Yemen: The Forgotten Conflict

Since Yemen’s civil war began in 2015, the Saudi-led coalition has regularly conducted lethal air strikes throughout the country, killing thousands of innocent Yemenis. Further, Saudi Arabia has implemented a blockade of basic supplies against Yemen, including drinkable water, resulting in rampant cholera, leading to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The Saudi-led coalition was initially created seeking to support the deposed President, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, after the Houthi rebels had taken key positions all across the country, including the capital Sana’a and his Presidential palace, forcing him to flee to Saudi Arabia.

Since then, Saudi Arabia has justified its lethal attacks on civilians by accusing the Houthis, without any evidence, of being endorsed by its arch-enemies, Iran and Hezbollah.

According to the UN, the Saudi-led coalition regularly kills innocent people, including children. For example, a Saudi air strike killed 140 people and injured some 600 mourners at a funeral in Sana’a last October.

The United Nations’ World Health Organization has reported that the outbreak of cholera in Yemen caused by the Saudi blockade of drinking water has already infected more than 300,000 Yemenis; killed 1,500 people, 55% of them children.

The Red Cross has predicted that one out 45 people in Yemen will contract cholera. More than 600,000 people are expected to contract the disease before the end of the year. Some worrying reports show that a child dies in Yemen every 10 minutes from preventable causes like diarrhea, respiratory infections and malnutrition.

According to the UN, since March 2015, 3.2 million Yemenis have been displaced; 13,000 civilians have been casualties; 2 million children cannot attend schools;  and nearly 15 million people have no access to basic medical care. Out of 27 million people in Yemen, 20 million are starving, including 400,000 children, and some 2.2 million are in need of urgent care.

“In the last two years, more children have died from preventable diseases than those killed in the violence. This is why vaccination campaigns are so crucial to save the lives of Yemen’s children and to secure their future,” said Dr. Meritxell Relaño, UNICEF Representative in Yemen.

“Children are dying because the conflict is preventing them from getting the health care and nutrition they urgently need. Their immune systems are weak from months of hunger,” said Dr. Relaño.”

Saudi Arabia has also imposed a strict journalist embargo on Yemen, seeking to hide its acts of barbarism. It only grants sporadic access to the country to a few journalists from the mainstream Western media. On many occasions, they are indirectly endorsed by the Saudi-led coalition.

Despite the embargo, some independent journalists have risked their lives to enter the country covertly. They regularly show the Western world what the mainstream media refuses, the Saudi atrocities in Yemen.

The mainstream Western media regularly ignores the Yemeni conflict by ensuring that it is not attractive enough for the Western audience, which supposedly prefers those in Iraq and Syria because there are more parties involved.

Nothing is expected to change soon; the Saudi-led coalition will still commit atrocities across Yemen. The Houthis and the official Yemeni government will repress and kill thousands of innocent people, worsening the living conditions of innocent Yemenis. In addition, Al-Qaeda and ISIS are expected to increase their influence by taking key positions across Yemen, leading to a possible further American military intervention in the country.

Jeremy Corbyn Is Back

Last Thursday, Jeremy Corbyn arose from the ashes after over 30 years of relentless smear campaigns seeking his political death. The establishment, the Tories, the tabloids, and several Labour MP’s had joined forces to deal a coup de grace against him in the snap election. However, Corbyn’s stunning results blew them all away and upturned the old political and economic orthodoxies.

The Labour Party won 262 seats, – 32 more than in 2015 – the largest increase in seats and votes since 1945. Even so, the Tories won the election, although without an absolute majority, getting 318 seats, or 13 fewer than in 2015, which has obliged Theresa May to form a chaotic pact with the DUP, an extreme unionist North Irish party with numerous former terrorists.

With this outcome, Corbyn will challenge the now failing Tory government from the first day and will try to force a new general election later on this year, which could eventually proclaim him Prime Minister.

Corbyn said, “Labour will invite parties to defeat the government and vote for Labour’s manifesto in a “substantial amendment” to the Queen’s speech, as well as suggesting the party would also kill off the “great repeal bill”.

“We are ready and able to put forward a serious program which has great support in this country,” he said, though the Labour leader conceded his party “didn’t win the election”.

“We are going to put down a substantial amendment to the Queen’s speech which will be the main points of our manifesto. So we will invite the House to consider all the issues we’ve put forward – jobs-first Brexit, policies for young people and on austerity,” he said.

 

After all that; the constant defamations, machinations of oligarchs, vitriolic attacks by war-mongers and ruthless propaganda by the corporate media against him were ignored by millions of Brits, and Corbyn has a real chance of winning a new possible general election with an absolute majority.

According to recent polls, most of those who did not support him, did not do so because they thought he was unelectable, and they would now vote for him in a new election. Also, Labour MPs who once disparaged him are now praising him. And part of the media has phased out their constant smear campaigns against him.

Corbyn’s resurgence would have been impossible without the mass support of young people, who voted for him in numbers never seen before in history. They have decided that he represents the future of the UK and not the past and that his manifesto is more than just a pipe dream. They believe that it is a realistic plan to transform UK society into a fairer one. Hundreds of thousands of old folks have united with them in thinking that with Corbyn as Prime Minister, anything is possible.

Before becoming Labour Party leader in 2015, Jeremy Corbyn had been toiling in obscurity on the back-benches in parliament for over 30 years. From there he affirmed his political convictions, leading him to become today’s leader. His honesty and his fierce defense of the working class have characterized his long political life.

All these difficult efforts have started to bear fruit. The support of young people and the mass mobilization of elderly has provided Corbyn with an undeniable mandate to begin a new modern social revolution, which should end with the creation of a real democracy.

The type of democracy where the citizens will control all political institutions and politicians will become their real representatives. A democracy where politicians will never again be seen as powerful actors in the world, but rather as the people’s servants.

Everyone thought that Corbyn was a moribund politician close to retirement, but the people and only the people, have made him arise from the ashes to finalize his work. From now on, the constant defamation, machinations of oligarchs and vitriolic attacks against him will no longer matter. Corbyn has come back and he will never leave again until he finishes his new popular mandate. And most importantly, the people — teenagers, elders, women, man, locals, immigrants, etc. — appear now to be willing to follow him until the bitter end.