A Nation on the Brink

Mexico Cannot Endure Another PRI Government but Can the Left Really Take the Presidency this Year? By Asad Ismi Since taking office in 2012, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has faced almost constant protests against government corruption, an inability or unwillingness to deal with criminal and official violence in the country, and regressive neoliberal reforms […]

Colombia Peace Deal Inches Forward: Indigenous, Afro-Colombian Leaders Fear the State Has Not Shed its Violent Past

By Asad Ismi The peace accords signed in November 2016 by the government of Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC, Colombia’s largest guerrilla army) ended a half-century-long conflict that killed 260,000 people and displaced another six million. Under the terms of the deal, the FARC was supposed to hand over […]

The World Might Need Less Canada: Canada in Africa: 300 Years of Aid and Exploitation (Book Review)

By Asad Ismi YVES ENGLER Red Publishing/Fernwood Publishing 2015, 326 Pages, $24.95 Mainstream academics and journalists like to portray Canada as a positive force on the international stage, but Yves Engler’s new book, Canada in Africa, shows how frequently Canadian governments and corporations play a destructive role abroad. In Africa, Canada’s government and mining companies […]

Syriza Holds On, But the Left is Weakened in Greece

By Asad Ismi The Greek tragedy of national economic collapse appeared to be turning into farce with the re-election of Syriza at the end of September. The leftist party had been first elected only seven months earlier on the promise to end the austerity measures forced on Greece by the troika of the European Union […]