With news from the United States, China, India, Australia, the UK, South Korea and elsewhere.
Protesters rally in San Francisco after the Supreme Court overturned abortion rights in the USA
June 22:
Cadre belonging to the Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India(Marxist), Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi and Communist Party of India(Marxist-Leninist) on Wednesday staged a protest against the Agnipath scheme near Swadheshi Mill Complex.
The Shanghai Committee of the Communist Party of China announced on Wednesday that it will hold the 12th Party congress in the city on June 25-27 at the World Expo Center.
According to the committee, 810 representatives have been elected from 2.18 million Party members at grassroots Party organizations citywide.
They will hear and review a report from the 11th CPC Shanghai Committee, which summarizes its work in the past five years, sets guidelines and goals for the next five years as well as visions for 2035 and 2050, maps out key missions and plans for promoting the Party's development.
Australia: Family of Hungry Panda delivery rider killed at work awarded $834,000 in landmark decision
The family of a Hungry Panda delivery rider killed in Sydney in 2020 will receive more than $800,000 under the NSW workers’ compensation scheme, in what the union says is the first case where a gig economy worker has been considered an employee.
Xiaojun Chen was killed after being struck by a bus while riding his motorbike in the Sydney suburb of Zetland on 29 September 2020, while working for Hungry Panda.
The Personal Injury Commission this month found that the 43-year-old had died from injuries sustained in the course of his employment with Hungry Panda. Employers Mutual Limited, an iCare workers’ compensation scheme insurance agent, agreed Chen was an employee when he died.
June 24:
As expected, the Supreme Court of the United States has voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that legalized abortion across the nation nearly 50 years ago. The decision was already revealed in an unprecedented leak reported by Politico in early May, but now the nation has the final version of the majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito and circulated among the other justices in February.
The ruling marks the first time in U.S. history that a constitutionally-guaranteed right has ever been removed by the Court. But the extremists on the Court do not appear content with just killing abortion rights. Justice Clarence Thomas, a signatory to the decision, called for the Supreme Court to overturn other past rulings protecting same-sex marriage, gay sex, and the use of contraceptives.
The destruction of Roe is having immediate impact. In the state of West Virginia Friday morning, the last clinic in the state providing abortion services closed its doors. The sole clinic in Mississippi continued to provide services but was expected to stop at any time as right-wing protesters gathered outside. In Wisconsin, Planned Parenthood issued an order to stop abortion services at both of its clinics. Similar scenes are playing out across the country.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is a horrific setback for women their partners, their families, and society overall. As expected, the Court overturned Roe v. Wade, making abortion rights susceptible to the whims of extreme-right state legislators.
A woman may not get an abortion in Texas, but a resident of New York can. Just as where you live determines whether you can vote with ease, breathe fresh air, access Medicaid, or have your children attend a well-funded school, the same is now true regarding abortion rights.
Human rights in this country have never been universal, and the Dobbs decision highlights this fact even further.
The recent ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) which overturned Roe v. Wade thus ending the decades-long constitutional right of women to abortion has created a wave of protests throughout the United States, as well as abroad.
More than 100 days after they were snatched by the Ukrainian secret police, their fate unknown, two Communist youth leaders accused of spying for Russia are finally confirmed to be alive.
Mikhail Kononovich, leader of the youth wing of the outlawed Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU), and his brother, Aleksander Kononovich, were arrested by Ukrainian authorities in Kiev in early March. Mikhail is the Communist youth group’s first secretary, and Aleksander is a leading activist in the organization; both are Ukrainian citizens.
There were widespread fears that they might have been executed, as hundreds of people taken captive by government security services and right-wing militias have permanently disappeared or been found dead.
The World Federation of Democratic Youth, a U.N.-recognized global alliance of progressive youth organizations, has mounted a campaign to raise awareness and demand the release of the brothers. This week, WFDY finally received word from Kiev that both Mikhail and Aleksander Kononovich are indeed alive, but they remain imprisoned and face an uncertain future.
Families and friends of Segun ‘Sango’ Adefemi, who died on May 23, attended a memorial to honour him in Lagos on Friday.
The deceased, described as a “revolutionary socialist,” was a human rights lawyer. He was until his death the national chairperson of the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN).
He was also the founding general secretary of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM), a platform he was said to have used to liberate Nigerian students and youths.
