Discontenteurs: with some delay, here is the latest Global Dispatch! I notably left one country off the update that is certainly a high point in international news; fret not, as I’ll have a more comprehensive piece coming out later this week to surmise the key developments going on in Venezuela. Until then, enjoy!
-Spencer
Mayday 2019 Sees Worldwide Protests for Labor Demands
Thousands of union members and labor activists took to the streets on May 1st, otherwise known as International Workers Day or May Day. Demonstrators had various demands and tactics based on their country, but among the many common themes were calls for higher salaries, better working conditions, maternity leave, minimum wage, and an end to discrimination against temporary or foreign workers. As Raechel Anne Jolie, a writer on labor issues notes, the tradition of May Day marches for workers’ rights began in the United States in the 1880s. It quickly spread to other countries at a time when industrialization pitted poorly paid employees who had few protections and little power against increasingly dominant factory employers and landowners. Below are some of the highlights from protests around the world:
France:
Riot police used tear gas to try to control masked troublemakers near Paris’s Montparnasse train station, the start of the main May Day march, and again at the end near the Place d’Italie. They also fired flash grenades and rubber balls to disperse unruly clusters of the black-clad protesters. The Interior Ministry said 24 protesters and 14 police officers were injured.
Puerto Rico:
Thousands of Puerto Ricans marched to traditional music while protesting austerity measures, with many participants at a May Day event demanding the ouster of a federal control board that’s overseeing the US commonwealth’s finances. Many in the crowd in San Juan waved Puerto Rican flags made in black and white rather than red, white, and blue to symbolize mourning for the island’s plight, especially since September 2017’s Hurricane Maria.
Germany:
The nation’s biggest trade union urged voters to participate in this month’s European Parliament election and reject nationalism and right-wing populism. The DGB, a confederation of unions with almost 6 million members, warned that the political and economic turmoil in Britain following its vote to leave the European Union ‘‘shows what happens if those who stoke fear but have no plan for the future gain the upper hand.’ When night fell, hooded demonstrators lit flares during a traditional May Day event put on by left-wing groups in Berlin. Police arrested several people after some participants threw bottles at officers.
Sweden:
Protesters threw cobblestones and fireworks at police, including mounted officers, who were trying to keep them away from a neo-Nazi rally in Goteborg, Sweden’s second-largest city. In Denmark, helmeted police circled their vans around hooded people in black who were shouting anti-police slogans to keep them away from other May Day demonstrations in Copenhagen, the capital.
A handful of people were detained in both countries.
North and South Korea:
Protesters in South Korea’s capital of Seoul rallied near City Hall, marching under banners denouncing deteriorating working conditions and demanding equal treatment and pay for temporary workers. A major South Korean umbrella trade union also issued a joint statement with a North Korean workers organization calling for the Koreas to push ahead with joint economic projects, despite a lack of progress in nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang.
Iran: US Prepares for Confrontation as it Provokes Iran
On Sunday night, the US made moves to deploy an aircraft carrier and bomber task force in the Persian Gulf, in a claim that the United States is “fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or regular Iranian forces.” While a source told The Guardian that the aircraft carrier and its forces were ordered to the region as deterrence by “possible attacks on US forces …by Iranian forces and its proxies”, an additional source from the Wall Street Journal suggests that the carrier had already departed for the Persian Gulf, and this latest move gives its expedition a pretext to move towards Iran. While the Obama Administration had previously made moves to de-escalate tensions between the two countries, as demonstrated by the signing of the Iran Deal (JCPOA), the Trump administration has since abandoned the deal, and resumed sanctions on the country to increase pressure.
The statement released by National Security Advisor John Bolton suggests that the administration is not seeking war with the Iranian regime, however a slew of evidence to the contrary would prove otherwise. Bolton, who previously served as US Ambassador to the United Nations under George W. Bush, has also held fellowships in conservative think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute and Project for a New American Century, as well as remained a frequent commentator on Fox News. As I’ve noted in my previous works, Bolton is the standard bearer for neoconservative foreign policy, an approach that takes America’s unique and individualized status in the world to the extreme, unilaterally invading countries and toppling governments according to a doctrine of elite interests. Beyond Bolton however, the Trump administration is clearly in favor of regime change, as statements by the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and president himself would imply. Marwan Bishara of Al Jazeera writes on the closeness between Trump and Arab dictators, and the danger these alliances pose to the entire region.
