Articles by KazLeft reporters

Over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza are suffering a horrific situation on a daily basis, with nowhere safe to go. Bombing continues and Israeli ground operations continue in the south – the area where people […]

On 27 October, 130 engineers at Tesla workshops in Sweden began strike action against the car giant. They have been demanding Tesla recognises their union IF Metall and negotiates a collective bargaining agreement. Striking workers […]

National Labour Council (NLC) and TUC must take action to halt the persecution of Abbey with the immediate commencement of a serious campaign against casualisation and related indecent labour practices in workplaces The Campaign for […]

After the judgement of the German Federal Constitutional Court plunged the ‘traffic light’ government into another deep crisis, the heads of government have agreed on a draft budget for 2024. The draft is intended to […]

Taiwan faces a pivotal presidential and legislative election that can shape the future of its relations with China and also carries implications for the broader US-China geopolitical tensions in the Indo-Pacific region. As of the […]

The Scottish National Party (SNP) – Scottish Green budget has delivered a devastating blow to public services in Scotland that were already locked into a spiralling crisis. An estimated £1.5 billion shortfall has been bridged […]

Minor infections often turned lethal until the mid-twentieth century. Now this threat could return, as micro-organisms become more resistant to antibiotics, antifungals, antiparasites and other antimicrobial compounds. “All of modern medicine is upheld by our […]

Over the holiday period, socialistworld.net will be posting less frequently. The normal posting schedule will restart from 3 January 2024. socialistworld.net

The war in Ukraine has been overlooked by much of the mainstream media during the last three months while the cruel bombardment of the Israeli state against the people of Gaza continues unabated. Nevertheless, the […]

In an unexpected turn of events, the Law Courts in Sweden ruled against Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, when he sued to make the Swedish postal workers handle the new number plates for the new Tesla […]

The third national conference of Sol – Socialist Organization Solidarity took place in Berlin from 8 to 10 December. One hundred delegates, members and guests from Germany, as well as international comrades, came together to […]

On Thursday 14 December 2023, a day after the public unveiling of our new pamphlet “Ten Reasons why Tinubu’s Students Loan is a Scam”, operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS), the secret police of the […]

Egypt’s entirely predictable presidential election has been won by Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, president since 2014. From the election date announcement (several months earlier than it was due) to the declaration of result, the outcome was […]

On 4 September 1970, the self-proclaimed Marxist Salvador Allende was elected as President of Chile. Allende’s victory came as a shock to the ruling Chilean capitalist class and US imperialism. This was the first time […]

After a hard-fought campaign the results of the PCS general secretary and assistant general secretary elections have been announced. Fran Heathcote has been elected general secretary with 10,340 votes. Marion Lloyd, a Socialist Party member […]

Human-caused global warming and climate change have been known about for decades but we are now entering a crucial period, after which the consequences of our actions, or lack thereof, could have ramifications that go […]

Every day in Gaza a new unimaginable horror exceeds the horror of the day before. As winter begins, freezing is being added to bombing, hunger and disease as causes of Gazans’ deaths. At the time […]

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s electoral victory in the May 2023 elections, beating the pro-capitalist opposition alliance, have come as a surprise for many who desperately wanted to see the back of Erdogan in the […]

As environmental catastrophe looms large, emphasised by rising temperatures and the increasing prevalence of extreme weather events such as the forest fires and floods that have struck the world over in 2023, the scramble to […]

The COP UN climate change conference has taken place in Dubai. Every year world leaders gather to rub their hands and discuss the various climate records smashed in the last year, the dire consequences of […]

The world’s imperialist powers have always intervened in the Middle East for their own political, strategic and economic interests. On the one hand dishing out investment, aid, trade deals and promises of protection, and on […]

Editorial of the Socialist (issue 1254) weekly paper of the Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales). The brutal Israeli state wasted no time in re-releasing its horrific onslaught on the Palestinian people in Gaza as […]

The catastrophic situation in Gaza follows years of grim events across the Middle East. Just 13 years ago a very different outcome was possible. The ‘Arab Spring’ could have set the region on a different […]

The recent death of 46 miners in the Kostenko mine is the largest loss of life in the history of Kazakhstan’s mining industry (for more background information: Forty six workers killed in explosion at Kostenko […]

In previous articles, we have described how the two Norwegian parties in the coalition government have lost popular mandates. The main party, the AP (Labour Party), has seen its support in Gallup polls drastically reduced. […]

Sinn Féin is consistently polling ahead in the Republic of Ireland, and in Northern Ireland it is the biggest party. When the Assembly is restored in the North, and in the aftermath of the next […]

After UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s latest October U-turn, all new cars sold in the UK must be electric by 2035, five years later than the original date. Of course, who knows what it will […]

The COP28 climate summit, an annual conference for countries to discuss the ongoing climate crisis and attempt to agree concrete steps that they can take to combat it, began on 30 November in Dubai. The […]

Socialism 2023 was a weekend attended by hundreds of people who want to change the world. Many have been involved in the strike wave. Many found out about the event on the anti-war demos – […]

After the start of the initial four-day Israeli ceasefire, aid workers who entered the Gaza Strip reported scenes of humanitarian catastrophe. Devastating injuries, overwhelmed hospitals, over 50,000 buildings destroyed or damaged, a dire shortage of […]

The ‘Partij Voor de Vrijheid’ (PVV) – known as the Freedom Party – won the biggest number of seats in the recent elections in the Netherlands. The PVV managed to win this as the other […]

Last Thursday’s knife attack against young children and a creche worker outside a Dublin city centre primary school horrified people across the country and beyond. But for the bravery of those people, who included a […]

After six weeks of selective strikes against the “Big 3” American automakers, the United Auto Workers (UAW) leadership reached tentative agreements (TAs) with Ford, GM, and Stellantis. Union leaders called off picket lines, and approximately […]

On October 27, 1998, the first and so far only federal government consisting of the SPD and the Greens was elected. Gerhard Schröder became Chancellor, the former Bürgerschreck – or ‘terroriser of the bourgeoisie’ – […]

The vast majority of people are looking on in ever-growing horror as the destruction escalates in Gaza – as IDF forces assault al-Shifa Hospital and helicopters drop leaflets in south Gaza telling people to evacuate […]

June 2023 saw the roll-out of a Low Emission Zone (LEZ) in Glasgow city centre. Any vehicle entering the LEZ zone now has to meet certain emissions criteria or face a penalty. Many workers have […]

The far-right libertarian candidate in Argentina’s presidential run-off elections, Javier Milei, has won a large victory, taking over 55% of the national vote and beating the Peronist candidate, Sergio Massa, who won 44% of the […]

There is yet another “strike week” in Austria – similar to last year, but with slightly different sectors involved. The metal industry which had held warning strikes last week is holding one day strikes in […]

‘Cruella’ Braverman is out! The anti-war movement – whose demonstrations she tried and failed to ban – has scored a victory! She has been ditched as Tory Home Secretary just 13 months after having been […]

The widespread killings of Israeli civilians in the October 7 attack were something that socialists did not support but neither do we support the subsequent onslaught by the Israeli state against the civilian population of […]

At the end of September Jake Sullivan, the US National Security Adviser, mused that “the Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades”. Just a week later came the start […]

A month into this devastating war on Gaza and the world’s capitalist leaders are demonstrating again that our lives are not safe in their hands and their system. Capitalism means war, just as it means […]

Nigeria has faced increased turmoil as the neo-liberal attacks launched at the end of May by the new president, Bola Tinubu, produced a huge leap in fuel prices and a currency collapse, giving a further […]

Members  of the UNISON trade union in local government in Scotland voted to reject the previous COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) pay offer with a near 90% majority on a high turnout just a […]

The horrific images of the Israeli state’s brutal assault on Gaza have sparked an intense debate across the trade union movement and in individual unions about the attitude the workers’ movement must take to the […]

The following statement (translated from German) regarding opposition to the Israeli state attack on Gaza has, so far, been signed by over 200 individuals and organisations in Germany, including trade unionists, Left Party members, and […]

Kenan Malik’s book, Not So Black and White, discusses the ideas and battles in the history of race and racism since the 1600s. While the common sense view is that it is difference that leads […]

The world is looking on in horror at the siege of Gaza. The Israeli state has been carrying out unprecedented levels of airstrikes on the densely populated Gaza Strip ever since the terrible Hamas attacks […]

ArcelorMittal, the largest steel producer in Kazakhstan, and one of the largest in the world, has, once again, found itself in the spotlight – not because of its prosperity, but due to a tragedy that […]

The horrific bombing of the Gaza Strip has continued relentlessly, inflicting terrible and unprecedented suffering on the trapped, blockaded population. The death toll has increased daily – over 8,300 at the time of writing – […]

Nominations have closed in the elections for Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) general secretary and AGS elections. In a stunning outcome, Socialist Party member Marion Lloyd, standing for general secretary with the support of […]

Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance (NIPSA) trade union members in Northern Ireland ports and meat plants have begun five days of hard-hitting strike action over the issue of pay. The action has raised the sights […]

