Brazil: Lula Returns in Triumph

By Asad Ismi In what Time magazine called “the comeback of the century,” leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s most popular president (2003-2010), returned to power by winning the October 30, 2022 elections. Lula takes office this January. He defeated his neofascist opponent, incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, by more than two million votes (50.9% compared […]

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. […]

Brazil: Bolsonaro’s Clearcut Populism

Resistance to environmental and social reforms is growing among Indigenous peoples, teachers, students and organized labour “The barbarism has begun,” declared the Pankarurú Indigenous nation after Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s neofascist president, won fraudulent elections in October 2018 amidst accusations of breaking financing rules and shamelessly spreading fake news. The Pankarurú inhabit a northeastern part of […]

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 […]