The document below in Word and pdf file formats is a supplement to the 2020 World Perspectives document, also on this website. … [Read more...]
China and the West
WHY I AM STANDING FOR THE NEC
by Roger Silverman As an NEC member, I would campaign vigorously to restore the supremacy of party conference, uphold the democratic right of open selection of candidates for office, end arbitrary suspensions, and put forward radical socialist policies along the lines of the 2019 election manifesto. I was born into a Labour family and have been a lifelong party activist. My father was a … [Read more...]
The Pandemic, Capitalism and Africa,
A Presentation by Michael Roberts, to South African activists This well researched and focused presentation analysed the catastrophe facing South Africa and Africa. The virus will cost sub-Saharan Africa $37 billion to $79 billion in output losses this year. Despite an ANC government in power for 26 years, South Africa the wealthiest 10% still own more than 90% of the wealth while 80% own … [Read more...]
Covid-19: The Crisis in Cyprus
By Themos Demetriou Waking up on a lockdown day changes perspectives. I have lived through curfews before, as a child, during the struggle against the British. We complied with curfew regulations. Breaking them would risk being shot by the soldier patrols. At the time, things were simple, understandable. Repressive measures were imposed by the colonial power in its … [Read more...]
The Struggle for Democracy
ED BOBER asks whether democracy can ever be compatible with capitalism and examines how a real workers’ democracy would operate Across the world, revolutions are breaking out against the ravages of neo-liberalism. In the past, demonstrators have demanded a change of government; today’s demonstrations are seeking ways of changing the whole system! Some spark sets off a … [Read more...]
Lal Khan’s memory will be honoured
The untimely death of Lal Khan (Tanvir Gondal, as I knew him) has struck a bitter blow, not only to the ongoing struggle and future hopes of the working class in Pakistan and internationally, but also to me personally. Ever since we first met almost forty years ago, I counted him an ally and a comrade, and also a loyal friend. As often in Tanvir’s life, his personal circumstances were … [Read more...]
2020: A WORLD IN REVOLT
DAVID HEMSON reviews the uprisings sweeping the world today Something new is growing worldwide; protest movements and demonstrations are emerging day after day in country after country in South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. While protests often run their course and exhaust themselves, the current movements are continuing as the issues they fight for are unresolved. There is a new mood … [Read more...]
UK Election 2019
This election was a big defeat for the Labour Party. There will be much debate and questioning in its aftermath. The enemies of socialism will do their best to use the election result to try and destroy the socialist message. Did Labour promise too much? Britain is the sixth richest country in the world. The Attlee government could afford to introduce and fund the NHS directly … [Read more...]
IRAN AT THE CROSSROADS
Article by by Aman Kafa The threat of war against Iran by US imperialism has to some extent deflected attention from the growing movement of protest and struggle by workers against Iran’s theocratic regime. Here is an exclusive report by worker activist Aman Kafa, a member of UNISON and of Iran’s Hekmatist Party (official line). Over the past two years, the situation in Iran has … [Read more...]
A tribute to Birgitte Jørgensen
11.11.1940 – 13.11.2019 Danish Social Democrat and Marxist with unwavering confidence in the working class Birgitte grew up in a working-class family and was a Marxist. She fought most of her life for a socialist transformation of society. In addition to fighting against the bourgeoisie, she also had to fight against the leadership of the Social Democracy and the Danish Young Socialist … [Read more...]
THE GREAT MINERS STRIKE: 35 YEARS ON
Article By John Dunn (Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign) Heard the one about the miners being defeated? 35 years ago the National Union of Mineworkers were fighting, as was later proven, a titanic fight for survival, not only for the union, but for the mining industry, their communities and ultimately for future generations. Now there is not a single pit left in Britain. Formerly … [Read more...]
AMAZON: THE FIRE OF CLIMATE CHANGE
By David Hemson Pictures of black tree lines outlined by the red background of a fire, of thousands of blazing fires mapped along the Amazon, have commanded the attention of every thinking person. As in a horror movie, our planet appears to turn to flame and burn to ash as runaway fires stream across the TV screen. Astonishingly, the firing of the Amazon is not the only incendiary tragedy of … [Read more...]
The Russian Revolution 101
The year 2019 marks the 101 year following the 7th November 1917 Revolution in Russia. Although over a century ago these events impact upon us still today, throwing out an echo that reverberates throughout the world. In this article, written for the 100 year the anniversay of these events, Roger Silverman talks about how the Russian revolution remains a constant spectre at the feast of the … [Read more...]
