2021 saw a prolongation of the chaos and instability of 2020: a continuing public health emergency, economic stagnation, political turmoil and social unrest. Our final meeting of the year was an open forum giving us all an opportunity for a review of these cataclysmic events and a preview of what to expect in 2022. Will Omicron and still deadlier COVID variants deepen the pandemic crisis? Can … [Read more...]
THE FAR RIGHT THREAT: what it represents and how to fight it.
On January 6th this year, in an attempt to overturn the result of the US presidential election, Donald Trump instigated an attack by a far-right mob on the joint session of Congress. Racists, white supremacists, conspiracists, fascists and an assortment of sundry eccentrics marched on the Capitol building in Washington. This was just one illustration of a process that is under way on a … [Read more...]
A Strategy for Solidarity: Support in Struggle
The rise of the world economy, spluttering and uncertain in the pandemic, is creating the conditions for mass strike movements. A wave of industrial action called Striketober is hitting the USA; in South Africa the metal strike has just ended in victory; in Italy casualized workers in FEDEX are on strike; the Korean trade federation has launched a general strike to defend union rights.Many of … [Read more...]
The Lessons of Greece
In the years 2010-2015, Greece was gripped in a popular revolt against the harsh programme of austerity imposed upon it by the so-called "troika" (the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund). During these years there were mass protest rallies, assemblies, occupations of city squares, a prolonged siege of parliament, and dozens of general … [Read more...]
Defending The Revolution in Sudan
The revolution that began in Sudan in December 2018 gave a massive impetus to the wave of uprisings that has swept throughout the African continent and countries all over the world. Huge street demonstrations over several months led to the overthrow of Bashir’s 30-year bloody dictatorship, with ordinary soldiers joining alongside the crowds. When special troops went on the rampage in June 2019 and … [Read more...]
The Truth About Syria
More than ten years since the start of the Syrian uprising, the situation facing the mass of the population is catastrophic. More than twelve million people are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, while more than 5.6 million Syrians are living as refugees across the Middle East. Overall poverty rates are over 85 percent.The Assad regime now rules over 70 per cent of Syrian territory. … [Read more...]
After Labour’s Conference …What Now?
This week's Labour Party conference marked yet another turning point. Under its new leadership, Labour's policies have turned sharply back to the right, and are now virtually indistinguishable from those of the Tories. As a consequence, Labour has LOST...* well over 150,000 members, with many thousands of socialist activists expelled* almost £15 million in funds, … [Read more...]
The Lessons of Afghanistan
What has happened in recent weeks in Afghanistan has worldwide repercussions. The rout of US and British imperialism represents a historic humiliation and a turning-point, highlighting the paradox of our times: the deepening crisis of the ruling class on the one hand, and the desperate lack of a coherent socialist alternative. A twenty-year war costing billions of dollars, the … [Read more...]
TUNISIA: The End of the Arab Spring?
The popular uprising in Tunisia in December 2010 marked the beginning of the “Arab spring”, a wave of revolution that rocked the entire region, sweeping away the dictatorial regimes of Ben Ali in Tunisia, Mubarak in Egypt and Gaddafi in Libya and sparking off years of continuing civil war in Syria and Yemen. Still now its repercussions have not died down, as shown by recent uprisings in Sudan and … [Read more...]
CHINA: One Hundred Years of the Chinese Communist Party
Greg Benton is Greg is the acknowledged leading expert on the history of the Chinese Communist Party and especially China’s Trotskyist opposition and isEmeritus Professor at Cardiff University.Last month marked the centenary of the foundation of the Chinese Communist Party. Just a quarter of a century later, it was already in power. Today it is ruling a population of a billion and a half – almost … [Read more...]