CWI

How the Reagan/Bush Sr. administrations backed Saddam

Under the repartition proposal scheme, 300,000 Catholics would be moved west of the River Bann and 200,000 Protestants in the opposite direction. If necessary, force would be used against those who refused to move.

In recent months, US imperialism, together with landlords, business organisations, corrupt trade union leaders and the Catholic Church, have stepped up their combined efforts to topple the radical nationalist, populist regime of Venezuelan President Hugo […]

The Dutch general election results (22 January) were a bitter disappointment for many members and supporters of the Socialist Party, a broad Left party, which had been tipped to make a historic electoral breakthrough. Instead […]

What does Kim Jong Il’s defiance mean for the Bush military doctrine? Can these events lead to yet another US military intervention? Offensiv takes a closer look at the Korean crisis.

FOR MOST of the 1990s the capitalists believed that in globalisation and the neo-liberal economic model, they had discovered a new elixir of life for their system. Exaggerated claims were made that new technologies had […]

On 19 January 10,000 people demonstrated in a national anti-war demonstration in Brussels. The collaboration of the Belgian government, by allowing US troops and military transports to use the Antwerp harbour, and the international aspect […]

The World Social Forum is a meeting place for all kinds of organisations that fight against neo-liberalism, including environmentalists, trade unionists, and others who wants to go further and seek an alternative, "another world", according […]

"Say hey, say ho, say George Bush has got to go". In the biggest demonstration so far in Sweden, 5-6 000 marched against the US war against Iraq in Gothenburg on 18 January.

On 18 January, the growing anti-war movement in the US took another important step forward when a crowd estimated at over 200,000 braved the cold and marched on the Naval Yard in Washington DC. The […]

War on Iraq.

On the 20 February, Saken Zhanusov and Rustem Zhanusov were sentenced to 3 years in Kazakhstan’s notorious prisons. Their comrade Ramil Mingazov, for reasons of health, was ordered to pay a large fine.

Canada’s 40-year old system of socialised medicine is under threat. Powerful private corporations have lobbied heavily for entry into what they see as an untapped, lucrative market. Ontario’s conservative government has been hungrily looking for […]

Members and supporters of the Socialist Party (Australian section of the CWI) joined with the Victorian Peace Network to hold a protest outside the outside the Army Recruiting Office in Bourke St, Melbourne on 17 […]

CWI group campaigns against war.

The December 27th General election in Kenya resulted in a massive defeat of the Kenya African National Union (KANU) and the rise to power of the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) which brought together sixteen opposition […]

The so called ’Truth Commisson’ in Sweden investigating the state’s secret political registers has exposed the widespread use of secret police spying on communists, socialists and workers in struggle.

The recent decision by the New Zealand government to offer covert military support for a US-led assault on Iraq has provided the final confirmation of what many people in this country have known for a […]

Towards the end of December 2002, CWI comrades in the CIS heard that the case of well known worker activists in Karaganda, Kazakhstan facing serious court charges (see previous reports) is coming to a conclusion. […]

With the city plunging into fiscal crisis and facing the threat of bankruptcy, budget and services cuts are announced on an almost daily basis.

Only two months after the swearing in of the Red-Green government, that had been re-elected to office only by the narrowest of margins, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) threatened his resignation. Speaking to the Executive of […]

The World Congress is a unique opportunity to discuss and clarify our ideas and perspectives. This week we have had excellent Congress sessions. They have shown an outstanding political level. Now we must turn to […]

The Eighth World Congress of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) took place in Belgium during the last week of November. Delegates from 25 countries came together for political discussion and analysis of the […]

The months following the 9/11 attacks and the US victory in Afghanistan were a difficult period for socialists in the US as a tidal wave of nationalism, racism, and support for Bush swept across the […]

The Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) held its recent Congress in Durban, KwaZulu/Natal on 5 and 6 October 2002. Forty-five delegates, overwhelmingly working class youth representing the four most important provinces, Gauteng, the Western and Eastern […]

Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, was a city of protests last weekend. The reason for this was that Denmark was the holder of the EU presidency and all the European Union leaders were in town. […]

In the immediate aftermath of the S11 attacks and Bush’s ’ war against terror’ there was an increase in attacks by radical Islamic groups in Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK) and the sub-continent as whole, resulting […]

Recruitment to the CWI in Greece (Xekinima) has been rapid in the last few months. This reflects a recovery of the radical mood in Greek society (especially the youth), which began with the general strike […]

Jagadish Chandra, New Socialist Alternative (Nava Samajavaadi Paryaya – the CWI’s section in India) spoke about the struggle against privatisation in India in an interview with Offensiv (newspaper of the Swedish section of the CWI) […]

After a long period of relative quiet the British working class is reawakening with a vengeance.

EU/EMU kan inte bli något annat än storföretagens och de rikas vapen mot arbetare och ungdomar. Inom EU är det direktörer som bestämmer och politikerna som verkställer. Toppmötet i Köpenhamn kommer att bli ännu en […]

Since the school year began in September we have had weekly meetings at the University of Toronto (ten in a row). We have been able to attract a new periphery around us. We have also […]

No great movements took place since the last World Congress in 1998, although the number of workers who went on strike and the amount of striking days multiplied by 5 between 2000 and 2001. But […]

Eighth CWI World Congress

The progress made in building sections of the CWI since the Seventh Congress (in 1998) was assessed, with many excellent reports given; most sections have increased their membership and influence.

A 24-hour general strike called by the CGTP trade union federation on 10 December has been called to stop the most vicious attack on workers, and labour and union rights since the Portuguese Revolution in […]

The early general elections in Austria held on 24 November saw a huge victory for the conservative Peoples party (ÖVP) of chancellor Schüssel, getting 42,3 % and becoming the largest party for the first time […]

Within 48 hours of Labour being re-elected in a landslide, Victorian unions (many of whom played a key role in mobilising to get Labour in power) were being rebuffed by Labour leader Steve Bracks in […]

On the 26 November Mohamed Achrak, a 27 year old teacher from Moroccan origin was shot in Borgerhout, one of the poorest areas of Antwerp. It is almost certain that this is a case of […]

More than 10,000 demonstrated against the war in the streets of Brussels last Sunday. This was an important succes given the fact the trade union organisations didn’t realy mobilise and given the fact that some […]

The elections in September 2002 took place during a period of big changes in Sweden. The third government of Göran Persson, the Social Democratic party leader, will act in a completly different situation than in […]

On Saturday, 26 October there was a 4,000-strong Seattle protest organised by the Seattle anti-war coalition. This rally drew mainly white-collar workers, and many middle class white Democrats.

What elected Lula was the rejection of neoliberalism, but the PT (Workers Party) will not be able to meet the expectations of the masses unless there is a real break with the policies of Cardoso […]

President Putin’s ’war against terror’ has brought the very terror to Moscow itself. Last week, a group of 50 heavily armed Chechens drove through Moscow in two minibuses and seized a theatre in the middle […]

Ireland’s referendum

As anticipated, the Dutch government consisting of the Christian Democrats, the CDA, the liberal VVD and the hard right LPF (List Pim Fortuyn, whose leader was shot dead last May), collapsed on the 16 October. […]

WHAT DOES President Bush mean to fight a war in Iraq for? Democracy? An end to tyranny? Far from it.

AS TRIBUNALS go the interim report by Flood into planning corruption is extremely hard hitting and leaves nothing to the imagination.

Hundreds of thousands of workers from the public sector participated yesterday, 16 October, in a national strike called by the CGTP union federation. The action was part of a struggle over wages and work conditions. […]

Four months after nearly achieving an overall majority, Ahern’s epitaphs are being written and his government is severely undermined.

In a major attack on all workers, President Bush has invoked the anti-union Taft Hartley Act to force locked-out Longshore workers back to work.

