 Hello and welcome to the International Daily Roundup by People's Dispatch, where we bring you major news developments from around the world. Our headlines. Thousands across Colombia strike against tax reform proposals. At least five people are killed in protests against a military coup in Chad. Strikes by textbook workers in Italy crosses 100 days. And in our video section, we take a look at the Shagdwellers movement in South Africa, which is facing increasing state repression. In our first tour, tens of thousands of people participated in a country-wide strike in Colombia on April 28. The call had been issued by various trade unions and social organizations across against a proposed tax reform. It was presented by the far-right government as a relief measure for the pandemic-induced economic crisis. However, it includes measures such as freeze on public-sector wages and increased taxes on people. Colombia has also been witnessing a sustained and violent crackdown on indigenous communities and activists. Demonstrations were held across Colombia and Ministry despite a government-issued suspension of protest permissions. Curfews were imposed in various cities and there were several reports of police repression and violence. Here is a video featured on the strike. On April 28, Colombian citizens, trade unions, social movements and opposition political parties participated in a national strike in cities and towns across the country. Hundreds of thousands protested in rejection of the Sustainable Solidarity Bill, a new tax reform bill presented to the Congress by the far-right government of President Ivan Duque to compensate for the fiscal deficit incurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The controversial bill was presented by the Duque government as a tool to allegedly alleviate poverty in the midst of this crisis. However, in the name of solidarity, the government seeks to pass a tax reform that increases the vat on staple goods, fuel, etc., to expand the tax collection base, to increase tax on agricultural inputs, to increase tax on pensions, to freeze wages in the public sector until 2026, to eliminate subsidies on various public services, to impose toll tax on roads connecting countryside with cities, etc. Colombian people also mobilized against the violence faced by communities in the country at the hands of the state and paramilitary groups. Movements declared that the genocide is being carried out against them with the complicity of the state. Since the Havana Peace Accords were signed in 2016, 1,164 social leaders, human rights defenders, and demobilized members of the FARC have been assassinated. So far in 2021, 33 massacres have been carried out. The strike took place amid government efforts to declare it illegal and suspended, whereas government authorities called to postpone the mobilizations due to the third wave of COVID-19 in the country. A day before the strike, the right to public protest was suspended on April 28 and May 1, revoking permissions for anti-government protests and liberty celebrations. The decision was widely rejected by trade unions, social sectors and the opposition. Leaders of the National Strike Committee, which brings together a diverse group of social organizations and trade unions, declared that they will go forward with the strike as planned. La Campania Defender La Libertad, or the Defend Freedom Campaign, pointed out that the court orders do not sympathize with the reality of the country, the climate of dissatisfaction, and imposes an unreal condition such as herd immunity which is uncertain. Therefore, the measures become innocuous or empty and unattainable by the citizenry. The protesters denounced the Sustainable Solidarity Bill as a hard blow to the middle class, calling it Duque's Nullable Package, distressed that it threatens the economic stability of workers, pensioners and people with lower incomes and will only increase poverty and inequality in the country. The massive mobilizations, road blockades and cultural acts were met with heavy repression with the highest levels seen in the city of Kali. According to reports by human rights organizations, at least 73 people were detained, 14 raids were carried out, 10 attacks were registered against human rights defenders and 78 complaints of police violence were registered. The total number of injured has not been confirmed, four people are alleged to have been killed by police. Including 21-year-old student Juan Diego Pardomo, who before being killed, had written on social media, if I don't come back, it was the state that killed me. We now go to chat where the military hunters announced that at least five civilians were killed in protests on April 27th. However, a local organization has stated the number of fatalities is at 9. People took to the streets in several areas on Tuesday to demand a return to civilian government. The Chadian military seized power last week following the death of President Idris Debi. He was killed after getting injured on the front lines of a battle between the military and the fact rebels on April 19th. His son Mohammed Debi is now the head of an interim military council, which is set to state power for 18 months. The country's constitution and government and parliament stand dissolved. The military junta announced a ban on protests on April 26th, despite this people took the streets on Tuesday following a call by civil society groups and opposition parties. Police from the capital fired tear gas at protesters. Trucks of soldiers could also be seen patrolling the streets. The Chadian convention for the