BY crushing the Syrian revolutionaries and leaving only Assad and ISIS standing, Putin hopes to force the West to accept that Assad’s regime (with or without Assad at the top of it) is their least worst option. Putin’s claim to stand for the “unity of the Syrian state” actually means restoring the rule of the […]

By Marcus Halaby A COMMON view in the anti-war movement is that the current war in Syria is effectively a repeat of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, with Syria’s as-yet undefeated revolution against the Assad dictatorship simply the product of a US-led attempt at “regime change”. But in some ways it more closely resembles the […]

A 21 year old woman from County Down faces life in prison if she is convicted by a court for the ‘crime’ of attempting to bring about an abortion. This is the first prosecution in more than 40 years under the 19th Century Offences Against the Person Act. The 1967 Abortion Act, which makes abortion […]

The images of the Black Panthers – black berets and leather jackets, afros, guns, the pouncing panther – and their enduring inspiration are so great that it’s hard to believe that this is only the second full length film documenting their rise and fall. However, it is well worth the wait. The footage and interviews […]

THE BRITISH government rolled out the “reddest of red carpets” for China’s President Xi Jinping’s four day state visit. There was no limit on the pomp and pageantry laid on to impress their visitor – and no doubt pictures of his reception by the Queen and his speech to members of both Houses of Parliament […]

“ELECTIONS change nothing,” said Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister. He was responding to the election of Syriza in January. Syriza owed their victory to their pledge to put a stop to austerity which had inflicted five years of grinding poverty on Greece. Six months later Schäuble was triumphant; Syriza’s leader Alexis Tsipras capitulated in the […]

IN PORTUGAL’S recent elections, the people voted to chuck out a European Union backed pro-austerity government. The governing coalition between the liberal Portuguese Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the conservative People’s Party (CDS-PP) won only 102 seats out of 230. By contrast, the anti-austerity left did well. The Socialist Party (PS) won 32.3 per cent […]

IT DOESN’T take long for memories to fade. The picture of drowned three-year-old Alan Kurdi washed up on a beach near Bodrum, Turkey went viral across both social and mainstream media back in September. The image humanised the tragic fate of hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing war in Syria. Its immediate effect was to […]

IN THE last month Israeli occupation forces have murdered 60 Palestinians, 15 of them under the age of 18. One, Dania Irshaid, a 17-year-old student returning from school, was shot holding her hands in the air. Israeli sources later claimed that she had been “carrying a knife”. Nine Israelis have been killed in the same […]

On 11 October a demonstration against state terror ended in the bloodiest massacre in Turkeys’ recent history. About 10,000 people travelled from across the country to gather in front of the main railway station in Ankara. Two major union federations, the Turkish Medical Association and the Engineers’ and Architects’ Association, had mobilised for the march, […]

ONE of the most important factors in Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign was his opposition to the war in Iraq, and to any future wars in the Middle East. The lies and spin that took us to war in Iraq under Tony Blair still weigh heavily on the minds of millions. Ed Miliband’s refusal to give […]

By Dave Stockton 14 September 2015 When Syriza’s Alexis Tsipras resigned as Prime Minister, on August 20, he triggered a new general election, which will take place on 20 September. This enabled him as Leader to choose the entire electoral list of his party. He made it clear that he would not include the 32 […]

3 September 2015 The drowned body of three year old Aylan Kurdi washed up on a beach near Bodrum, Turkey on Wednesday 2nd. The photograph has concentrated the minds of millions on the catastrophe unfolding on Europe’s Mediterranean shore. Aylan drowned along with his five year old brother Galip, his mother Rehan and nine other […]

By Jeremy Dewar 12 August 2015 There are more refugees in the world today than ever before. This year’s Global Trends Report, published by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), puts the figure at 59.5 million people at the end of 2014, a record 11 million up on the 2013 figure and over […]

By Marcus Otono 6 August 2015 The slaughter of six Black women and three men by 21 year-old Dylann Roof at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on 17 June was an act of terrorism motivated by race hate. The reluctance of media and politicians to use the T word, that otherwise they use so […]

By KD Tait Monday 13 July After a 17 hour final session in Brussels, Germany’s “Iron Chancellor”, Angela Merkel, and her finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble finally accepted the complete capitulation of Alexis Tsipras. Their terms reduce Greece to a virtual colony of the imperialist powers that dominate the Eurozone, supreme amongst them Germany. If this […]

By KD Tait 11 July 2015 Alexis Tsipras and the leadership of Syriza have betrayed the mandate given to them twice by the Greek people. Scarcely a week after 61 per cent of voters said Oxi!-No! they have presented a nearly identical proposal to the parliament in Athens, which has voted by 250 votes to 32 to […]

Monday 6 July, 2015 By KD Tait   No to blackmail. No to humiliation. No to austerity. The determination of the Greek workers and youth to end austerity has been expressed in a defiant rejection of the Troika’s ultimatum. Today, Syriza has an overwhelming second mandate to carry out its promise to break with austerity, […]

29 June, 2015 All eyes are on Greece as its citizens prepare to vote in a referendum on the Troika austerity ‘offer’ that will dramatically shape the course of the wider European resistance to austerity. The consequences of rejection – No – should not be underestimated and cannot be entirely predicted. Nevertheless it is right […]

By Sam Copley Following the massive uprising of youth in Baltimore, US, which forced local officials to charge police with the killing of Freddie Gray, a new upsurge of protest is now shaking Dane County, Wisconsin. On 12 May, District Attorney Ismael Ozanne declared no charges will be filed against killer cop Matt Kenny. On […]

In the aftermath of Labour’s defeat, speakers from the Brick Lane Debates group at the 14 May Radical Left Assembly referred to the Spanish Indignados and Podemos as models to imitate. There was even an attempt to brand the  1,000 people in the hall as the “14M Movement”. Similarly, in Left Unity, we find a […]