[DEBATE] : What's new at Links: Solidarity with Gaza, Cuba's 50th, French new left party, economic crisis, sport, Russia and feminism, Darfur

[glparramatta]

What's new at Links: Solidarity with Gaza, Cuba's 50th, French new left 
party, economic crisis, sport, Russia and feminism, Darfur

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    Israel invades Gaza, Palestinians, solidarity activists call for
    solidarity and resistance <http://links.org.au/node/833>

Palestinian citizens of Israel held a massive protest on January 3, 
2009, in Sakhnin, an Arab city in northern Israel, against Israel's war 
on the Palestinian people in Gaza. It was attended by up to 150,000 
protesters. Crowds waving Palestinian flags and brandishing 
pro-Palestinian placards chanted "Gaza will not surrender to the tanks 
and bulldozers!" and "Don't fear, Gaza, we are with you!".

    * Read more statements from a range of Palestinian and solidarity
      organisations
      <http://links.org.au/node/833>


    Cuba, 50 years on ... and the same challenge of making a revolution
    <http://links.org.au/node/831>

By *Lázaro Barredo Medina*

/Granma International/ -- October 30, 2008 -- "The dictatorship has been 
defeated. The joy is immense. And yet, there still remains much to do. 
We won't deceive ourselves by believing that everything will be much 
easier from now on; perhaps it will be much more difficult." This is 
what Commander in Chief Fidel Castro told the people on January 8, 1959, 
the day of his entry into Havana. Many people could never imagine the 
immense challenge that they would live to experience.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/831>


    1959-2009: 50 years of the Cuban Revolution -- Fidel Castro: the
    Untold Story <http://links.org.au/node/830>

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, which triumphed on 
January 1, 1959, here is filmmaker *Estela Bravo's* remarkable portrait 
of *Fidel Castro* and the Cuban Revolution.

    * Watch more <http://links.org.au/node/830>


    `We are all Palestinians!' -- International left solidarity with the
    oppressed people of Palestine <http://links.org.au/node/836>

Below /Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal/ publishes a 
range of statements from left parties and groups around the world.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/836>


    France: >From the Revolutionary Communist League to the New
    Anti-Capitalist Party <http://links.org.au/node/835>

This contribution was written as part of preparations for the January 
2009 congress of the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR). The congress 
agenda includes the political "self-dissolution" of the LCR, to set the 
stage for the new challenge of the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA). The 
authors of this piece belong to the generation of activists from the 
1960s and 1970s; so while principally addressed to members of the LCR, 
it may be of interest to many others.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/835>


    World economic crisis: No room for band-aid solutions in the Third
    World <http://links.org.au/node/834>

By *Reihana Mohideen*
December 29, 2008 -- According to recent Food and Agriculture 
Organisation (FAO) figures, another 40 million people have been pushed 
into poverty and hunger so far this year as a result of spiralling food 
prices, and the total number of people suffering hunger and malnutrition 
has reached 963 million worldwide.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/834>


    Capitalism and sport: Sports for a few <http://links.org.au/node/832>

The competitive frenzy for winning in sports has been fuelled by 
aggressive marketing. Together they ensure that while a minority is 
trained with superlative sports facilities, the majority is deprived of 
even basic amenities to play and breathe fresh air.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/832>


    Present-day Russia needs a renewal of the feminist movement
    <http://links.org.au/node/829>

By *Anna Ochkina, *translated from Russian for /Links International 
Journal of Socialist Renewal/ by *Renfrey Clarke*
January 1, 2009 -- In the Soviet Union feminism was elevated to the 
status of official state policy and ultimately was destroyed as an 
ideology and a social movement. The dominant concept was one of a 
general, global equality; as a result, a separate movement for the 
rights of women simply could not exist. The feminist reference points of 
Soviet social policy took the form of a set of rights for women: 
employment in the workforce on an equal basis with men; political 
rights; equality before the law, and so forth. The gaining of formal 
rights, however, resulted in the restricting of particular, specific 
rights of women, which in practice proved very difficult to realise.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/829>


    Talking points and background on Israel's murderous assault on Gaza
    <http://links.org.au/node/827>

By the *Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (Canada)* and the *Palestine 
Solidarity Committee (South Africa)*

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/827>


    Arabic-language statement from Socialist Alliance (Australia)
    condemns Israel's Gaza massacre <http://links.org.au/node/826>

<http://links.org.au/node/826>English version below.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/826>


    Can Washington `save Darfur'? <http://links.org.au/node/825>

By *Kevin Funk* and *Steven Fake*

Few humanitarian crises have occasioned as much media and activist 
attention in the US as the conflict in the Darfur region of western 
Sudan. Major politicians routinely pay homage to suffering Darfurians in 
their speeches, well-heeled Darfur advocacy groups take out full-page 
ads in the /New York Times/, and commentators regularly fill op-ed 
ledgers around the country with righteous, indignant calls for the West 
to act to end the suffering. Yet for all the rhetorical attention and 
concern afforded to Darfur in the US, what is actually understood about 
the US role in addressing the conflict?

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/825>


    Venezuela, Cuba condemn Israel's massacres in Gaza
    <http://links.org.au/node/824>

Dozens of protesters rallied outside the Israeli embassy in Caracas on 
December 28, in opposition to what one speaker referred to as "genocide" 
by the Israeli "occupation forces". The protests will continue in front 
of the embassy, according to a rally organiser, Hindu Anderi. Anderi, a 
Palestinian human rights activist, thanked the Venezuelan government for 
its position on the conflict, but demanded concrete action, saying 
"solidarity needs to mean taking measures that will affect Israel 
economically and politically, because otherwise the condition of the 
Palestinian people will not change".

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/824>

* * *

Links seeks to promote the international exchange of information, 
experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political 
strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for 
open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from 
different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the 
international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social 
policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in 
the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing 
socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

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