By KD Tait March 24, 2014 In early February thousands workers and young people took to the streets in towns and cities across Bosnia–Herzegovina (BiH): Tuzla, Sarajevo, Zenica, Brčko, Bihac and Mostar and others. Sparked by protests against the privatisation and asset-stripping of five previously state-owned factories in Tuzla, the movement spread like wildfire […]
By Marcus Halaby Three years ago this month, 15 schoolchildren in Daraa – encouraged by events in Egypt and Tunisia – were arrested and tortured for painting anti-regime graffiti on the wall of their school. Their treatment would be the spark for demonstrations of at first a few hundred and then a few thousand […]
Working class women across the country are confronting austerity and winning local battles. Bringing these class fighters together to forge a working class women’s movement has the potential to bring the cuts government to its knees, argues Joy Macready You can hear the rumble. Snippets here and there, up and down the country. Impressive victories […]
To achieve women’s liberation we have to fight for socialism. The two things are inseparable. Within the Second International, and later the Communist International, Clara Zetkin showed how the struggles could be linked. She led the women’s organisations of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), arguing that women needed to be organised, their rights defended […]
By Shahzad Arshad On Friday 28 February, after 2,500 kilometres the Long March of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, VBMP, finally reached its destination of Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan. The 20 marchers are relatives of just some of the 18,400 people who are missing and believed to have been abducted by […]
A special conference in London voted by 86 per cent to approve constitutional changes that will massively reduce the number of union affiliated members in the party and curtail their rights in favour of more privileges for MPs. Jeremy Dewar asks what will the changes mean? Ed Miliband has achieved his “Clause Four […]
The National Union of Teachers has called a national strike in a continuing campaign to defend pay, pensions and conditions: report by NUT member Bernie McAdam Teachers are right to feel angry. That’s why thousands of schools will be closed on 26 March across England and Wales. Our aim must be to use this one-day […]
On International Women’s Day we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of Rabotnitsa (The Woman Worker). Started by a group of Bolshevik women, including Nadezhda Krupskaya, Konkordiya Samoilova and Inessa Armand, the first issue came out on 8 March 1914 and covered current events in the workers’ movement, paying particular attention to the participation of […]
The League has received this survey of Russian opinion from a correspondent in Russia. According to the WCIOM (The Russian Public Opinion Service) 73% of Russian citizens are against of any intervention of Russia into the conflict between opposition and state authorities because this is internal problem of the country, that was announced on the […]
By Andy Yorke Revelations about police spying on the family of the murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence have backed the Tory-led coalition government into a corner, forcing Home Secretary Theresa May to agree to a public inquiry, admitting that the “full truth has yet to emerge”. Stephen was murdered by a racist gang in 1993 […]
New world disorder Stop the ‘hospital closure clause’ Labour shuts door on collective working class participation Police spy on Lawrence family Is independent rank and file organisation the key to unlocking trade union potential? Teachers: all out on 26 March Next steps for People’s Assembly LU: strike forces management climbdown Kyiv: new regime rules under […]
By Dara O’Cogaidhin The Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign brought about one of the most significant defeats for this government to date – a judicial review in July ruled the government’s decision to close the hospital as unlawful. This was following months of mass protests and campaigning work within the community. But before the […]
For the first time since the Second World War, fascists have come to power through an insurrectionary movement. Kady Tait reviews the situation
By Marcus Halaby Saturday 1 March 2014 Barely a month after a rigged constitutional referendum held to enshrine continued military rule, Egypt’s post-coup regime has seen the sudden resignation of its prime minister Hazem Al Beblawi and his cabinet. This has taken place even as the regime continues its repression of Muslim Brotherhood activists, and […]
The Ukrainian working class has no reason to regret the downfall of the corrupt Viktor Yanukovich or his ministers and police chiefs. His brutal repression on the 30 November of a peaceful occupation of Independence Square, using Berkut special forces, launched a movement which would eventually bring him down. Then, on February 20-21, police snipers […]
