Monthly Archives: February 2022

Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg, at the underground station Dimitroffstrasse. Joachim F. Thurn, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany.

These thirteen stories about covert journeys in service to world socialism reveal the risks and rewards of underground work, a branch of Party activity that, as the author reminds us, was fundamental to the 20th-century liberation struggle. Appearing for the first time in English, the stories represent the latest stage of Eric Gordons ongoing and valuable translation project, which will eventually make Manuel Tiagos full oeuvrenine volumes of fiction (compressed to eight in translation) accessible to the English-speaking world.

Manual Tiago was the pen name of lvaro Cunhal, a Portuguese anti-fascist revolutionary, born in 1913, who joined the Communist Party as an eighteen-year-old in 1931, traveled to Moscow for the Sixth International Youth Congress in 1935, and never looked back. Cunhal spent most of the 1940s living warily on the margins as the Portuguese CPs de facto undercover leader. Arrested in 1949, he endured eleven years in prison before escaping to the Soviet Union in 1960.

Elected to the position of Secretary General of the Partido Comunista Portugus in 1961, Cunhal served in exile for thirteen years because the Party was outlawed at home. Not until the Carnation Revolution of 1974 was he able to return permanently to the country of his birth, where he held the Secretary General post for another eighteen years.

Not surprisingly, some of the stories in Border Crossings are autobiographical, covering a timespan that coincides with the authors own clandestine journeys. As the translators introduction informs us, The Hold, a tale of stifling confinement and sensory deprivation in the dark recesses of a Yugoslavian ocean liner, is likely based on a trip Cunhal took in 1947.

The practical purpose of that trip had been to reestablish relations between Portuguese Communists and the international movement. What the story reveals and adds to the record is a realistic sense of how the political is also the personal. Hungry, cold and alone in the ships deep recesses, awaiting the end of his torture of darkness and silence, comrade Carlos is totally dependent on others. He has no choice but to keep faith.

Another claustral narrative, The Whaleboat and the Cuddy, confirms a pattern of situations that call to mind Edgar Allan Poes tales of confinement and terror. It was as though he had been shut up in a coffin for hour after interminable hour, Comrade Saul reflects in Tiagos story. The mans suffering is painful to read, and thats the point. But even in his most intense and despairing moments Saul is only half-dead, awaiting spiritual resurrection and recommitment. As in Richard Wrights The Man Who Lived Underground, the fugitive journey offers insights into the aboveground world.

Border Crossings is frank about the pressures and risks of revolutionary activity, but its also a book of lively quirks and unexpected twists. In one story, Abel and Francisco are lost and nearly starving on an arduous trek through the Pyrenees. Suddenly and inexplicably, they come across cows in a pasture and, more surprising, buckets full of milk, brimming with foamy white bubbles. With no one around, they fall to their knees before the buckets and drink their fill. How wonderful! Abel says, forgetting that since he was a boy, he never liked the taste of milk.

That evening, after making it to the next stage of their crossing and a safe house, the men undress to take baths. They feel tiny bites and notice healthy colonies of ticksround like little white berries on their backs and abdomens. They remember that on the previous night theyd slept on the ground, keeping themselves warm under mounds of dry leaves. Its incredible we didnt notice anything, says Abel. Francisco replies, I did feel something, but I thought it was the leaves. Humorous subtleties can be difficult to translate across culture and language, but Gordon gets it right.

There are also stylistic gems, passages that intrigue and resonate. Not every translator will deftly handle the nuances and rhythms of inspired landscape description. This one is seen through the eyes of Abel and Francisco in The Pass Through the Pyrenees:

Far below, extending to the north as far as one could see, lay a patchwork of light and colors, fields, groves of trees and farmhouses attesting to the intensity of human life. To the west, also as far as the eye could take you, out to the long horizon line with the sky, sat the immense, shimmering stripe of the ocean.

