RP57 - Editorial

Insurrection and Imperialism · Egypt. As we went to press last January the Tunisian revolt had just toppled Ben Ali and we were already seeing “A New Stirring in the Arab World”. Those who thought this would have some positive consequences for the working class have been premature in their optimism.

Fighting the Cuts Means Fighting Capitalism

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(Report of CWO militant After the March 26 Demonstration. The demo itself was just as we predicted - unfortunately. A hell of a lot of people but no single thread to the 'demands' or slogans; many people just had their own slogans. It was very closely stewarded by the TUC itself - they didn't need the police.

NHS ‘Overhaul’: Front Line in the Firing Line

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If any public institution enjoys near universal public support it is the NHS. Beloved as much by Daily Mail reading ‘middle England’ as it is by workers, any government that tries to mess with the NHS is playing with political dynamite. Although the Tories were elected on the basis that they would make major public spending cuts, they pledged to preserve the NHS and maintain spending in line...

The Alternative Vote Referendum: Whatever the vote, the same class wins

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"The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of stupidity attained by the bourgeois." (Gustave Flaubert) · Every now and then our rulers take a break from telling us how their democracy is the most advanced humanity can ever reach and they start to tinker with it. Like someone fiddling about with an old engine in a shiny over-painted car, it has to look good before they...

Wisconsin: Workers Protests Get Stuck in the Electoral Swamp

Class War in Wisconsin · (On February 14 our US comrades of the Internationalist Workers’ Group first reported that the Wisconsin State Governor Scott Walker had “dropped the anvil” on state workers. Like so many other states Wisconsin is bearing the brunt of Federal budget cuts and like so many others it is facing bankruptcy. Cue massive cuts to state workers wages and pensions.

Sovereign Debt Crisis - A Slow Burning Fuse

Portugal has become the latest Eurozone country to be unable to meet its sovereign debt obligations and to be forced into asking the European Union to bail it out. In late March the minority “socialist party” government collapsed after failing to get a further round of austerity measures through parliament.

Austerity in Iran - The Working Class Face the Biggest Attacks Yet

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(Image - The banner says: we, the workers of Parsilon, are starving) · For every Iranian New Year Ayatollah Khamenei, designates a motto. Last year, commencing 21st March 2010, he announced a year of “Double Endeavour and Double Work” (1) and this year, from 21st March 2011, he pronounced will be a year of “Economic Jihad“ (striving in the way of God - Capital?) (2).

Nuclear Catastrophe in Japan

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Introduction · We print below a translation of a leaflet produced by our German sister organization, the Gruppe Internationaler SozialistInnen, in the wake of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. · As all the world knows, this natural disaster was compounded by its unleashing of a man-made (or rather, capitalism-made) disasters waiting to happen - not least, the Fukushima reactor problems.

Cote d’Ivoire - Another Victim of Imperialism

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The overthrow of Laurent Gbagbo by French and UN forces assisting the forces of his rival, Alassane Ouattara, is not the end of the agony for the Ivorian population. In the last few months alone thousands have been murdered, burned alive, raped and had their homes destroyed by the militias on both sides.

Marxism or Idealism - Our Differences with the ICC

(The Communist Left has a long and honourable history in fighting capitalism in all its forms, as well as the distortions of socialism by both Social Democrats and Stalinists. Our tendency can arguably claim the longest lineage in the Communist Left, as the historical part of the article which follows, shows. This in itself is no claim to virtue since we look to the future and not the past.

What’s Wrong with the SPGB?

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Review article of “What’s Wrong with using Parliament?” by The Socialist Party [of Great Britain], 24pp July 2010, £1.00. · In the light of the referendum on a change in the voting system (see "The alternative vote referendum..." ) we thought we would take another look at the only genuinely socialist organisation which attempts to sell us the parliamentary road to socialism.

Neither Gaddafi nor NATO but on the side of the working class

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(The Libyan Crisis - Leaflet of Battaglia Comunista distributed in demonstrations against the war in Italy including that in Rome on April 9) · The imperialist roots of the military operations on Libyan soil (for now) are more than obvious, as is the global crisis of capitalism. Safeguarding bourgeois interests and the preservation of the dominant system of exploitation and oppression is reducing...

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