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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
By Dave Stockton More than one million workers across England, Wales and Northern Ireland struck on Thursday 10 July against the government freeze on pay and the 20% decline in real wages since the Tory-LibDem coalition came to power in 2010. Workers from several unions – the National Union of Teachers (NUT) Unison, Unite, the Public and […]
By KD Tait In Ukraine, ‘war is peace’. The government air force marked the end of one “ceasefire” and the start of a “peace plan” with the terror bombing of the defenceless village of Kondrashovka. Scraps of unidentifiable charred flesh scattered among burning ruins were all that remained of eight villagers, including three members of one family. […]
Millions of us have suffered a huge drop in our living standards as the bankers, bosses and Tories have made us pay for their crisis. Jeremy Dewar explains why we need to go beyond one-day protests if we want to stop the government’s attacks Over the past five years workers across Britain have witnessed their […]
By Dave Stockton and Marcus Halaby The world was astonished on 10 June, when just a thousand or so fighters from ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (“Greater Syria” or “The Levant”), took Iraq’s second city Mosul with barely a shot being fired. Two Iraqi army divisions comprising nearly 30,000 soldiers fled, stripping […]
By Bernie McAdam After their humiliation in the EU elections at the hands of UKIP the Tories had to do something to reclaim the mantle of Britain’s number one racist party. The answer was to stir up Islamophobia by attacking Birmingham schools whose catchment area has a large Muslim population. In March an anonymous letter was […]
Joy Macready reports on the scandal at the heart of Britain’s privatised immigration system and yet another tale of abuse by Serco staff. Time to call for the shutting down of all deportation centres After numerous complaints, a hunger strike by 80 inmates, CCTV evidence and even a prison pregnancy, the truth about widespread sexual […]
It is estimated that over 3 billion people will watch at least some of the World Cup live on TV this summer, but how many will see the depth of poverty in the host country, Brazil, asks Rico Rodrigues The remaining months of 2014 will be very important politically for Brazil. The World Cup begins […]
The victory of Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recent elections threatens a rise in ethnic conflict writes Bernie McAdam. The Communist Parties were punished for their willingness to join bourgeois parties in government and their attacks on peasant farmers, but now the working class must defend itself against Modi’s coming neoliberal attacks […]
The Summer 2014 issue of Workers Power is out now Click here to read online (pdf) or select an article from the links below The main enemy is at home Solidarity with Antifascists in Ukraine campaign founded Racist and sexual abuse rife at Yarl’s Wood […]
By KD Tait The announcement of the substantial reinforcement of Nato forces in Eastern Europe signals the end of the “phoney peace” that followed the collapse of the USSR. The conflict in Ukraine, which saw the pro-Russian president Yanukovych overthrown by Western-backed ultra-nationalists and fascists has been the catalyst for a sharp escalation in tension […]
By Jeremy Dewar Like many further education establishments, Lambeth College is facing devastating cuts. Unlike most, however, its workforce has come out fighting – in an all-out indefinite strike. Teachers in the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) have been on strike since 3 June, demanding the withdrawal of new contracts which will, with no extra […]
By Rebecca Anderson AFTER MONTHS of media hype about UKIP and a national debate focusing on Europe and immigration, the right-wing party came top of the polls in May’s European Elections. It can hardly come as a surprise to anyone that UKIP did so well, but there are diverging opinions about what this means for the […]
By Markus Lehner Spain bucked the rightward trend in May’s European Parliament elections by electing five MEPs from the new “Podemos” (We Can) formation. With 8 per cent or 1.25 million votes, in addition to the 11 per cent won by the United Left (IU) bloc, Podemos’s surprise success opens up the possibility of creating […]
The election of the Egyptian General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi should have provoked international outrage. Marcus Halaby explains why the great powers are engaged in a conspiracy of silence Russian imperialism and its Western rivals may be at loggerheads over Ukraine, but in Egypt they seem to have established a silent consensus, in favour of the […]