In Spain Lies to the East, Alfredo volunteers to accompany Barra, a fugitive from the Portuguese fascist regime, on a hazardous passage toward safe harbor within Republican Spain. Alfredo is an ardent but inexperienced comrade, and Barra must instruct him even in the essential skill of finding the North Star. Only upon his return to Portugal does Alfredo realize how close he had been to apprehension or worse. Deep in thought, he weighs his risk-taking and questions his wisdom, yet remains undeterred:

Ruminating along those lines as he walked home, letting his imagination run on, he pictured himself at night in the fields looking at the starry sky and orienting himself as Barra had taught him.

In this volume we learn not only about celestial navigation but about the methods by which comrades recognize each other in public places, and how some of them escape from fascist prisons. Always, we are warned, memorize every detail of the information on your fake passport, including the real geographic location of ones false hometown.

This is, after all the lesson learned by young Vito in By Train Through Nazi Germany. Vito is a keen observer of detail who has a knack for wriggling out of any situation. But crossing Nazi Germany with the Gestapo surveilling and primed to intervene is serious business. Vito makes several mistakesincluding the potentially dooming one of stating that his alleged birthplace of Nantes is on the Mediterranean coastbefore he comprehends how real the dangers of his trip were and recognizes it as a near-death experience.

Gordons translation of Women Over the Soajo has been broadcast on Pacifica radio and made available for listening. The plot involves Berta and Manuela, two Portuguese Communists stuck at a fine hotel while they await instructions for their return home. Outwardly they exhibit bourgeois behavior, browsing the stores and enjoying meals and amenities as if they were two single ladies living off their rental income. When they encounter a male comrade in a dour mood, they invite him out and share their contagious exuberance, receiving the mans compliments and a gift in return.

Seemingly strangers to misery, the women are unprepared for the arduous next leg of the journey, an ascent of the rocky and steep Soajo mountain. But despite the sexist insults of their male guide, they show their mettle. Even limping to their destination on bleeding feet, they retain as well their high-spirited revolutionary lan.

Tiagos decision to structure a story collection around the perils, vicissitudes, wonders and gratifications of boundary transgression is original and ingenious, a credit to the authors individual artistic vision. But as translator Eric Gordon points out in his introduction to Border Crossings, One theme that pops up in story after story here is that of communication, cooperation and collaboration. No one makes these journeys alone. Clearly both Tiago and Gordon his collaborator are stirred by the culture of border-crossing, the simple solidarity of the movements brothers and sisters, underground and therefore largely unsung.

As rendered in Gordons translation, Tiagos prose at times recalls Hemingways minimalist, modernist prose style. Its therefore fitting that in the books final story, less is more. It Was NothingA Vacation is an ultrashort, flash-fiction piece with a clipped and ironic outcome. The magnitude of its irony is a cumulative product of the preceding twelve stories.

Fernando and Regina, two militants who are also the parents of a four-year-old, accept an assignment of several years in a distant country. Getting there will be an ordeal, so they ask another couplecomradesto separately drive their daughter to Paris by car, pretending that the girl is their own. The parents endure quite a bit of trouble in their crossing but say nothing about it to the child and are joyously relieved at their reunion. Someone asks the little girl, whose trip had been a happy and carefree time, what a clandestine border crossing is like. Her response, Its nothinga vacation, is overheard, believed, and repeated by many.

Border Crossings is a work of unique concept and clever prose, richly translated. Its both engaging and eye-opening for its depiction of an important but little-known field of political activity.

Manuel TiagoBorder CrossingsTranslated by Eric A. GordonNew York: International Publishers, 2021.130 pages, $19.99 (paperback)ISBN: 9780717808731Order from International Publishers.

Photo: Friedrichstrasse Station, Berlin, 1932 (FOTO: Fortepan ID 28605, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0)

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'Border Crossings': Thirteen stories about covert journeys in service to Portuguese freedom - People's World

Los Angeles, California Against a backdrop of increasing violence, human rights violations and impunity in Mexico, attacks against journalists are spiking, with four killed last month alone.

