Bert De Belder

International relations PTB-PVDA

[Peter Mertens MP @peter_mertens]

We have closely followed the process of the presidential elections in Colombia, which culminated in @IvanCepedaCast and Aída Quilcué advancing to the second round with an impressive result of nearly 41% of the vote.

On behalf of PVDA-PTB, the Workers’ Party of Belgium, we extend our solidarity to the democratic, popular, and progressive forces of Colombia, united within and around the @PactoCol. We recognize and value the broad coalition that has emerged from the Colombian people's longstanding struggle for peace, sovereignty, social justice, and democracy.

We reaffirm the right of the Colombian people to determine their own future freely and democratically, without intimidation, coercion, or foreign interference. They can count on our solidarity in their efforts to ensure that the popular will is respected and safeguarded against any attempt at manipulation, disinformation, and other dirty tricks, including those coming from the US Trump Administration and his followers in Latin America.

Together with many progressive and democratic forces around the world, we support the path of peace, sovereignty, social rights, and peoples’ rights that the Colombian workers, peasants, intellectuals, artists, youth and students, indigenous peoples and other popular sectors have opened. We support your efforts to further broaden popular mobilization through a strong, enthusiastic, and hopeful campaign.

[Belga News Agency_English @Belga_English]

About a hundred protesters gathered outside the US embassy in Brussels to demand that the US lift the embargo on Cuba. Protests in solidarity with Cuba are also taking place in Spain, Germany, Italy and France on Saturday https://t.co/hxjuCambUY

#Belga #Cuba #protest

[No Cold War @NoColdWar]

No Cold War Condemns Israel and US Military Aggression Against Iran

On 28 February, Israel and the United States launched military strikes on various targets in Iran. Israel and the United States claimed that they fired ‘pre-emptively’.
But there was nothing pre-emptive about these strikes, since Iran has neither threatened Israel nor the United States, nor has Iran built up its military capacity to do so.
These strikes are an act of aggression, a violation of the United Nations Charter. Iran has said repeatedly that it is uninterested in attaining nuclear weapons, and it has negotiated in good faith with the United Nations, the United States, and the European Union to prevent any continuation of conflict.
Both Israel and the United States have acted in bad faith, uninterested in negotiations and only focused on war.
No Cold War condemns these military strikes on Iran.
We call upon the United Nations Security Council to convene an immediate session to deliberate on the violation of the UN Charter, namely Article 2 that protects the sovereignty of each member states, including Iran.

[No Cold War @NoColdWar]

Llanisca Lugo González speaking about: the US attempt to squeeze the life out of Cuba with the fuel blockade it has now imposed on Cuba; and Cuba’s own focus on humanity and building a society based on welfare, justice and love.

Llanisca is a researcher at the Antonio Gramsci Chair of the Juan Marinello Institute of Cuba. She is a Deputy to the National Assembly of People 's Power, a Psychologist and Popular Educator.

A 15 minute video interview with Llanisca can be watched here:
https://t.co/lziDjPVtcy

#CubaNoEstáSola

[Bruno Rodríguez P @BrunoRguezP]

La fachada del edificio de la Comisión Europea en Bruselas fue iluminada con un mensaje claro: #HandsOffCuba.

Frente a la criminal arremetida imperialista, se impone la solidaridad y el humanismo.

Agradecemos a los amigos de @ics_cubanismo por esta iniciativa, con un claro mensaje solidario y de apoyo a nuestro pueblo, en estas difíciles circunstancias.

#TumbaElBloqueo

[Peter Mertens MP @peter_mertens]

Hands off Cuba

This morning, @ics_cubanismo lit up the walls of the European Commission with a clear message: Hands off Cuba.

To denounce the silence of European authorities in the face of the illegal and criminal blockade against Cuba.

With a clear demand: “Europe and Belgium cannot remain silent any longer. It is time to dare to stand up against Trump’s imperialism and to send aid to the Cuban people. We demand the supply of oil and humanitarian aid to Cuba. Stop the blockade.”

[Manolo De Los Santos @manolo_realengo]

Trump absurdly labels Cuba, a blockaded island, an “extraordinary threat”. Trump's tariff threat to block oil imports is a clear escalation of Washington’s 65 y/o regime change plan & an act of war: increase collective punishment, hunger & blackouts to force Cubans to surrender.

[Peter Mertens MP @peter_mertens]

<longread> Washington sleept een president uit zijn paleis - niet op een filmset, maar in een soeverein land. Die brutaliteit verraadt zowel angst als zwakte.
Angst: de vrees dat China de greep op Latijns-Amerika versterkt. Zwakte: wie zijn wil niet meer diplomatiek kan opleggen, grijpt naar ontvoering als geopolitiek instrument.

Duidelijk is: ofwel normaliseren we piraterij als staatsleer, ofwel trekken we een rode lijn.

Meer weten? Lees onze analyse in ‘De ontvoering van een president: macht en zwakte van Washington’: https://t.co/CcezJlWMsW

[Manolo De Los Santos @manolo_realengo]

BREAKING: President Maduro’s first statement in a U.S. court today has been: “I am the President of Venezuela and I consider myself a prisoner of war. I was captured in my home in Caracas.”

