 Hello and welcome to Around the World in 8 Minutes, a show by People's Dispatch. In this show, we look at the struggles of people across the world for justice and their rights, as they stand united before the forces of repression and exploitation. In this episode, we'll take a look at a 400 km march by leftist women activists in India, which faced repression on December 4th. We also look at the sentencing of those convicted in the assassination of Honduran social leader and the persecution of student activists in Swaziland. We begin with the arrest of activists of the left-wing All-India Democratic Women's Association in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. The members of the organization had marched across the state for 400 km in two teams since November 25th to protest the escalating violence against women and discrimination in various sectors. The march comes at a key time on November 25th in the city of Hyderabad in the state of Telangana, a 26-year-old veterinary doctor was gang-raped and murdered, following which her body was burnt by the perpetrators. The aftermath saw the usual set of commons by those in power. On the one hand, there were those who questioned her decision to be outside at night, and on the other, there were those whose bloodlust had been unleashed, calling for mass lynchings to the suspects. There was very little, if any at all, of the necessary questions and structural analysis of those issues that often lead to such violence. The women marching in Tamil Nadu, however, represented a different approach. But when they reached the capital city of Chennai on Wednesday, they were met with a huge police presence. The activists approached the secretariat to press their demands. However, the police stopped them and then forcefully detained the activists, whose only demand was for justice and an end to discrimination. Suda Sundaraman, the All-India Vice President of the All-India Democratic Women's Association, spoke to NewsClick about the march and its aims. The All-India Democratic Women's Association, the Tamil Nadu unit, has launched a 10-day long march to focus on the increasing incidence of violence against women and children. They have demanded that this violence should be stopped and they have included the demand to intervene on the huge issue of alcoholism in Tamil Nadu, which is also leading to a lot of violence against women and children. These two rallies have been flagged off by women who had been themselves victims of violence, but they have come through it and now they have become activists of EIDWA. And many activists from across the state, there are around 250 women in the inaugural program that was held in Vadalore and a similar number in the inaugural program held in Tiruvannamalai. The other organizations like the DYFI, SFI, CITU, also the Women Employees of the All-India Insurance Employees Union and many other associations have extended their support for this initiative. It's been over three years and nine months since the death of Bertha Kassiris, the iconic social leader of Honduras. Kassiris was assassinated on March 12, 2016 for the opposition to the Agwazaarga Hydroelectric Project that is being executed by the company DESA. After all these years on December 2, seven men were sentenced for their role in the assassination. However, the question remains, was justice really delivered? Let's look at the sentences first. Four convicts were sentenced to 34 years in prison for her murder and three others were sentenced to 30 years. However, the social movements of Honduras including the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, Copin, which is founded by Bertha, are not happy with the sentence. Bertha Zuniga, the current coordinator of Copin and Kassiris' daughter, said that these were convictions but not justice. The intellectual authors of the murder continued to enjoy impunity, although it has been proven that the company DESA was responsible for killing her, she said. Copin and other Honduran organizations have long maintained that senior executives of DESA were involved in the planning and financing of the murder. Many investigations including official ones have confirmed these findings. However, the Honduran authorities and justice system have been notoriously slow on this count. The only high-ranking executive who has been arrested till now is David Castillo, the president of the company. However, even his trial has not reached any conclusion. Copin is demanding that a special team investigate the case. For Copin and the people of Honduras fighting for justice for Bertha and the Indigenous Lenca community, the battle continues. As Bertha Zuniga told People's Dispatch, we know that the road does not end here. We move to Swaziland where the punishment for leading a student's movement seems to be missing out on your exams. Student leaders of the Southern African Nazarene University, SA&U in Swaziland, were prohibited from sitting for the exams which began on December 2nd. They have been suspended until the completion of discipline reaction initiated against them for leading a strike on November 4th. The strike was held to demand the allowances owed to students which had not been paid since August. On November 1st, the university administration had suspended the entire student representative council, SRC, the student body of SA&U consisting of nine student representatives. The university administration assured the students that they would complete the process ahead of the exams but has not done so. As a result, three of the seven students including SRC's Swai secretary general were forced to miss their first exam on December 2nd. Another three suspended students might also miss their exams. One student who was shot during the protests on November 4th continues to be under treatment. Meanwhile, the Swaziland King of Swathi III continues his indulgences. The last absolute monarch of Africa owns 13 palaces, two private aircraft, one of which is customized to the VIP upgrades worth US$30 million and a large fleet of some of the most expensive motorbikes and cars in the world. But when the students raised their concerns, they were fired upon. All this has strengthened the Maswati Missfall campaign, which has borrowed its slogan from the Feast Missfall campaign that began in South Africa and is recently rocked India. The students of Swaziland are part of a global wave of uprisings which reiterate the fact that education is not a privilege, it is a basic right. We end with a short look at the 20th assembly of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, WDFY, which is currently on in Cyprus. Delegates of leftist political organizations across the world are taking part in the assembly. The World Federation of Democratic Youth is an international youth organization and has historically characterized itself as anti-imperialist and left wing. It was formed in London in 1945 as a broad international youth movement organized in the context of the end of World War II. It had the aim of uniting people on an anti-fascist platform. Have a look. Freedom of democracy, independence and equality everywhere in the world. Since then, the World Federation of Democratic Youth never let the path of a struggle against imperialism, alongside with all the anti-imperialist youth organizations worldwide. Seventy-four years after, despite all the expectations of the imperialists, we are still here holding the flag of the struggle high and shouting out the same message. No more blood, no more misery, no more imperialism. We demand the end of occupations, wars for any interventions, exploitation and oppression. Our world, peace and solidarity. Forward for our future until we have built the world we've dreamed and fought for. Freedom of democracy, independence and equality everywhere in the world. Seventy-four years after, despite all the expectations of the imperialists, we are still here holding the flag of the struggle high and shouting out the same message.