The Scottish National Party (SNP) conference, took place earlier this month and was one of the smallest in years. Day one saw yet another retreat by the nationalist leadership on its strategy to achieve independence. […]

In supposedly peaceful Scandinavia, we have recently been witnessing mafia-like shootings, gang killings and even bombs exploding in the suburbs of Sweden. Many right-wing commentators are blaming refugees fleeing from war-torn countries. Socialists must put […]

Capitalism and its political representatives are totally incapable of meeting any of the needs of working-class and poor people anywhere on the globe. All that is on offer is a never-ending diet of war, poverty, […]

Before polls had closed in Western Australia the result was in and the ‘Voice referendum’, held on 14 October, was defeated. It was voted down by all states and by a national majority. Nationally, only […]

And announces foundation of new party October 23 was the day on which Sahra Wagenknecht and nine other members of the Bundestag (German parliament) resigned from DIE LINKE (the Left party). At a press conference, […]

Earlier this month, elections were held in the German federal states of Hesse and Bavaria, and the result represents the next low blow for the ‘traffic light’ national government (Red for Social Democrats, Yellow for […]

Just five days after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had launched his election campaign for a third term of office, war erupted across the border. With 2.3million Palestinians in Gaza, this dramatically escalates the pressures […]

The peaceful picture postcard white sands and turquoise seas of Caribbean island nation Grenada were dramatically disrupted 40 years ago on the morning of 25 October 1983, when US troops invaded. Grenada, known for its […]

After the 23rd and 24th August 2023 elections for the president, legislators and councillors, the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF) retained power, continuing its 43-year old reign since independence in 1980. The Zimbabwe Electoral […]

Outside this year’s Tory conference in Manchester, 3,000 members of various health unions, mainly consultants and junior doctors, gathered. They set out their determination to keep up strike action throughout the autumn and winter if […]

It seems that few weeks go by without a new stage of widening social polarisation and fracturing divisions developing within US society and US capitalism. On 3 October, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, […]

The Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election was a massive vote of no confidence in the main pro-capitalist parties. Despite intense attention from the media and the political establishment, and major resources expended by Labour and […]

According to capitalist mainstream history, 1923 was the year of hyperinflation and the failed Hitler putsch. This narrative equates German history, first and foremost, with fascism. Yet 1923 was also the year that Germany was […]

As we go to press, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared that Israel is “at war” after Hamas launched rockets across the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel and Hamas fighters entered Israel. […]

Angela Saini’s recent book is really a misnomer. While its title – The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule – seems to promise an explanation of how women came to be treated as unequal, second-class […]

The current strike wave, which erupted more than a year ago with national strike action by railworkers in the RMT union, marks the beginning of a new era in the class struggle in Britain. At last […]

Last week’s historic 3-day strike by over 22,000 members of the trade union, UNISON, in Scotland, working in schools and early years, was an expression of the pent up class anger felt by council workers […]

By 1983 , Militant, the predecessor of the Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales), was growing ever more influential, especially through the Labour Party Young Socialists (LPYS) and on Merseyside, as well as other places. […]

Below is the Socialist Party’s Black Workers Charter, a programme for fighting racism, originally produced by the Black and Asian group of the Socialist Party in 2021 and now updated for 2023. Racism exists in […]

After successfully blocking the leader of the Move Forward Party from becoming the next prime minister of Thailand, the country’s military bureaucracy managed to collaborate with the second largest Pheu Thai Party to finally appoint […]

Ireland’s largest fresh-water lake, Lough Neagh (also the largest lake across the islands of Ireland and Britain), is on the edge of ecological disaster. The reasons are a mixture of greed from private business, and […]

Last week, in just under 24 hours, Azerbaijani military forces overran the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave in the south Caucasus mountains, at the cost of around 200 lives. Since then, nearly 70,000 ethnic Armenians have fled the […]

A wave of student activism has swept over Finland as the Conservative-led government prepares to impose its first, austerity-led budget. Student groups have launched sit-in demonstrations at most universities and several technical colleges and upper […]

The British Tory home secretary Suella Braverman says: “We’re not going to save the planet by bankrupting the British people.” She spoke to Sky News after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s plans for substantial climate policy […]

On 16th September, the British magazine, “The Economist”, published an article entitled, “The hard right is getting closer to power all over Europe”. And indeed, right-wing populist and far-right parties seem to be the main […]

The inferno at the end of August that claimed the lives of 77 people, the majority burnt beyond recognition, is one of the worst indictments not just against the City of Johannesburg (CoJ), but the […]

Over 330 National Union of Journalists (NUJ) members in over 100 National World newspapers and websites across Britain and Northern Ireland struck on 18 September. The company imposed a 4.5% pay rise. That is despite […]

It seems simpler to list the things which work in Britain in 2023 than to list what’s broken. Public services are literally crumbling. Prices everywhere for workers and young people continue to spiral above our […]

On 15 September, members of the Independent Socialist Group (ISG) joined with United Auto Workers (UAW) members and other supporters at a practice picket in Mansfield, MA, to show support for a strike. Following the […]

The local council and regional election results of the 10th of September 2023 in the nationwide elections in Norway was a clear defeat for the ruling coalition parties of the Norwegian Labour Party (AP) and […]

An indefinite strike at Ardo, a food processing and packaging plant, in Groß-Enzersdorf, near Vienna, is entering its second week. A warning strike was held on September 11, and the 150-strong workforce has now been […]

From 17 to 23 September, about 1,000 delegates at the ver.di national congress will discuss the future direction of the trade union. Ver.di is a public and service sector union and the second biggest in […]

All the opinion polls in Norway are predicting huge electoral gains for the Conservative opposition and the right wing ‘Popularists’, and huge losses for the Norwegian Labour party. On the 11th of September 2023, the […]

The death of the Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin and other leaders of the Wagner group in an aircraft crash has intensified the tensions inside Vladimir Putin’s regime and the Russian state. So far, it is […]

The deadly consequences of people driven into traffickers’ boats, forced to leave their homes due to poverty or to escape war and environmental devastation, have been constantly in the news in the UK and across […]

Over 100 people have died, with many more still unaccounted for, as wildfires have raged across the island of Maui, Hawaii, making this recent disaster the deadliest wildfire in the United States in a century. […]

The Cultural Revolution – a period that is generally considered to have spanned the ten years from 1966 to the death of Mao Zedong in 1976 – is one of the most confusing and misunderstood […]

Statistics recently published by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) show unemployment among black and minority ethnic (BAME) people was at 6.9% in 2022, over double the unemployment rate of white people – 3.2%. The unemployment […]

The jailing for 28 months of Carla Foster, a 44-year old woman with three children, one with special needs, for terminating a pregnancy during Covid lockdown has shone a spotlight on abortion laws in England […]

The age of austerity is clearly not over as capitalist politicians of all persuasions compete to manage economic crisis in the interest of the capitalist class. PAUL KERSHAW reviews a book that places economic austerity […]

The next UK government is likely to be a Labour government led by Keir Starmer. The huge lead that Starmer currently enjoys is not a vote of confidence in him, the current leadership of the […]

The Omagh bomb of 25 years ago was the end of any significant republican armed campaign in Ireland or elsewhere. The backlash ruled such out for many years. The Omagh bombing was one of the […]

One of Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci’s most quoted phrases is his 1930 statement in the ‘Prison Notebooks’: ‘The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; […]

Christopher Nolan’s epic blockbuster movie Oppenheimer charts the career of Robert Oppenheimer, a Jewish American, theoretical physicist from university to his involvement in the Manhattan Project and the building of his Los Alamos laboratory during […]

The UK civil service trade union, PCS, is balloting its members on its response to a government pay offer. Socialist Party (CWI) members in PCS are part of the Broad Left Network (BLN), campaigning for […]

Facing a potential electoral landslide against them, the Tories are desperate. Hundreds of Tory MPs threatened with losing their jobs are desperately clawing to find a ledge to cling onto. Narrowly holding onto Boris Johnson’s […]

Donald Trump attended a federal court in Washington DC on 3 August in which he faced a 45-page criminal indictment accusing him of conspiracy to overturn the democratic outcome of the 2020 US presidential election. […]

Scotland’s council workers are heading towards another autumn of strike action over this year’s annual pay rise. All three trade unions’ members overwhelmingly rejected an offer of 5.25% – 5.5%. Unite has returned strike majorities […]

Niger has become a focus of international interest and discussion since the military elite presidential guard seized power from Mohamed Bazoum and placed him on house arrest on Wednesday July 26, 2023. General Abdourahmane Tchiani, […]

Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland, available on BBC iPlayer, is one of the outstanding documentaries on the conflict in Northern Ireland that is euphemistically known as the ‘Troubles’. Rather than an overarching narrative, […]

The latest developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) – the impact they might have on workers’ jobs, livelihoods and our day-to-day lives – are being discussed in the press. Recent advances don’t mean we are about […]

