26 vote, the party's support was nearly halved, compared to the last such contest (...)

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Russian Revolution – Beyond Kronstadt. “Learning from accomplishments, mistakes and tragedies”

One must go beyond Kronstadt to understand Kronstadt. One must grasp, first of all, the struggle for human liberation and the hope of Communism.i
From revolutionary Russia in October 1917, John Reed, sent a cable back to his socialist comrades in the United States: “The rank and file of the Workmen's, Soldiers' and Peasants' Councils are in control, with Lenin and Trotsky leading. Their program is to give the land to the peasants, to socialize natural resources and industry and for an (...)

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Colonialism: France holds on to its island pearls in the South Pacific

The strategic interests of Australia, France and its South Pacific dependencies are not necessarily aligned, Nic Maclellan argues.
The recent visit to Australia and New Caledonia by French President Emmanuel Macron highlights France's economic and strategic interests in the Pacific islands. The Macron government is actively seeking to influence regional policy on the ‘Blue Pacific' – a new regional policy framework for the oceans promoted by the Pacific Islands Forum.
France's renewed (...)

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Britain: Private hospitals treated just eight Covid patients a day during pandemic – report

Exclusive: Private hospitals in England also performed far fewer operations on NHS-funded patients despite multi-billion pound deal with government.
Private hospitals treated a total of just eight Covid patients a day during the pandemic despite a multi-billion pound deal with the government to help stop the NHS being overwhelmed, a report reveals.
And they also performed far fewer operations on NHS-funded patients than usual, even though hospitals has suspended much non-Covid care, (...)

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Russia Has a New Socialist Movement

The big winner in Russia's recent election was the Communist Party, which jumped to almost 20 percent support. The party is today being transformed by a new wave of democratic socialist activists opposed to Vladimir Putin's rule.
The parliamentary elections in Russia held on September 17–19 brought another nominal victory for President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party. Yet the most remarkable result was the leap in support for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF), which (...)

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‘I'm not nice anymore': meet the author behind North Macedonia's #MeToo movement

The North Macedonia portrayed in Rumena Bužarovska's short stories is a bleak place. Brutish and vainglorious, the men treat their wives and mistresses as unfeeling scullery maids. Suffocated by the patriarchy, the women take their misery out on each other. Taught by their mothers that better things aren't possible, the women convince each other of the same.
This grim portrait clearly rings true for Bužarovska's local audience. Her two most recent books, My Husband and I'm Not Going Anywhere, (...)

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Britain: Coronavirus report warned of impact on UK four years before pandemic
Balkans: In the Battle for the Environment, Activism Is Not the Enemy
After the German election debacle – Die Linke: seven theses on the way forward