Last Thursday, 3 October 2002, our comrade, Alexandros Prandounas, was stabbed, on the lower part of the arm by a member of the neo-nazi organisation Chrysi Aygi. Alexandros is a student at one of the […]

PT gets highest vote in first round and goes to runoff. The Workers Party candidate, Lula, got the highest vote for president in the first round. With 99% of votes counted, he had 46.4% of […]

As comrades will know from a previous circular the Brazilian comrades have been leading a teachers strike in Cotia, Brazil. This strike has been attacked by the police. Messages of support and protest are urgently […]

1,117 arrested, including dozens of CWI members

"What triggered the movement was the announcement of a small bonus payment. In fact, more than a bonus, this kind of one-off payment aims to offset the absence of a wage increase to track inflation […]

THOUSANDS OF demonstrators staged a spirited march and rally as part of a week of events against the IMF and World Bank in Washington DC last weekend – despite the arrest of 659 people by […]

CWI online spoke to two of the CWI’s (Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna, RS) new councillors, elected on 15 September in the Swedish town of Luleå.

Earlier this week, we reported on the case of Sergei Kozlovskii, a socialist and gay rights activist facing political repression and huge legal fine.

A young member of Socialist Resistance (the CWI section in the CIS), Sergei Kozlovskii, has been brought to court and sued for the sum of 50,000 rubles (almost 2,000 euros) by Tamara Dadianova, who is […]

"It was an inspiring not to say informative experience. Around 100 young people took part in the conference. A number of discussions took place on the developments that are taking place across the world, especially […]

Around 1,000 people gathered on 17 September at The Hague in the Netherlands to protest against the plans by the new coalition government (which includes the populist right wing Pim Fortuyn List) and to also […]

Members of Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna (RS), the Swedish section of the Committee for a Workers’ International, are celebrating spectacular gains in the general election held on 15 September 2002. In the two most populous cities in […]

Members of the CWI in Sweden have added a new local council seat to the two already held in the town of Umeå and have come from having no seats to winning two in the […]

At a special court hearing last Friday, a criminal court judge in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, suddenly decided that there were “no legal grounds” for holding workers’ leader, Saken Zhanusev, on remand (i.e. in prison) until his […]

Thirty years ago in Vietnam, the US government was defeated for the first time in a major war.

Our society has an obscene gulf between rich and poor. The private assets of the 200 richest people are more than the combined incomes of the poorest 2.4 billion people – almost half the world’s […]

As the Bush administration seems increasingly set on launching a war against Iraq, the opposition of US "allies" and even a section of the American establishment are becoming more vocal.

On September 28 and 29, politicians and corporate representatives in our nation’s capital will again be besieged by tens of thousands of protesters opposing their agenda of war and corporate globalization. What’s happening in DC […]

At least one quarter of the Czech Republic was flooded last week after flash floods. 14 people died because of the disaster (some of them did not leave flooded houses, and one died when a […]

About 300 workers from the Municipal Department of Mechanical Maintenance (DRMM) in Lisbon, who ensure the maintenance of municipal vehicles, have been on an overtime hours (’extraordinary hours’) strike, since last Monday.

Months after the Dutch general elections, which saw dramatic gains for the populist right wing Lijst Pim Fortuyn (LPF), a new coalition government has finally been formed. The administration’s proposed policies are clearly to the […]

Health and postal workers in Northern Ireland were forced to take industrial action last week in protest against sectarian death threats from republican and loyalist paramilitaries.

THOUSANDS OF council workers, health and education workers joined the 17 July strike throughout Northern Ireland, picketing council offices, education and health boards, leisure centres and police stations.

IN RECENT weeks Turkish politics has looked like a TV soap, you’d never know who would be in which party the following day.

In the Summer of 1975, the Portuguese revolution was developing in such a sharp manner that it became known as the "Verão Quente" (Hot Summer).

Joe Higgins (Socialist Party MP in Ireland) made the following speech in the Irish Parliament (Dail) pouring scorn on the attempt by the Irish government to cover-up big-business scandal in the country.

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the "Bread and Roses" strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts that occurred in the winter of 1912.