Guatemala: Joint Task Force Pushes for Investigations into Presidential Candidate
On Monday, a joint investigation was launched by the Guatemalan attorney general’s office and the UN-backed International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) to probe charges of corruption against presidential candidate Estuardo Galdamez, six lawmakers, and a cabinet minister. The statement released by the two agencies says the group oversaw the approval and distribution of $7.5 million worth in bribes for 62 deputies during the administration of President Otto Pretz, from 2012-2015. Perez and his vice president Roxana Baldetti, who are members of the conservative Patriot Party, remain in prison and are on trial for corruption charges. Galdamez, who along with the other officials was previously a member of the Patriot Party under Perez, is alleged to have funneled funds from Baldetti’s office to trusted party deputies, allowing them to secure approval over laws and judicial appointments.
The current president of Guatemala, Jimmy Morales, has accused the CICIG of abusing its power, refusing to renew its mandate which will end in September. He was previously being investigated for campaign finance violations earlier this year, although Congress was unable to secure enough votes for impeachment. The UN-backed group was invited into Guatemala in 2007, as part of a government wide probe to uncover various networks of corruption, varying from military supported smuggling rings to attacks on the judiciary. As Professor Rachel Bowen points out, Morales backlash against the investigative probe can be seen as broader attack against opposition writ-large, leveraging military and political power to stamp out opposition and intimidated judges. What will come of these investigations by September will be closely monitored and supported by a variety of international partners.
Turkey: Erdogan Rebuffs Opposition as Election Council Calls for Reruns in Istanbul
The Turkish Supreme Election Council (YSK) announced on Monday its decision to call for a rerun of the Istanbul local elections. The largest city in the country recently saw a backlash led by opposition to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The winner of Istanbul’s mayoral election, Ekrem Imamglou, is a member of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and has been widely praised as leader who can be an antithesis to the nationalistic style of Erdogan, instead opting for a message of unity across religious and ethnic lines against the current regime. The results of nationwide elections saw major gains for various opposition parties, including the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), who ran against Erdogan’s reactionary style and his failure to handling rising inflation and unemployment.
Erdogan publicly insisted on Tuesday that the rerunning of the mayoral election will only “strengthen democracy”, while critics have lambasted the decision as a move to quell dissent against his government. This represents one of the numerous ways in which Erdogan has consolidated power over the last several years, using a failed coup in 2016 as a means to purge dissent, as well as a referendum in 2018 that saw Turkey transition from a parliamentary system to what Maggie Penman deemed “a one man style of government”. As Meral Aksener, a fellow Turkish politician and supporter of Imamglou said, “The will of the people has been trampled on”
Foreign Policy in Focus: Liberals' Dangerous Love Affair With the U.S. Military
In a piece for The American Conservative, Maj. Danny Sjursen describes the reverence the public tends to hold for high ranking military officers, who often rely on strategic blunders that lead them to calling for counterproductive, unwinnable, or in the case of Iraq, illegal military operations. This respect for military commanders as true arbiters of sensible action and direction compared to the Commander in Chief underlies a misguided belief that generals possess all the proper experience and information necessary to advise the president. Quite to the contrary, Sjursen says, as they often demonstrate "no nuance, no self-reflection, not even a basic understanding of the general complexity of geopolitics in the 21st century. Generals can be like that—utterly “in-the-box,” “can-do” thinkers."
Many of the former cabinet generals, from National Security Advisor HR McMaster to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, ultimately held unsurprisingly conventional views on the role of America - exceptionalism and unilateral action - and disagreed with Trump on formality and bluster more often than not. While Mattis left over troop withdrawals in Afghanistan and Syria, he remained unmoved by the continued support for Saudi Arabia's bombing campaign in Yemen. Sjursen concludes with a warning for those who relish the clear conceptions of "good and evil" Americans had in conducting affairs during the Cold War, and emphasized a renewed focus on returning the direction of US foreign policy towards civilian control and accountability, should a progressive come to office.