🇵🇸VOICES FROM THE GLOBAL SUMUD FLOTILLA!

"The international silence and betrayal must be stopped ... We bear no hatred towards anyone, our sole goal is to stop [Israel's] aggression against the innocent people".

A message from Marouan Ben Guettaia, of the Global Summud Flotilla Steering Committee, defying the threats and calls of "Hamas Flotilla" from the Israeli Foreign Ministry and establishment.

The Global Sumud Flotilla keeps calling on pacifists and humanitarians from across the globe to keep defying the Israeli attacks and censorship and keep calling for an end to the genocide in Gaza.

Tune in to another episode of Give The People What They Want! with Zoe Alexandra, editor of Peoples Dispatch, and Indian journalist Prasanth R as they reflect on the ongoing session of the United Nations General Assembly in which leaders of the Global South have called for an end to the genocide in Gaza. They also discussed US attacks on the sovereignty of Brazil and Venezuela, the release of activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, the second anniversary of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), and the ongoing protests in Ecuador and Peru.
https://www.youtube.com/live/LU8uD8QQ-VU?si=pLj7zM8wVeNuolOo

🇨🇴 Colombian President Gustavo Petro spoke at the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly and called for a renewed UN, where "genocidal Netanyahu" is not allowed to be free especially after an international sentence has been issued against him. Petro called for a military intervention to stop the genocide in Gaza and for a new world order that would not allow the inequalities lived today, nor the impunity of war crimes.

📲 Follow Peoples Dispatch for continued coverage of the #UNGA80

Under the slogan “United for the Peru we deserve,” thousands of people, especially young people – took to the streets last weekend to protest a law enacted on September 20 that reforms the pension system. The protest soon began to denounce the executive branch’s administration in general terms.

This is the opinion of Peruvian sociologist Lucía Alvites, who spoke with Peoples Dispatch about the recent demonstrations: “The mobilizations of recent months and the most recent ones have had a common root: the protests against the coup d’état against Pedro Castillo in December 2022, because youth collectives, social movements, and university organizing spaces are the ones that have mobilized in the protests of late 2022 and early 2023.”

Read more ⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/09/24/anti-government-protests-continue-in-peru-despite-heavy-repression/

Advisor to the Burkinabé Prime Minister refutes the idea that Sahel countries are exchanging French imperialism for another.

The Thomas Sankara Memorial project – inaugurated in May this year at the site where the pan-Africanist leader was assassinated – is, for Luc Damiba, special advisor to the Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, clear evidence that President Ibrahim Traoré is committed to continuing the 1983 revolution.

Damiba received Brasil de Fato at the site where Sankara fell, along with 12 of his companions, in a massacre orchestrated by his then-friend Blaise Compaoré with support from France, on October 15, 1987.

📲 Read the full article by Pedro Stropasolas of Brasil de Fato on our website.⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/09/23/russia-and-china-respect-us-burkina-faso-affirms-sahel-geopolitics-are-based-on-partnership/#

Vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla came under attack during the night of September 24 near Greece as they continued sailing toward Gaza in an attempt to break Israel’s blockade. Crews reported drones circling overhead and more than a dozen explosions, with some ships sustaining damage.

“We were near the Greek coast when we were woken by a strong explosion, with several drones overhead,” said dockworker José Nivoi, a member of the Italian union Unione Sindacale di Base (USB) and the Genoa collective CALP, from aboard one of the boats. “We also heard the sounds of what seemed like classic drones. Explosive devices were launched into the water, very bright. At this point, I’d say they’re trying to cause psychological stress rather than launch full-scale attacks.”

Read more ⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/09/24/global-sumud-flotilla-attacked-on-its-way-to-gaza/

In March of this year, UN Secretary-General António Guterres launched the UN80 Initiative, a system-wide reform effort. UN80 proposals center around reshaping how the United Nations works, including goals which are intended to make the body more efficient and cost-effective. There are more ambitious proposals, including plans to move major UN agencies including UNICEF, UNFPA, and UN Women from western cities such as New York to Nairobi, Kenya.

But some are calling for an even more transformative agenda of reform, which could shift long-standing power imbalances in the UN from the West and towards other regions.

“The agenda set by the UN is focused on its own organisational weaknesses and does not address the largely political questions that scuttle the UN’s work,” writes Vijay Prashad, the Executive Director of the Tricontinental Institute. Beyond major UN agencies, Prashad calls for the moving of the entire UN Secretariat to the Global South. Prashad also echoes the calls of peace activists to cut the global arms trade.

