🇸🇻 El Salvador’s Congress passed a reform of the Law Against Organized Crime that increases penalties for people named as leaders of criminal groups and also allows mass trials.

The law allows for provisional detention for up to 24 months without trial. The reform, proposed by President Nayib Bukele, comes in the context of the state of emergency approved in March last year in the Central American country following a wave of violence that Bukele’s government said was caused by a dispute between rival gangs.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/07/28/el-salvador-authorizes-mass-trials-of-up-to-900-prisoners/

On September 14, union contracts will expire for 144,000 members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) who work at the “Big Three” auto giants Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis.

“The Big Three is our strike target,” Fain said on July 11, days before negotiations opened. “They’ve made a quarter of a trillion dollars in North American profits over the last ten years, and they can afford to make things right for our members.”

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/07/31/the-largest-industrial-union-in-the-us-enters-auto-industry-negotiations-with-a-pledge-to-take-on-ceos/

In our latest episode of Daily Debrief, Kambale Musavuli talks about the #FranceDegage (France must leave) movement rising in Africa. Africa is saying enough to Western neocolonialism and tutelage.

Watch the full video here:
https://youtu.be/rK1slBGV46w

🇹🇷 Turkish security forces brutally repressed a vigil to protect the Akbelen forest. The vigil began following a government decision on July 24 allowing the private power company YK Energy to clear the forest land for the expansion of a coal mine.
Activists claimed that the clearing of the forest resumed immediately after the police brutality. Internet connectivity has been restricted in the region. https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/08/02/turkish-communist-party-extends-support-to-save-akbelen-forest-from-takeover-by-energy-giant/

🇧🇫 READ the speech given by Captain Ibrahim Traoré, the President of Burkina Faso, at the second Russia-Africa Summit, in St. Petersburg.

Traoré declared: “a slave who cannot assume his own revolt does not deserve to be pitied. We do not feel sorry for ourselves, we do not ask anyone to feel sorry for us.” He called on Africans to take up the fight against imperialism and poverty.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/08/02/a-slave-who-cannot-assume-his-own-revolt-does-not-deserve-to-be-pitied-says-ibrahim-traore-of-burkina-faso/

🇳🇪 Several left and people’s organizations in West Africa have condemned the threat issued by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to militarily intervene with the backing of France and the US to restore the unpopular Mohamed Bazoum to Niger’s presidency.

The West African Peoples’ Organization (WAPO) has “vehemently opposed” the ultimatum by ECOWAS Heads of States on July 30 to “take all measures necessary,” including “the use of force,” if the ousted president and his government is not restored by Sunday, August 6.

This decision of ECOWAS is “a maneuver by colonial France and Great Britain, under the hegemony of American imperialism, to resort to armed intervention under the guise of restoring democracy and human rights in Niger,” WAPO said in a statement on Wednesday, August 2.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/08/03/peoples-movements-oppose-west-backed-military-intervention-by-ecowas-in-niger/

Don’t miss our newest episode of your favorite weekly round-up of working-class news.

Embark on a thrilling journey around the world with Zoe Alexandra, Vijay Prashad, and Prasanth R as they guide you through some of the most important events of the week.

🇵🇸 Israeli forces shot and killed a 15-year-old Palestinian child in the late hours of Tuesday, August 1. Just hours before, a 20-year-old Palestinian man was also killed by them.

The killings come amid rampant Israeli raids across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem earlier in the week.

Earlier in the week, Israeli forces conducted multiple raids across the occupied West Bank, with settler attacks and other acts of violence against Palestinians also being reported.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/08/04/israeli-forces-kill-two-palestinians-as-raids-continue-across-occupied-west-bank-and-east-jerusalem/

🇦🇷 Here is what you need to know about Argentinian presidential pre-candidate Juan Grabois and the upcoming primary and general elections the South American country will face in the upcoming months.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/08/04/can-a-movement-leader-solve-argentinas-problems/

🇨🇴 The Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN), the country’s largest left-wing guerrilla group, on Thursday, August 3, began a 180-day bilateral ceasefire.
The development marked the most concrete progress to date for leftist president Gustavo Petro and his government’s plan to bring “total peace” to the country and end over 60 years of internal armed conflict, during which more than 450,000 people were killed.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/08/05/colombia-achieves-milestone-in-peace-process-as-right-wing-intensifies-destabilization-campaign/

New York City is a bastion of extreme wealth. It is the city with the most billionaires, with a net worth totalling USD 616 billion. There are 737 residents with over one hundred million dollars to their names, and 345,600 millionaires.

Some point to the massive amount of housing vacancies to show that the resources are already there. In New York City, there are no laws regulating how long an apartment can be vacant for, despite the concurrent housing and migrant crises. In 2021, roughly one in ten of the city’s massive rent stabilized housing stock was vacant, constituting 88,830 apartments. As of 2021, there were 456,600 vacant units in the city. Far more than enough to house the 100,000 people sleeping in shelters.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/08/05/worlds-richest-city-says-no-more-room-left-for-desperate-migrants/