The Tears of Afghanistan

In this special episode, John Wight analyses the impact of the US and UK withdrawal from Afghanistan one year on. The Afghan people were just a pawn in their game.  Now that the game is over, all that remains are the tears of the innocent.

In this moment of pandemic, the eyes of most in the world are on the upcoming US presidential election on Nov 3. However another historically important election - and perhaps even more important given the stakes - is scheduled to take place in Bolivia on Sunday  October 18.  This is an election that will test the strength of the right almost two years after it seized power in the country - with the support of the Bolivian military and Washington - from then incumbent President Evo Morales and his MAS (Movement towards Socialism) party. Morales, now in exile, intends returning to Bolivia to campaign for the MAS candidate for president, Luis Acre, who if the polls are to be believed is poised to return the fortunes of socialism and by extension Bolivia's indigenous majority in the face of right wing intimidation, violence, and repression. In this context, then, the stakes in Bolivia and also the region truly could not be any higher. Will there be a peaceful transition of power if MAS prevails, or will the right attempt to engineer a second coup in two years and return Bolivia, a country and society transformed by Morales' programme of investment, wealth and land redistribution, and nationalisation, to its prior status as a wholly owned subsidiary of Washington? Fiona Edwards is specialises on Latin American politics in her work. Her excellent writing can be seen in the pages of the Morning Star newspaper, at The Canary political web magazine, and also accessed via her website: eyesonlatinamerica.com.  You can also follow her on Twitter @Fio_edwards.

On November 3 2020 the American people go to the polls to vote in what is arguably, indeed demonstrably, the most important US presidential election since Abraham's election in 1861. Lincoln's election then was the catalyst for four brutal and bloody years of civil war, which ended with the crushing of the US Confederacy and the abolition of slavery. However though the Confederacy may have been smashed back then, its values of racial injustice, bigotry and white supremacy have been provided with renewed oxygen by Donald Trump since entering the White House in January 2017 after defeating Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. This time round the Democrats have gone with another establishment candidate in the shape of Joe Biden.  In the company of journalist and broadcaster, Ahmed Kaballo, this episode of Solid Ground focuses on the issues and controversies surrounding Trump's first term and the issue of racial justice/injustice that continues to ail a republic in crisis. Follow Ahmed on Twitter @AhmedKaballo.

Carlos Martinez is an indispensable source for a serious understanding of China's rise economically, geopolitically and culturally, which is taking place much to the consternation of Western ideologues. On this episode of Solid Ground, we attempt to penetrate beyond the miasma of Sinophobia that has been ramped by Trump in particular, but also across the West in general - this despite the fact Beijing's success in bridging divisions across the Global South and beyond under the rubric of their Belt and Road Initiative stands at odds with the crisis of nationalism that has beset the US and Europe as the most grievous symptom of the crisis of Western free market capitalism, for which there is no end in sight. We discuss the controversy surrounding the Uighur Muslim minority in Xinjiang, the unrest that's been taken place in Hong Kong and the West's role in fanning the flames there, and also about Chinese ability to square the circle of a Communist state and government running a capitalist economy. You can find Carlos Martinez on Twitter @agent_0f_change. His website is also worth visiting at www.invent-the-future.org, as is the initiative he and others are currently engaged in to counter the welter of anti-China propaganda that is now common in Western capitals. This can be found at www.nocoldwar.org. 

Tim Anderson is one of the most insightful thinkers around today. His work on the conflict and crisis in Syria has been indispensable over the years, as has been his work on the events shaping Latin America.  Tim has been superb in his analysis of Covid19 since it arrived in our midst, writing some of the most insightful and profound pieces on the virus and the issues emanating from it in this period of world-historical importance. You can follow him on Twitter @timand2037.