Our perspectives on the current global situation, League for the Fifth International Congress in Berlin, June 2019

The state of Jammu and Kashmir has been stripped of its status of limited autonomy within India. dividing the state into two union territories: firstly Jammu and Kashmir, and secondly Ladakh. The Modi government wants to promote war hysteria so that on the one hand, all resistance and dissent can be crushed in the name of 'enmity to India'. On the other hand, such policies are aimed at providing Indian capital opportunities to loot and plunder Kashmir.

Whatever our criticisms of Chris Williamson's politics, his statement that the Labour Party had not been robust in rebutting charges that antisemitism was rife in the party, is fair comment.

On Thursday night, Britain’s new prime minister wielded the knife and unveiled his new war cabinet – elevating the extreme fringe of the Tory parliamentary party to the heart of government.

Like a storm which has long been forecasted finally breaking, a Boris Johnson Prime Ministership is now upon us. A press that regularly libels life-long antiracist Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite is chary of pinning labels on Johnson as racist, misogynist, homophobe and islamophobe – labels he richly deserves.

The only thing worse than defeat is defeat without a fight

Many in Western imperialist countries believe that the battle for equal rights is now won due to the rainbow-tinged corporate logo bombardment that is Pride Month and with the ever-increasing presence of LGBTQ+ people in the public eye. British society doesn’t appear as overtly heterosexist and cissexist as it was several decades ago, but does that mean the struggle for queer liberation is over?

Jeremy Corbyn’s latest statement on Labour’s Brexit policy, in an email to party members, has been presented as a major shift towards a “Remain” position. It is not. It is essentially a re-statement of what has been the policy since the Liverpool conference; “constructive ambiguity” or, in plain terms, a fudge. At most, there is […]

Over the past seven years cleaners and security guards at London’s most prestigious universities have been fighting a relentless and courageous struggle for basic rights: the London Living Wage, sickness, holiday and maternity pay, workplace conditions, and end to contracting out and union recognition.

50 years after the Stonewall riots, over a million people flooded central London for the biggest ever annual Pride celebration. The actual march, limited to just 30,000 participants by Pride organisers, was overwhelmingly a jamboree of corporate and government pink-washing

On June 14, in Switzerland, around half a million people took part in the women's strike. In all major cities, but also in parts of the country that are not well organised politically or in trades unions, women, especially those who work in the care sector or education, were on strike. In many places, strikes and actions began in the morning and spread throughout the day. According to the Swiss Confederation of Trade Unions, some 100,000 people took part in the strike on the morning of 14 June.

On June 13, two tankers, the Japanese owned Kokuka Courageous and the Norwegian-owned Front Altair, were struck by explosions while sailing through the Gulf of Oman, close to the coast of Iran. The incident comes after attacks in May on two Saudi tankers, an Emirati vessel and a Norwegian tanker.

The trashing of the Legislative Council, Legco, building in Hong Kong on July 1 certainly drew the world's attention to the ongoing opposition to the proposed Extradition Law that would allow people detained in Hong Kong to be tried in mainland Chinese courts.

The Hindutva chauvinist Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, under the leadership of Narendra Modi, has won the elections to India's lower house, Lok Sabha.

The arrest of the captain of the Sea Watch 3 triggered a storm of indignation throughout Europe. On Lampedusa, it was not only the thugs of the racist Interior Minister and Lega leader Salvini who met the 31-year-old Carola Rackete, who took her ship into the port on the night of 28-29 June. Many demonstrators also loudly expressed their solidarity with the courageous woman.

The current situation in France is characterised by a turn to the right, a severe weakening of working class consciousness and the rise of “classless” populism, all in conditions of greatly increased social and political instability.

The Corbyn project for an anti-austerity Labour government is in danger. From Jeremy Corbyn himself.

Pride must not be handed over to the corporations or the liberals, let alone the police, just to show “how far we have come”. We owe it to those facing beatings and murders today to make it a militant demonstration of solidarity with them.

On Sunday, 1 million people marched in protest against a proposed new law which will allow Beijing to extradite anyone from the territory of Hong Kong.

The low horizons of Momentum’s democracy review forces us to ask the question - what is Momentum for?

An indefinite general strike and international solidarity can beat the dictatorship

How the crushing of the democracy movement paved the way for the restoration of capitalism

By Jeremy Dewar In the end it was a comfortable victory for Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC and their allies, the trade union federation COSATU and the South African Communist Party (SACP). With 57.5 per cent of the vote on a historically low turnout of 66 per cent, they kept the swing against them to less than […]

Constructive ambiguity has failed. Labour must break with Brexit and advance a genuinely internationalist programme

By Dave Stockton The US President’s State visit comes at a time when Britain’s version of him – Nigel Farage – is basking in the glory of his European elections triumph. Back in 2016, while still campaigning for the presidency, Trump jumped for joy at the Brexit vote and welcomed Farage and Boris Johnson to […]

The Bolshevik Revolution inspired the Irish working class to renew their struggle with British imperialism

Labour members should fight for a special conference to win the party to an unequivocal policy of defeating Brexit and fighting for a socialist Europe

We can halt the union's decline by fighting for members' control of disputes and strategy

As the union prepares for a new battle, activists need to develop the members' control of the dispute needed to win

The labour movement needs to act quickly to prevent asset stripping, block the closure, and secure public ownership.