London Underground staff in the RMT union have voted to continue with strikes in a dispute over pensions and job cuts, potentially adding to disruption in a summer of industrial action on the transport network.
More than 90% of the union’s members on the tube who voted, on a 53% turnout, backed further walkouts, as the RMT leadership continued to talk with Network Rail and train operating companies to resolve the national rail standoff.
June 25:
Shanghai will accelerate the development of a socialist, modern international metropolis with global influence over the next five years, the city's Party Secretary Li Qiang said at the opening ceremony of the ongoing 12th Communist Party of China Shanghai Congress today.
The congress, which takes place once every five years, reviews Shanghai's progress over the past five years and will come up with agreements on goals and visions for the city for the next five. Representatives, selected from citywide, to the congress will also elect deputies to attend the 20th National Congress of the CPC in Beijing later.
On 25 June 2022, the GS of the CC of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, delivered a speech at a mass political rally in Drapetsona (western district of Piraeus), as part of a two-day festival of the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE).
D. Koutsoumbas referred to the numerous additional problems faced by the working class and popular strata of the region that burden their lives, such as the lack of free space, waste management, and environmental pollution. He stressed that: “The ND government continues its policy undeterred —as does the regional authority— taking up the baton from SYRIZA. They all have their own share of responsibility. And this responsibility cannot hide behind the narrative of ‘development’, from which both the business groups and the people will supposedly benefit. The opposite has always been happening. The heavier exploitation of the workers is a prerequisite for their development. The growth of the profits of shipowners and business groups presupposes a heavier blow on labour rights in the workplaces, ships, and retail shops. It means even greater difficulties for the survival of the self-employed small tradesmen in Piraeus. That is why the mockery of SYRIZA and its MPs in Piraeus, who today are raising their voices against everything they voted for when in government, is outrageous. They are hypocrites because today the ND is based on their policy.”
The police in Swaziland shot live bullets at activists of the Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) who were protesting during a Sunset Rally held on Saturday night, 25 June 2022.
The rally was held at Mahwalala community, about 4 kilometres outside the capital city, Mbabane. It was the second rally of the weekend, following another one held on Friday night in Msunduza township, Mbabane.
June 26:
AOC says Supreme Court justices who lied under oath must face consequences for 'impeachable offense'
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday said she believes it's an "impeachable offense" for a Supreme Court justice to lie under oath.
Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, Sens. Susan Collins and Joe Manchin said they felt misled by Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch during their individual confirmation hearings. The two senators, both pro-choice, voted to confirm Kavanaugh and Gorsuch because they assured them that they believed Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark Supreme Court decision that made abortion a constitutional right nationwide, was law.
June 27:
The National Federation of Trade Unions (KCTU) will hold a large-scale rally to condemn the anti-labor policy of the Yun Seok-Yeol government in downtown Seoul on the 2nd of next month.
The KCTU held a press conference to declare the July 2 National Workers’ Congress at the Education Center of the KCTU in Jeong-dong, Seoul on the morning of the 27th and made this statement.
Left Front leaders and workers took to the streets in the state on Sunday protesting the arrest of civil rights activist Teesta Setalvad and former Gujarat DGP RB Sreekumar. Led by CPIM, they held a massive protest rally from Park Circus to Entally market here, demanding their immediate release and withdrawal of all “false charges” against them.
In a statement issued here, Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) general secretary Himagnaraj Bhattacharya said, “Renowned human rights activist Teesta Setlavad and former DGP RB Sreekumar, who dared to expose the acts of the Sangh Parivar and the BJP government during the 2002 Gujarat riots, are now being targetted by the state machinery. False charges were imposed on them and they were taken into custody. This is nothing but revenge politics being waged by the Sanghparivar against its opponents. The example of Sanjeev Bhatt, a civil servant, a whistle-blower, is right in front of us. The arrests are in continuation with repressive actions.”
Thousands of demonstrators rallied here on Sunday to call for peace and protest against a NATO summit to be held here this week.
Social, antimilitarist and pacifist movements from around the world gathered to show support for a congress concluded here on Saturday by an anti-NATO group, and its latest declaration calling for peace.
Jose Luis Centella, president of the Communist Party of Spain, told Xinhua that "many, thousands of people are demonstrating today in Madrid for peace, for a multilateral world so that Spain can live in harmony."