Lebanon, like Iraq, Sudan, and Algeria, is experiencing its own version of the Arab Spring with mass demonstrations, occupations and street blockades
The Turkish-Russian agreement on the establishment of a buffer zone along the Turkish-Syrian border, which was negotiated in Sochi on 22 October, has fundamentally changed the balance of power in Syria
The latest figures are startling. The capitalist world economy is heading for a crisis. It has already broken out in the manufacturing sector
What is the working class in Britain? That is a pretty big topic to cover, fraught with all kinds of debate and controversies. Of course the Marxist left talks about the working class all the time because we see it as an agent of revolutionary change, a class with the potential to reshape the world along democratic and collective lines, away from capitalist exploitation and market based competition
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
At midnight on 21 October, abortions and same-sex marriage were legalised in Northern Ireland. The new law was passed in Westminster rather than Stormont as the devolved administration hasn’t sat since January 2017 amid political deadlock. The legislation, proposed as an amendment by Labour MP Stella Creasey and passed by 332 votes to 99, was the culmination of a campaign by backbench MPs and women and LGBT rights organisations to bring civil rights in NI in line with Britain.
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 […]
Labour’s election campaign has got off to a strong start with reports of hundreds turning out for canvassing in constituencies up and down the country. Momentum is signing up teams to hit the streets in marginal seats, to organise mass phone banking and rallies in support of a programme of progressive reforms. The headline message is that […]
The Liberal Democrats cannot win this election, and cannot win in the vast majority of seats in which they claim to have a chance. Their strategy isn’t about winning or stopping Brexit but about grabbing as much power as they can and disrupting Labour’s chances of forming a government.
In September, delegates to Labour Party conference adopted what was been widely hailed as the most radical environmental policy of any major political party in the world. But when it comes to the Clause V committee hashing out the party’s election manifesto behind closed doors, there is no guarantee that the conference motion’s most radical […]
Thurrock Labour's parliamentary candidate has disgracefully remained silent.
After three years of wrangling over Brexit, parliament has voted for a snap general election on 12 December. The battle lines for the election are clear. On one side are Boris Johnson’s Tories, backed by Donald Trump, who aim to finish what Thatcher started. A Tory government will unleash a Brexit fuelled blitzkrieg against workers’ […]
A socialist analysis of the roots of the current CWU dispute Royal Mail’s attack on its workforce and the CWU postal union flows directly from its privatisation five years ago, and not just the changing postal market as postal bosses and politicians claim. While letter traffic is certainly in decline,[1] increasingly replaced by the internet, […]
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 […]
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.
Turkish forces are pounding cities and towns in northern Syria/Rojava, including the region’s biggest city, Qamishli, as well as Kobane, still in ruins after the war to oust ISIS. Air raids and heavy artillery strikes have forced thousands of civilians to flee into arid open country where there is neither shelter nor food and water. […]
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 […]
At Labour Party conference in Brighton, the internationalist Left scored a significant victory on conference floor with the passage of a motion on immigration which, in principle, commits Labour to maintaining and extending freedom of movement; a radical break from Labour’s previous enthusiasm for immigration controls. The motion also mandates Labour to reject any points-based […]
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 […]
Rico Back is pushing a five-year plan called “Journey 2024”, to build Royal Mail Group into a multinational parcel giant. This will go hand in hand with a “relentless focus on efficiency” to hike profits. The Universal Service Obligation that is the final shield legally protecting the public service, customer rights and the workforce itself […]
As we go to press, the Punch and Judy show of Boris Johnson’s Brexit negotiations is moving into its final act with exchanges of a “Oh yes we will! – Oh no you won’t” type flying between London and Brussels. Certainly on neither side is this real negotiation: just an attempt to shift the blame […]
Royal Mail bosses want to divide the company into bite-sized chunks that will be easier to digest
The climate disaster is already here for the millions across the world fleeing floods, fires and desertification. But now we have been given a deadline: in October 2018, UN scientists warned we have less than 12 years to keep global warming below 1.5C, the Paris Agreement’s goal, or face catastrophic, runaway climate change
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.
The ‘deal’ agreed between the leader’s office and the trade unions is another stitch-up organised behind the backs of members, who should reject this unworkable policy