IN THE days running up to Brazil’s World Cup quarter-final match with England, Wall Street speculators pinned their hopes on a Brazil victory to assuage anxieties over Brazil’s financial crisis and poor poll ratings for […]

Over 45,000 municipal workers from two of the largest locals of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) are on strike.

From July 25-28th the Labor Party is holding its third national convention in Washington DC. However, there is a sharp contrast between the lack of interest in this convention compared with the excitement of the […]

Up to 5,000 protesters endured rain, thunder and lightening to participate in a four hour, mass “No One Is Illegal” march as part of the two day “Take the Capital” protest in Ottawa against the […]

"We are in the midst so far of a jobless recovery and a profitless recovery. That is a double whammy on financial markets.", Sung Won Sohn, chief economist at Wells Fargo.

The Teflon is finally wearing off President George W. Bush. After getting elected through a legal coup, and diminished popularity, the atrocity of 9/11 sent the Bush administration’s ratings into the stratosphere as the mass […]

The revelations about the sexual abuse of children in the U.S. Catholic Church have become an enormous issue for the nation’s 64 million Roman Catholics, and for society as a whole. When the scandal first […]

It has now become clear that the Austrian TUC is preparing for a de-mobilisation of the bus workers action. High up union officials have led the protests and a meeting of the TUC national body […]

40,000-75,000 protested in Washington DC on April 20th against Bush’s "War on Terrorism" and its possible extension to Iraq, US aid to Colombia, the School of the Americas, and the annual meeting of the IMF […]

From January 31st through February 4th, workers, youth, environmentalists, and an assortment of activists welcomed the corporate elites of the World Economic Forum to New York City, with rousing protests of over 10,000 people.

In diesem Kampf gegen Studiengebühren geht es um mehr. Es geht um die Fragen: Wer hat in Zukunft noch Zugang zu Bildung? Zu wie viel Bildung? Und zu welchen Bedingungen?

Public bus transport throughout Austria is at a standstill today (25/06/02) as 3,000 drivers take strike action for 48 hours. The strike is in protest at an attempt by the right wing government to sell […]

The EU-summit in Seville was confronted with a very big anti-capitalist demonstration on the evening of Saturday June 22. There were hundreds of thousands demonstrators, probably around 300.000! The demonstration remained peaceful and was very […]

On the same day as the general strike that rocked Spain, Portuguese workers took to the streets all over the country saying, "No to attacks on our class".

Results from last week’s parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic show that the social democrats (CSSD) won with 30.4%, followed by the communist party (KSCM) (18.8%), which is the highest vote for the KSCM since […]

THE RECENT Dutch elections were nothing short of an earthquake, expressing frustration and disappointment with the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA). The winners were the Christian Democratic Party, which was in government from 1918-94 (longer than […]

See article posted on 30 May 2002. Please send protests, see article for details.

Press release by the CWI in Russia on the arrests of anti-EU protesters in Moscow (see article, Anti-EU protesters beaten and arrested by Moscow police, posted on 29 May 2002). A number of the protesters […]

Police arrested 25 people protesting against the EU summit in Moscow today, Tuesday 28 May at 15 45 hrs (Moscow time). Reports so far indicate that five on them were badly beaten. The police are […]

The Socialist Party in Ireland, the Irish section of the CWI, scored spectacular successes in the recent Irish elections. Joe Higgins was re-elected as a TD (MP) in Dublin West, coming second out of the […]

It is clear that the liberal/social-democrat Purple government has been severely punished. The government parties lost in total 44 seats in the 150 seat parliament.

Reports from US and Israel

The extreme right Dutch politician, Pim Fortuyn, was shot dead 6 May, on the premises of the national radio station in Hilversum. This single act has shaken Dutch society, including the complacent Dutch establishment who […]

In the late 1960s, the name of Frantz Fanon became associated with the idea of a armed revolution in the ’Third World’. In the words of his biographer, David, Macey, in his new book, ’Frantz […]

Toronto, 15 April – Over 8,000 public sector workers marched on the provincial legislature at the swearing-in ceremony of the new premier. Forty-five thousand workers from Ontario Public Service Employees Union have been on strike […]

As was expected, the purple government has just fallen (16/04/02) over the report about ’Dutchbat’, the Dutch army unit, and its operations in Srebrenica in 1997.

