On Saturday, August 13, the world celebrated the 90th birthday of Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro Ruz, the only individual ever to be acknowledged by the UN as a “World Hero of Solidarity.” It is very hard to think of a more important world leader than Fidel.

Emancipation Day sends a clear message to the labouring classes that capitalism exploited their ancestors’ labour under chattel slavery and is doing the same to theirs under wage slavery. It is the responsibility of the revolutionary organizers to use Emancipation Day to strengthen the class consciousness, feminist commitments and anti-racist opposition of the labouring classes.

Jamaica has one of the highest rates of police killings in the world. Physical assaults, arbitrary detention and arrests, torture, humiliation, sexual assaults, extortion, robbery, intimidation of witnesses and fabrication of evidence are also common. The working-class communities that bear the weight of this brutality need to collectively and systematically organize in order to combat it.

The renowned radical scholar-activist was murdered 36 years ago because he did not fit into the old political mold, where leaders accepted the colonial structure and wallowed in its fineries, especially the misuse of the machineries of state to silence dissent. His death reminds all progressive people of their responsibility to organize and resist the abuse of state power.

The famous portrait of Che Guevara graces T-shirts and posters the world over, but what did the revolutionary leader actually stand for?

Che, the revolutionary thinker and organizer whosebirthday falls on June 14,  has left us two major elements of his legacy. One: Revolution is everything and we as individuals, in isolation, are nothing. And two: Injustice anywhere against anyone is injustice against all of us everywhere.

The response to the Brazilian coup shows that the BRICS powers are not a real alternative to US imperialism.

A native of Grenada but with influence throughout the Caribbean, Franklyn Harvey, a civil engineer, made his mark in radical history by coordinating and facilitating the empowerment of everyday people through promoting their direct self-government.

Empire has mobilized all its devices to end, at any price, the Bolivarian Revolution even at the cost of plunging Venezuela into a bloodbath. But the people will offer fierce resistance to any invasion and volunteers throughout Latin America will come to their aid. Solidarity with the people and the Bolivarian government is now more urgent than ever to prevent the execution of yet another sinister interventionist maneuver in the Global South.

Since the visit by President Obama, two scenarios are playing out in Cuba. One is the barely veiled naive perspective regarding Obama. The second is the staunch resistance to the US ideological/political war being waged against Cuba’s socialist culture. The balance of forces is in favour of the outlook that is combating the infiltration of US prejudices within Cuban society.

Beyond being inconvenient for knowing too much, Gustavo Castro Soto falls into the repressive government’s category of public enemy. Like Cáceres, Castro has been a vocal opponent of dam construction on indigenous rivers, as well as of the broad powers given transnational corporations and the local elite to plunder democracy and the riches of nature.

March 5 marked the third anniversary of the death of the revolutionary Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez. Revolutionaries are rare. Chávez’s socialist thought and visionary policies aimed at radically transforming his country and meeting the needs of the majority of his people have vital lessons for Africa and the rest of the Global South.

The invented “Rodney” as human rights activist and advocate of economic development is reconcilable with a sense of wonder that, had he not been assassinated, he may have become a future president of Guyana. Why have there been silences in recent years avoiding the matter that Rodney was a revolutionary who wished to overturn nation-states and ruling classes above society?

Berta was indefatigable. Unflappable. Even as she served her community, Berta rose to become an international people’s diplomat. She was a heroine to many global movements, a critical player in many struggles, a keynote speaker at many venues. Berta was someone consulted by government officials, by international networks, and even, a few months ago, by Pope Francis.

Guyana’s President Granger has dismissed the report of the Walter Rodney Presidential Commission of Inquiry, without making the findings public. The Justice for Walter Rodney Committee insists that the report should be released to Dr Rodney’s family, lawyers representing all sides and to the people of Guyana.