Read more ⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/09/24/momentum-builds-for-sweeping-un-reforms/

Opposition parties in India strongly rejected the US announcement of a hike in the H-1B visa price last week. They called it a bullying tactic and an attempt to humiliate the country.

After 50% tariffs and sanctions on Chabahar port in Iran, operated by its companies, India is set to lose the most with the steep hike in the work visa fee as it was the biggest beneficiary with over 70% such visas allotted to Indians.

Read more ⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/09/24/indian-opposition-says-trumps-hike-of-h-1b-visa-fees-is-yet-another-strong-arm-tactic-against-the-country/

Iran accused the US of trying to sabotage its diplomatic mission attending the 80th annual session of the UN General Assembly in New York. It also called the restrictions imposed on the movement of its diplomats in the city “a new low in terms of showcasing the extent of animosity of US administration.”

“The US systematic harassment of Iranian diplomats has obstructed the Iranian delegates from attending several multilateral events that were held outside the so-called ‘permitted perimeters’ during this week only,” spokesperson of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Esmaeil Baghaei said in a post on X.

The US Department of State had announced the restrictions on Iranian diplomats attending the UNGA session, claiming in a statement on Monday that it was part of its larger sanctions regime, the so-called “maximum pressure” campaign against the Iranian government.

Read more ⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/09/25/iran-calls-restrictions-on-its-diplomats-attending-unga-session-in-new-york-a-new-low-of-us-animosity/

🇪🇨 Ecuadorians on National Strike against far-right neoliberal policies of Noboa.

The people of Ecuador, led by Indigenous communities and labor unions, have declared an indefinite and permanent national strike against Daniel Noboa’s announcement to eliminate diesel subsidies and call for a new Constitutional Assembly.

Noboa, heir to a banana empire and one of the wealthiest individuals in Ecuador, has continued the path of his right-wing predecessors and implemented neoliberal IMF policies in Ecuador. The country has seen the quality of life decline and crime swiftly increase in the last decade of neoliberalism.

On September 23, Colombian President Gustavo Petro gave his address at the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. But it was not just another speech. It was one of the most radical speeches given at the United Nations regarding Palestine, the actions of the Trump administration, and the climate crisis.

In his speech, Petro called for radical and global change regarding the Palestinian genocide, US military action, and the climate crisis. The speech drew admiration from some and contempt from others.

Read more ⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/09/25/humanity-must-stop-the-genocide-in-gaza-petros-radical-speech-at-the-un-general-assembly/

Sudanese paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), killed at least 15 and injured a dozen more in a drone strike on September 23 on a market in North Darfur state’s capital city, El Fasher.

Abu Qurun station market was among the last functioning in the city, cut off from food supply from outside for over 500 days, under siege by the RSF.

Famine – which first broke out in August 2024 in the camps for the Internally Displaced People (IDP) on the outskirts – is now closing in on the city itself, hastened by RSF’s bombing of its markets.

Read more ⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/09/25/famine-cholera-and-ethnic-massacres-loom-large-over-north-darfurs-besieged-capital/

While addressing the 80th annual session of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, September 24, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian reiterated his country’s resolve to not seek a nuclear weapon.

Pezeshkian claimed that it is not the threat of sanctions or war but its religious conviction and the dictate of the country’s supreme leader which prevents Iran from developing nuclear bombs and any other kind of weapons of mass destruction.

He questioned the countries accusing Iran of developing a nuclear bomb while they themselves possess the “largest nuclear arsenals” and have violated the provisions of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) through the years to make their weapons more deadly. Pezeshkian rejected the allegations as baseless and spurious, claiming Iran’s nuclear program has always been for peaceful purposes.

Read more ⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/09/25/iran-will-never-seek-to-build-a-nuclear-bomb-declares-president-at-unga/

Following the announcement by Ecuador’s right-wing President Daniel Noboa to eliminate the diesel subsidy, several protests have taken place across the country demanding the repeal of the decree. In Ecuador, diesel is used for transportation and agriculture. Before the decree, the cost per gallon was set at USD 1.80; now it costs USD 2.80.

This increase has a direct impact on food production and marketing prices, which is already evident in the markets, as well as on the cost of passenger transport, which could prove very problematic for a country undergoing a prolonged economic and security crisis.

Read more ⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/09/25/national-strike-in-ecuador-met-with-heavy-repression/