International

Golden Dawn: can the Left seize the initiative?

To the surprise of many, the conservative Greek government has launched a crackdown on the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn. KD Tait looks at the reasons for this and what it means for the working class movement Six MPs and around 30 party activists, including Golden Dawn’s top leader, Nikolaos Michaloliakos and his deputy, have been arrested […]

Workers Power  ·  09 October 2013

Fast Food workers supersize their strikes

The struggle for a living wage has gone national, hitting 1,000 shops in nearly 58 cities across the USA. KD Tait reports On 29 August thousands of workers walked out in the biggest wave of strikes to hit the US fast food industry. Workers are fighting for $15 an hour and the right to unionise […]

Workers Power  ·  09 October 2013

Syriza Congress: First cracks in a Broad Party

Martin Suchanek attended the Syriza Congress in July as an international observer from the New Anticapitalist Organisation (NAO) in Germany In last year’s elections in Greece, Syriza (The Coalition of the Radical Left) narrowly failed to gain the largest proportion of votes that would have given it the opportunity to try to form a government […]

Workers Power  ·  17 September 2013

The Dublin lockout of 1913

In 1913 Dublin workers waged a heroic battle against their employers, the church and the police. Despite being defeated, argues Bernie McAdam, the lockout lives on as the most inspirational act of working class resistance in Irish history.

Workers Power  ·  17 September 2013

Retail workers escalate fight for fair pay in the USA

By KD Tait / Saturday 10 August, 2013 Last week retail workers’ campaign for $15 an hour and the right to unionise took another step forward with thousands joining strikes in seven cities. What began as a one-day strike by 200 fast food workers in New York last November has spread to several states and […]

Workers Power  ·  10 August 2013

Syriza congress: an eyewitness report

By Martin Suchanek, Gruppe Arbeitermacht Before last year’s elections in Greece, Alexis Tsipras was described by the bourgeois press as the “most dangerous man in Europe”. It was said that if he were to enter government the euro and the European Union would be in danger. A representative of the Merkel government in Germany accused […]

Workers Power  ·  30 July 2013

Sri Lanka: release student leaders!

  Statement of the Socialist Party of Sri Lanka, section of the League for the Fifth International Two student leaders, Sanjeewa Bandara, Convenor of the Inter University Student Federation, IUSF, and Kimbullawe Chandrananda, Convenor of the Inter University Bhikku Federation, IUBF, have been detained by police in the capital, Colombo. Both were arrested on grounds […]

Workers Power  ·  18 July 2013

Can the Turkish Spring become a hot summer?

The movement which brought millions onto the streets now finds itself caught between the uncompromising violence of the state and the limitations of its tactics. KD Tait argues that now is the time to organise to ensure the loss of Gezi Park does not turn from setback to defeat. As night fell on the evening […]

Workers Power  ·  16 June 2013

The riots in Stockholm: a reaction against worsening social conditions and violence

In the week following 13 May, when rioting broke out in the Stockholm suburb of Husby, and then spread to others, the tabloid press, TV reporters and all manner of political commentators positively swarmed over these areas with a high proportion of residents from an immigrant background. They minutely logged each burned out car and […]

Workers Power  ·  31 May 2013

Strike wave shakes up US fast food chains

  Since April, workers campaigning for better wages and the right to unionise have shut down hundreds of restaurants in one-day strikes across five cities. The low paid workers, many earning state minimums as low as $7.25 (£4.26) an hour are demanding a wage increase to $15 an hour and the right to set up […]

Workers Power  ·  21 May 2013

1934: Class war in Minneapolis

  Almost 80 years ago, the city of Minneapolis was a battlefield in the class war between workers and bosses. Three strikes in 1934 shook the city and American society to their foundations. The feature of these strikes by the Teamster Union Local 574 was that they were led by Trotskyists. Minneapolis boasted the strongest […]

Workers Power  ·  21 May 2013

The Cyprus bailout – a new direction?

The vote was close on Tuesday 30 April as a €23 billion bailout deal scraped through the Cypriot House of Representatives in Nicosia with a two vote majority. The deal, stitched together by the “Troika” of the European Union, European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund bureaucrats, provides €10bn in EU and IMF funds […]

Workers Power  ·  14 May 2013

How Bolshevik women fought for liberation

In celebration of International Women’s Day and as part of an ongoing debate about the principles of women’s organisation and the revolutionary movement, Joy Macready looks at the history of early Soviet Russia and its lessons for today The Marxist position on women’s liberation owes a great debt to a remarkable group of women in […]

Workers Power  ·  12 March 2013

The Beppe Grillo Phenomenon

The Italian general election did not give a majority to any party or coalition – but it did produce a clear winner: the Five Stars Movement (M5S) of Beppe Grillo. With 25.5 per cent of the vote in the lower house and 23.8 per cent in the upper it is the biggest single party in […]

Workers Power  ·  12 March 2013

Italian Elections 2013: A shock for Eurocrats – and the Left

Dave Stockton Stock markets fell and EU leaders reacted in horror as the result came in from Italy’s general election on 24-25 February. Their hoped-for winners, “responsible” parties that would continue to push austerity, had failed to win a working majority in parliament. Eurocrats had hoped the austerity programme of cuts and neoliberal “reforms” designed […]

Workers Power  ·  12 March 2013

France’s New Anticapitalist Party’s congress fails to solve its crisis

The New Anticapitalist Party (founded in 2009) at first seemed a beacon of hope to the left, not just in France but also across Europe. Marc Lasalle looks at why the dream has faded. Olivier Besancenot was in 2002 and again in 2007 the charismatic young presidential candidate of the Ligue communiste revolutionnaire (LCR), when […]

Workers Power  ·  12 March 2013

Ireland: United Left Alliance disintegrates

The Socialist Party of Ireland has announced its withdrawal from the United Left Alliance (ULA). The Workers and Unemployed Action Group (WUAG) departed last year and only the People before Profit Alliance/Socialist Workers Party, along with non aligned activists, remain in the depleted ranks of the ULA. The General Election 2011 had seen the recently […]

Workers Power  ·  13 February 2013

Organise self-defence against loyalist flag riots

The task of the day is to organise citizens’ defence committees to defend the Short Strand and Catholic communities, says Bernie McAdam. These could then become the basis of a political alternative to the government’s cuts programme and the continuing repression

Workers Power  ·  20 January 2013

Ireland: Finucane report a sham

Finally, Desmond de Silva’s report into the murder of Pat Finucane, the Belfast solicitor, has been released. The Report found that there were ‘shocking levels of state collusion’ in the murder. It told of the ‘wilful and abject failure by successive governments’ to run agents lawfully. It confirmed that Pat Finucane had been murdered by […]

Workers Power  ·  14 January 2013

John McDonnell MP calls for general strike at London rally

An evening rally and demo called for solidarity with the 14 November European general strikes – but union leaders expose the gulf between the British movement and that of the mainland, says Jeremy Dewar

Workers Power  ·  15 November 2012

Car pile-up ahead: may cause strikes

By Jeremy Dewar On 25 October, Ford stunned workers at its Southampton transit van and Dagenham stamping plants, announcing 1,400 job cuts and the closure of both sites next year. Unions say job losses could be as high as 2,000. Closure would threaten a further 10,000 jobs in the supply chain. The US car giant […]

Workers Power  ·  13 November 2012

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