The 2019 Labour Party Conference – a brief report
Roger Silverman It won’t surprise many of us to learn that the recent Labour Party conference was nothing remotely like the press and media reports. For them, it was a disaster: rival factions were tearing the party to pieces over Brexit and anti-semitism, and Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership was finished. This was not the conference I attended, as delegate from my constituency party. The first … [Read more...]
The Labour Left Alliance
A new democratic and genuine grassroots alliance of the Left in the UK Labour Party launched this summer. The Labour Left Alliance is a network of national and local left groups and individuals, who recognise the vacuum within the Left in the Labour Party and who want to organise democratically and transparently in order to: Support Corbyn (and by extension, his supporters) against attacks by … [Read more...]
Labour and Britain’s Crisis
Beneath the immediate crisis over whether, when and how Britain is to leave the European Union lies a deeper trend: the chronic decline and death agony of British capitalism. Where once it was the “workshop of the world”, today it is losing its last remnants of productive industry, most of them by now assembly plants owned by Japanese, Indian and other foreign companies. Where once it ruled “an … [Read more...]
Could there be a Coup?
In this article Roger Silverman briefly considers the issue of attempts to undermine a left-leaning Corbyn government. Chris Mullins' novel “A Very British Coup” does draw an authentic picture of the underhand practices of the British state, perfected over centuries of colonial rule. After all, most of the world's current and historic trouble spots are the direct legacy of the British Empire – … [Read more...]
A Stand Against Russian Autocracy
In this article Roger Silverman writes about the events that began in 2012 when three courageous women defied Russia's dictator Putin in a daring public demonstration, and were subsequently jailed. Their stand belonged to a proud Russian tradition of defiance by artists and writers of successive autocratic regimes, first under the Tsars and later under Stalin's tyranny and the rule of his … [Read more...]
The Oakland Teacher Strike: Context and Perspective
Jack Gerson a retired Oakland teacher and former member of OEA bargaining team and executive board writes about the wave of teacher strikes that hit the United States earlier this year. On February 21, 2019, the Oakland Education Association (OEA), representing 3,000 public school teachers and support workers in the city of Oakland, California, launched a strike that resonated throughout the … [Read more...]
Greece, Europe and Elections
Roger Silverman author of Defiance: Greece and Europe, comments on the general election results in Greece, announced earlier this week. Roger says... they have been reported as a victory for the “conservative” party New Democracy. True enough, New Democracy won the contest with 39.9% of the votes cast, to the outgoing governing left party SYRIZA’s 31.5% - a result which at first sight appears, if … [Read more...]
Centenary Year of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre
Lal Khan writes about the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre on April 12, 1919, carried out by the British army during the British empire’s occupation of India. In the late spring of 1919, green meadows in the fertile plains of Punjab were acquiring a golden hue with the sun’s rising radiance. It was the onset of harvest time. A century ago the near-absence of pollution, the air would have been … [Read more...]
Academisation: A Crisis of Education
Carel Buxton of the Newham Against Academisation Campaign wites about the crisis in our education system caused by the academisation of schooling. Education System Crisis The English education system is in crisis. School Governors and Headteachers are having to cope with the biggest funding deficit in living memory, a massive recruitment shortfall, record numbers of teachers leaving the … [Read more...]
REMEMBERING ROSA LUXEMBURG
Rosa Luxemburg was murdered one hundred years ago, murdered to stop her work as a socialist, writes Felicity Dowling. In paying tribute to Rosa, we are both celebrating her life and marking the centenary of the assassination of one of the greatest women of the socialist movement. This year thousands of people from many nationalities marched through Berlin this weekend, to lay red roses on her … [Read more...]
ALGERIA ERUPTS: A New Arab Spring
2011: no participation in the Arab Spring movement On 17 December 2010, after the immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian population rose up against hellish poverty. Protests broke out across the whole of Tunisia, including a general strike and mass demonstrations. After four weeks, the people overthrew the dictator Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia on 14th January 2011 despite the … [Read more...]
Sudan Signals Revival of the African Revolution
Woman demonstrator: “This is my revolution and we are the future” The immovable has been removed: Omar al-Bashir who had ruled Sudan for 30 years has now been deposed by the military under huge pressure from below. Along with the removal of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in Algeria, this constitutes is a cause for celebration for the working class in Africa and internationally. When it … [Read more...]
IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST
ADULTS IN THE ROOM: My Battle with Europe's Deep Establishment by Yanis Varoufakis A review by Roger Silverman In the last few years, Greece has witnessed the most dramatic conceivable eruptions of popular outrage; an assertion of human solidarity stretching across the entire mass of the oppressed and deprived. For months on end, tens of thousands occupied Athens' Syntagma Square and city … [Read more...]
