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 […]
By Richard Brenner Britain now has a government determined to force through another huge programme of cuts (£18bn to welfare alone) and dig up cornerstones of the post-1945 welfare system: public health, education, housing. The Tories are likely to be in a hurry, and will take advantage of the ‘first 100 days’ to go on […]
By KD Tait 9 May 2015 London’s Metropolitan police celebrated the arrival of the first Tory-majority government in 18 years by attacking an anti-cuts demonstration against the new regime and its plans for a first 100 days of shock and awe austerity. 15 arrests were made as people resisted attempts by the police to disperse and […]
The April issue of Workers Power Review is out now [scribd-url pubid=”24852238179500127593153362″ url=”https://workerspower.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/wp383pp1-12.pdf” ]
By Arbeiterinnenstandpunkt 6 May, 2015 The mood among employees of the Austrian health service has finally turned. After the introduction of the new Medical Working Hours Act, doctors took to the barricades and mounted a militant opposition to the loss of wages and more cuts. Now, other professional groups, above all the nurses, are showing […]
By Peter Main All indicators point to a massive swing from Labour to the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) in the coming election. It is possible that the SNP could go from its present 6 seats to more than 40 and so hold the balance of power in a hung parliament. Because of widespread support for […]
Rico Rodriguez 5 May, 2015 In the face of recent protests and the general political situation, the Brazilian left faces a dilemma. On the one hand, there have been mobilisations of hundreds of thousands for the impeachment of the president, Dilma Rousseff, of the Workers’ Party, PT, led by groups like “Movimento Brasil Livre”, “Vem […]
By Marcus Otono 4 May 2015 Just like a horrific version of the film “Groundhog Day”, police killings of African-Americans in the United States repeat themselves endlessly. The latest iteration of this macabre pattern was the brutal assault on 25 year-old Freddie Gray in Baltimore on April 12th, 2015 while in police custody. Gray died […]
Long before the delayed publication of its election manifesto, the Labour Party leadership made very clear what their real priorities in government would be. In a glossy pamphlet called ‘A Better Plan for Business’ they explained how a whole range of policies would be used to protect profits and reduce costs for employers. On taxation […]
By Rebecca Anderson 2 May 2015 Chancellor George Osborne crowed in his 2015 budget speech that the employment rate was at 73 per cent, an all-time high. Those with friends and family struggling to find work will be surprised by this statistic, but the Tories have been very effective at kicking people off benefits. Job […]
May Day 2015 marks a century and a quarter since the Second International launched this annual worldwide celebration of working class solidarity, a practical expression of the Communist Manifesto’s clarion call, “Workers of all countries, unite!” Though the bureaucrats of the trade unions and the parliamentarians of the Socialist and Communist parties, have done their […]
By KD Tait 27 April 2015 Saturday 25 April saw the first demonstration by Reclaim:Brixton, a movement formed to defend the interests of residents against government policies which privilege property speculators and undermines the social fabric of our community. 2000 people from a cross section of Brixton assembled in Windrush Square under the banner ‘Reclaim […]
By Bernie McAdam 20 April 2015 The Socialist Party in Ireland is deeply worried. Senior trade union officials like Irish Congress of Trade Unions President John Douglas and Jack O’Connor, leader of the south’s biggest union SIPTU, are courting Sinn Fein. They have responded by producing the article ‘Trade Unions and Sinn Fein: Dangerous Times’ […]
By KD Tait Spanish anti-austerity party Podemos (We Can) won 14.8 per cent and took 15 seats in elections to Andalusia’s regional parliament, doubling last year’s vote in the European elections. The meteoric rise of the fledgling party which is leading opinion polls ahead of general elections this Autumn has provoked intense debate across the […]
The importance of the 2015 general election is not just that it will be close-run and that new or previously fringe parties are gaining ground. In fact the fracturing of support for all three main capitalist parties reflects something far more fundamental. Britain is at a crossroads. We can either travel further down the road […]
