On 22 February around 200 women attended the Women’s Assembly in London. Joy Macready reports Tightly stage-managed by Socialist Action and Counterfire, the top-table speakers were predominantly Labour, Green Party and trade union officials – none of whom were leading the fightback against the cuts. The sole activist was Louise Irving of the Save Lewisham […]
Thousands of school students strike in solidarity with refugees fighting racist violence and deportation. Tobi Hansen reports On February 13, more than 3,000 school and university students went on strike to demonstrate their solidarity with refugees on the streets of Berlin. For nearly two years, there has been a camp on Oranienplatz in Berlin protesting […]
By Jeremy Dewar On a windswept, rainy Thursday night on 11 February, around 40-50 people gathered in front of Lambeth Town Hall to voice their opposition to the police. The occasion was the “consultation” exercise run jointly by the London Mayor’s Office and the Met, which is touring all 32 London boroughs: MOPAC. Left Unity’s […]
Statement by the League for the Fifth International, International Secretariat After covering thousands of kilometres on foot, a protest march by activists from Balochistan has been stopped by the authorities and encircled by the police outside the town Wazirabad (a town in Punjab province, approximately 100 kilometres north of Lahore on Monday, February 17th 2014. […]
By KD Tait We are now approaching the third anniversary of the Syrian people’s revolution for dignity and democratic rights, rights that every people in the world deserves. Syria In The Context of the Arab Spring, a conference held in London on 15 February, was therefore an event that was long overdue. This conference drew […]
In early February thousands workers and young people took to the streets in towns and cities across Bosnia –Herzegovina (BiH); Tuzla, Sarajevo, Zenica, Brčko, Bihac and Mostar and others. KD Tait reports on the advance of the working class and youth onto the battlefield They are mobilising not just in protest against the harsh conditions […]
This statement was originally published by the Revolutionary Socialists – Britain. Comrades, We – the Revolutionary Socialists , a youth organisation in Britain – send our warmest solidarity to the Berlin school students’ strike in defence of the rights of refugees. From London to Lampedusa those fleeing the violence of poverty and war are hunted […]
The prospect of a second two-day strike was enough to force London Underground (LU) to back down. Previously, they had intended to impose their “Fit for the Future” plan to close all ticket offices and cut nearly 1,000 jobs, without even the pretence of negotiation with the unions. All the same, this is only a […]
By Martin Suchanek, Gruppe Arbeitermacht The “worst case scenario” for all Bosnian politicians is in the making. Workers, youth and the unemployed have started to rise up against the corrupt politicians of all the leading nationalist parties, whether Croat, Bosnian or Serb, and the whole crony system through which they have plundered the country since […]
By Tobias Hansen, Gruppe Arbeitermacht Three years after the fall of Mubarak, even the bourgeois media are asking whether anything has really changed in Egypt, or whether the current military interim government is trying to bring about a return to the old conditions. The latest step towards the “restoration” of military rule was the constitutional […]
By Martin Suchanek, Gruppe Arbeitermacht The power struggle in Ukraine appears to be entering a decisive phase. The situation of the Yanukovich government is becoming precarious. After the first mass protests against the decision not to sign the Association Agreement with the EU for the time being, they hoped they could just “sit out” the […]
By Arbeiterinnnenstandpunkt, Austrian section of the League for the Fifth International Every year, the right wing Freedom Party in Austria organises a celebration for the members of the traditionalist, that is right wing, “student fraternities”. This is the “Academics’ Ball” at the prestigious Hofburg in Central Vienna. Over the years, it has become a focus for […]
By Tobias Hansen Southeast Asia is one of the centres of the international class struggle. While in Thailand, the right-wing opposition currently wants to abolish parliamentary democracy, Cambodia is being shaken by a mass strike of textile workers. Since the spring of 2013, there have been repeated waves of strikes, by November the number had […]
Over the last month, thousands of people have occupied Independence Square in the Ukrainian capital Kiev. Their protests were initially provoked by President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to suspend negotiations for Ukraine’s eventual entry into the European Union. It had transpired during these negotiations that the EU was demanding neoliberal “reforms” similar to the austerity it […]