The Gilet Jaunes Movement
The weekend of 13th/14th April marked the 22nd weekly “act” of the Gilet Jaunes protest. Over the whole of France, there were 110,000 protesters (by the estimates of the police and organisers) or 30,000 (according to the government), gathered at roundabouts, blocking traffic, marching in the streets of Paris and provincial towns. The movement began last November to protest against a tax on … [Read more...]
THE TWO FACES OF INDIA
As the shadow of ruthless authoritarian regimes falls across the world’s continents from Europe to America North and South to Asia, the world’s capitalists have greeted with undisguised jubilation the victory of Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in India’s recent general election, winning 303 of the Lok Sabha’s (lower house) 543 seats, as against their main rivals’ Congress … [Read more...]
LABOUR AND BREXIT
We are living in stormy times. As the relatively stable world order of the last few decades passes away, sudden shocks and sharp swings to right and left rock one country after another. No more dramatic example can be found than Britain, whose underlying fault line has manifested itself in the Brexit referendum victory. The aftershocks of the 2008 crash kick-started a turbulent period in … [Read more...]
Introducing the Socialist Dialogue Podcast Channel
Welcome to ON THE BRINK, the new journal of the Workers’ International Network (WIN), which links activists across several countries. Working people the world over are facing hard times and desperately searching for a way forward. Many have been marching, mobilising and striking. We need to link up in the struggle for a better world. Today eight multi-billionaires own as much wealth as … [Read more...]
WIN Conference: Session 2
The second session of WIN’s conference was held on 16th January, with participants logged on from countries encompassing the globe from the USA to the Philippines and from Sweden to South Africa (twenty countries in total). The conference continued the discussion from the previous session on the document 2020 VISION: World Perspectives and on a new Perspectives Supplement on the Pandemic. The … [Read more...]
2020 Vision: World Perspectives
'Roger Silverman opened the conference of the Workers International Network with the following lead-off on World Perspectives, updating the 2020 Vision document with an analysis of the growing social, economic and environmental crisis and the worldwide upsurge of revolt … [Read more...]
Session 1 Opening
“This is a more truly universal outbreak of mass protest than any before in history… This worldwide turbulence reflects the unprecedented internationalization of the proletariat, now straddling every continent, encompassing men and women alike, and now for the first time ever a majority of the world population.” This video of the conference of the Workers’ International Network got off to a flying … [Read more...]
Pre-Conference Discussions / Brazil
Comrades in the WIN Brazilian group had an excellent pre-conference discussion: Raquel Negrao presented on the origins of the Amazon and the environmental crisis, Nara Filippon on recent developments in politics after the local government elections and Silvana Harte on the subjugation of women in Brazil. Live Link: https://youtu.be/-8CiNJtCEho … [Read more...]
WIN Newsletter 3: January 2021
The latest Newsletter from the Workers International Network, can be downloaded below … [Read more...]
DYING WE LIVE: FIGHTING FOR HOUSING IN SOUTH AFRICA
Thuli Ndlovu, Abahlali baseMjondolo and the ANC An article by Rob Dyer In September 2006 the municipal publicity magazine in Durban/eThekwini municipality carried the profile of an up- and-coming new African National Congress (ANC) councilor, Mduduzi Ngcobo. According to the magazine, he had big dreams for the ward he represented: a library, new high schools, a youth programme, … [Read more...]
BRAZIL: THE FIGHT AGAINST BOLSONARO AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION
Among the most ferocious regimes of recent times is that of Bolsonaro in Brazil. And now, at its first electoral test since he won the presidency in 2018, his party has suffered a humiliating defeat in local elections. In Sao Paolo and in Recife, it came fourth; in Manaus, fifth; and in Belo Horizonte, it won less than10% of the vote. This is against a background where Brazil’s currency has … [Read more...]
Land Struggles for Housing and Sustainable Agriculture
Land struggles for housing and sustainable agriculture in, Brazil, South Africa and beyond.Throughout the world working people are rising to make a life for themselves; if necessary by occupying the land which is in the hands of the propertied and turn it to social and productive use. In the absence of a plan of production to meet social needs the organization of working people is making important … [Read more...]
Labour in Crisis
Six months ago, Sir Keir Starmer won the Labour leadership election on a promise to maintain Corbyn’s radical policies and unify the party. Since then…* a leaked secret report has exposed wilful sabotage by racist party officials;* Corbyn’s sole ally in the shadow cabinet has been sacked;* Corbyn himself has been suspended from membership of the party;* The party has been “swamped” by mass … [Read more...]