Day: May 10, 2021

East Asia

Hong Kong trade unions face ‘structural collapse’

A new report by the Hong Kong Labour Rights Monitor (HKLRM) details how Hong Kong’s labor protections face “profound and alarming structural collapse” as national security surveillance becomes the “new normal” under Chinese rule. The report outlines the developments in administration and policy of the last year, documenting how the workers’ rights movement is facing significant constrains. The “dual pressure of the National Security Law (NSL) and draconian amendments to the Trade Unions Ordinance (TUO),” which came into effect in January 2026, are leading to a “hollowing out of trade unions,” says the report. (Photo: antha26/Pixabay via JURIST)

North America

MAGA-fascism, Orwell and the cannabis stigma

Trump is pointing to Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s tattoos to justify his indefinite detention without charge in the ultra-oppressive Salvadoran prison gulag. These notoriously include a cannabis leaf, demonstrating the continued propaganda utility of the “Reefer Madness” stigma, even as a multi-million dollar legal industry emerges. But the White House actually added the characters “MS13” (name of the notorious Salvadoran gang) to the shot of Abrego Garcia’s knuckles in a crude photoshop job—despite transparent denials from Trump. Lubricating the emerging transnational mass detention program with this Orwellian post-truth stratagem, the Trump regime meanwhile moves toward actual deportation of US citizens. Bill Weinberg raises the alarm in Episode 277 of the CounterVortex podcast. (Photo: Donald Trump/Truth Social as seen, e.g., on CNN)

Africa

Somalia drone strikes could be war crimes: Amnesty

Two strikes that killed 23 civilians during Somali military operations supported by Turkish drones must be investigated as war crimes, Amnesty International said. Civilians killed in the strikes included 14 children, five women and four men. Another 17 civilians were injured. All were from the marginalized Gorgaarte clan. The strikes hit a farming community in the Lower Shabelle region amid operations against the Shabaab insurgents. “The Somali and Turkish governments must investigate these deadly strikes as a war crime, and put an end to reckless attacks on civilians,” said Amnesty’s regional director for East Africa. (Map via Wikimedia Commons)

Europe

Zelensky: send Putin to The Hague

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told international jurists that Russian President Vladimir Putin must be brought to justice for his war in Ukraine. Zelensky was addressing The Hague during a visit to the International Criminal Court (ICC), calling for a new international tribunal to prosecute the crime of aggression. Zelenski stressed: “We all want to see Vladimir here, in the Hague… and I am sure we will see that happen when we win. And we will win.” The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March over the forced deportation of children from Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. Revelations of Russian war crimes in Ukraine have continued to mount since then. (Photo: OSeveno/WikiMedia)

North Africa

Libya: militia accused of grave abuses against migrants

A report from Amnesty International finds that a militia funded and backed by Libya’s Tripoli-based Government of National Unity is responsible for a litany of crimes, including unlawful killings, torture, rape, forced labor, and the interception and return of migrants and refugees to the country’s notorious detention centers. Created by government decree in January 2021, the Stability Support Authority (SSA) is commanded by one of the most powerful militia leaders in Tripoli, Abdel Ghani al-Kikli AKA “Gheniwa.” who was appointed despite a well-documented history of crimes and other serious human rights violations committed by forces under his command. (Photo: Alessio Romenz/UNICEF)

Afghanistan

Afghanistan: Taliban diktat imposes burqa

At a press conference in Kabul, the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue & Prevention of Vice released a statement from the Taliban’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, stating that women outside the home must cover their faces. The all-encompassing blue burqa, or chadari, which became a global symbol of the Taliban’s previous extremist rule from 1996 to 2001, was proposed as a suitable covering. The text of the decree calls such covering “obligatory” for all “mature and noble” women. The mandate is imposed “in order to avoid provocation when meeting men who are not mahram,” or immediate family. Tellingly, the order does not impose penalties on women themselves but on their male guardians. The fathers and husbands of women accused of going barefaced are to be summoned and, on repeat offenses, fired from government jobs or imprisoned. (Photo: Khaama Press)

ANARCHY IN BELARUS

The former Soviet republic of Belarus exploded into angry protests last August in the wake of contested presidential elections that resulted in a totally implausible landslide victory for long-ruling strongman Alexander Lukashenko. Police, riot squads and army troops unleashed harsh repression, using rubber bullets, flash-bang grenades and water-hoses against demonstrators in the capital Minsk and other cities. Since then, protests have been held every weekend. Industrial strikes have spread across the country as sectors of the working class broke from the regime-controlled labor unions to organize independently. Over the past months, tens of thousands have been detained, and hundreds have been subject to torture. Anarchist Black Cross Belarus has been specifically monitoring repression against anarchists and anti-fascists in the ongoing protest wave. One member of the group, known as “Sonya,” spoke with Bill Weinberg in an email interview for the American anarchist journal Fifth Estate.

New York City

Podcast: Bill Weinberg’s oral history

In Episode 71 of the CounterVortex podcast, host Bill Weinberg is himself interviewed by Kimberly Springer, curator of the Oral History Archives at Columbia University. Weinberg traces his life trajectory, from his early radicalization as a teenage anarchist, through the Tompkins Square uprising on the Lower East Side in the 1980s, his 20 years as co-producer of the Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade on WBAI, his purge from the airwaves for his political dissent, and finally his contemporary work as an organic historian with the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Photo: MoRUS)

South Asia

India: paramilitaries deployed as clashes escalate

Unemployed migrant workers left stranded by the COVID-19 lockdown have repeatedly clashed with police in India’s industrial hub of Gujarat state, and the situation is fast escalating. Protesters demanding transport back to their homes were again attacked by police at a market on the outskirts of Surat; tear-gas canisters were met with pelted stones. Riots yet again erupted four days later in Ahmedabad, as security forces attacked residents defying stringent lockdown orders. At the request of state authorities, Delhi has dispatched to Gujarat seven companies of 100 troops each from the paramilitary Border Security Force and Central Industrial Security Force. (Photo via Twitter)

Syria

Assad, Russia launch Idlib offensive

The Assad regime and allied militias, backed by Russian air-strikes, this week launched the long-feared offensive on Idlib, the northwest Syrian province that is the last under rebel and opposition control. The offensive places at risk the lives of more than 4.5 million civilians. Just this month, a further 150,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in Idlib, joining the ranks the displaced. The UN has previously warned that an assault on Idlib could cause “the worst humanitarian catastrophe the world has seen in the 21st century.” At particular risk are 350,000 people living in displacement camps, who have no protection from the bombs. The more recently displaced are now without any shelter on lands near the Turkish border, which Ankara has shut to prevent a refugee influx. (Photo: EA Worldview)

North Africa

ICC to Libyan authorities: hand over ‘executioner’

The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor called upon Libyan authorities to surrender military commander Mahmoud al-Werfalli, who is accused of war crimes including mass executions and summary killings. Fatou Bensouda told the UN Security Council that Werfalli, along with Saif al-Islam Qaddafi and Al-Tuhamy Khaled (intelligence chief under the Qaddafi dictatorship), has yet to be handed over to the court. Despite the warrant out for his arrest, she said there are now "credible allegations" that he has committed further murders which may also be prosecuted as war crimes. "The Libyan people deserve answers," Bensouda said, adding that suspects cannot continue to be "sheltered." (Photo via Middle East Eye)

Syria

Syria: Trump approves plan to arm Rojava Kurds

The Rojava Kurds, caught in a pincer between Turkey and ISIS, are being forced to accept superpower aid—but with costs for Syrian revolutionary unity against ISIS and Assad.