By Peter Main The overthrow of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych by the Euromaidan movement marks a major strategic advance for the imperialists of the EU, led by Germany. Although their preferred option was a “controlled” transfer of power via early elections and a compromise with opposition leaders, it is a mark of their determination to […]
On 22 February around 200 women attended the Women’s Assembly in London. Joy Macready reports Tightly stage-managed by Socialist Action and Counterfire, the top-table speakers were predominantly Labour, Green Party and trade union officials – none of whom were leading the fightback against the cuts. The sole activist was Louise Irving of the Save Lewisham […]
Thousands of school students strike in solidarity with refugees fighting racist violence and deportation. Tobi Hansen reports On February 13, more than 3,000 school and university students went on strike to demonstrate their solidarity with refugees on the streets of Berlin. For nearly two years, there has been a camp on Oranienplatz in Berlin protesting […]
By Jeremy Dewar On a windswept, rainy Thursday night on 11 February, around 40-50 people gathered in front of Lambeth Town Hall to voice their opposition to the police. The occasion was the “consultation” exercise run jointly by the London Mayor’s Office and the Met, which is touring all 32 London boroughs: MOPAC. Left Unity’s […]
Statement by the League for the Fifth International, International Secretariat After covering thousands of kilometres on foot, a protest march by activists from Balochistan has been stopped by the authorities and encircled by the police outside the town Wazirabad (a town in Punjab province, approximately 100 kilometres north of Lahore on Monday, February 17th 2014. […]
By KD Tait We are now approaching the third anniversary of the Syrian people’s revolution for dignity and democratic rights, rights that every people in the world deserves. Syria In The Context of the Arab Spring, a conference held in London on 15 February, was therefore an event that was long overdue. This conference drew […]
In early February thousands workers and young people took to the streets in towns and cities across Bosnia –Herzegovina (BiH); Tuzla, Sarajevo, Zenica, Brčko, Bihac and Mostar and others. KD Tait reports on the advance of the working class and youth onto the battlefield They are mobilising not just in protest against the harsh conditions […]
This statement was originally published by the Revolutionary Socialists – Britain. Comrades, We – the Revolutionary Socialists , a youth organisation in Britain – send our warmest solidarity to the Berlin school students’ strike in defence of the rights of refugees. From London to Lampedusa those fleeing the violence of poverty and war are hunted […]
The prospect of a second two-day strike was enough to force London Underground (LU) to back down. Previously, they had intended to impose their “Fit for the Future” plan to close all ticket offices and cut nearly 1,000 jobs, without even the pretence of negotiation with the unions. All the same, this is only a […]
By Martin Suchanek, Gruppe Arbeitermacht The “worst case scenario” for all Bosnian politicians is in the making. Workers, youth and the unemployed have started to rise up against the corrupt politicians of all the leading nationalist parties, whether Croat, Bosnian or Serb, and the whole crony system through which they have plundered the country since […]
By Tobias Hansen, Gruppe Arbeitermacht Three years after the fall of Mubarak, even the bourgeois media are asking whether anything has really changed in Egypt, or whether the current military interim government is trying to bring about a return to the old conditions. The latest step towards the “restoration” of military rule was the constitutional […]
By Martin Suchanek, Gruppe Arbeitermacht The power struggle in Ukraine appears to be entering a decisive phase. The situation of the Yanukovich government is becoming precarious. After the first mass protests against the decision not to sign the Association Agreement with the EU for the time being, they hoped they could just “sit out” the […]
By Arbeiterinnnenstandpunkt, Austrian section of the League for the Fifth International Every year, the right wing Freedom Party in Austria organises a celebration for the members of the traditionalist, that is right wing, “student fraternities”. This is the “Academics’ Ball” at the prestigious Hofburg in Central Vienna. Over the years, it has become a focus for […]
By Tobias Hansen Southeast Asia is one of the centres of the international class struggle. While in Thailand, the right-wing opposition currently wants to abolish parliamentary democracy, Cambodia is being shaken by a mass strike of textile workers. Since the spring of 2013, there have been repeated waves of strikes, by November the number had […]
Over the last month, thousands of people have occupied Independence Square in the Ukrainian capital Kiev. Their protests were initially provoked by President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to suspend negotiations for Ukraine’s eventual entry into the European Union. It had transpired during these negotiations that the EU was demanding neoliberal “reforms” similar to the austerity it […]