Writers and performers for TV and film across the United States are on strike. They are fighting for their livelihood and industry futures in a double crisis of inflation and new tech disruption. Angry picket […]

As the cost-of-living crisis continues in Britain – with 30-year high inflation and the effects of over ten years of austerity that have decimated our public services – a growing number of people are beginning […]

On Tuesday, July 25, Boris Kagarlitsky, a well-known left-wing university teacher in Moscow, was arrested. It appears as if a political purge is going on in the country. This arrest came only a few days […]

On Tuesday July 25th, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced a tentative agreement (TA) with UPS, calling off the strike of 350,000 workers that was set to begin on August 1st. UPS Teamsters are the […]

Frightening highs of over 40oC is the reality in southern Europe. Parts of southern Iberia have been labelled as ‘extreme-risk’ zones, with nearly 75% of the territory of the Spanish state being considered ‘at risk’. […]

“Voters were pissed off with us”. That response of a Tory MP to two crushing by-election defeats on 20 July was putting it mildly. A 24% swing from the Tories to Labour in Selby and […]

In August 2017, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (Local 174) was negotiating a new contract with concrete company Glacier Northwest. Concrete truck drivers reported to work, turned on their trucks, left the full containers of […]

Note: The  article below was written in May 2023,  by Tom Hoffman, a member of the German section of the CWI (Sol -Socialist Organisation Solidarity). From the end of last year, young Sol members, who […]

Up to 6,000 people joined last Wednesday’s “Zero Tolerance for Racism” march in central Helsinki, demanding the fall of the National Conservative/Basic Finns-led far-right coalition, just one month after it the government was formed. The […]

If a poll is conducted in Nigeria today asking average Nigerians how they have fared since May 29 when President Bola Tinubu came to power, the prevailing answer is likely going to be a tale […]

On 15/16 July, an international meeting was convened by a number of left organisations in Milan, Italy. Twenty-four organisations of diverse political tendencies meet and debated the international situation. The meeting included Trotskyists, anarchists, and […]

In May, the Oxford Union Debating Society, with its £150-a-year membership fee, met to discuss the class basis of politics. Dave Nellist, former Labour MP and now a member of the Socialist Party’s national committee, […]

The amendments to the Employment Equity Act (EAA) signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa and due to take effect on 1st September 2023, has given rise to a new flare up of racial tensions. […]

Workers in Tara Mines in Navan, Ireland, have voted to accept the proposals from the management of the mine. This was recommended by the three unions representing the workers; SIPTU, Unite, and Connect, following negotiations […]

A year and a half after the “turning point” proclaimed by German Chancellor Scholz, not a day goes by without reports of disputes within the “traffic light” coalition ruling Germany, the right-wing populist AfD (Alternative […]

It came as disturbing news that June was the hottest month ever recorded in the UK and the planet had its two hottest days ever at the start of July. What did the Tory government […]

Egypt’s economy goes from bad to worse. Workers and the poor suffer even more sharply as a result. Food prices shot up 59% in May, forcing many to a single meal a day. Even middle-class […]

Shortly before the Iranian New Year, on March 23rd, the Iranian Ministry of Labour decided to increase the minimum wage by 27%. Sounds large, but with this decision, the government broke its own law. According […]

After 27 weeks of mass demonstrations, the anti-Netanyahu democracy demonstrations are experiencing a new upsurge, with daily demonstrations outside the homes of members of parliament, as well as thousands demonstrating in Ben Gurion Airport, and […]

As we go to press, Rishi Sunak is trumpeting his upcoming ‘big’ announcement on the NHS. The idea that this out-of-touch millionaire head of a dysfunctional government and a party tearing itself apart can save […]

“Democratic capitalism” is in crisis, warns Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, in his new book. Such is the severity of this crisis its very survival is in question. Wolf confirms early […]

Originally published in Socialism Today, monthly magazine of the Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales). ‘Mao and Markets’ is an attempt to educate the US capitalist class about the peculiar character of China and to […]

The news that Tara Mines, in Navan, Country Meath, has been placed under care and maintenance until further notice, with indefinite layoffs, has shocked the workers and local community and plunged them into great uncertainty. […]

On June 16th, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced that 97% of UPS Teamsters voted to authorize a strike if we can’t reach a strong tentative agreement by August 1st. If UPS workers strike this […]

During the month of May, two mass shootings took place in Serbia within two days. The first shooting was at a school in Belgrade, carried out by a 13 year old, who killed his school […]

Despite the mass strike and June’s explosive revolt, Macron is continuing to roll out his programme. The substance has not changed: attacking the living conditions of the majority of the population to allow the top […]

The ultimate trump card of capitalist political leaders in underdeveloped countries is to promote racism and religious divisions. The purpose of this article is to examine the nature of the deep economic crisis facing the […]

Thousands of Israeli soldiers, accompanied by drones and armoured bulldozers have invaded Jenin, killing 10 Palestinians, wounding dozens and forcing thousands to flee their homes. The so-called Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) are preventing ambulances from […]

A crisis has hit RTE (Raidió Teilifís Éireann), the Irish state broadcaster, following revelations that undisclosed payments were made to its star presenter, Ryan Tubridy. RTE was forced to apologise after admitting that between 2017 […]

Nahel: another 17-year-old dead, after so many others: Alhoussein, Zineb, Adama, Cédric, Zyed, Bouna… Nahel’s death both shocks and revolts us. The policies of Macron and Darmanin (and Valls and Sarkozy before them) are constantly […]

The past few weeks have been one of intolerable suffering for the workers and oppressed masses of Nigeria as the new capitalist government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu unleashes an avalanche of neo-liberal and anti-poor […]

It is with great sorrow, that I have to report the untimely death of my friend and comrade, Maisoon Assadi. Maisoon was born to a large family in the Arab village of Dir El Assad, […]

‘Brilliant. And serious.’ ‘Exactly what’s needed at this point in time – now we need to get out there!’ These words were echoed by many of the hundreds in attendance at the conference of the […]

In 2015, the Comunidad Valenciana celebrated the end of 16 years under the governance of the People’s Party (PP). The PP lost the absolute majority they had enjoyed in the region since 1999. A coalition […]

As expected, the second round of the Greek general election has resulted in the main party of Greek capitalism, New Democracy (ND), winning an outright majority. To the delight of capitalist commentators internationally, the result […]

In a dramatic turn of events last weekend, the Russian mercenary leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, staged an armed uprising only to turn his fighters back from a march on Moscow after a truce was struck with […]

Jonas Grampp is a member of the youth group of the Berlin region of the German Railway and Transport Union (EVG) and of the youth representative committee of DB Netz AG, the railway infrastructure division […]

The economic rush to the bottom and the callousness of capitalism is seen in the recent Greek boat tragedy. On 13 June, a boat carrying an estimated 750 refugees capsized. Seventy-eight are confirmed dead, while […]

Politics are hot and cold in Austria these days. The leadership race at the Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) June 3rd party congress saw the election, as Chair, of Andreas Babler, a former Socialist Youth […]

Far-right and fascist activity have not abated in Ireland over the past few months. Instead, it has intensified and widened. From Inch in Co. Clare to Portrush in Co. Antrim far-right forces increasingly feel confident […]

Esteban Volkov, the grandson of Leon Trotsky, sadly passed away on 16 June 2023. For many decades, Volkov courageously defended the ideas and historic role of Leon Trotsky. “Our director, comrade, and friend Esteban Volkov […]

“Unite or die” because our party is facing an “existential threat”, Rishi Sunak, the British Prime Minister, warned the Tories nine months ago when he first became their leader and therefore – without the electorate […]

From its foundation, DIE LINKE (Left Party) was an amalgamation of political currents, some of which had contradictory ideas of left politics. Roughly speaking, one could for a long time speak of a left camp […]

The arrest on corruption charges by police, and then release of the former Pakistani Prime Minister and cricketing celebrity, Imran Khan, have been followed by a massive wave of repression aimed at destroying and decapitating […]

Seventy-five years on from the arrival of the Windrush ship from Jamaica, HUGO PIERRE, a Black male members rep on the Unison trade union national executive council (writing in a personal capacity), traces the experiences […]

Since 9 July 2021, a remarkable story of a working-class fightback has developed in Campi Bisenzio, on the industrial outskirts of Florence, Italy. On that day, the entire 500-strong workforce of GKN Driveline Firenze, a […]

In the presidential run-off election on 28 May, the incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan was re-elected as Turkey’s president, beating his opponent from the Kemalist Republican People’s Party (CHP) Kemal Kilicdaroglu by less than three million […]

When the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) announced an indefinite general strike to respond to the provocative removal of petrol subsidy by the newly elected administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, we of the Democratic Socialist […]

On May 14th, Thailand voters came out resoundingly against the nine-year military rule by casting their votes for anti-junta parties. The newly formed Move Forward Party (MFP) became the biggest party in parliament by winning […]

