Tricontinental
-
In Malay, Orangutans Means ‘People of the Forest’, but Those Forests Are Disappearing: The Forty-Seventh Newsletter (2022)
Thursday, 24 November 2022 — The Tricontinental Chéri Samba (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Reorganisation, 2002. Dear friends, Greetings from the desk of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. The dust has settled at the resorts in Sharm el-Shaikh, Egypt, as delegates of countries and corporations leave the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations… Continue reading
-
Those Who Struggle to Change the World Know It Well: The Forty-Sixth Newsletter (2022)
In 1845, Karl Marx jotted down some notes for The German Ideology, a book that he wrote with his close friend Friedrich Engels. Engels found these notes in 1888, five years after Marx’s death, and published them under the title Theses on Feuerbach. The eleventh thesis is the most famous: ‘philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways;… Continue reading
-
The Attack on Nature Is Putting Humanity at Risk: The Forty-Fifth Newsletter (2022)
In the last week of October, João Pedro Stedile, a leader of the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) in Brazil and the global peasants’ organisation La Via Campesina, went to the Vatican to attend the International Meeting of Prayer for Peace, organised by the Community of Sant’Egídio. On 30 October, Brazil held a presidential election, which was… Continue reading
-
Africa Does Not Want to Be a Breeding Ground for the New Cold War: The Forty-Fourth Newsletter (2022)
On 17 October, the head of US Africa Command (AFRICOM), US Marine Corps General Michael Langley visited Morocco. Langley met with senior Moroccan military leaders, including Inspector General of the Moroccan Armed Forces Belkhir El Farouk. Since 2004, AFRICOM has held its ‘largest and premier annual exercise’, African Lion, partly on Moroccan soil. This past June, ten countries participated in… Continue reading
-
We Need a New Trade Union of the Poor Rooted in the Global South: The Forty-Third Newsletter (2022)
Chaos reigns in the United Kingdom, where the prime minister’s residence in London – 10 Downing Street – prepares for the entry of Rishi Sunak, one of the richest men in the country. Liz Truss remained in office for a mere 45 days, convulsed as her government was by a cycle of workers’ strikes and the mediocrity of her… Continue reading
-
The Last Thing Haiti Needs Is Another Military Intervention: The Forty-Second Newsletter (2022)
At the United Nations General Assembly on 24 September 2022, Haiti’s Foreign Minister Jean Victor Geneus admitted that his country faces a serious crisis, which he said ‘can only be solved with the effective support of our partners’. To many close observers of the situation unfolding in Haiti, the phrase ‘effective support’ sounded like Geneus was signalling… Continue reading
-
When Will the Stars Shine Again in Burkina Faso?: The Forty-First Newsletter (2022)
Thursday, 13 October 2022 — The Tricontinental Wilfried Balima (Burkina Faso), Les Trois Camarades (‘The Three Comrades’), 2018. Dear friends, Greetings from the desk of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. On 30 September 2022, Captain Ibrahim Traoré led a section of the Burkina Faso military to depose Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who had seized power in a coup d’état in… Continue reading
-
The Most Dangerous Situation That Humanity Has Ever Faced: The Fortieth Newsletter (2022)
Thursday, 6 October 2022 — The Tricontinental León Ferrari (Argentina), Untitled (Sermon of the Blood), 1962. Dear friends, Greetings from the desk of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Since 1947, the Doomsday Clock has measured the likelihood of a human-made catastrophe, namely to warn the world against the possibility of a nuclear holocaust. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, who attend… Continue reading
-
From Wounded Latin America, a Demand Comes to Put an End to the Irrational War on Drugs: The Thirty-Ninth Newsletter (2022)
Each year, in the last weeks of September, the world’s leaders gather in New York City to speak at the podium of the United Nations General Assembly. The speeches can usually be forecasted well in advance, either tired articulations of values that do not get acted upon or belligerent voices that threaten war in an… Continue reading
-
Without Culture, Freedom Is Impossible: The Thirty-Eighth Newsletter (2022)