On January 31, three armed menreportedlyshot Robert Toledo, a videographer for Monitor Michoacan, as he prepared to film an interview west of Mexico City.

Days earlier, reporter Lourdes Maldonado Lopez was shot dead in Tijuana the same city where freelance photographer Margarito Martinez, who documented crime scenes, was fatally shot on January 17.

And earlier last month, Jose Luis Gamboa Arenas, director of the news site Inforegio in Veracruz, a notoriously violent and corrupt region, died from stab wounds.

Two more journalists in Mexico had close calls in January: One reporter was shot at and escaped, and another was wounded in a knife attack, according to Jan-Albert Hootsen, the Mexico representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Weve seen whats very likely the most violent month in terms of violence against journalists in a decade, Hootsen told Al Jazeera.

And media freedom groups warn the violence shows no sign of abating: Every year, its getting worse and worse, Paula Maria Saucedo Ruiz of Article 19, a group that defends freedom of expression, told Al Jazeera.

While there is little data on the history of violence against journalists before the 1980s, Hootsen said, the current trend can be traced back to 2006, when the Mexican government declared war on organised crime and deployed the military. This led to an explosion in violence across the country, including against journalists who dared to report on the conflict.

With organised criminal groups fighting each other and the Mexican state, the countrys justice system has eroded, while corruption has proliferated at the local and state levels, resulting in near-total impunity.

About 99 percent of crimes against journalists are not prosecuted, Ruiz said, Anyone can decide, Im just going to silence this journalist, because there are not going to be consequences.

Hootsen visited Tijuana last week after Martinez and Lopez were killed. He called the city the murder capital of Mexico, as it now averages about five homicides a day.

According to aGoFundMeset up by Martinezs colleagues on behalf of his wife and teenage daughter, he knew the risks, but still continued to cover the rising violence in the border city.

Criminal groups are at war across Tijuana, willing to go to extreme lengths to defend their interests, while the local government is unwilling or unable to act, Hootsen said: It creates an extremely dangerous, toxic environment for journalists to work.

Manuel Ayala, a freelance journalist who covers missing persons, human trafficking, migration and organised crime in Tijuana, says he is careful who he talks to, as sources can also be informants for criminal organisations. After publishing, he keeps a low profile.

While no one has directly threatened him on the job, Ayala has heard warnings. In one case, a local police patrol recorded his personal information and told him to stay away from a certain area, he said; another time, a source suggested he stop investigating a trafficking story.

Our bosses do not protect us. We protect ourselves, Ayala told Al Jazeera in Spanish over WhatsApp, noting that Tijuana journalists are in constant communication about where they are going and whether theres a risk.

In this tight-knit community, Ayala and Martinez were friends: Since I arrived in Tijuana, he always welcomed me. I saw him as an older brother, because he used to guide me on the dynamics of the city, on how to make things easier for me when doing my job. Margarito used to do that a lot with everyone.

About 500 journalists are enrolled in a federal mechanism to protect journalists, with protections ranging from home surveillance systems to bodyguards. Similar programmes exist in some states, but members of the media are highly sceptical of their efficacy.

Of the four journalists killed in January, only Lopez was enrolled for protection, Hootsen said.

The security she received from the Baja California authorities was woefully insufficient, he said.

While Martinez was in the process of being enrolled in the federal scheme, at the time of his death he had no protection, Hootsen added.

Days before she was killed, Lopez called out state corruption, dedicated her broadcast to Martinez, and said she was under state protection.

They take good care of you, but no one can avoid not even under police supervision getting killed outside your house in a cowardly manner, she said,according to a reportfrom the AP news agency.

Ayala, who is not enrolled in a protection mechanism, said journalists do not trust the state apparatus, There are many flaws and it needs to be improved.

Such systems are reactive instead of preventive, Ruiz said, noting that in order to get protection, a journalist must have experienced a direct threat or attack.

The mechanisms are also under-resourced, she added.

While Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador regularly berates journalists, he told a news conference after Lopezs killing, We are obliged to investigate this crime and prevent the murders of journalists and citizens from continuing.

