Celebrating the Life of Comrade Chris Matlhako

Comrade Chris Matlhako – Secretary for International Relations of the South African Communist Party – tragically passed away on 20 April 2023. He was a life-long revolutionary, freedom fighter and internationalist. In addition to his leadership role in the SACP, Chris was a member of the ANC, General Secretary of the Friends of Cuba Society – South Africa (FOCUS-SA) and a leader of the South African Peace Initiative (SAPI). He was also a founding signatory of Through Pluripolarity to Socialism: A Manifesto and an advisory group member of Friends of Socialist China, and spoke at numerous online panels we have organised in recent years.

On Sunday 14 May, we are holding an online memorial to honour his legacy and to remember his outsized contribution to our collective struggle for a better future for humanity.

Speakers

Ajamu Baraka is the national organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace and was the 2016 candidate for vice president on the Green Party ticket. Baraka serves on the Executive Committee of the U.S. Peace Council and leadership body of the United National Anti-War Coalition (UNAC). He is an editor and contributing columnist for the Black Agenda Report and contributing columnist for Counterpunch. He was recently awarded the US Peace Memorial 2019 Peace Prize and the Serena Shim award for uncompromised integrity in journalism.

Camila Escalante is the woman behind Kawsachun News, a media outlet based in Bolivia, and also known for her correspondent work reporting around Latin America. She is a Latin American Correspondent for Press TV. She co-hosts Latin America Review, a new weekly program/podcast where you can hear interviews with Latin American and Caribbean leaders and analysts in English. Camila’s family are FMLN revolutionary former combatants. She has previously been based in Quito, Havana and Caracas. She is currently based in La Paz and reporting on campesino movements across the continent.

Margaret Kimberly is a co-founder, Executive Editor and Senior Columnist for Black Agenda Report. She is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents and a contributor to the anthologies, Killing Trayvons: An Anthology of American Violence, In Defense of Julian Assange, and Capitalism on a Ventilator: the Impact of COVID-19 on China and the U.S. Her work as an activist includes leadership roles in the Black Alliance for Peace and the United National Antiwar Coalition.

Carlos Ron is Vice Minister of Foreign Relations for North America and currently serves as the President of the Simon Bolivar Institute for Peace and Solidarity Among Peoples. As a diplomat, he was Venezuela’s Chargé d’affaires to the United States of America (2017-2018), and he has represented Venezuela before the United States of America (2014-2018) and the Federative Republic of Brazil (2010-2014). He was an adviser at the Office of Presidential International Relations (2006-2010), Coordinator of the Research Program on Regional Integration and Multilateral Agreements at the Miranda International Center (2006). He graduated in Latin American Studies from Rutgers University, USA, and also has a postgraduate degree in International Relations from the University of Brasilia, Brazil.

Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian and journalist. He is the author of forty books, including Washington Bullets, Red Star Over the Third World, The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World, The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South, and The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power (2022), written with Noam Chomsky. Vijay is the executive director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, the chief correspondent for Globetrotter, and the chief editor of LeftWord Books (New Delhi). He also appeared in the films Shadow World (2016) and Two Meetings (2017).

Elias Jabbour is Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, Postgraduate Programs in Economic Sciences, and International Relations at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. He is co-author of Socialist Economic Development in the 21st Century.

Abayomi Azikiwe is the editor of the Pan-African News Wire. Azikiwe is a graduate of Wayne State University in Detroit holding undergraduate and graduate degrees in Political Economy along with Organizational and Administrative Studies. Azikiwe has worked for several decades in solidarity with various liberation movements and progressive governments in Africa, the Caribbean and other geo-political regions. The author also serves as a political analyst for various satellite television networks and other press agencies internationally.

Arnold August (Masters Political Science, McGill University) is a Montreal based award -winning journalist whose work appear in English, Spanish and French on several continents including (in English) New Cold War, Friends of Socialist China, Orinoco Tribune and is a member of the Editorial Board of the International Manifesto Group. He appears among others on Press TV, TeleSur TV and Sputnik Radio. He has written three acclaimed books in English and Spanish on Cuba-US-Latin America. He is a member of the US-based Black Alliance for Peace Solidarity Network.

Kenny Coyle has been based in Asia for more than a decade and often writes on Asian issues. He is the author of several topical pamphlets, YouTube videos, articles for the theoretical and discussion journal Communist Review, as well as articles for Morning Star, the English-language socialist daily newspaper.

Clinton Nzala is a Political Strategist and Analyst based in Quito, Ecuador. He works for Pan-Latin American news outlet, teleSUR. He has worked with various political and social movements across Africa as a mobilizer and organizer.

Moderator – Radhika Desai is Professor at the Department of Political Studies. She is the Director, Geopolitical Economy Research Group at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. She is the convenor of the International Manifesto Group. Her books include Capitalism, Coronavirus and War: A Geopolitical Economy (2023), Geopolitical Economy: After US Hegemony, Globalization and Empire (2013), Slouching Towards Ayodhya: From Congress to Hindutva in Indian Politics (2nd rev ed, 2004) and Intellectuals and Socialism: ‘Social Democrats’ and the Labour Party (1994), a New Statesman and Society Book of the Month.