At a time of increasing turmoil in the US and globally, Bernie Sanders has produced a devastating critique of capitalism. But unfortunately, not with a clear path to a real socialist and democratic alternative. This […]

Around 1,650 contractors across five companies are due to strike in June in the North Sea. The planned action is for two 48-hour strikes starting June 1 until June 3 and then June 8 to […]

The next general election will be fought on a “mix of culture wars and trans debate,” according to Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson. Fighting elections on anything but their own record is becoming the main […]

The recent, and unfinished, crisis in the Scottish National Party raises questions about the future prospects for Scottish independence. PHILIP STOTT from Socialist Party Scotland (CWI Scotland) analyses current events and looks at where the […]

After the British Labour Party national executive committee voted 22-12 to ban its former left-wing leader, Jeremy Corbyn, from standing as a Labour candidate in the next general election, HANNAH SELL looks at the fight […]

On Monday 22 May, with trade unionists demonstrating outside parliament, Tory MPs voted the anti-strike ‘Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill’ through the House of Commons, meaning that is set to become law within weeks. Fire, […]

A 24-hour strike by BBC journalists in Northern Ireland was 100% solid on 19 May. Workers in the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) walked out on one of the busiest news days of the year […]

Sinn Féin, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Alliance Party emerged as the main winners in the recent local government elections in Northern Ireland. This shows a greater political polarisation taking place among nationalists […]

The elections on 7 May show us, once again, that the people are tired of the corrupt political caste that rules Chile. In the elections there were more than 34% spoiled, blank or ‘none of […]

Sol – Sozialistische Organisation Solidarität (CWI Germany) mourns the death of National Committee member, Jan Horsthemke. We are sorry to announce that our Dortmund comrade and member of the Sol National Committee, Jan Horsthemke, decided […]

The first round of Greece’s 2023 general election took place on Sunday 21 May. The results gave no single party the overall majority needed to immediately form a government on their own. However, the main […]

The results of the just concluded Karnataka assembly elections are seen as a great relief. The resounding rebuff that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received at the hands of Karnataka voters is seen as a […]

In response to the article: ‘What are ‘the markets’ anyway?’ published in the Socialist issue 1209 we received an email from Cathy in Nottingham asking: “Could we have an article which explains how the markets, or […]

A debate in Germany over the Building Energy Act, the so-called “heat transition”, has been boiling up for weeks. The conservative CDU has announced that it will make the fight against this law an issue […]

‘Silent Coup – how corporations overthrew democracy’ is a devastating critique of the power and control wielded by major conglomerates and the secretive institutions and global legal systems they have built up over decades. They […]

Last November’s general election in Malaysia was expected by many people to solve the ongoing political crisis plaguing the country since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, the election saw a hung parliament for […]

In a very tight presidential election held on Sunday 14 May, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s right-wing populist leader, managed to secure the highest votes for himself and his Justice and Development Party (AKP). Even though […]

15 May is Nakba Day, marking the creation of the Israeli state in 1948, known also as the ‘Palestinian Catastrophe’. Protests are taking place internationally including last Saturday in London. Below is the text for […]

After being in power unchallenged for two decades, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be facing his toughest polling test in the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections on 14th May. This is also the first […]

Government ministers were heckled by bereaved parents in memorial services in military cemeteries, up and down the country, on Israel’s Memorial Day for fallen soldiers. This is an annual event commemorating the memory of IDF […]

In Austria, like in other countries, the multiple crises of capitalism have led to an increase in instability, speed of events and polarisation. It is hard to keep up with events these days.  With the […]

The Norwegian TUC (LO) called off a ‘general strike’, thus leaving workers to pay for the cost of living crisis that is not their fault. The LO is calling the agreement with employers a victory […]

Since his election in 2019 to Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, in Northern Ireland, Cross-community Labour Alternative Councillor Donal O’ Cofaigh has rarely been absent from local press offering a socialist take on issues as […]

Racism in the workplace is a sad reality for many workers. One recent prominent example was the case of Belly Mujinga, a transport worker, in London, Britain, subjected to racist spitting during Covid, who died […]

Weekly mass protests in Tel Aviv, settler violence in the West Bank, and increasing Israeli state repression of Palestinians, Amon Cohen analyses an unprecedented crisis for the Israeli ruling class. On Sunday 26 February, hundreds […]

On Sunday 16 April, Norway’s main trade union confederation, LO, announced it had broken off talks with the employers’ organisation (NHO) over pay. The main trade union organisations are now out on a ‘general strike’. […]

Activists from the CWI protested at Argentinian embassies around the world, on 13 April, as part of an international day of action in defence of left activists, César Arakaki (a member of Partido Obrero) and […]

Activists from Sozialistische Organisation Solidarität (Sol – CWI in Germany), the Forum of Trade Union Lefts in Berlin, the International Commission of the IG Metall Berlin (metal workers’ trade union) and RIO (Revolutionary Internationalist Organisation), […]

An international day of protests and lobbies of Argentinean embassies are taking place on 13 April, the day of a court sentencing of left activists, Cesar Arakaki and Daniel Ruiz. Please urgently organise a protest […]

The crisis in the Scottish National Party (SNP), triggered by the resignation of party leader and Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, on 15 February, shows no sign of abating. Falling opinion poll ratings, the clashes […]

By the end of 2021, the number of people displaced because of conflict, violence and oppression stood at 89.3 million, 27 million of them refugees, according to the UN Refugee Agency. This is double the […]

And why it has not overcome sectarian divisions On the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, Niall Mulholland explains the origins of the ‘peace process’, and why the fundamental problems underpinning […]

The brutal police attack on Palestinians in the al-Aqsa mosque has unleashed a new wave of conflict. Footage shared on social media showing paramilitary police using long battens to  relentlessly beat Palestinian men and women […]

The bloody war in Ukraine grinds on, with reportedly hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries inflicted on both sides. As we enter spring, a new massive offensive appears to be in preparation by the […]

The Labour National Executive Committee (NEC)’s decision, by 22-12, that Jeremy Corbyn ‘will not be endorsed as a Labour Party candidate at the next general election’ was the latest demonstration by Starmer that his ‘New […]

As the curtain falls on Sanna Marin’s tenure as prime minister of Finland, the need for a mass working-class socialist party in Finland to provide an alternative to capitalist stagnation and militarism has seldom been […]

An international appeal has been made for protests and lobbies of Argentinean embassies on 13 April, the day of a court sentencing of left activists, Cesar Arakaki and Daniel Ruiz. Please urgently organise a protest […]

The current period is a tumultuous time for New York City (NYC) municipal workers as old contracts expire and new contracts are negotiated. The unions involved—including UFT (United Federation of Teachers), DC37 (NYC’s largest public-sector […]

The day before the March 2023 meeting of Labour’s National Executive, Labour leader Keir Starmer declared to the press that he would be putting a motion to the meeting reiterating his insistence that Jeremy Corbyn, […]

Humza Yousef, the favoured candidate of the party establishment, has been elected as the new leader of the Scottish National Party. He will now also be the Scottish government’s First Minster at Holyrood. His victory, […]

On Monday, 27th March, tens of thousands railway and public sector workers came together in a “mega strike“. This action brought large parts of Germany’s public transport system to a halt. It was the first […]

President Macron has officially passed his pension-busting law in France by a legal power grab, using articles 49-3. This despite more than two months of strikes and demonstrations this winter, involving millions of workers.  The […]

The movement in France has become decisive. Two months have passed since the first strike day against the government’s continued attempt to attack pensions. The movement on the streets is still very strong, and support […]

“A banking crisis worse than 2008” could face the world economy, caused by measures to deal with climate change, a Guardian (London) newspaper headline warned in January 2023. The article outlined economic losses worldwide, often […]

Bold socialist policies more urgent than ever! The global and multi-faceted crisis of capitalism has entered a new phase with the turmoil in the financial markets and the collapse of banks in the US and […]

Restart decisive struggle against government attacks! On 20 March, the IMF announced a $3 billion bailout (over 4 years) for Sri Lanka. However, this deal is nowhere near enough to solve the deep crisis that […]

As tens of thousands of workers brought much of London to a standstill on 15 March – alongside hundreds of thousands more, around 600,000 striking in total – chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced his something-of-a-nothing budget. […]

On November 7th, 2021 a law court in Argentina sentenced Cesar Arakaki (a member of Partido Obrero) and Daniel Ruiz (a member of PSTU) to three and six months and three years in prison, respectively. […]

On 8th February 2023, tens of thousands of retired workers in Wuhan gathered at the city government building to protest against the upcoming new health care ‘reform’, known as the Implementation Rules for Outpatient Mutual Assistance […]

Macron and his Elizabeth Borne-led government, unsure whether they would have a majority, have finally resorted to using article 49-3 of the Constitution to force through the breakup of pensions without a vote of the […]

At the start of this year, a new socialist youth organisation, Youth for Socialism (JfS), was founded in Germany by members of the Socialist Organisation – Solidarity (Sol, German section of the CWI), together with […]

