Mass protests have broken out in Hungary against antidemocratic laws, writes Tobi Hanse Late at night on 2 January, tens of thousands demonstrated against Hungary’s new constitution in front of the Budapest Opera, where prime minister Victor Orban and his cabinet was celebrating its coming into force. With its two-thirds majority, the ruling Fidesz party […]

Martin Suchanek reports on the latest attack on Italian workers by the new government

JANUARY HAS  seen days of mass militant action against the government, as thousands of people took to the streets across Romania to protest against austerity and corruption. Clashes in many cities have seen police attack protesters with tear gas and batons.

AN ‘INTERNET blackout’ on 18 January by industry giants including Wikipedia and Google succeeded in blocking attempts to pass new laws against ‘internet piracy’ through the US congress.

THE COLLAPSE of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) in the US congress might appear to be a victory for those who champion internet freedom.

IN A move calculated to appeal to investors, Twitter has announced it is now able to censor tweets by country of origin. Previously, if a tweet was deleted, it disappeared from worldwide search results. The new technology allows Twitter to selectively target content and remove it from search listings within a particular country. Twitter said they […]

Despite the best efforts of the French and German leaders, the Eurozone crisis is not going away, writes Andy Yorke

Anyone reading the #NCAFC Twitter feed over the weekend will have got the impression that the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts descended into uncontrollable orgy of bickering and sectarianism. The truth was quite different. Read more here

Saturday saw the second meeting of Greater Manchester Anticapitalists, again bringing together a diverse audience of radical activists wanting to work together to build a stronger left in the city, and a stronger movement against the Tory government. The meeting saw an open discussion of how to take things forward after the 30 November strikes, […]

The government has dropped controversial proposals to make it easier for private businesses to set up universities, after several months of protest by students. The White Paper drawn up last year was to lessen the criteria for the track record investors would have to demonstrate before setting up a new institution. Liberal Democrats in the […]

The government has dropped controversial proposals to make it easier for private businesses to set up universities, after several months of protest by students. The White Paper drawn up last year was to lessen the criteria for the track record investors would have to demonstrate before setting up a new institution. Liberal Democrats in the […]

Forty Unilever workers from the night shift, USDAW reps and officials and supporters joined picketlines outside the big Leeds plant at Seacroft to kick off the second 24-hour strike. Workers were angry that the giant company is closing their final salary pension scheme, a huge cut to future retirement funds, while it is still making […]

Last week, British Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg were presenting John Lewis as an example of “popular capitalism”, a model of corporate responsibility that not only increased its profits but gives its workers a share in the profits.

Staff and parents at Downhills Primary School have launched an impressive campaign to fight the Department of Educations attempt to force the community school into becoming an academy, writes Rachel Brooks

Simon Hardy reports on a successful meeting in South London for an anticapitalist alternative.

Tuesday saw the first real organising meeting in Manchester for the Unite the Resistance campaign, which recently held a several-hundred strong meeting in London to oppose the pensions sell-out. Around thirty activists from unions such as Unite, Unison, UCU and FBU gathered in the Friends Meeting House to discuss how to further the fight against […]

Several online sites, including Wikipedia and Marxist Internet Archive, have taken its english-language page offline in a protest against a proposed anti-piracy law being debated by the United States’ Congress.

Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey has launched a stinging attack on the Labour leader Ed Miliband claiming that he {Miliband] is “leading Labour to destruction”. McCluskey lambasts the Labour leader for “failing to support millions of low paid trade unionists” and thereby “disenfranchising the party’s [Labour] core support”. All this ire from a union leader […]

Ed Ball’s announcement, supported by Miliband, that a future Labour government would not reverse a single cut and would implement a pay freeze on public sector workers has caused outrage. Len McCluskey’s sharp critical response as a comment piece in the Guardian has quickly become headline news, and the Unite leader has been backed by […]

By Mark Booth AFTER A TURBULENT week of union executive meetings, 300 militants packed into Friends Meeting House for an emergency conference to fight the pensions sell out. It soon became clear to everyone at Unite the Resistance’s gathering that the PCS and NUT leaders would not be calling more strikes in the next few […]

Have you noticed that the Con-Dems’ have stopped insisting ‘we’re all this together’? A new report showing child poverty rates spiralling as cuts hit the poorest families hardest might help explain why. The report, published by the Campaign to End Child Poverty tells a tale of two cities in Leeds. Child poverty rates in the […]

Below is the resolution, adopted a a meeting of trade unionists in Lambeth on 3 January, calling for escalation of the strikes over the pensions dispute.

PCS Left Unity, the leading faction in the civil service union, opened its doors to activists from all unions to debate the way forward, ahead of a pivotal week in the pensions dispute. But PCS leader Mark Serwotka and the influential Socialist Party promised further action but refused to name a date for the next […]

After nearly 20 years two murderers have been convicted of a racist killing. But, Haleema Jamal asks, why did justice take so long, and have things really changed?

After nearly 20 years two murderers have been convicted of a racist killing. But why did justice take so long, and have things really changed? From Revolution

An excellent article at the blog, Louis Proyect: the Unrepentant Marxist, looks at  the relationship between organised socialists and the new occupy movements. Writer and activist Pham Binh principally draws upon the experience in the US, where Occupy achieved a scale of mobilisation that has dwarfed many other countries, but the issues he discusses are […]

A nightmare before Christmas – Jeremy Dewar reports on the disgraceful attempt by the TUC and big union leaders to accept a deal on pensions that looks almost identical to the one decisively rejected by millions last month.

The leaders of some of the trade unions are threatening a sell out of the pensions dispute. Although 3 million struck on November 30th, and there is pressure from the rank and file, and the smaller left unions to call another day of action in the New Year, Dave Prentis of UNISON and Brendan Barber […]

The rapes reported at some Occupy# camps have barely been discussed by the movement. But they pose major questions around how the movement relates to the socially oppressed and vulnerable and also how it should organise. In this excellent contribution at New Left Project, Maeve Mckeown discusses the relationship between autonomy and the collective, security […]

Is David Cameron’s kid-glove treatment of the City remotely justified, when it neither pays its way nor lends effectively, asks Aditya Chakrabortty at Comment is Free. Read it here.