Yet, despite coming to power on promises of peace, Obrador has shown no inclination towards solving the problem, Hootsen said, while Mexican states have an almost unreal indifference to the plight of their own citizens.

While it is hard to find hope, Ruiz and Hootsen say they are encouraged by the solidarity among Mexican journalists, who held demonstrations across 65 cities in response to the deaths of their colleagues.

Ruiz also pointed to groups of reporters collaborating across borders to reveal corruption in Mexico. By co-publishing, local journalists face less risk of being singled out.

Every significant change in human rights in Mexico is a direct result of activists, academics and journalists speaking out and placing pressure on authorities, Hootsen said, Thats where I get my optimism from.

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Whats behind the spike in journalist murders in Mexico? - Al Jazeera English

A report released Monday by the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) indicates that during last year, freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Pakistan remained under severe pressure.

Report on media freedom paints a bleak picture of the reality of being a journalist in the country. It highlights that in the last year five journalists were killed in the line of duty and that attempts to stifle the media and block access to information have grown in intensity.

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According to Dawn, the "Pakistan Media Freedom Report - 2021" was compiled under the supervision of CPNE's press freedom and monitoring committee and included firsthand information and material obtained from media outlets and websites.

"Freedom of the press and freedom of expression remained under severe pressure and faced a myriad of challenges during the previous year," the report said.

Shehbaz Sharif, the president of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), described the media report as another charge sheet against the Imran Khan government.

Sharif said, "The Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE)'s report is yet another charge sheet against the PTI government. Such reports may affect Pakistan's GSP Plus status and prospects for foreign investment."

Also read |Pakistan PM says inflation keeps him 'awake at night', slams opposition for trying to destabilise his govt

He added that the report is a testimony to the 'fascism of this government'.

According to the report, the state of the media in Pakistan for 2020 is characterized by increasing attempts to censor the media and to negate the right to access information.

In addition, the paper recalled incidents that took place in Pakistan in 2021 that indicated that the year had been a particularly challenging one for journalists, media workers, and media organizations in different ways.

Watch |Pakistan PM Imran Khan to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping

"A number of journalists faced attempts on their lives, lawsuits and telephone calls from unknown numbers," the report said.

It noted five journalists were killed in the line of duty, including Nazim Jokhio, a Karachi-based social media activist who was murdered mercilessly. The report also reported 9 journalists died from the covid pandemic, and many media persons committed suicide due to unemployment.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Report: Media freedom in Pakistan deteriorated in 2021, oppn calls it testimony to `fascism` of the government - WION

On January 30, the Gujarat Vidyapith, founded by Mahatma Gandhi in 1920, in Ahmedabad, launched a heritage walk across its 21 acre campus that has been witness to events from the pre and post Independence era. To be conducted every Saturday, the walk begins from the Pranjivan Vidyarthi Bhawan, where the existing residential university first ran out of.

Not many know that at the time Gujarat Vidyapith was founded, it did not have its own building. It was started from Dahyabhai Ijatram Mehtas (Vakil) bungalow near Kochrab Ashram on November 15, 1920 from where Mahatma Gandhi inaugurated the Gujarat Mahavidyalaya.

With space constraints in the bungalow along with looming threat of plague, Vidyapith was shifted to Aga Khan Estate near Nehru bridge, where a building stands now. It ran from there briefly till the foundation stone of Pranjivan Vidyarthi Bhawan was laid by eminent scientist Prafulla Chandra Ray on March 9, 1923 which after completion was inaugurated by Gandhi in 1925.

On Sardar Vallabhbhais appeals to the public, a fund of Rs 10 lakh was collected for the land and building construction. Out of this Rs 2.5 lakh was donated by Pranjivandas Jagjivandas Mehta, on whose name the building is named. He was a close friend of Mahatma Gandhi and had helped him when he went to England and also helped him return from South Africa to India, Binduvasini Joshi, who recently retired from Vidyapiths department of History and culture told The Indian Express.