20 years ago, in the Spring of 2003, the Iraq war began with the US-UK bombing and invasion of Iraq. Mass opposition to the war, including up to two million marching in London on 15 […]

New forces joined the fray for the biggest day yet in Britain’s strike wave, on Budget Day 15 March. Junior doctors in the British Medical Association (BMA) walked out for the first time since 2016, […]

Once again, the southern Irish government uses its power to protect the economic interests of an influential section of the capitalist class. By ending the ban on evictions, while the housing crisis lurches towards a […]

Jonas Grampp is a member of the youth group of the Berlin region of the German Railway and Transport Union (EVG) and of the youth representative committee of DB Netz AG, the railway infrastructure division […]

Voting in the contest for the new leader of the Scottish National Party, and therefore First Minister of Scotland, starts Monday 13 March. The outcome will be known two weeks later. Realistically, there are only […]

Early March saw demonstrations across Iran in protest at the apparent chemical attacks against female students that have taken place since last November. This seems to be an organised attempt to intimidate young women who […]

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have unveiled the ‘Windsor Framework’, amending the ‘Northern Ireland protocol’. The protocol caused significant trade problems, and the collapse, last year, of […]

While the ballot for unlimited strike action amongst the German postal workers saw a 85.9 percent yes vote for strike action over their 15 percent wage claim, public sector workers have stepped up their warning […]

“Go Home Gota” was the slogan with which a new wave of mass struggle started in Sri Lanka in April last year. This struggle then developed into a massive popular uprising, including huge strikes, that […]

To commemorate International Women’s Day (8 March) we are publishing an article written for Solidarität, the newspaper of the German section of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI). socialistworld.net ‘Woman, life, freedom’, ‘Black lives […]

It is no news that the former governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has been declared the winner of the presidential election held on Saturday, February 25, 2023. […]

Women around the world will be marking International Women’s Day in a variety of ways. Protest demonstrations can be expected in many countries against the oppression that women face, not least in Iran, where anti-government […]

Egypt’s severe economic crisis is worsening. During President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s tenth year in power, working-class people, the urban poor, and even previously comfortably-off middle-class families, are being hit hard. After years of very few […]

Hardly anything has been discussed more intensively among trade unionists in Germany in recent years than the issue of “organising”. These have been in relation to organising concepts used, in one form or another, by […]

Since 19 January, six days of strikes and national demonstrations have brought together millions of workers, young people and pensioners in a formidable struggle against the destruction of pensions. In one month, the question of […]

For three decades, Australia has experienced almost continual economic growth, even escaping the 2008 world financial and economic crisis. While there has been a marked decline in living standards for workers in every country, now […]

The pictures of incinerated carriages strewn across the tracks following a head-on train crash outside Tempi, in central Greece, will have shocked everyone who has seen them. In Greece, that shock is turning to anger. […]

Many bourgeois economists have tended to put a gloss on the deep systemic crisis facing world capitalism. They have often seized upon this or that marginal piece of “good” news to empirically conclude that this […]

On the night of 26 February, 400 Israeli settlers rampaged through the Palestinian town of Hawara in the West Bank, torching homes and cars, killing one Palestinian and wounding 280 others. Settlers were allowed to […]

As the war in Ukraine approached its first anniversary, there was no let-up in the relentless bloodshed. The Russian military assault on Bakhmut and surrounding areas in the country’s east has drawn comparisons with the […]

The video footage of a woman, just rescued from under the rubble, pleading with ambulance workers not to take her to a private hospital went viral in Turkey, almost two weeks after two powerful earthquakes […]

Rising strike action and economic and political crises are central features of the situation in Britain. How will these processes develop in the period ahead? Below we post the draft British perspectives document written for […]

On Sri Lankan Independence Day, 4 February, Tamil Solidarity organised a protest to oppose the repressive Sri Lankan regime at the Sri Lankan High Commission in London. The protest was organised with the slogans: “75 years of […]

A public appeal made in Germany for mass support for a ‘Manifesto for Peace’, calling for “a ceasefire and peace negotiations” to stop the war in Ukraine (published on February 10th), is one of the […]

An estimated 100,000 Israelis demonstrated outside the Knesset on Monday 13 February, against the legal reforms of the new ultra-right-wing nationalist government. Thousands of workers took part in what was described as a “general strike” […]

Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation as Scottish National Party (SNP) leader and the First Minister has underscored, in spectacular fashion, the multi-faceted crisis that has engulfed the Scottish government recently. In power since 2007, the SNP administration […]

A recent opinion poll, published in the right-wing Daily Telegraph (UK) newspaper, predicted that the Tories, currently the ruling party in Britain, will win just 45 seats at the next election, leaving them in third […]

The cost of living crisis has led to an increase in protests and workers’ strikes in a number of countries, most notably in the UK and France. Now Germany could join the ‘strike countries’. After […]

In 2022, the world’s population hit the landmark figure of eight billion. How can the world support this growing number of people? Is overpopulation a challenge to be overcome, or does the problem lie elsewhere? […]

The 29th January 2023 marked the 30th anniversary of the start of the historic 1993 struggle of Timex workers in Dundee. The almost 8 month-long dispute was the most significant industrial struggle in the history […]

A devastating earthquake – with a magnitude of 7.7, at a relatively shallow depth -struck south-eastern Turkey in the early hours of 6th February, killing more than 11,000 people in Turkey and Syria, so far, […]

The year 2022 started with big hopes for future changes not only in Kazakhstan but for the entire world. At the very beginning of January, the protest mood of the population took an almost revolutionary […]

Less than 25 days to the 2023 presidential election, it is becoming glaring to even the most apolitical that Nigeria is doomed so far as it remains under the rule of the chronically inept, fantastically […]

The strike wave has raised the prospect of the weak and divided Tory government of Rishi Sunak, the third Conservative prime minister in a year, being forced out of office by mass struggle. But is […]

The video link below features Carmel Gates, General Secretary of the Nothern Ireland Public Services Alliance (personal capacity) – the largest trade union in the North of Ireland – and a Militant Left (CWI Ireland) […]

Wednesday 1st February has been the biggest day of action yet in the growing strike wave over pay, terms, and conditions in Britain, with five unions taking national action: Education unions NEU and UCU, rail […]

The following document on European perspectives was presented to and agreed upon at an International Executive Committee of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) in-person meeting, held from 23-27 January 2023.  socialistworld.net Rapidly changing […]

The new, far-right, ultra-nationalist Israeli government was sworn in in December 2022. It has already provoked unprecedented protests in Israel. On 14 January 80,000 took to the streets, despite threats from the internal security minister […]

The 1 February strike will see up to 500,000 workers taking national strike action across five unions: NEU, UCU, PCS, Aslef and RMT. It is the biggest single day of workers’ action yet in the […]

2022 was officially the UK’s hottest year on record. The Met Office has confirmed that climate change has driven the UK into its first year with an average temperature above 10°C. There’s no sign of […]

A new report has found that Britain, one of the richest countries on the planet, is becoming a hostile place to have children. The Observer reports: “Even if both parents work full time at the […]

On 22 December 2022 the Scottish parliament overwhelmingly passed the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill. Immediately after the bill was passed the Westminster Tory government undemocratically raised the threat of blocking the legislation. Now they […]

Thursday was been a huge day of mobilization in France. Close to two million people demonstrated across the whole country. In Paris, several metro lines were “striked shut”, and the unions had organized dozens and […]

Derry city’s Guildhall, in the north west of Ireland, was packed for a meeting to protest BBC management’s plans to effectively close Radio Foyle. Virtually all 300 chairs laid out were occupied, and there were […]

The massive vote to strike by education workers in schools in the National Education Union (NEU) is a potential game changer in the strike wave. The NEU is the biggest national union so far to […]

The Aragalaya (Sinhalese for “struggle”) protests in Sri Lanka, fuelled by a cost-of-living crisis, inspired students and young people across the world. People saw images of masses of protesters taking over the presidential palace and […]

2023 has opened with a sharp and substantial upsurge of activity by far-right and even some fascist forces in the South of Ireland. These forces are seeking to capitalise on the seething anger over the […]

“Liz Truss resigns after failed budget and market turmoil”; “more than 40% of mortgages withdrawn as market reels after mini-budget”; “Sunak says higher taxes and spending cuts needed to satisfy markets”. For a period of […]

Tory Prime Minster Rishi Sunak’s new year message included finally declaring his intention to bring in yet more anti-union laws. A bill was introduced to Parliament on 10 January. This must be seen by the […]

World media attention briefly shone on Egypt while it hosted COP27 in November 2022. Since then, less has been said about the continuing daily struggles facing workers and youth. Falling living standards, failing public services […]

Just a few days after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was sworn in as Brazil’s new president, following his narrow victory over the far-right incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil has been plunged into a continued political […]

2023 is beginning as 2022 ended, with significant nationwide strike action in Britain, this time of railway workers in RMT and Aslef. Postal workers continue their fight against Royal Mail bosses and are gearing up for a […]

