As the Autumn’s coordinated strike action stalls, Jeremy Dewar reviews the unions’ record and asks how we can stop the retreat Up to 150,000 marched in London, Glasgow and Belfast in October in response to the TUC’s call, “Britain needs a pay rise”. There was wild applause in Hyde Park for our leaders’ speeches, none […]

The giant metalworkers’ trade union Numsa has been campaigning for the labour movement to break with the ruling ANC and form a new working class party. Now union federation Cosatu is threatening its expulsion. Jeremy Dewar reports As we go to press, the South African labour movement faces a historic crisis. Cosatu, the 2.2 million […]

By Marcus Halaby As the Western powers bomb Iraq and Syria under the pretext of fighting the Islamic State, attention has been drawn to the struggle of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) to defend the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Kobane. On the border with Turkey, Kobane has been besieged by the ultra-reactionary IS for […]

By Bernie McAdam As health unions call a second strike on 24 November, NHS England’s five-year plan demands more funding. But the plan is a trap for staff and patients. NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens argues that the NHS needs a further £8 billion by 2020, as limited resources lag behind increasing patient demand. […]

By Christian Gebhardt Podemos, the expression of what has been called “the new politics” in Spain, has just held its first Citizens’ Assembly; the opening of a month long process of deciding on the party’s policies, constitution and candidates for next year’s general and municipal elections. Addressing over 8,000 people in the Palacio de Vistalegre, […]

  By KD Tait The ritual central London march for free education, a staple of the student activist’s Autumn calendar for 15 years, has been called for 19 November by a coalition of student campaigns under the slogan ‘no to debt, no to fees – yes to free education’. The defeat of the 2010 student […]

Union leaders across the public services have called off many of their planned strikes in the run-up to the TUC’s “Britain needs a pay rise” demo. In a matter of just a few days, the union leaders managed to tear up their own flawed battleplan for smashing the pay freeze. First to tear up their […]

Britain’s public sector unions launched a coordinated strike on 10 July to break the pay freeze. With a further strike due on 14 October and the TUC organising a national demo under the slogan, “Britain needs a pay rise” on the 18th, Jeremy Dewar reports on the tasks facing trade unionists   Britain remains in […]

Editorial from Fifth International no. 15 The decision of the 2014 Nato Summit in Wales to station permanent military forces along the Russian border marks the end of the post-Cold War “phony peace” and the opening of a pre-war period. The rhetoric of impending conflict has taken a step towards real conflict with the creation […]

By Marcus Halaby The liberated zones of the Syrian Kurds in Rojava have inspired debate and praise, but now hundreds of thousands are fleeing Islamic State terror. Marcus Halaby examines their role in the Syrian revolution and the ideology of their leading party Much of the international left has hailed the emergence of autonomous Kurdish […]

Joy Macready reviews Assata - An Autobiography

Union leaders complain that their hands are tied by the anti-union laws, but where is the campaign to abolish them? Jeremy Dewar outlines how we could launch one When the TUC voted to “consider the practicalities of a general strike” a few years back, union leaders’ response was to send some lawyers away to see […]

Over the past year or two the failure of the union leaders – left as well as right – to call the escalating and united action they have promised at the TUC and union conferences, and the catastrophic retreat without a fight at Grangemouth, underline the importance of not relying on, or waiting for these […]

By Jeremy Dewar As union leaders prepare to wind down strikes and settle for a pro-austerity Labour government, workers need to fight for a pay rise now and demand Miliband reverses the cuts Hundreds of thousands of workers will walk off the job and take to the streets this month in pursuit of a pay rise. […]

By KD Tait On 5 September, six months of fighting between the ultra-nationalist regime in Kiev and the militias of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics was brought to an end by a ceasefire signed in Minsk, Belarus. On 16 September, the EU and Ukrainian parliaments voted simultaneously to endorse the EU Association Agreement. This […]

                    The October 2014 issue of Workers Power is out now. Click here to read online (pdf) or select an article below   We need a new leadership to beat austerity EDITORIAL: Organise the rank and file Defy the anti-union laws REVIEW: FBI’s Most Wanted – Assata: An Autobiography […]

By Marcus Halaby US President Barack Obama took office in 2009 promising to end the US occupation of Iraq. Today US warplanes are bombing Iraq and Syria with the aim of “degrading and destroying” the Islamic State. Pentagon press secretary Adm. John Kirby said. “We know we are at war with ISIL [ISIS or Islamic […]

  Most of the far left forces in Scotland supported independence. KD Tait looks at how they have followed this through The decision by most left organisations in Scotland to pose a vote for independence as the way to oppose austerity, defend the NHS and strike a blow at the “establishment” was an opportunist concession […]

The positive enthusiasm of millions in the Scottish referendum and the massive rejection of austerity and privatisation have opened up a constitutional crisis in Britain. But, argues Jeremy Dewar, the working class needs to intervene with its own class demands and programme if the bosses are not to use the crisis to weaken the ability […]

By Dave Stockton Despite the rejection of independence, the shock to the system caused by the final weeks of the referendum campaign – when it appeared the blue Saltire was going to be ripped out of the Union Flag – continues to be felt. The pro-union parties at Westminster, which made a solemn vow to […]

By Andy Yorke The Scots have an inalienable democratic right to separate from the UK if they wish. If they decide to do so on 18 September every democrat, let alone socialist, should defend their decision against any attempt to delay the process or hog the joint resources of the British state. Likewise, they should […]

The anti-fascist resistance in Ukraine is debating what its goals and methods should be. Dave Stockton offers a critique of the Manifesto   On 6 July a conference took place in Yalta, in the Crimea, dedicated to opposing the war launched by the right wing nationalist and fascist government of Ukraine that was installed by […]

By Jeff Albertson, Workers Power USA The execution of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson on August 9 has provoked almost two weeks of protest on the streets of Ferguson, an impoverished suburb of St Louis, Missouri. Solidarity demonstrations have erupted across the country, not just in protest at the […]

Resolution on the revolutions and counter-revolutions in the Arab Spring.

The recent surge in racist attacks in the six counties of ‘Northern Ireland’ is a shocking indictment of the British backed sectarian state. Bernie McAdam reports on this development against a background of further strains on the Good Friday Agreement as Unionist and Loyalist leaders insist on Orangemen marching their way back through a Catholic […]

By Joy Macready The highest court in the US has dealt a serious blow against women’s rights and our right to control our bodies. On June 30, the Supreme Court decided to exempt Hobby Lobby and other closely held corporations (private companies in which more than half of shares is held by fewer than 5 […]

By Dave Stockton THE SECOND International, founded in 1889, was an organisation of the world’s socialist, social democratic and labour parties. From its founding conference in Paris it set out to coordinate the activities of mass organisations formed over the previous two decades. These centred on winning universal suffrage and an international campaign of strikes […]

More than 870 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its wholesale bombing of Gaza on 8 July. 80 per cent of them are non-combatants, including a large number of children. Israel’s most recent atrocity killing at least 15 people and wounding 200 others in the Ashraf al-Qidra school on Thursday shocked the world but […]

The family and friends of the 298 passengers and crew who lost their lives when Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crashed in Eastern Ukraine will have to wait some time for an objective investigation to discover the truth of what happened. Not so the British press. Within hours of the crash the British media dutifully delivered […]

As we publish this article, the death toll amongst the population of Gaza has passed the 100 mark and Israel has warned the population of Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, and Absan al-Saghira to evacuate their townships and move to the west or south of the Gaza strip. This is a threat of imminent invasion. 40,000 […]