Statement published by the League for the Fifth International The US attack on a Syrian airbase near Homs marked a dangerous and dramatic escalation of the conflict in that country. In the night from 6 to 7 April, the US Navy launched up to 60 missiles and severely damaged the airbase. Trump’s order to attack […]
A number of factors have contributed to the rise of right wing populism in Europe and, indeed, in other countries around the world. The tap root of these developments lies in neoliberal globalisation and the reaction to it, especially after the great recession of 2008-2011 and the depressed growth rates, and even stagnation, in the […]
On Friday 24 March, workers at Irish bus and coach operator Bus Eireann began an indefinite all-out strike. Five trade unions representing 2,600 workers, including SIPTU and the National Bus & Rail Union (NBRU) have called the action. Pickets outside bus stations were organised throughout the Republic. On the first day of action rail services […]
March 15 was a remarkable day with strikes and protests throughout Brazil. The working class, along with the youth movement, took to the streets on massive demonstrations across the country. According to Guilherme Boulos a coordinator for the Homeless Workers’ Movement, MTST, “Today is a historic day. It was a turning point. Until this moment, […]
“Since 1965 I have never lived through a presidential election like this. There are no more axes, no more rules”, says Socialist Party, PS, first secretary, Jean-Christophe Cambadélis. “Nothing is stable anymore. It is a great chamboule-tout (coconut shy),” adds PS MP Jean-Marie Le Guen. Indeed, nothing has been going according to expectations for the […]
Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness, ex deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland and ex IRA leader, has died. He played a hugely influential role in the long armed struggle against the Unionist and British state and in negotiating the subsequent 1998 Good Friday Agreement that ended the war. For the former the British media and politicians […]
In a blatant attack on trade unionism, a court in India has sentenced 13 workers, including all 12 members of the Executive Committee of the Maruti-Suzuki Workers’ Union, to life imprisonment. The ferocity of the company management’s legal onslaught can be seen from the prosecution’s demand for the death penalty, even though the evidence presented […]
Normally, American Jewish leaders would expect to feel quite positive about a new US President apparently more friendly to Israel than his immediate predecessor. But Donald Trump’s actions since his inauguration seem to have thrown many of them into a panic. This is not entirely attributable to his antisemitic provocations, like his statement on Holocaust […]
By Katie Pelikanou On February 28 representatives from the European Union, European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund arrived in Athens to discuss terms for a fourth bailout package for the Greek government. These negotiations had initially stalled, with the IMF dubious about Greece’s ability to achieve a ‘sustainable’ fiscal surplus, givent that the […]
Donald Trump’s presidency has galvanised opposition. But turning resistance into victories will not be easy. Republicans control both houses of Congress, the Presidency and hardline conservatives will undoubtedly soon control the Supreme Court. At a state level they hold power in 32 state legislatures plus 33 governorships, covering 61 per cent of the U.S. population. […]
Brexit will have enormous political and economic ramifications on both Northern Ireland and the Republic. Since the EU referendum, for example, Irish food and drink exports to the UK have fallen by €570 million, according to the Republic of Ireland’s Bord Bia. Food and drink account for 41% of Ireland’s exports to the UK, while […]
ANYONE WHO doubted that Donald Trump’s arrival as 45th president of the United States heralded a major change in both the country’s internal and external relationships must surely have been forced to think again by his inaugural address and the barrage of executive orders issued in his first week. Many political commentators and leader writers who put their […]
By Marcus Halaby THE SIEGE of Aleppo has entered its final hours. A cold-blooded and methodical massacre awaits the defenders and civilians who could not or would not escape. With the fall of Aleppo, a similar fate is being prepared for the remaining areas of the country not yet subjugated by the regime’s militias. Moscow and Damascus are […]
WHEN PRESIDENT-ELECT Donald Trump selects one of the most notorious climate sceptics, Scott Pruit, to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) you know the planet is in trouble. Pruitt, is part of the team waging a legal action by 28 states against the EPA to halt Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, an attempt to […]
DONALD TRUMP’S election on 8 November was welcomed in Moscow and Damascus. It was taken as the green light to wipe out what remains of the resistance to the rule of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. A final, unremitting offensive was launched on the remaining rebel-held eastern portion of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city. As before, this […]
