Monthly Archives: September 2018

The fascist mobs in Chemnitz and the need for a radical way forward

20 September 2018. A World to Win News Service. People in Germany and around the world were horrified by the images flashing across their TV screens at the end of August, not sure if they were seeing the return of the dark past or a preview of a horrible future. In the city of Chemnitz, located in the state of Saxony in former East Germany, hordes of Nazi hooligans and other right-wing thugs hunted down pedestrians who looked like “foreigners”, left-wing counter-demonstrators (who the Nazis call “ticks”) and journalists. Some people in the mob displayed Hitler salutes (officially forbidden in Germany) and chanted, “Germany for the Germans! Foreigners out!”, “This is our city!’, the Nazi slogan “Free, social and national!”, “We are football fans – Adolf Hitler hooligans” and “For every dead German, one dead foreigner.”

Libya and Europe: the whirlpool pulling immigrants to their deaths

16 September 2018. A World to Win News Service. Two large rubber boats set out for Italy from Libya on 1 September. Like countless such craft before them, they were carrying hundreds of people from central, east and north Africa, and has happened so often, the engine failed on one and the other began to deflate.

India: “Provocative speeches” lead to arrests

31 August 2018. A World to Win News Service. On 28 August the Indian police raided homes in cities across the country and arrested five activists and intellectuals under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The UAPA allows the government to hold someone for six months without any specific charges. Those arrested are law professor Sudha Bharadwaj; Gautam Navlakha, former political editor of the widely respected Economic and Political Weekly; Varavara Rao, the well-known 78-year-old poet and founder of the Revolutionary Writers Association; human rights activist Vernon Gonsalves and activist and lawyer Arun Ferreira. Over the years, the arrested have led lives that put them at the forefront in fighting caste oppression against Dalits (“untouchables”), the communal hatred and persecution of Muslims and the theft of Adivasi (tribal) lands.