Islamists back Egypt’s military

For decades, Hosni Mubarak justified his rule by claiming that democratisation would see Egypt fall into the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood, the banned Islamist opposition movement, writes Marcus Halaby

06 March 2011

British imperialism’s bloody history in the Middle East

UK Prime Minister David Cameron flew into Cairo after Hosni Mubarak was forced out, saying he wanted to be the first Western politician there since the revolution. He was flanked by British arms dealers on their way to the huge Idex weapons fair in Abu Dhabi. This was the latest episode in Britain’s bloody history […]

06 March 2011

Benefits overhaul will punish unemployed and disabled people

The government has stepped up its war on the poor with planned restructuring of benefits, which will see many of the UK’s poorest worse off, writes Keith Spencer

06 March 2011

After the Town Hall occupation, anti-cuts group grows

Report from Lambeth Save Our Services Fresh from our spirited occupation of Brixton Town Hall, Lambeth Save Our Services met last night full of new activists, brimful of confidence and raring to go again. Jeremy Drinkall reports. The occupation of Lambeth Town Hall on 23 February hit the front page of the South London Press […]

03 March 2011

Celebrate 100 years of International Women's Day

Public meeting to celebrate 100 years of International Women’s Day with international and national speakers on women’s struggles.. Thursday 10 March at 7pm. University College London, Chadwick GO7, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT     Born at a time of great social turbulence and crisis, when the imperialist nations were gearing up for world war, […]

02 March 2011

50,000 NHS jobs to go

The TUC, has obtained figures from 185 hospitals, 126 primary care, 23 ambulance and 54 mental health trusts showing 53,150 NHS job cuts in the next four years, writes Mark Booth.

01 March 2011

Fight the attacks on services for women

Women bear the brunt of the Tory cuts with job losses in the public sector and attacks on health and social care services for children and families. Joy Macready examines the attacks and also looks at how to fight back

01 March 2011

Wisconsin: Public sector workers and youth strike back!

Tens of thousands of young people, students, teachers, and public-sector workers are rallying in Madison, Wisconsin and occupying the State Capitol in opposition to proposed sweeping anti-union legislation. From the website of Revolution Socialist youth USA – revousa.org

01 March 2011

Libya: The battle for the future

Muammar Abu al-Gadaffi, Libya’s brutal dictator, has used his armed forces to slaughter pro-democracy protesters, a vicious act unseen in Tunisia or Egypt writes Simon Hardy.

01 March 2011

Lambeth town hall occupied

Local trade unionists and community campaigners occupy Lambeth town hall 23/02/2011 400 protesters demonstrated in Lambeth town hall tonight. The Labour councillors, supported by the Lib dems and Tories, wanted to vote in their package of cuts. The people of Lambeth demanded that they should be in the public gallaries. Despite filling one public gallery, […]

24 February 2011

Leeds anticuts protesters occupy town hall

Today, at around 1pm, half an hour before Leeds Council were due to meet to pass a budget of swingeing cuts, hundreds braved the rain to lobby the meeting to refuse to implement the budget. Around 75-100 people managed to occupy the main council chamber, where the meeting was to be held. Many more gathered […]

23 February 2011

Birmingham council strikes loom

Birmingham City Council has announced that £300 million will be cut from the budget over the next four years. This will involve the loss of 7,116 full time jobs, that is 37 per cent of the workforce, reports Bernie McAdam. The losses will increase to 10,000 when part time jobs are included. The Con Dem […]

14 February 2011

Cop spies, fit-ups and phonetapping hacks

A campaign of repression against the growing resistance to the cuts exposes collusion between the different arms of the state – the police, courts, intelligence agencies – even drawing in the supposedly independent media. With the aid of the right-wing papers, the police are trying to demonise students that took to the streets in the […]

06 February 2011

Victory to the Egyptian revolution

Egypt is aflame with revolution. The world has watched with bated breath as millions of Egyptians have shown that they will not be intimidated and coerced any longer. A general strike has been proclaimed and on 1 February two million demonstrators packed the vast Tahrir (Liberation) Square in Cairo demanding Hosni Mubarak’s departure. His dictatorial […]

06 February 2011

League gathers for first South Asian congress

The League for the Fifth International, of which Workers Power is the British section, held a successful congress in Sri Lanka in January. Members from Germany, Austria, and Britain met with delegates from the Pakistan and Sri Lankan sections of the League to discuss the issues facing the international working class. This congress was the […]

06 February 2011

Leak exposes Fatah treason

Consistent opponents of Israel’s occupation have long argued that the “moderate” Palestinian leaders of Fatah are in reality collaborators with Israel. Nothing could have confirmed this more conclusively than the release by news agency Al Jazeera of documents exposing 10 years of futile “peace” negotiations. The picture that emerges is of weak and grovelling Palestinian […]

