Protests against austerity and the lords of capital are erupting simultaneously in Iran, Tunisia, Sudan, Morocco, China, Peru, Honduras, Argentina and Ecuador, recalling the international protest wave of 2011. Such moments open windows of utopian possibility, but those windows inevitably seem to close as protest movements are manipulated by Great Power intrigues or derailed into ethnic or sectarian scapegoating. What can we do to keep the revolutionary flame alive, build solidarity across borders, and resist the exploitation and diversion of protest movements? Bill Weinberg explores this question on Episode 1 of the long-awaited CounterVortex podcast. You can listen on SoundCloud.

OK, you know the deal, folks. If you want the latest news on revolution around the world from a radical perspective with 0% unvetted provocation or state propaganda, you know where to turn: CounterVortex. Thanks to donations last week from readers in Queens and Long Island, NY, our year-end fund drive has reached $220. Our summer fund drive topped $500. We need to match that again to meet our target of a yearly $1,000 (which at least puts us in the ballpark of recouping annual operating expenses). If you have appreciated our rigorous reportage and ultra-dissident analysis over the past year, please give what you can. Donations of $20 each from 14 more readers would do it. Or if there is one reader out there with deep pockets, $280 would bring us to the finish line. If you can afford to help us, please do it now while you are thinking about it...

OK, thanks to a $100 donation from a reader in Queens, NY, our year-end fund drive has now reached $200. Our summer fund drive topped $500. Can we manage to raise that much a second time by year's end? If we do, CounterVortex will have succeeded in meeting a large chunk of our annual operating expenses for 2017. That's all we ask. If you have appreciated our rigorous reportage and ultra-dissident analysis over the past year, please give what you can. Donations of $50 each from six more readers would do it. If you can afford to help us and appreciate our work, please do it now while you are thinking about it...

CounterVortex will be on hiatus through mid-November, as your editor Bill Weinberg will be traveling in Peru, gathering material on indigenous and campesino struggles against corporate land-grabs for oil and mineral exploitation. He may post some material from the road. But we will resume regular updates to the Daily Report and our weekly headline e-mails upon his return. We thank our readers for your continued support, and urge you to give what you can to sustain our efforts. We promise to be back in full swing within 30 days.

This year marks the 15th since World War 4 Report (now CounterVortex) was launched in the immediate aftermath of 9-11 to monitor global conflicts; support anti-militarist movements and autonomy struggles; and give voice to dissident-left perspectives from the Middle East, Latin America and around the world. We continue to have a dedicated following, but an admittedly select one. We continue to wonder how many readers "get" what we do, and how valuable it is to you. We would appreciate any response, either by e-mail or commentary on the website, to this brief reader survey...

Cuba became a living experiment in a post-petrol future for humanity after the collapse of the Soviet Union meant a cut-off of subsidized oil. This prompted a big push for self-sufficient and ecological models—bicycle transportation and urban farms in Havana, organic agriculture in the countryside. A generation later, Cuba is getting subsidized oil from Venezuela, opening up its economy, and hoping for an end to the US embargo. Have these ecological alternatives survived? CounterVortex editor Bill Weinberg reports back from his visit to the island, with photos and discussion on Cuba's squats, community gardens and organic farms.

CounterVortex, an ultra-dissident voice of left in a time of deep reaction, depends 100% on our readers for support. We receive no foundation sponsorship to meet our operating costs of some $2,000 per year. You can't tell us we're beholden to George Soros, because we don't get a dime from him. We appeal, as we do once a year, to our readers to at least help us meet our annual costs. This year, we are especially appealing to new readers. There is a handful of around 10 hardcore supporters who have been extremely generous since our founding in the immediate aftermath of 9-11. But they have more than done their part. Google stats indicate that our readership is growing, at least modestly. May we ask those of you who have never donated before to step up to the plate today?

CounterVortex editor and chief blogger Bill Weinberg will speak at the Left Forum in New York City on June 4, at a panel on "Confronting 'Anti-Neoliberal Left' Collaboration with Trumpism and the Far Right." In spite of Trump making good on as many of his racist, sexist, nationalist, anti-immigrant and anti-worker plans for the US as he can, a portion of the left continues to insist that the rise of Trumpism is preferable to or no worse than the "neoliberal" status quo. We see the same tendency now in part of the French and international left regarding Le Pen. Is this phenomenon due to ignorance of the dangers of white-nationalist authoritarianism, or because a portion of the left actually favors it over "neoliberalism"? This panel will offer diverse views on the causes and consequences of collaboration with Trumpism and the far right and will suggest diverse ways to try to keep it from stifling the real left—the growing Resistance in the streets.