by Comrade Cosmas | Aug 19, 2018
A US military intervention of Venezuela is highly possible. The dynamics in American domestic politics are creating an environment in which the anti-Venezuelan forces are gaining an upper hand.
This is a coalition involving US based Venezuelan dissidents, right-wing Latin American cartels and conservative Christian groupings. It is the type of groups President Trump is targeting in the bid to sustain domestic support for his administration and perform well in the forthcoming midterm elections.
The heightened aggressiveness and impunity of the Columbian ruling elite, which currently serves as Washington’s blue-eyed boys in Latin America, has also helped to unite the Anti-Venezuelan forces and reawakened the possibilities of a full-scale military invasion. (more…)
by Comrade Cosmas | Aug 16, 2018
The shameful saga surrounding Tendai Biti’s deportation out of Zambia is not surprising. Ever since President Lungu came into power, Zambia is no longer the safe haven that it once was for those running away from political repression and persecution.
Tendai Biti and those accompanying him should have known better. The Zambia situation is just as bad as, if not worse than, in Zimbabwe. The Zambia that once accepted all politically persecuted is today lawless and without compassion. President Lungu, his advisors and associates are de facto the law. They are the unrestricted alpha and omega over peoples lives. Local and international laws are of no consequence. (more…)
by Comrade Cosmas | Jun 9, 2018
Even before the Chilanga elections were held, it was apparent that innocent people were going to be attacked, harassed, abused and their civil liberties infringed upon. The expected violence truly materialised. Journalists were brutally attacked and threatened with death. Ordinary citizens were brutalised.
In this aftermath, Zambians are traumatised by the senseless violence emanating especially from the PF. The other petty bourgeois political parties do not want to be left behind. Rhetoric and counter-accusations aside, they are all violent. It is the same people, applying similar methods and the lives of ordinary Zambians have become mere collateral damage.
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by Comrade Cosmas | Jun 8, 2018
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva changed the face of Brazil during his stay in office from 2003 to 2011. Tens of millions of Brazilians moved out of poverty; children from humble backgrounds increasingly entered into universities that were for centuries a preserve of a small elite. The socialist inspired reforms catapulted the Brazilian economy to become the 5th largest in the world.
However, this success was a bitter pill to swallow for the entrenched bourgeois oligarchy. Brazil was not the example that the capitalist world wanted to see. Socialism had been declared dead and the capitalist hegemony celebrated. The Brazilian project had to be halted, just in case it became inspirational to hundreds of the poverty stricken countries languishing under neo-liberal capitalism. It was a bad example in a capitalist system that survives on greed and the perpetuation of poverty in the periphery countries.
For two months now, Lula is incarcerated – and I am standing some meters away from his prison cell in the 3-million city of Curitiba. Thousands of people are chanting and demanding his release. A vigil involving hundreds of supporters is held each night – enduring cold temperatures that go up to zero degrees Celsius. I want to add my voice to the chants and possibly also endure the freezing, cold temperatures.
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by Comrade Cosmas | Nov 18, 2017
The military coup in Zimbabwe is not a solution to the long years of despair and misery of the Zimbabwean masses. It is rather a product of a power struggle between factions of a greedy, corrupt and ruthless ZANU PF ruling elite – of which the top brass of the army is part of.
Over the years, Robert Mugabe and the clique surround him have shamelessly exploited the liberation struggle credentials to enrich themselves and hold the working masses captive. Of course the imperialist forces, in their bid to continue the economic enslavement of Zimbabwean workers and peasants, unleashed an economic embargo and global media campaign to ostracise the country.
Their mouthpieces such as the MDC did what was necessary within the country. The end result was a Zimbabwean economy that is not capable of sustaining the basic needs of the average citizen. Over three million citizens opted to migrate out of the country. The loss of social capital was immense. Productivity sunk drastically in all major sectors of the economy – pushing poverty levels to as high as 72%.
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