By Marc Lasalle The Parti de gauche (PdG), founded by Jean-Luc Mélenchon in 2008, aims to unite all the forces to the left of the social-democratic Socialist Party. This article looks at the reasons for its rapid growth as well as the current crisis in the Front de gauche (FdG), and considers the claim that […]
By KD Tait Six years into the recession women, young people and part-time workers have suffered the biggest drop in living standards since records began in the Victorian era. The sharp rise in inequality is the result of a deliberate policy aimed at restoring profitability for the bosses by destroying the social gains of the […]
By Peter Main Are China and Japan locked into a course towards war? A review of the dynamics and motives suggests they are not, yet. The scenario is eerily familiar. Two imperialist powers, one continental and dynamic, the other an island power now past its peak, confront each other in a series of diplomatic […]
By KD Tait In recent elections in 2013, the Frente de Izquierda y de los Trabajadores (Left and Workers’ Front, FIT), a coalition of Trotskyist groups, won more than a million votes, or 5.12 per cent. Christian Castillo, a member of the Partido de los Trabajadores Socialista (PTS), who was elected as a representative of […]
The January-February issue of our monthly paper. Read as PDF
By Jeremy Dewar RMT members on the London Underground have voted by 77 per cent to strike against nearly 1,000 job cuts and the proposed closure of all 268 ticket offices by 2015. This is a serious attack on all tube workers and users. Not only could it leave travellers stranded and unable to […]
By Bernie McAdam Hard on the heels of the Tories’ new Immigration Bill with its tougher anti-immigrant stance comes a new wave of hysteria surrounding the so called “Romanian invasion”. On 1 January, Romanians and Bulgarians gained the same working rights as other EU citizens, thus making them eligible to migrate to Britain. Guess what? […]
By KD Tait The Mark Duggan inquest verdict of “lawful killing” shows courts will never bring Met killers to justice. Only united working class action alongside black community self defence can halt the killings and end police impunity A jury has delivered a majority verdict of “lawful killing” in the inquest into the death of Mark […]
DOWNLOAD THE LEAFLET By a CWU Rep CWU members are being balloted on the new “Agenda for Growth” agreement (21 Jan to 4 Feb), with the union’s postal executive recommending we accept it. But postal workers should vote no, the new deal leaves us worse off and weakens the union. Workers deserve a pay […]
By a CWU Rep 1. PAY (Section 5) The 9.06 per cent pay rise over three years, backdated to April, is only half a per cent more than was offered by Royal Mail as far back as July. Like the original offer it can still be reopened if inflation changes, so it’s not set in […]
By Tobias Hansen, Sunday December 15 2013 On December 9, Thailand’s Prime Minister dissolved parliament and gave notice of new elections. In recent weeks there have been renewed confrontations which are described in the media as a conflict between “Red Shirts” and “Yellow Shirts”. Unlike the “Arab Spring”, this is not a mobilisation […]
By a CWU DO rep It’s been widely known, since the 4 November national briefing of local officials and full-time reps, that outdoor delivery was the big sticking point in negotiations. Not surprisingly since this is the most difficult to automate, and competition is hotting up with rival TNT rolling out its city centre delivery […]
The Rail Maritime and Transport union is currently balloting its members on the tube in response to London Underground’s decision to cut nearly 1,000 jobs and close all 268-ticket offices by 2015, writes Jeremy Dewar. This is a serious attack on all tube workers and users. Not only would it potentially leave travellers stranded […]
By a CWU postal rep, December 12 2013 The CWU postal executive has recommended that members accept the agreement reached after weeks of talks by union negotiators led by Dave Ward, Deputy General Secretary Postal. Yet despite the headline-grabbing pay and conditions offer, at its heart is a blueprint for company-unionism and class collaboration. […]
By KD Tait, 11 December 2013 The French government has sent 1,600 troops to the Central African Republic to disarm rebel militias under a United Nations plan to “restore order” to a country destabilised by decades of exploitation at the hands of French imperialism. More than 450 people, mainly Christian civilians, have been killed […]
By Jeremy Dewar Thanks to the actions of former CIA employee and intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, it is now widely known that Britain and the US are actively monitoring and listening to millions of our private emails, phone and Skype conversations every day. George Orwell, author of 1984, couldn’t have dreamt of the scale […]