Elections to the Verkhovnaya Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) last week have left workers with little to celebrate. Six parties (The Socialist Party, the Communist Party, the United Social Democratic Party, the United Ukraine block, the Our […]

Today the tensions in Antwerp (Belgium) have led to several acts of violence. Antwerp is a city with a large Jewish community and a large community of immigrants from North Africa and other Muslim countries. […]

’I went to the World Social Forum at the request of our international movement – the Committee for Workers’ International – to assist in raising the need for a socialist alternative on a world basis […]

Boston’s 2002 May Day rally was called by the local AFL/CIO together with immigrant organisations in support of immigrant rights and legalisation of immigrants. AFL-CIO leader Linda Chavez-Thompson and local immigrant and union leaders spoke. […]

In response to the sectarian killing of 20 year-old postal worker Daniel McColgan and the sectarian attacks and threats on school students, Socialist Youth has set up School Students United Against Sectarianism.

At a special open meeting to be held Thursday evening, school students from both communities will launch a new campaign to combat sectarianism and to organise a school students strike to mobilise a mass turnout […]

The Socialist Party and its forerunners in Northern Ireland have consistently campaigned for working class unity and the struggle for socialism as the only answer to the sectarian division that is part of every day […]

ON THE same day that tens of thousands workers and youth were demonstrating on the streets of Nice, (7 December), the Greek working class held a general strike – the second in the last two […]

cwi comment and analysis, international report.

Opinion polls in the US show overwhelming support for military action in Afghanistan. But as Diane Stokes in Chicago reports, the mood is more complex than the polls would suggest.

The terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, DC Tuesday September 11 were a horrific tragedy. Socialist Alternative sends all those who lost loved ones and friends and all of those injured its deepest […]

I was out in the street in Greenwich Village and I saw part of the first World Trade Centre Towers collapse.

Argentina’s financial crisis is threatening an economic meltdown which could also sink the economies of South and Central America and have a catastrophic impact on the world economy. US imperialism and Argentina’s rulers are attempting […]

TENS OF thousands demonstrated against US president George W. Bush and the summit of the European Union (EU) in Gothenburg, Sweden, 14-16 June.

It has been the biggest working class mobilization of the last decades. It shook every single town in Greece and not only Athens. It caused a complete paralysis of everything and everywhere. There have been […]

Socialist Party T.D. Joe Higgins was suspended from the Dail today until the next session in 2001 because he protested against a ruling of the Ceann Comhairle that only the Leaders of Fine Gael and […]

At the end of the second round of the Brazilian municipal elections the result is clear: the defeat of Cardoso’s allies and the growth of the PT. Try as they may, the bourgeois commentators attempt […]

We of the Head Office of the Committee for a Workers’ International, which has groups, sections and parties in every continent, express our 100% backing for your present struggle.

THE CWI, Committee for a Workers’ International, sends May Day greetings to the working class and oppressed peoples of the world.

The rapidly executed military coup of Tuesday 12 October 1999 marks a new, and even more unstable and tension-ridden period in Pakistan and the wider Asian sub-continent. The coup represents the possibility of further erosion […]

The Australian section of the CWI, Militant Socialist Organisation (MSO), won 12.25% of the vote in the Richmond Constituency (Melbourne), as part of the Victoria State-wide elections. Today’s results show that 28,263 people voted in […]

A report has come out with shocking figures. 47% of girls in the nine-year compulsory schools are sexually harassed. The climate against young women has become harder in society and has reached the schools in […]

An indication of coming struggles recently manifested itself in a strike at two nursing homes in Massachusetts. Significantly, as a result of it, wages were increased more than ever before. (There was a stipulation that […]

March 8th around the world is the celebration of International Women’s Day. For us, this is not just a celebration, it’s more a day of struggle, of fighting spirit. The struggle to end the oppression […]