Month: February 2021

On Saturday 20 February, the Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) conference agreed on an election manifesto for the Scottish elections, set to be held in May 2021. More than 40 attendees from around […]

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer’s speech, supposedly setting out his vision for Britain, did nothing to counter the criticism that he is dull. It contained virtually no policy proposals. Nonetheless, it played another role, more […]

The massive peasant protest of recent months, anchored around India’s capital, Delhi, with wider support across the country, is historic. It is the first time in the seven years of Modi rule that any action […]

The political turmoil in Malaysia, which has lasted for almost a year, has taken a new turn following the Emergency Order declared by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on 12 January. Although the sudden increase in […]

On 14 February, the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) hosted its fifth online meeting of workplace trade union reps and workers during the pandemic. NSSN chair Rob Williams introduced the meeting explaining: “This is a […]

The Communist Manifesto was first published on this day, 21 February, in the year 1848. Why does it continue to hold such appeal to workers, the oppressed and young people everywhere? “A spectre is haunting […]

The film ‘Dear Comrades’, produced by the Russian film-maker, Andrei Konchalevsky, came out last year and won the Special Jury Prize at the 2020 Venice Film Festival. The film brings home in dramatic detail the […]

For a continent often defined to the outside world by corrupt politicians, dictators and the notorious internet scammers, a success story in any legitimate endeavour elicits celebration. This explains the outpour of joy across Nigeria […]

The Biden administration’s January 26 joint agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin to sign ‘New START’, a five-year extension to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, was greeted with some relief. After the US withdrawal from […]

The impending explosive struggle over the right to indyref2 [a second referendum on independence for Scotland] is dominating the outlook of all classes and political tendencies in society. There are widening divisions, both inside the […]

A peaceful protest called by activists over the weekend, Saturday 13 February 2021, to protest the decision to reopen Lekki tollgate to business was openly and brutally repressed. This new repression following widespread protest against […]

Since the beginning of last year, the whole world suffered from the Covid-19 crisis. Though developed capitalist countries seem to ‘manage’ the situation – yet by no means all of them – and are able […]

A violent clampdown took place against protesters on Saturday 13 February 2021 as they were assembling to peacefully protest the decision of the Lagos State Judicial panel to reopen the tollgate where scores of protesters […]

This Land – The Story of a Movement, by Owen Jones, is an important account of the rise and fall of Jeremy Corbyn, his army of supporters, and his colossal effect on the labour movement. […]

The government’s inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire disaster in London, on June 2017, in which 72 people died, has resumed. The inquiry has been agonising for the survivors and bereaved. Fire safety problems are […]

The black and Asian group of the Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales) is producing a Black Workers’ Charter to start a discussion about the demands needed to fight for the rights of black and […]

The ANC presidency of Jacob Zuma (2009-2018) saw already widespread corruption reach unprecedented new heights in South Africa. The media coined the term “state capture” to describe Zuma’s growing brazenness in appointing ministers and other […]

Over 550 attended the online conference of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) on 7 February in preparation for the local elections in May. Dave Nellist, TUSC national spokesperson, was in the chair. He […]

The Covid-19 pandemic ripping out of control was the background to Portugal’s Presidential elections on 24th January. The winner was right-wing incumbent Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, as the far-right gained and the left was punished […]

At the end of December last year, due to the worsened COVID-19 situation, Thailand’s democracy movement, led by students, temporarily ended the street protests that had been going on since last August. The movement has […]

Demonstrations have been continuing at Boğaziçi University since January 2021. Students and university staff are resisting the appointment of a government loyalist, Melih Bulu, as rector, by Presidential Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The reason for appointing […]

Young people in Germany have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and the unfolding economic crisis. For young socialists, these are key issues around which to organise resistance against the various shortcomings of the […]

For the second night in a row, sounds of the striking pots and pans were heard across the streets of the city of Yangon, in Myanmar. Residents in the main capital are showing their dissatisfaction […]

The Tories have made yet another U-turn. This time over their proposed review of employment laws and regulations post-Brexit. The 12 Labour Party-affiliated unions had issued a statement on ‘the Tory threat to our workplace […]

The European Commission has been forced into a humiliating climb-down following its attempts to control exports of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, which threatened a ‘vaccine hard border’ in Ireland. The EU’s threat to stop vaccines […]

On 20 August, last year, seasoned anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny became seriously ill on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow, quickly falling into a coma. The plane made an emergency landing and four days later […]