ON 8 NOVEMBER Donald Trump rode a wave of anti-establishment anger to become the 45th president of the United States in the bitterest campaign of modern times. Trump used blatant distortions and outright lies to convince voters that only he was telling things as they are, only he recognised the sufferings of ordinary Americans, only […]
By Marc Lassalle, originally published in our international magazine fifthinternational.org Italian voters have rejected premier Matteo Renzi’s proposed amendments to the constitution with an impressive 59 percent in the referendum sponsored by his government. Last night, a small spontaneous demo by the Cobas teachers’ union formed outside the PM’s official residence, Palazzo Chigi, cheering the […]
Republished from our international magazine fifthinternational.org By Dave Stockton FIDEL CASTRO, one of the leaders of the Cuban revolution, has died aged 90. He will be mourned by millions especially in the majority of the world still exploited by US and European imperialism with its banks, monopolies, wars and occupations. His death will be celebrated […]
Red Flag supports this solidarity statement published by the communist youth group, REVOLUTION. Also available in Portuguese. The members of REVOLUTION, an international communist youth organisation, express our full solidarity with the school and university students protesting against the austerity policy of the Brazilian government. The occupation of over 1000 schools and some 100 universities is […]
This article from a socialist activist in Brazil is republished from www.fifthinternational.org By Eloy Nogueira After the initiation of the impeachment process against President Dilma Roussef of the Workers’ Party, PT, by the House of Representatives on 17 April 2016 and its confirmation by the Senate, which then suspended the President for 180 days, the […]
BRITAIN’S DEFENCE Secretary Michael Fallon recently said that NATO “is waking up to the challenge of Kremlin aggression and could confront Vladimir Putin’s forces in a showdown” within two years. Fallon assured MPs that former general Sir Richard Sherriff’s prediction of war with Russia in 2017 was “too extreme”. So that’s alright then. These comments […]
AFTER TEN months of political wrangling and two inconclusive elections, Mariano Rajoy’s Popular Party (PP) has secured the support of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) to form a minority government. In a warning to PSOE MPs whose abstentions broke the deadlock, Rajoy said his government would be one “that can govern, not a government that […]
ON 8 OCTOBER, two bombs dropped by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen hit a funeral hall in the capital Sana’a while it was packed with mourners, killing more than 140 people and wounding about 500 more. Saudi officials at first denied that the airstrike ever took place, only later accepting responsibility while claiming it was […]
SOUTH AFRICA’S student movement has closed down many of the country’s universities for nearly a month now in their campaign to abolish fees. In one of the world’s most unequal societies, the battle encapsulates the frustrations and anger of the vast majority of black people, who still face poverty, unemployment and exclusion, despite the fall […]
By Svenja S At least a dozen Kurdish officials, including senior members of the opposition HDP party have been arrested in midnight raids on the pretext of supporting Kurdish insurgents. The arrests mark an escalation in a crackdown on democratic rights pursued by Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) over the last 14 […]
By KD Tait A recent Open Letter (Speak Out on Syria) correctly calls on Jeremy Corbyn to “say clearly and unequivocally that the actions of Assad and Russia in Syria are barbaric war crimes and that [he] will seek to end them and hold their perpetrators to account”. We agree with this, and believe that […]
The brutal attack on Eastern Aleppo by Russian and Syrian warplanes, bombing with bunker buster, incendiary and barrel bombs, has already killed hundreds of civilians, creating a landscape many have likened to Stalingrad in 1942, Warsaw in 1944 or better, perhaps, given the same perpetrator is involved, the Chechen capital, Grozny, in 2000. The Syrian […]
By Marc Lasalle In the wake of the terrorist atrocities of 13 November 2015, which left 130 dead, Socialist government ministers and local mayors in various cities and regions have launched a series of measures targeting Muslims and the immigrant population. The barbarous attack in Nice on 14 July has renewed the sense of fear […]
IN THE wake of the terrorist atrocities of 13 November 2015, which left 130 dead, Socialist government ministers and local mayors in various cities and regions have launched a series of measures targeting Muslims and the immigrant population. The barbarous attack in Nice on 14 July has renewed the sense of fear and the tolerance of […]
FIRST THE good news from Hangzhou; the US and China have adopted the international climate change agreement reached in Paris in December 2015. The bad news; none of the provisions of the Treaty are enforceable. Ironically, the G20 reportedly met in Hangzhou because of the dire air quality in Beijing. The meeting of the 20 […]