The African National Congress December conference re-elected Cyril Ramaphosa as party leader for a second five-year term. He will therefore almost certainly lead the ANC into national elections in 2024. Although Ramaphosa remains ‘the most […]

The Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales) enters 2023 full of optimism. The reasons for pessimism or even despair are obvious. 2022 was a year of dramatically falling living standards, frightening climate change, and the […]

The Scottish Green Party operates a de facto coalition with the Scottish National Party (SNP) at Holyrood. There was much made about the historic agreement that, in August 2021, saw Greens take up government roles […]

Visitors to museums and educational establishments, such as the V&A Museum in London and Oxford University, will be acquainted with the name of Sackler. This is the billionaire family from America which, for decades, has […]

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Fourth Congress of the Communist (Third) International (also known as the Comintern), held from 30 November – 5 December 1922, in Moscow. Leon Trotsky, co-leader, along with […]

To most socialists, it will come as no surprise to find that Christmas is the continuation of very ancient traditions of mid-winter festivals. However, it may be a surprise to learn just how relatively new […]

socialistworld.net, the website of the Committee for a Workers’ International, will over the Christmas holiday period publish less frequently. Daily postings will resume during the first week of the New Year 2023. Socialistworld.net sends holiday […]

The Kurdish Cultural Democratic Center (CDKF), in Paris, was again the target of a deadly attack that killed at least three people. This attack took place a few days from the 10th anniversary of the […]

The current mass movement in Iran by women and the working class is taking place against the regime that came to power in the revolution of 1979. What lessons are there for today’s revolutionaries from […]

Over recent months the Tory Party in Britain has teetered on the brink of collapse. First Boris Johnson was ousted as prime minister amidst an avalanche of scandals. His replacement, Liz Truss, lasted just 45 […]

In an interview with The Guardian (London) newspaper in the run-up to the twenty-seventh Conference of the Parties to the UN climate convention (COP27) – held in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh from November […]

The Independent Socialist Group opposes the decision by President Biden and Congress to force an unfair, unsafe, and unlivable contract on railroad workers who have already voted to reject it! With the bipartisan vote of […]

Leo Varadkar’s second term as Taoiseach [Irish prime minister] began on Saturday 17 December. Under the coalition government deal struck in 2020 between Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, and the Greens, Micheál Martin steps down as […]

As workers involved in the current strike wave in Britain are increasingly supporting calls for a 24-hour general strike, Kevin Parslow looks at the general strike organised by the Chartists in 1842. In December 1842, the Chartists […]

“Danger recognised – danger averted” was the intended message of last week’s German television and newspaper pictures. In what was probably the largest anti-terrorist operation in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, on […]

Massive protests are developing by workers and the poor in Peru against the newly installed government of Dina Boluarte, which has postponed the calling of early elections and introduced a state of emergency. Boluarte’s government […]

“The history of this time will ask: ‘Where were you in 22?’” To cheers from striking UCU members in higher education and Royal Mail workers from CWU, RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch called out Starmer […]

Thousands of members of the trade unions, Nipsa, Unison and the GMB, working in the NHS in Northern Ireland, took strike action on Monday 12 December over pay and conditions. Northern Ireland has the longest […]

Faced with the UK Supreme Court ruling against a referendum organised by the Scottish parliament, and a new round of ‘eye-watering’ austerity unresisted by the Scottish National Party and Green Party government in Holyrood, the […]

Peru was thrust into a deeper political and social crisis following the arrest of the former President, Pedro Castillo, and the vote by the Congress to remove him from office. This followed Castillo declaring his […]

On Sunday 4 December, the British rail union RMT was presented with a set of proposals from the Rail Delivery Group of private employers, supposedly to enable progress towards a settlement of our long-running dispute over […]

In a seven-part production for BBC TV, ‘TraumaZone’, Adam Curtis has delved into the predominantly unseen work of hundreds of BBC film crews carried out over 35 years across what was the USSR. In an […]

‘Timetable of trouble: the wave of strikes set to hit the Tories this winter…’Could Britain be facing a general strike this winter?’ Just two of the headlines in the Guardian newspaper (London) last week that […]

The ruling Norwegian Labour Party (Arbeider Parti) received 15.4 per cent support in a November 2022 Gallup poll. The AP seems paralyzed, unable or unwilling to help workers, students, and the poor. They are leaving […]

The revolutionary youth movement in Iran has been going on for well over two months. In these 11 weeks, more than 18,000 people have been arrested and more than 400 murdered by the regime. Now […]

 Bloody Counter-Revolution Carried Through Today, 6 December, marks the formal centenary of the creation of the ‘Free State’ in Ireland, comprising 26 of the 32 counties on the island, following the Anglo-Irish Treaty. One of […]

Despite it being a cold, dark evening, an estimated 1,500 local people attended a protest meeting in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, on Friday, 2 December.  They came to oppose the announcement, made in October, by the […]

Well before a ball was kicked, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar was mired in controversy – especially around corruption, and the Qatari regime’s treatment of workers, women and LGBTQ+ people. Unsurprisingly, new research from […]

Sozialistische Organisation Solidaritaet, the German section of the CWI, is publishing a new edition of the influential book, The Creation of Patriarchy by Gerda Lerner, first printed in 1986. Below is the introduction to the […]

The ‘Winter of Discontent 2022’ is on. Forty-four years after millions of workers went on strike in the one of the biggest periods of struggle since the 1926 General Strike, the phrase has continued to […]

“Railways, breweries, shops and retail, telecom, hospitals, universities: Let’s all strike together! For cross-sector strikes and a joint movement!” is the slogan that the CWI in Austria has been using in discussions with workers on […]

The general election in Malaysia resulted in no coalition being able to form a government with a simple majority. For the first time in its history, Malaysia has a hung parliament, with rival coalitions claiming […]

Just five weeks after the national congress of the ruling ‘communist’ party in China endorsed a third term in office for President Xi Jinping, a wave of protest has swept across this, the most populous […]

Below is a statement by the Afghan Socialist Assembly on the International Day of Combating Violence Against Women, held on 25 November. The Afghan Socialist Assembly, a group of socialist activists in Afghanistan, lost a […]

Since the victory of the Taliban last year and its coming to power again, a vicious wave of repression has swept over Afghanistan, along with a widespread collapse of the economy and many aspects of […]

Below, we publish the text of a Socialist Students’ (England & Wales) leaflet for ‘International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women’ on 25 November. socialistworld.net A recent National Union of Students (NUS) study […]

The floods caused by the monsoon rains since mid-June 2022 have affected Sindh, Baluchistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, Punjab, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) provinces of Pakistan. According to official figures, the massive floods have, […]

The Socialism 2022 event, held in London, was a huge success. That isn’t just down to the great turnout of over 700 people present and more online, with a big proportion attending their first Socialism […]

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that the Scottish parliament does not have the right to organise an independence referendum. The ruling will surprise virtually no one. However, it will cause anger and defiance across […]

Sir Keir Starmer’s leader’s speech at this year’s Labour Party conference “was more John McDonnell than Tony Blair”, the former shadow chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn told the fringe meeting organised at the Liverpool gathering by […]

Over 70,000 University and College Union (UCU) members will strike in all UK universities on 24, 25 and 30 November. The workers are picketing on 24 and 25 November and then heading to London for […]

“We are on a highway to climate hell, with our foot still on the accelerator”. These are the words of UN chief, António Guterres. The reality for many, like the over 2 million people left […]

Eight months ago the world woke up to the news of Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. Since then, in addition to the horrendous consequences for the people of Ukraine, and for the Russian soldiers dying […]

Karijini, in Western Australia, has stunning gorges. However, not many will be able to afford to visit now. Petrol prices are skyrocketing. Throughout Australia, inflation is taking hold and it is starting to bite. Many […]

The Scottish National Party-led Scottish government – with the support of their Scottish Green ministers – have announced the biggest cuts package in the history of Scottish devolution. Coming in the wake of more than […]

Three decades of international climate summits and capitalism has failed to get to grips with the climate crisis. All the fundamental problems remain and are worsening. Carbon emissions are rising, as are temperatures, with climate […]

When the final whistle blew, along with 33,000 other Wales football supporters at the Cardiff City Stadium in June, I leaped out of my seat in ecstasy. Wales had beaten Ukraine 1-0 and qualified for […]

COP27, the 27th United Nations Climate Change conference, will be held from 6 to 18 November 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Mark Best, Socialist Party national committee, looks back at last year’s conference, what […]

Elon Musk, currently the world’s richest billionaire, has completed the takeover of micro-blogging platform Twitter for a sum of $44 billion. The New York Stock Exchange reported on 20 October that trading in Twitter’s shares […]

The 1917 ‘October Revolution’ in Russia, which took place on 5 November by the old Russian calendar, has spawned countless books and articles, many of the written from the point of view of defenders of […]

This year, floods have wreaked serious havoc and suffering in Nigeria. The country experiences floods every year but this is the worst since 2012 when there was a similar degree of devastation with 363 deaths […]