By Christian Gebhardt 4 April 2015 This is super election-year in Spain. In May, there are local elections across the country and in the coming months there are elections for several regional governments. Andalusia, whose regional parliament was elected on 22 March, stands at the beginning of this long series of elections and political battles […]
1 April, 2015 On 17 March, Pakistan was again shaken by terrorist attacks. In Lahore, two Taliban suicide bombers left 15 dead. The number would have been far greater had they been able to get inside the churches in the district of Youhandabad. Just a few days before, there were gun battles in Karachi between […]
All the experts agree the 2015 general election is the most unpredictable for decades. New parties, like Ukip on the right and resurgent parties like the Scottish Nationalists and Greens on the left, could hold the two big parties to ransom as coalition partners. Sections of the left have welcomed the rise of the the […]
By Joy Macready 25 March 2015 Whose customers include drug barons, arms dealers, dictators, terrorists and blood diamond dealers? Why, a bank of course. Leaked documents from an ex-employee show that HSBC made huge profits for years through handling secret accounts for criminal, even murderous (but always wealthy) customers. HSBC may be the one in […]
25 March 2015 Despite the election of a government pledged to ease the intolerable burden of paying interest on Greece’s €320bn foreign debt and to renegotiate the terms imposed by the Troika (the IMF, the ECB and the European Commission) so far, no meaningful concessions have been allowed. The country faces a deadline of April […]
On Saturday 7 March, only ten days before Israel’s recent elections, 50,000 people demonstrated in Tel Aviv against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-led coalition. They were led by supporters of the Zionist Union, an opposition electoral list headed by the Labor party’s Isaac Herzog and former Likud and Kadima minister Tzipi Livni. Her present party, […]
By Bernie McAdam 21 March, 2015 “Sex Lessons at Five Under Labour”, “Sick Benefits – 75% are Faking”, “Immigrant Baby Boom” “Immigrant and Scrounging”… and so it goes on. Disgusting as it is predictable, this is a sign of what to expect from the Tory dominated press, as the election campaign gathers pace. And we […]
By Marcus Halaby March 21, 2015 Those on the left who supported Muammar Gaddafi’s dictatorship against its own people in 2011 occasionally cite the chaos and confusion in Libya today as proof that his dictatorship was a necessary evil, and that his overthrow would inevitably lead to Libya’s becoming “another Somalia”, a fragmented “failed state.” […]
Dara O’Cogaidhin The NHS ranks consistently among the top three priorities voters care about. Yet a recent policy, which has barely showed on the political radar of most electors outside of Manchester, threatens to fragment and ultimately destroy the national character of the health service. Chancellor George Osborne intends to hand Greater Manchester control of […]
A propaganda offensive against ‘Russian aggression’ orchestrated by the United States and its Nato allies aims to trigger a new arms race and shackle Europe into the USA’s strategic confrontation with Russia After 15 years of war in Afghanistan, Nato chiefs have signalled they have no intention of acquiescing to war-weariness and beating their swords […]
By Bernie McAdam 16 March 2015 A mass strike involving up to 50,000 public sector workers was held across the north of Ireland on Friday 13 March. NIPSA, UNITE, INTO, GMB and UNISON called out members in transport, health, social services, education and the civil service against the Stormont Executive’s plans to cut the Budget […]
Ukraine ceasefire exposes tensions between USA and EU The surrender of government forces surrounded in the town of Debaltsevo has brought some respite for the population of the Donbas but the Kiev regime is unable to stem the imminent economic collapse provoked by its punishing enslavement to the IMF. The ceasefire arranged at the ‘Minsk […]
The March 2015 issue of Workers Power Review is out now. [scribd-url pubid=”24852238179500127593153362″ url=”https://workerspower.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/finalwp382pp1-12reduced.pdf” ]
Marcus Halaby investigates Saudi Arabia’s role in the rise of ISIS Our rulers routinely present the beheadings of hostages carried out by the Islamic State (IS) as proof of their need to send their military forces into a region whose past experience of Western bombing, invasion and occupation created the very forces that they are […]