Colombia’s Quiet Revolution

By Asad Ismi “It was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Guillermo Ramirez told me. He was explaining how Colombia’s affordability crisis led to the election in June of the first leftist government in the country’s 200-year history. Ramirez is Colombian–Canadian and a member of Colombia Action Solidarity Alliance (CASA), a Toronto-based activist group. […]

South Africa’s New Revolutionary Party Takes on a Corrupt System

By Asad Ismi When South Africans go to the polls in May, they will have a radical new choice on the ballot. The Socialist Revolutionary Workers’ Party (SRWP) of South Africa, which announced itself in December, will formally launch its election bid this March. Created by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), […]

Pakistan’s Government in Military Hands–Again

By Asad Ismi Imran Khan, Pakistan’s leading ex-cricketer, became the country’s prime minister in August after his political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), or the Pakistan Justice Movement, won an election marred by shocking violence—including two suicide bomb attacks in Balochistan province that killed or injured more than 180 people—and allegations of massive rigging and military […]

Careful What You Wish For

Canadian Business Wants a Notch in China’s Belt and Road Initiative. In Asia as in Canada, there are Domestic and Foreign Policy Risks to Consider. By Asad Ismi IN MID-JANUARY, AT a forum in Shanghai, the Chinese government presented the latest additions to its global economic strategy known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), […]