In 2002, Cuba’s President Fidel Castro Ruz visited the country’s National Ballet School to inaugurate the 18th Havana International Ballet Festival. Founded in 1948 by the prima ballerina assoluta Alicia Alonso (1920–2019), the school struggled financially until the Cuban Revolution decided that ballet – like other art forms – must be available to everyone and so must be… Continue reading
-
War Is Not the Answer to Deep Planetary Insecurity: The Thirty-Seventh Newsletter (2022)
Grave news comes to us from the United Nations (UN). The latest Human Development Report (2021–22) records that for the first time in thirty-two years, the Human Development Index has registered a second consecutive year of decline. The previous five years of gains in areas such as health and education have been negated by this reversal. ‘Billions… Continue reading
-
We Will March, Even If We Have to Wade through the Pakistani Floodwaters: The Thirty-Sixth Newsletter (2022)
Calamities are familiar to the people of Pakistan who have struggled through several catastrophic earthquakes, including those in 2005, 2013, and 2015 (to name the most damaging), as well as the horrendous floods of 2010. However, nothing could prepare the fifth most populated country in the world for this summer’s devastating events, which began with… Continue reading
-
Indian Workers Defend Their Steel with Their Lives: The Thirty-Fourth Newsletter (2022)
The long and distant epoch of pre-history, dated to the time before the start of the Common Era, is conventionally divided into three periods: the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. Subsequently, in the era of written history, we generally have not relied upon specific metals or minerals to define our periods.… Continue reading
-
When People Want Housing in India, They Build It: The Thirty-Third Newsletter (2022)
It all started with a survey. In April 2022, members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), went door to door in the town of Warangal in Telangana state. The party was already aware of challenges in the community but wanted to collect data before working on a plan of action. Thirty-five teams… Continue reading
-
Can We Please Have an Adult Conversation about China?: The Thirty-Second Newsletter (2022)
Thursday, 11 August 2022 — The Tricontinental Wang Bingxiu of the Shuanglang Farmer Painting Club (Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, China), Untitled, 2018. Dear friends, Greetings from the desk of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. As the US legislative leader Nancy Pelosi swept into Taipei, people around the world held their breath. Her visit was an act of provocation. In… Continue reading
-
Sri Lankans Seek a World in Which They Can Find Laughter Together: The Thirty-First Newsletter (2022)
Thursday, 4 August 2022 — The Tricontinental Anoli Perera (Sri Lanka), Dream 1, 2017 Dear friends, Greetings from the desk of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. On 9 July 2022, remarkable images floated across social media from Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital. Thousands of people rushed into the presidential palace and chased out former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa,… Continue reading
-
All That I Ask Is That You Fight for Peace Today: The Thirtieth Newsletter (2022)
Thursday, 28 July 2022 — The Tricontinental Fuyuko Matsui (Japan), Becoming Friends with All the Children of the World, 2004. Dear friends, Greetings from the desk of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. The fragility of Europe’s energy supply has once again been on display in recent months. Gas shipments through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline,… Continue reading
-
It Is Dark, but I Sing Because the Morning Will Come: The Twenty-Ninth Newsletter (2022)
Thursday, 22 July 2022 — The Tricontinental Photograph by Wellington Lenon / MST-PR Dear friends, Greetings from the desk of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. In the chilly Brazilian winter of 2019, Renata Porto Bugni (deputy director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research), André Cardoso (coordinator of our office in Brazil), and I went to the Lula… Continue reading
-
Will Our Children Be Literate? Will They Look Forward to the Future with Dignity?: The Twenty-Eighth Newsletter (2022)
Thursday, 14 July 2022 — The Tricontinental Nú Barreto (Guinea-Bissau), A Esperar (‘Waiting’), 2019. Dear friends, Greetings from the desk of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. The world is adrift in the tides of hunger and desolation. It is difficult to think about education, or anything else, when your children are not able to eat. And… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 