defense of human rights stated that at least 32 people had wounded and 12 had been arrested. In the meantime, the military government has appointed a new prime minister and announced that fresh elections will be held. The takeover has been backed by France, which is a form of colonial power and has extensive operations in the region. Meanwhile, the fact rebel group has announced that it is joining forces with other opposition groups. In our next story, we go to Italy where textile workers in the city of Prato have been on strike for over 100 days. Around 30 workers, most of whom are South Asian immigrants, have been protesting at the textile printing company Textprint. They went on strike on 18th to demand fair working conditions. This included a regular contract for 8 hour work shifts and 5 days a week. Workers are currently made to work 12 hour shifts every day including weekends. They have also raised issues of low wages and lack of safety. Organized by the C.Cobas union, they have been picking outside the gates of the facility for months. The strike has been met with repression from both the company as well as police. Textprint had reportedly issued threats that all 80 workers in the facility would be laid off if the strike continued. According to local reports, 18 Pakistani workers were dismissed via WhatsApp message early this month. An appeal was also filed in the Prato Public Prosecutor's Office. The company alleged it had been forced to lay off 20 workers in March. The striking workers have been charged with fines amounting to thousands of euros for violating the curfew. Other forms of repression tactics have involved severe violence. Nova de Firenze reported an unmarked van had driven full speed at the strikers, destroying a table they were using. These forces have also repeatedly tried to break up the strike. This led to at least 8 workers being injured in March with 6 having to be hospitalized. In the meantime, the strike has received widespread support from unions and progressive groups. Hundreds of people also gathered for a demonstration on April 24th in solidarity with the striking workers. And in our final story, we go to South Africa which recently marked its 27th Freedom Day on April 27th. While the day officially accommodates the country's first post-apartheid elections, it has acquired a new significance over the past few years. The day is now marked as Un Freedom Day by Abaharali Bhasma Jandolo. The movement to shack dwellers emerged in response to the increasingly anti-poor and anti-working class policies of the government. Here is a video featuring the movement and the issues facing shack dwellers in South Africa. Freedom Day is a public holiday celebrated on 27 April in South Africa. It commemorates the first post-apartheid elections held on this day in 1994. For the last few years, Abaharali Bhasma Jandolo, the shack dwellers movement, have been organising an annual event they call Un Freedom Day on the day. Abaharali, which celebrated its 15 years last year, is the only movement formed in the post-apartheid era, organising for land, housing and dignified living to have survived and sustained itself for so many years. Leaders come to our communities and see us as banks of votes. Our children do not have access to free education. The state is pushing an agenda to oppress us. We cannot fool ourselves and say we are free, while the freedom of this country has been stolen by individuals, says Ntapeli Bonono, Deputy President of Abaharali. Abaharali organises all those living in South Africa's many shack settlements, regardless of race, gender, religion, ethnicity and nationality. They have had to face severe repression from the government, and their shacks and occupations are periodically destroyed by security forces. On 18 April, a fire tore through Abaharali's Marikana occupation in Cato Crest, KwaZulu-Natal. Burning everything in its path, it rendered 49 families homeless and took the life of a 38-year-old woman. The Marikana land occupation was initially organised as a branch of Abaharali in 2013, and in solidarity with the Marikana mine workers' strike in 2012, where 34 mine workers were massacred by the state police. Later, a section of the occupation was named after a resident of the occupation, Mubile Nzuza, a 17-year-old woman gunned down by the police during an anti-affiction protest. Before the branch started, there was a housing project which excluded many people and continued to render them homeless. In a largely Isizulu-speaking province, those from the Eastern Cape who spoke Isikosa were denied housing and evicted by landlords on the basis of ethnicity. These were the people who decided to find a piece of land to occupy. In a country that makes it a constitutional right for people to access electricity, water, sanitation, communities like the people of Mubile Nzuza continue to be sidelined by the state. A weak past since the fire and no representative of the Department of Disaster Management has come to the site. With overcrowding, poor infrastructure and limited resources, the living conditions are a daily challenge and evident from the recent fire are even life-threatening. Those like Mubile Nzuza, who stand up for a better life, face equally dangerous situations. Explaining the prevailing realities, Bonono stated that, We have a corrupt government with leaders that are looters from their own poor people. When we stand up, start questioning and talking about how we are pressed by the state, together with the ruling party, we become the enemy and the threat. They look for us and want to assassinate us.