Dear Comrades and Friends,
Peoples Dispatch turns 1 today. When we began this endeavor on July 20, 2018, we resolved to “diversify our coverage to encompass more movements from world over at a time when resistance to capitalism is on the rise.” In the year since, we have covered, without any pretense of the famed journalistic ‘objectivity’, the struggles of millions of people. These struggles – from the hospital ward and the university to the fields, factories and streets – are bound by a common thread: the realization that something is fundamentally wrong with the world as we know it.
This is almost a truism. And yet, it cannot be repeated enough during these dark times. Across the world, the far-right chalks up victory after victory. It draws sustenance from the pain of those who suffer the worst of an out-of-whack capitalism, and the aspirations of those who benefit from it. The migrant, the worker, the Dalit, the Palestinian, the Black person, those of diverse genders and sexualities – all become targets of aggressive supremacisms that spew deep hatred. Globally, imperialism, its facades stripped, openly backs oppressive despots while taking the world to the cusp of devastating war. The nuclear doomsday clock is the closest to midnight in decades even as we run out of time to reverse the impact of climate change. Even vaccinations which wiped out epidemics are abandoned in favor of rank obscurantism.
And yet, the people mobilize. They overthrow a dictator of 30 years in Sudan, they face down the greatest military power in the world in Venezuela, they fight for their reproductive rights in Argentina, and stand up in the face of right-wing terror in the Philippines, India and innumerable other countries. Throughout the world, on factory floors and other spaces of work, they gather in force, seeking an end to the rampant inequality that is the most basic feature of the system we inhabit today.
It has been a deep source of joy to document these struggles. Yet, there is a long way to go. If there is any lesson to be learnt, it is that internationalism is the bedrock of the struggle against capitalism and the many demons it has spawned. Our struggles are uplifted by the banners and slogans of those who fight across continents. In the absence of this expansive solidarity, we risk being confined into our small silos, cowering before an enemy whose strengths and weaknesses we do not understand, and unaware of those who stand by our side. The ongoing processes of the International Peoples Assembly are a milestone in this attempt to forge a common understanding. We look forward to many more such milestones in the years to come.
To our readers and viewers, we express our gratitude. And the promise that in the coming year too, we will toil ceaselessly to bring you the only stories that matter – stories of struggle, and of hope.
In Solidarity,
The Peoples Dispatch team
