The Brexit campaign has been directly responsible for a huge spike in national chauvinism and racist violence. To deny or minimise this, as some on the left do, is to completely ignore the impact of reactionary arguments like “needing to take control of our borders”, “stopping free movement from the EU” and “restoring national sovereignty” that have dominated the Brexit agenda. There is no progressive dynamic here but a reactionary harking back to Britain’s imperial past and accepting the myth that migrants are to blame for economic woes.
Chile joins a growing list of countries currently experiencing a mass revolt for a better world, free of corruption, poverty and austerity. These presently include Ecuador, Lebanon, Hong Kong, Sudan, Iraq, and Chile
What began as a protest against alleged electoral irregularities in the Bolivian presidential election, fomented by the business and landowning elites, with semi-fascist street gangs as enforcers, has ended in a police and military coup d’etat, forcing the resignation of Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first elected indigenous president. He resigned after receiving an ultimatum from the head of the […]
Iraq is once again the scene of massive protests. In the capital and in southern cities thousands-strong demonstrations have been dispersed with tear gas, and police snipers using live ammunition. A huge rally in Sadr City in Baghdad – a district with 3.5 million people, was savagely broken up. UN officials in the city have […]
Millions of Americans hoping to evict Donald Trump from the White House have turned to the Democratic Party’s contest to determine their next presidential candidate for the 2020 election. While Trump has been blocked from enacting many of his pledges, he has done tremendous damage from the Oval Office: detention prisons locking up immigrant children […]
Paris – a prolonged strike in Accident and Emergency departments throughout the country, a successful strike on the Paris metro on September 13, with an indefinite stoppage forecast for December, a national day of action on 24 September by the CGT: this accumulation of actions shows that there is a growing polarisation in French society and that the working class is again taking the road of resistance against the attacks of President Emmanuel Macron
After 18 months of on-off protests against president Jovenal Moise, tens of thousands of Haitians have stepped up the movement calling on him to step down, with weekly protests, barricades and clashes with government forces that have left dozens killed and wounded hundreds more
On 1 January 1804, Jean-Jaques Dessalines declared the independence and sovereignty of Haiti as the second republic in the Americas and the first country to abolish slavery.
Ecuador has been plunged into turmoil by mass protests of indigenous people, trade unions, and students against a neoliberal IMF austerity progamme which has triggered cuts to fuel subsidies and hikes in the cost of basic consumer goods. On Monday President Lenín Moreno moved his government 150 miles from Quito to Guayaquil, to escape the […]
Donald Trump has just signaled a dramatic shift in US policy in northern Syria, betraying his erstwhile allies the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in which the Kurdish YPG militia are the dominant force. The 60,000 SDF fighters had provided him – and Obama before him – with the boots on the ground that defeated the […]
Benjamin Netanyahu called the 17 September Knesset election in the hope that it would give him the majority he needed to create a new coalition and remain prime minister. He was not motivated simply by the desire to hang on to power but because as PM he would be immune from facing serious court charges […]
Car workers in the US are entering their fourth week of all-out strike action as we go to press. The largest auto strike since 2007 is solid so far. In fact the strikers have elicited solidarity action from Mexican GM workers, and have now been joined by others in South Korea. On 16 September, 48,000 […]
With the Brexit deadline looming and the debate around free movement of European Union nationals reaching its xenophobic zenith, the wider plight of international migrants is all too often neglected. Nationalism and anti-migrant rhetoric are on the rise internationally, and vulnerable people, fleeing war, oppression and climate disaster, are being refused entry into safer countries. […]
Since October 3, more than 30,000 people have joined the Azadi (Freedom) March in Kashmir. The protest is organised by the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, JKLF. Its declared goal is to pass the Line of Control, LoC, which separates the Indian and Pakistani occupied parts of Kashmir, and go on to Srinagar, which lies in […]
Worldwide, millions took to the streets on September 20, the first of the two planned climate general strikes.
The Austrian labour movement needs to prepare for a renewed ruling class offensive following fresh elections
In this excerpt from our new European Action Programme we argue that there is no national solution to the crisis since all major questions require transformation of the whole continent.
In this excerpt from our new European Action Programme we argue that there is no national solution to the crisis since all major questions require transformation of the whole continent
Meeting in Lisbon in March 2000, the leaders of the European Union, on the initiative of its dominant powers, Germany and France, pledged to "make Europe, by 2010, the most competitive and the most dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world". Two decades later, the European Union has instead become the “weakest link” in the imperialist world order.
With the onset of the dry season in the Amazon region, an inferno of forest fires has hit the Brazilian states of Rondônia, Pará, Mato Grosso and Amazonas. Satellite images show rainforest the size of one and a half football pitches being consumed every minute.This is a disaster not only for the inhabitants of the Amazon region itself but for everyone on the planet.
On September 4, Hong Kong's Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, finally agreed to withdraw the hated Extradition Bill altogether, and not just leave it on the shelf. If the Bill had become law it would have allowed extradition of anybody on Hong Kong territory for trial on the mainland. Although presented as simply a measure to prevent criminals taking refuge in Hong Kong, it could also have been used against journalists and political dissidents and , indeed, almost anyone doing business on the mainland, where corruption is rife.
Progress for the movement now depends not on the force of argument, but on the argument of force. Only a real general strike, a strike that stops all production, all transport, all publications, all broadcasting, can do that. Such a strike cannot be mobilised out of thin air, it has to be built for within the workplaces and housing estates themselves. That is the task that the Left and the thousands of student activists should set themselves.
Labour must support nationalisation under workers' control
The Baloch Students' Organisation has announced the release of student leader Jiand Baloch. We thank all those individuals, activists and organisations who raised their voice in solidarity with Jiand Baloch and the BSO. It was your effort which saved a comrade's life. Thus, instead of destroying the BSO, state repression has only managed to popularise it.
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.
The only thing worse than defeat is defeat without a fight
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.