The struggle of the black working class majority of Freedom Park, South Africa, is not just for land on which to build housing – although that is obviously a central issue and key demand; nor is it just against the accompanying political and police violence and intimidation. It is a struggle against the injustice, violence and corruption of a system that puts the power, privileges and profits of a few before the lives and wellbeing of the majority.

El día domingo 26 de Marzo se celebró la tan esperada consulta minera sobre la explotación del oro en la mina de oro de La Colosa, en Cajamarca (Tolima). 6.241 habitantes de Cajamarca salieron ese día a votar ante una sencilla pregunta “¿Está usted de acuerdo Sí o No que en el municipio de Cajamarca se ejecuten proyectos y actividades mineras?”. El resultado fue contundente: 98% de los votantes se expresaron a favor del NO a la megaminería.

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Our hearts ache for the victims of the homophobic hate crime that took place over the weekend in Orlando, Florida where a gunman attacked an LGBT+ club killing 50 and wounding over 50 more. Much has been asked by us and by other left queers about the LGBT+ community, whether it exists and if it exists why don’t we feel a part of it. Sadly it is at times like these that we become aware of its existence. When people are considered deviants and deserving of a murderous assault for their sexuality, a trait all of us in the community share, we cannot but come together in sadness and in mourning.

On 3 September 1984, the Vaal Triangle, which is located southeast of Johannesburg and was part of the industrial heartland of South Africa, exploded into unrest. A general stay-away from work was called, schools were closed, buses and taxis stood idle and militant protest spread across the country. It was the most significant and large-scale rebellion of the black working class since the Soweto Uprising of June, 1976, and signified one of the final nails in the coffin of apartheid and white minority rule.

For the black working class living in the townships across the Vaal Triangle, such as Sharpeville, Sebokeng, Evaton, Bophelong, Boiketlong, Zamdela and others the conditions were very similar to those of today. A slump in the steel industry had led to many workers being retrenched, there were evictions of rent defaulters and bribery, corruption and self-enrichment of local councillors was rife. Councillors’ election promises went unfulfilled and township residents demanded their resignation; allegedly threatening that they would set fire to their houses should they fail to do so.

Thirty-one years later, on 21 April 2015, the Sebokeng Magistrate’s Court in the Vaal sentenced four community activists from Boiketlong to sixteen years in prison each for allegedly setting fire to the local ward councillor’s house and cars during a protest action.

In the last couple of weeks, the Black community in Baltimore has mobilized protests in response to the brutal murder of Freddie Gray by the Baltimore Police Department (BPD).

The news footage of Baltimore’s Black youth resisting riot cops is reminiscent of images from the Ferguson protests last summer. Yet, they are also reminiscent of the 1992 Los Angeles Uprising, as well as the many eruptions of popular unrest across the U.S. in 1968 against racist police violence. And we can go farther and farther back into history. The stories are many. The death toll to racist state violence is vast. And many are wondering: Is this our moment to bring down the racist capitalist system?

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