The U.S. has no political or legal authority to kidnap a foreign head of state.

[Marc Botenga MEP @BotengaM]

🇻🇪🇺🇸 Après les exécutions extrajudiciaires, et le vol d'un pétrolier, les USA escaladent en un blocus total et illégal du pétrole vénézuélien. L'UE se pose en défenseuse du droit international, mais regarde les Etats-Unis le réduire en miettes sans broncher.

[junge Welt @jungewelt]

Breaking: Aktivisten der Gruppe »Peacefully Against Genocide« haben das Brandenburger Tor in Berlin besetzt und ein Transparent gegen den Genozid in Gaza aufgehängt. Die Polizei ist vor Ort und hat den Bereich abgesperrt. #b1311

[Peter Mertens MP @peter_mertens]

For the 33rd time, the overwhelming majority of all countries rejected the U.S. blockade against Cuba.
At the UN General Assembly today, 165 nations voted to end the cruel economic, financial and trade blockade that has tried to strangle Cuban socialism for over 60 years. (1/3)

[Sofie Merckx @Sofie_Merckx]

Le report du SOTU est le premier résultat de la grande manifestation de demain.
Chaque jour la colère monte contre le vol des pensions et les possibles attaques sur notre pouvoir d'achat (TVA, saut d'index).
Nous pouvons encore arrêter ce gouvernement. On ne lâche rien 🔥

[Raoul Hedebouw @RaoulHedebouw]

De regering geraakt niet uit budgettaire discussie onder druk van sociale beweging. Er gaat morgen veel volk op de betoging zijn. De "ballonnetjes" van vorige week zorgen voor extra mobilisatie. Wij gaan door met strijd om pensioendiefstal en sociale afbraak van tafel te vegen ✊

[Peter Mertens MP @peter_mertens]

Down with Trump and Netanyahu’s neocolonial plan for Palestine. Longread: https://t.co/7MEOp6uxmr

[No Cold War @NoColdWar]

No Cold War's statement in support of the Global Sumud Gaza Flotilla can be read here:
https://t.co/I4bcI7GGhN
It is available in English, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese and Persian.

[No Cold War @NoColdWar]

"Nuclear Disarmament and the Struggle Against Imperialism" - online meeting with Jeremy Corbyn MP, Carlos Umaña, Co-President of IPPNW, the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, & Masako Wada - survivor of the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki, & assistant secretary general of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organisations, which was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.
Eighty years after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear disarmament remains critically relevant.
To register for the meeting on 30 August (New York 8 a.m. / Brussels 2 p.m. / Britain 1 p.m., Hiroshima 9 p.m.) click on the following link https://t.co/X0M26F41zZ

[Marc Botenga MEP @BotengaM]

Apparemment, Israël a assez d'avions pour anéantir un peuple entier, mais pas pour éteindre un incendie.

L'Europe va donc protéger les arbres pour Israël.

Les bombes israéliennes, elles, continueront à brûler vifs les enfants de Palestine.

[The People's Forum @PeoplesForumNYC]

Defend Free Speech: TPF under attack

Senator Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has made false allegations against The People’s Forum and others. Grassley has called on Trump’s Justice Department to “assess whether The People’s Forum and Code Pink are obligated to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), due to the group’s reported Chinese Communist Party ties.”

This is one more effort to abuse government authority to threaten, punish, and suppress based on viewpoint - to target those who express constitutionally-protected views with which the administration and its far-right allies disagree. The allegations of Chinese government funding are not only false but part of a dangerous escalation to crush dissent, target activists, and silence peace and anti-war movements. 

This latest attack on The People’s Forum, based on unfounded claims, is part of a broader assault by the Trump administration on democratic rights, which includes the arrest of students protesting the Gaza genocide, the revocation of over a thousand student visas, and intimidation of universities. This campaign also targets immigrant families, public sector workers, and media outlets that criticize the administration, all to undermine essential political rights.

The Trump administration and its far-right allies are engaging in a demonization campaign against civil society, designed to caricature and present a false and discredited image of their opponents. The fact that a number of Democratic Party politicians and ‘mainstream’ corporate-owned media outlets have either capitulated to Trump or echoed the Trump talking points has only emboldened right-wing extremist forces who seek to impose a dictatorial hold over American society. 

The People’s Forum will persist in opposing the U.S.-supported genocide in Gaza and promoting peace and understanding with China. We will continue our educational work to reveal the truths of U.S. history, including the impacts of slavery, indigenous genocide, and colonialism.

Like past generations, we will mobilize and resist attempts to roll back hard-won democratic rights. Together, we can win!

https://t.co/zgAWCVwASB

[Peter Mertens MP @peter_mertens]

Fifteen Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers
killed one by one by the Israeli army
and buried in a mass grave

let that sink in

war crime, upon war crime, upon war crime

as long as Europe imposes no sanctions, it is complicit.