06 February 2011

Anger as gay activist beaten to death in Uganda

David Kato was bludgeoned to death in his home with a hammer on 26 January. David was a gay rights activist in Uganda, leading the Sexual Minorities Uganda (Smug) campaigning organisation. David knew he was a target in a country renown for its anti-gay laws. It is already an offence, punishable by 14 years in […]

06 February 2011

Tunisia and the strategy for revolution

The flight of Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on 14 January came as culmination of a month of street mobilisations, starting with young unemployed youth in the central Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid, spreading nationwide, drawing in industrial workers, teachers and lawyers. Demonstrations in Tunis calling for Ben Ali to go climaxed into […]

06 February 2011

Council crisis: jobs and services in firing line

Across the country, local councillors are voting on job cuts and the destruction of much needed services. At the same time, hundreds, sometimes thousands demonstrate outside, trying to block or slow down proceedings in the council chambers. Both sides know this could mark the beginning of a mass movement against the cuts. The job losses […]

06 February 2011

Tories plan to wreck NHS

The Conservative whitepaper, “Equity and Excellence: liberating the NHS”, is designed to transfer control for £80 billion pounds of the NHS budget to the private health sector. It means the end of the NHS as a publicly owned and operated service, and its transformation into little more than a brand name, which health corporations will […]

06 February 2011

What caused the economic crisis?

In the first two years of the Global Financial Crisis, everyone seemed to know where the blame lay – with the huge banks that pushed the international system of borrowing and lending into chaos. Yet slowly but surely the politicians regrouped and shifted the debate away from criticism of the bankers, blaming the crisis on […]

06 February 2011

Angry students chase NUS President off demo

Yesterday over 4000 students, workers and youth took to the streets of Manchester against the Con Dem cuts to EMA, education funding, and the public sector. Official ‘leaders’ of the movement tried to hold back protesters from expressing their anger. But they only showed their increasing irrelevance to the struggle. Many activists held placards declaring […]

06 February 2011

NUS leadership has no strategy to win

When the NUS NEC passed a strategy document, supported by NUS president Aaron Porter for the student movement on 10 January, they showed once again that they want to plead and negotiate with the Con Dem government, rather than organise a fight to stop their plans. The document agreed to sponsor the Manchester demonstration on […]

06 February 2011

Vote for NUS left slate

National Union of Students President Aaron Porter will be facing an election challenge at this years NUS conference, as left-wing student activists announced they would group together to form an anti-cuts, anti-fees slate. Joana Pinto, press officer for the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, and Workers Power member, will be standing for the Vice […]

06 February 2011

Teachers need national strike now!

Teachers, civil servants and lecturers are set to lose tens of thousands of pounds from their pensions over a lifetime because the government wants to peg them to the retail price index, which does not take account of the real rise in living costs, in particular housing costs. On top of this, teachers will typically […]

06 February 2011

Royal Mail up for sale

The Communication Workers Union has taken to the streets to protest against plans to privatise Royal Mail. The Coalition has broken yet another promise: that private capital would only take a minority stake in Royal Mail. Now we face a full-blown sell-off. Promises to safeguard post offices and the Universal Service Obligation (to deliver equally […]

06 February 2011

This is revolution!

What is a revolutionary situation “… a revolution is impossible without a revolutionary situation; furthermore, it is not every revolutionary situation that leads to revolution. What, generally speaking, are the symptoms of a revolutionary situation? […] (1) when it is impossible for the ruling classes to maintain their rule without any change; when there is […]

06 February 2011

"Who's afraid of the general strike" | Jeremy Drinkall's industrial overview

“No one was talking about a general strike.” This is how Brendan Barber opened his account of the 28 January TUC summit to a BBC radio interviewer. How odd, I wonder, how many other people start a report with a denial? It reminded me of Len McCluskey’s article in The Guardian just before Christmas. He […]

06 February 2011

We can break this government too – and we must | editorial

The revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia have inspired millions of people around the world. In Tunisia mass demonstrations routed the police of dictator Ben Ali – then a general strike drove him out of the country. Dragged into a spiral of mass unemployment, of price rises and poverty, the poor, the youth and the workers […]

06 February 2011

A general strike is the way to beat this government

The November-December demonstrations by school and university students blew away the stifling atmosphere that had built up within the Labour movement like a cold but bracing wind. So when young people stormed the Tory HQ and then carried on mobilising for over a month despite hysterical witch hunting by the media and violent police repression […]

03 February 2011

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