On this day in 1975, Vietnam’s National Liberation Front defeated the invading US forces, paving the road to the reunification of Vietnam — and liberating its people from over a century of imperialist rule.
“Our resistance will be long and painful, but whatever the sacrifices, however long the struggle, we shall fight to the end, until Vietnam is fully independent and reunified,” Ho Chi Minh warned in 1946 as Vietnam struggled for independence from French colonial rule.
US involvement, which began after World War II and intensified from November 1955, would lead to a ten-thousand day war. It claimed an estimated 3.1 million Vietnamese lives — including 2 million civilians.
The war would devastate the nation. Among countless atrocities, the US poured millions of litres of Agent Orange over Vietnam, deliberately targeting its agriculture and affecting 20% of its forests. The health, economic and environmental impacts are felt to this day.
Today, we remember the struggle of the Vietnamese people and those who continue to fight against imperialism around the world.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
BREAKING: A shock poll by @DataProgress and @ProgIntl finds that 60% of US voters want @POTUS to temporarily waive patent protections on Covid-19 vaccines at the World Trade Organization. Only 28% disagreed.
In October 2020, 100 lower-income countries presented the WTO with a proposal to waive patent protections on the Covid-19 vaccine for the duration of the pandemic.
But a coalition of rich countries, led by the United States, opposed the waiver.
Today, 86% of all vaccines dispensed worldwide have been administered in rich countries.
Only 0.1% have been administered in poor countries.
As @IlhanMN says, the current WTO rules are a death sentence for millions around the world.
BREAKING: While the World Bank & IMF hosted their Spring Meetings, a new international collective — including @ingridharvold, @Jayati1609, and @KatharinaPistor — was preparing a blueprint for Debt Justice.
2/ We begin from a simple premise: We live now in a world of debt.
In the US, household debt tops $14tn, more than 3x the combined economies of South America.
In the Global South, meanwhile, private-sector debt has doubled in the last decade — and quintupled since 1970.
3/ All that was before Covid-19. The pandemic has since amplified the global debt wave into a virtual “tsunami”.
In the first nine months of 2020 alone, governments and companies worldwide took on $15 trillion of additional borrowing — $5 trillion more than during all of 2019.
"Our coalition to #MakeAmazonPay brought together over 50 unions, environmental groups and social movements from all over the world who formulated a set of Common Demands." — Casper Gelderblom
1/ EXCLUSIVE - PART II: Live from Guatemala with @MSICG:
"On Saturday, an important social movement arose in the country... driven by the workers, by the students, by the population who come together in the square to demand justice."
2/ EXCLUSIVE - PART II: Live from Guatemala with @MSICG:
"They come together in the face of state policies that respond solely and exclusively to the business sector of the country. In the face of a state that has not taken measures to prevent the death of the population."
3/ EXCLUSIVE - PART II: Live from Guatemala with @MSICG:
"Guatemala has gone from a formal democracy to a full-blown dictatorship. And it is very important that the international community is clear about what we are living in the country. This is no longer a democratic regime."