On Sunday 23 October – the anniversary of the beginning of the workers’ revolution against Stalinism in 1956 – the student movement ADOM and the teachers’ and educators’ unions called for a demonstration in Budapest […]

Israel’s general election held on 1 November 1st – the fifth election in three years – saw the return of the corrupt, right-wing former prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to power. He is still facing trial […]

The 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which took place in Beijing from 16-22 October, saw a marked increase in the centralisation of power around the figure of General Secretary Xi Jinping. […]

Over the last few months, many working-class people have been staring at their rising gas and electricity bills and sensing that something is fundamentally broken. Why is the average household now paying twice as much […]

In the tightest presidential election ever in Brazil, the far-right populist Jair Bolsonaro was narrowly defeated by the veteran candidate of the Workers’ Party (PT), Luiz Inácio da Silva, popularly known as Lula. Lula scraped […]

After World War Two, the civil rights movement erupted in America. Black people in the US faced enormous racism and discrimination, especially in the south, a legacy of slavery. Large numbers of Black people moved […]

On 29 October 1922, King Victor Emmanuel lll appointed Benito Mussolini prime minister as his blackshirts organised to march on Rome – beginning 20 years of fascist rule in Italy. The 100th anniversary of the […]

The final days of the Truss-led Tory government revealed a deeper than ever, jaw-dropping level of crisis in the Tory party. Following the total collapse of Liz Truss’s shortest-ever Tory leadership, the party’s MPs were […]

Those attending the COP27 United Nations climate change conference at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh won’t see the environment most Egyptians live in. Blue sea and sky, coral reefs, air-conditioned hotels and conference […]

Inflation is now running at 7.3% in Australia, and wages, tied to past agreements or base-level awards, are rising at just 2.6% – a cut in real terms. As elsewhere in capitalist countries, the cost […]

Nobody should go hungry. But in Britain, in 2022, well over two million people rely on food banks and food-sharing apps like ‘Olio’ to feed themselves and their families. The current economic crisis is seeing […]

On the initiative of members of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI), 40,000 people, mainly young people, demonstrated against racism in Brussels on 24 October 1992. This was the first international demonstration against the […]

October 2022 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the launch of Youth against Racism in Europe. The YRE in Britain played a leading role in the battles against the far-right British National Party (BNP) in the […]

In the midst of monsoon season which is expected to cover 25% of the landmass in Malaysia with heavy floods, the Prime Minister dissolved the parliament and directed the Electoral Commission to schedule a general […]

Friday, October 18, 2019, is marked as the day on which a large-scale revolutionary process began in Chile. A massive mobilization, where millions of young people, workers, women, residents, and social organizations took to the […]

Events are moving rapidly in Iran. Despite massive repression, with over 200 killed, and thousands of demonstrators, and now strikers, arrested, increasingly revolutionary protests continue to grip practically the whole of Iran. These have lasted […]

We live in a world where historically undreamt-of wealth exists, where technology has been developed in a way that was only envisaged in science fiction, where enough food, shelter and the basics of life could […]

On Thursday, 13 October, there was a student walkout organized outside the main building of the University of Limerick (UL), in conjunction with several rallies at universities around the South of Ireland to fight against […]

UK Prime Minister Liz Truss’ announcement of an estimated £150 billion bailout for the energy industry is not enough to even lower our bills. In fact, on 1 October the average typical household bill doubled […]

Socialist Party Scotland offers our full support to the RMT ScotRail members who shut down the rail network on 10 October for 24 hours. An overtime ban and an end to working rest days began […]

How will we afford to keep the heating on? This is a question facing thousands of working-class households this winter, even after the British Tory government’s colossal energy bosses bailout, writes Bea Gardner. The poorer […]

The following is a statement by the International Secretariat of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) on the new phase in the Ukraine war; a conflict that is partly a result of the intense […]

Capitalism is beset by a multi-sided crisis, writes Tom Baldwin, Socialist Party (England & Wales CWI). There are extreme weaknesses in the global economy, rapidly falling living standards and social and environmental crises. It is […]

This weekend marks the 55th anniversary of the capture and subsequent assassination of Ernesto Che Guevara in Bolivia, writes Tony Saunois. Today, the image of Che Guevara is familiar to most people. A fashion statement […]

The recent killing of Chris Kaba by the police in London was the latest in a long list of tragic cases exposing the many problems in policing, including police racism, writes Deji Olayinka, South West […]

Milena Germon and Ben Desjarlais, from the Independent Socialist Group (US), examine the threat to public health of monkeypox and the woeful response of the health system while it remains under capitalism. According to the […]

Faced with the chronically sick, deteriorating British economy, the Tories in government have swung from one path of crisis to another, comments The Socialist newspaper. Having failed over and over again to come up with […]

On Sunday, 25 September, the governing conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) took a hit in the regional elections in the tourism-based alpine Tyrol region, writes Laura Rafetseder, from Sozialistische Offensive (CWI in Austria). The ÖVP […]

On Saturday, 1st October, the biggest strike coordination yet in 2022 in Britain took place in the struggle against the cost-of-living crisis, Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales) reports.  Around 170,000 workers in the unions […]

From 16 to 18 September, the successful second national conference of the Socialist Organisation Solidarity (Sol, the CWI in Germany) took place in Berlin, reports Jens Jaschik. Over the weekend, almost one hundred delegates and […]

Not only will the Tory budget promote Britain to a pole position as the most unequal country in Europe, but it will also accelerate the existing crises of the cost of living, of the Tory […]

As predicted, the right-wing coalition of Brothers of Italy (FdI), Lega, and Forza Italia won the general election in Italy – with 44% of the vote, writes Christine Thomas. The ‘post-fascist’ FdI, led by Giorgia […]

The desperate, dramatic turn by Russian president Putin – writes Tony Saunois (CWI) – announcing the mobilisation of 300,000 military reserves, coupled with his renewed threat to use nuclear weapons, indicates the seriousness of what […]

Mahsa Amini’s death has plunged Iran into turmoil. Protests and clashes have taken place in at least 85 cities and towns. Protests, often led by young women, immediately began after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman […]

Summer 2022 saw the hottest temperatures since records began, during capitalism’s industrialisation period in the 1850s. No area of the planet was untouched by scorching heat waves. Even the measures to secure water supplies and […]

The Italian coalition government of Mario Draghi has become the latest political victim of the cost-of-living crisis. The government’s collapse at the end of July triggered a fall on the stock exchange and a rise […]

Finland’s nurses are outraged at government plans to take away their right to strike as a dispute over salaries continues. Early this month, nurses’ unions, Tehy and SuPer, announced plans to return to strike action […]

One of new British prime minister Liz Truss’ first announcements was to end the moratorium on fracking, in force since 2019. The ban was introduced after fracking-induced earthquakes, protests, and direct action at Preston New […]

On 17 and 18 September, the Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales) national committee met to discuss the political situation and our priorities for the autumn. Here we outline the main themes from the first […]

The apocalyptic floods which have devastated Pakistan, especially Baluchistan and Sindh, have displaced over 33 million people. Now disease, malaria, dysentery, and skin and eye infections from water-born diseases are becoming rife. Corrupt government and […]

On 9 April 1992, the Conservative Party won a general election with a record-breaking 14 million votes. On 2 May 1997, it lost the next general election, with its standing shattered by the events that […]

The economic and political turmoil which was taking place in Pakistan has been dramatically worsened by the apocalyptic floods which have devastated the country. The country, if it holds together as a country, will not […]

One year ago, the Norwegian Labour Party came into office. And we predicted, that if they do not carry out policies in favour of the normal people (workers, students, pensioners, and the poor) then the […]

The death of Queen Elizabeth has momentarily pushed aside all other issues in the national media. For the majority of the population, the pressing problems of how to pay the bills cannot be pushed aside, […]

People gathered at Parliament Square, in London, on 10 September to demand justice for Chris Kaba, who was shot and killed by the Metropolitan Police on Monday 5 September in South London. Chris Kaba was […]

In an opinion poll, 16 per cent of people in Germany said that because of the rising costs of living they have to do without one meal per day, another 13 per cent said they […]

The activists of the movement in Chile have suffered an undeniable defeat in the plebiscite on the new constitution. The result has been seen as a bucket of cold water over all activists, with the […]

With even TV presenters in Britain talking about the possibilities of a general strike, things are definitely changing. In this article from the September 2022 issue of Socialism Today (monthly magazine of the Socialist Party, […]

On Tuesday 30 August, the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in Ireland announced that an agreement had been struck between the public sector unions and the government on a pay deal. The terms of the deal […]

Scottish council workers have received a fifth pay offer for 2022/23 from the employers. This follows strike action across a majority of Scotland’s councils involving waste workers which brought bin services to a halt across […]

Once again, Finland’s government receives worldwide attention for the thinnest of reasons. Prime Minister Sanna Marin is at the center of a “scandal” where, essentially, she is accused of having a good time at a […]