It was constructed at a cost of Rs 1.75 lakh at that time. Sardar Vallabhbhai had dedicated his time and efforts to the building construction. Every brick used in the building was made on the site with each carrying a charkha engraving, said Joshi, who was associated with the development of Vidyapith museum and in planning the heritage walk.

Walking down the corridors of Pranjivan Vidyarthi Bhawan, one can pictures of Mahatma Gandhi. The uniquely built building that resembles a fort has been the venue for the Vidyapiths convocation ceremony since the time of Gandhi.

The walk traverses through Gandhijis Maun Khand, Morarjibhai Desai museum, Gujarat Vidyapith museum, rural science extension centre, Bible Khand and Umashankar Joshi Khand.

Gujarat Vidyapith which is considered as an important chapter of the freedom struggle and a unique heritage of not only Gandhi but also Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Jivatram Bhagwandas Kripalani, popularly known as Acharya Kripalani, and many others, witnessed an enthusiastic group of more than 200 visitors on its launch day.

The walk that is aimed at helping to understand not only Gandhian thoughts and lifestyle but also become a bridge between Gujarat Vidyapith and other colleges, universities, institutions and the society, said Dr Rajendra Khimani, Vice Chancellor Gujarat Vidyapith.

The route covers 25 main spots also covers the oldest building of the campus which is a gaushala, Udhyog Bhawan, Mayur Garden, Acharya Kripalani Smarak Bhawan, Khadi Bhandar, the library, archival cell, earth cooling auditorium, tribal museum, sports complex and terrace garden.

Honorary Director Oriental Studies and Heritage Management Resource Centre, Gujarat Vidyapith Debashish Nayak , who launched the heritage walk in Ahmedabad city, says , The route was planned in such a manner to give a glimpse of Gandhian thoughts, ideology, lifestyle, rich heritage and culture to not only people outside the campus but also students of Vidyapith too.

The Pranjivan Vidyarthi Bhawan with its unique plan of huge doors in all four directions and a terrace boundary resembling a fort makes it secure from all sides just like a fort, an open ground the centre like the Nalukettu house style of Kerala, was used as a hostel for students.

Popular poet and scholar Uma Shankar Joshi too used to stay at this building for nearly three to four months and was regularly visiting campus and was associated with teachers. The Uma Shankar Joshi Khand is being planned to be developed as a memorial within the walk.

It is on the terrace of this building that Joshi has penned a part of his popular Vishwa Shanti kavya. Also, his diary has a detailed note on his experiences of Vidyapith that also gives a glimpse of Vidyapiths history, says Joshi.

Sharing the history of Gandhis Maun Khand on the first floor of Bhawan, she adds, This is the room where Gandhi stayed when he was advised not to meet anyone. Sardar Patel and his daughter Maniben would take care of Gandhi. He would sleep on the terrace, stroll in the corridors.

The building that symbolises multi religion harmony also has a Bible Khand. The history of the Bible Khand which is in one of the corners of the building goes back to 1926 when Gandhi called off the non co-oepration movement.

The entire country was angry with Gandhi and there was no political event for him so he was free for sometime. That time students asked him to teach them. Gandhi asked what they would like to learn from him as he can teach something on Gita or Ramayan. But students asked him to teach them Bible. So, every Saturday, he took lectures for three months on Bible from this place where he would come from Gandhi Ashram. However, when he started these lectures he had to face resentment from many people in Ahmedabads, Joshi reveals.

The Bible Khand has large plaques mounted on the wall with teaching and symbols of all religions.

The heritage walk that also covers places like swimming pool is shown not as a facility but the ideology of Gandhi who would believe in physical exercise, or the tribal museum reflecting tribal culture sending a message of rich tribal culture of Gujarat are included not as buildings but ideology of Gandhi and his thoughts.

At present, there is no fee charged for the heritage walk that takes around 3 hours. However, registration fee could be charged in the future.

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A walk through Gandhis thoughts, memories of freedom struggle - The Indian Express