Beshay steelworkers in Sadat City came out on strike on 29th August, after staging a three-day sit-in. Inflation has sharply cut their living standards. They are also paid less than other steelworkers. They are demanding […]

Never before has a prime minister taken office with as little support as Liz Truss. Her only achievement is being less unpopular than Rishi Sunak with the tiny electorate of the Tory party membership.  For […]

The devastating floods that have hit Pakistan have had catastrophic consequences for people in the Sind. The floods have resulted in most people becoming homeless and their houses have collapsed. Most of the members of […]

Mikhail Gorbachev, who has died at the age of 91, was the last president of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and was also general secretary of the 20 million-strong ruling Communist Party. Extensive […]

European capitalism is marked by intense crises: economic, social, political, environmental and military. Due to the reckless policies of capitalist governments across Europe, the human and economic fallout from Covid continues. On top of that, […]

In an inspiring show of strength, just under 2,000 dockers at Felixstowe port, in Suffolk, brought 48% of UK freight imports to a standstill in their eight-day strike. The strike, called by their union Unite, […]

In the past few months the pages of the Socialist have been packed with reports of strikes throughout Britain. Significantly, hundreds of thousands of railway, telecoms and postal workers are taking nationwide action. These strikes […]

Over 1,000 journalists in the Reach Group across Britain and Ireland, began a campaign of strike action on Wednesday 31 August following the breakdown of talks between the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the […]

On the day of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)-led ‘interim budget’ announcement for Sri Lanka, thousands of protesters were brutally attacked in the streets of the capital, Colombo. Over 22 were arrested and are being […]

The former Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, died yesterday. Eulogies have come from many sources, including reactionary defenders of the capitalist system, like Henry Kissinger. But what did Gorbachev really stand for? What was his real […]

With the rise of protest movements around climate change in recent years, an increasing spotlight has been shone on the question of food production and distribution. On one hand, global food production is estimated to […]

With the rising tide of pay strikes and ballots, there is much talk of a ‘summer and autumn of discontent’, with comparisons to the 1978-79 so-called ‘winter of discontent’ being drawn in Britain. Due to […]

Fifty years ago, the class struggle was on the rise internationally. In Britain, this was reflected by a big shift towards the left in the trade unions and Labour Party, especially in its youth wing, […]

Millions of working class households are reacting with fear and anger after speculation that the latest energy price cap rise will lead to bills of over £4,000 a year by January 2023. This follows on […]

Automation is on the rise and the use of new technology means that an estimated 90% of UK employees will need to retrain by 2030, resulting in massive changes for workers, and everybody in retail, […]

Workers around the country are now paying an average of $5 for a gallon of gasoline: a situation that only seems to be getting worse. Some economists are predicting that the price of a barrel […]

Royal Mail workers are taking their first national strike action since 2009, in what is looking like being an extremely bitter dispute. The dates are Friday 26 and Wednesday 31 August, followed by Thursday 8 […]

This summer marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the ‘civil war’ in Ireland, which saw the final stages of an extraordinary decade of social and national revolutionary and counter-revolutionary movements. A split among […]

Around 50,000 RMT members will take further strike action this month in our disputes over jobs, pay, pensions and conditions. On the mainline, members working for 14 Train Operating Companies (TOCs) and Network Rail (NR) […]

Thursday 18 August 2022 makes it exactly one year that Comrade Nurudeen Alowonle, a.k.a Omomeewa, was brutally murdered. Until his unfortunate death, comrade Omomeewa was a leading student activist at the Lagos State University (LASU) […]

There can be no tribute more fitting to the martyrs of Marikana than the South African Federation of Trade Unions’ planned National Shut Down on 24 August 2022 which is attracting support across the workers’ movement. A […]

Thousands of civilians and tens of thousands of troops killed, a vast number injured, and nearly 13 million people displaced from their homes – this is the terrible outcome of the first six months of […]

There is nothing inevitable about the dire predictions for rising poverty coming to pass. The mass inability to pay energy bills that are on the cards, with the illness, suffering and even deaths that will […]

The Committee for a Workers International (CWI) held a very successful summer cadre school in London, from 29 July to 1 August, with comrades attending from all around the world. On Saturday evening, 30 July, […]

Young people and workers looking towards socialist and Marxist ideas sometimes ask us, what are the differences between Socialist Party Scotland and others on the left? This is an important question. Moreover, one that every […]

In a calculated provocation on the opening day of the Gaza bombings, thousands of ultra-right wingers, including Kahanist Ittamar Ben Gvir, ascended the Haram al-Sharif (the site of the Temple Mount) escorted by Israeli police […]

Lenin’s State and Revolution was written during the revolutionary upheavals that were taking place in Russia in 1917. By necessity, it had to be cut short, as Lenin explains at the end of the book, […]

As figures from the world military powers raise the threat of the use of ‘tactical’ nuclear arms, with the war in Ukraine and tensions over Taiwan in the background, the 77th anniversary of the second […]

The Socialist (newspaper of the CWI in England & Wales) spoke to Amazon workers who have taken action recently in a struggle for better pay. socialistworld.net Tilbury Socialist Party members stood with ‘John Doe’ (not […]

As more rail and other strikes take place, Tory Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and would-be Tory prime ministers Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are threatening even more anti-union laws. On the campaign trail to the […]

“Arise Ye Workers” read the banner as five London dockers were carried shoulder high from Pentonville Prison in London. The date was 26 July 1972. Five days earlier, the ‘Pentonville Five’ – Con Clancy, Tony […]

The Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) ran a very successful cadre summer school from 29 July to 1 August, in London, with comrades attending from throughout Europe, Latin America, the USA, Asia, and Africa. […]

Millions of Americans have benefited from the student loan freeze implemented during the start of the pandemic, and many rightfully demand forgiveness for all student loans. Higher education should be a right, but it’s prohibitively […]

Between Wednesday 27 July and Monday 1st, August national strike action took place in Britain for four days, organised by three trade unions (RMT, Aslef, and CWU) – in defence of their members’ living standards […]

With a 12.9% pay increase and Coventry council agreeing that the bogus charges against Unite the Union’s senior shop steward Pete Randle would not be pursued, Coventry’s HGV drivers have achieved a significant win. This […]

Across the United States, many Americans are increasingly concerned about affordable housing availability within their local communities. According to a Pew Research Center survey from 2021, roughly 50 percent of Americans have said that affordable […]

The 21st century has not brought prosperity and security to the vast majority of people on planet earth. Capitalism, fuelled by the profit motive has led to an ever-spiralling wealth gap between mega-rich multi-billionaires and […]

This summer marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of the first instalment of what would become Friedrich Engels’ famous pamphlet, The Housing Question. Niall Mulholland looks at this ground-breaking work and explains its relevance […]

In Norway, we see three trade union conflicts that show what happens when workers are treated badly. Two years ago, at the beginning of the pandemic, we saw every political party in Norway, including the […]

On Tuesday, July 26, 2022, there was a huge turnout of workers and other protesters in the state capitals across Nigeria for a nationwide protest called by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) over the continued […]

This summer has seen the scandal-ridden Boris Johnson regime collapse. A Tory party leadership contest is seeing the long Tory civil continue to boil over. However, the Tory fratricide is over what weapons to use to brutally […]

Capitalism, the system we live under today, is unequal and undemocratic. It is a class society, based on the exploitation of the working class by a ruling class – the capitalists, a small minority of […]

The heavy military moved into protest areas in Colombo last night and during early Friday morning, clearing out the area of demonstrators. The day before, arrest warrants were issued for student protest leaders. The new […]

Record-breaking temperatures have affected much of Europe and most of the UK, with temperatures exceeding the highest previous temperature by several degrees in Wales and touching 40 degrees in England. Despite health advisers and the […]

Latin America is convulsed in political turmoil and crisis. Throughout the continent, the effects of the Covid pandemic, which compounded the economic and social crisis, have not been overcome. Economic growth and employment have failed […]

Given that the proposal for a new constitution does not mean that we will see substantive changes to the current economic system, and the fundamental problems that the Chilean working class has, this makes adopting […]

The following statement by the International Secretariat (IS) of the Committee for a Workers International (CWI), looks at the main trends in the world today – economic, political, environmental, geopolitical and class relations – as […]

The annual Gala has been a feature in Durham almost every year since 1871 – a chance to witness union organisations march for a celebration of workers’ pride. Labour leader Keir Starmer didn’t speak. A […]

The shock waves from the assassination of Abe Shinzo are still resonating across the globe. Members of the political class, both from the most liberal to the most conservative, are singing eulogies to the career […]

Just a day after polls showed that Finland’s public, resigned to but unenthusiastic about NATO membership, overwhelmingly rejected any concessions to Turkey as the price of joining, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö announced an agreement making […]

Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish National Party (SNP)/Scottish Green government recently announced their intention to hold a second independence referendum on 19 October 2023. Socialist Party Scotland (CWI) supports the right to indyref2 and advocates […]