Europe

Two days of strike action were taken on Thursday 16 and Friday 17 September by drivers for Helsinki City Public Transport (HKL Helsingin kaupungin liikennelaitos) in protest against a city council proposal to spin the […]

The National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) rallies and lobbies of the TUC Congress have been an annual fixture since the first in 2010. They have become the most important pre-Congress event, reflecting the demands of […]

On 11 September 2001 the infamous 9/11 al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on US soil prompted the then US president George W Bush and British PM Tony Blair to instigate a Western military invasion and occupation of […]

Opinion polls in the last weeks before the September 26 German general election have shown rapid changes, especially for the two main contenders – the conservative christian democrat CDU/CSU bloc and the Social Democratic Party […]

NIALL MULHOLLAND reviews a new book that seeks to record what Protestants in Northern Ireland are thinking in these unsettled times. Northern Protestants: On Shifting Ground By Susan McKay The Blackstaff Press, 2021, £16.99   […]

CHRISTINE THOMAS reviews a recent book by FT journalist Philip Stephens charting the post-war demise of British capitalism – and the despair of the class he represents at its prospects post-Brexit, in a crisis-ridden international […]

Sharon Graham has won the Unite general secretary election. Her success is being celebrated by many members who saw her left candidature as the most likely to build and organise the union industrially as workers […]

The ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) and Scottish Greens have agreed to form a de-facto coalition at Holyrood, the seat of the Scottish parliament. For the first time since the parliament was established in 1999, […]

The mining company, Flintridge Resources, will be allowed to drill boreholes as ‘permitted development’ at a controversial goldmine at Cavanacaw, four miles upwind of Omagh town centre, in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The five establishment […]

“In the 12 weeks since the [British] Heath and [N Ireland] Faulkner governments introduced internment, the cities and towns of Northern Ireland have become battlefields. This vicious sectarian measure has mobilised huge sections of the […]

The nationality and borders bill has had its second reading in the UK’s parliament. Home Secretary, Priti Patel, said that this bill will give British people control back over borders and that the Tories’ priorities […]

The news that Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) has proscribed, aka expelled, a number of left-leaning groups that have clung desperately onto the Labour Party came as little surprise. Since the resignation of Corbyn, and […]

Paul Heron looks at the recent victory in the battle for justice for the Shrewsbury pickets. This was a landmark case from the 1970s in Britain – of political policing against the working class movement.  […]

The European Union’s statistics agency – Eurostat – released figures earlier this month demonstrate, in stark terms, how workers in the South of Ireland have been locked out of the massive wealth created here.  Eurostat showed […]

On the morning of the 22nd July 2011, we all heard on the radio news that a massive bomb had exploded outside of the Regjeringskvartalet, the executive government quarter in Oslo Norway that housed office […]

The extreme weather conditions of the last few days have reached unimaginable proportions in the German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as in Belgium, the Netherlands and other neighbouring countries. Up […]

With a record 66% abstention rate, the French regional and departmental elections of 20 and 27 June obviously did not excite the mass of the population. And it cannot be said that they give a […]

Labour managed to narrowly hold onto to Batley and Spen in the parliamentary by-election on 1 July, scraping in by 323 votes. The Labour leadership is sighing with relief. In reality, however, this result is […]

In Germany, the Green party is riding a wave of popularity. Following the selection of Annalena Baerbock as its candidate for Chancellor (Prime Minister), it hit 28% in the opinion polls. Since 2019 the Greens […]

With Pride Month closing at the end of June, Militant Left (CWI Ireland), look at the struggle that the LGBTQ+ community continues to face today. The first pride was a riot. The Stonewall riots began […]

The NHS protests around the country on 3 July should be the start of building a mass campaign for decent pay and to save the NHS. Well over a million people work in the NHS. […]

The parliamentary elections taking place in Germany at the end of September will mark an end of an era. Having governed in various government constellations since 2005, Angela Merkel is not standing again. Generally, the […]

Left candidate, Carmel Gates, has won the election for the General Secretary position in Northern Ireland’s largest union NIPSA (Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance) gaining 44% of the vote. Her nearest contender won 34%, and […]

In April of this year, the Ministry of Justice released a report responding to the ‘growing mental health crisis’ for women in prison. It revealed that there was a 13% rise in the number of […]

The result of the election for the General Secretary position, in Northern Ireland Public Services Alliance (NIPSA), Northern Ireland’s largest union, will become known on June 25th. The left candidate, Carmel Gates, has mounted a […]

Balloting for the post of General Secretary of the Northern Ireland Public Services Alliance (NIPSA), the largest trade union in Northern Ireland, opened at the end of May. The left candidate is Carmel Gates, who […]

Up to 200 striking workers, trade union reps, campaigners and socialists met virtually on 20 June as the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) held its 2021 summer conference. The NSSN conference is the biggest annual […]

The World for Sale: Money, Power and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources is an impressive, illuminating analysis of the corrosive rottenness and the corruption of ‘modern’ world capitalism. It couldn’t have come at […]

Edwin Poots, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the largest party in N Ireland, resigned last night, just three weeks after he won the position. This is the latest twist in the ongoing […]

In a recent landmark ruling, the Upper Tribunal – responsible for judicial reviews of the UK’s Home Office decisions – has proposed new ‘country guidance’ used for determining asylum cases of refugees from Sri Lanka. […]

It took a vote in Westminster in 2019, initiated by right-wing backbench Labour MP Stella Creasy and backed by virtually all the right-wing parties in that chamber, to vindicate the rights of women in Northern […]

When Sebastian Kurz of the conservative ‘People’s Party’ (ÖVP) won the 2017 elections he was voted in as Chancellor as someone who stood for “change”. He had revamped his party, virtually renamed it, changed its […]

Dramatic events a week ago (Sunday 23 May) saw a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania forced to land in Belarus. The military operation has been described as an unprecedented ‘hijacking’ and has seen European […]

6 May 2021 saw the election of a majority of Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) committed to a second referendum on Scottish independence. Is an independent Scotland now inevitable? How will Boris Johnson and […]

“Boris Johnson’s withdrawal agreement with the European Union, which would “effectively leave Northern Ireland within the EU’s economic jurisdiction” following the UK’s exit, “will dangerously escalate sectarian tensions; spilling over into Britain too as in […]

Thursday, May 13 will go down in Glasgow history. Attempts by the Home Office to detain two Indian men – chef Sumit Sehdev and mechanic Lakhvir Singh – prior to deportation, provoked a massive community […]

Almost every evening on the Norwegian National Television (NRK) there are reports of the small farmers and workers in revolt. They are seen blocking motorways and roads with their tractors or dumping manure on the […]

Education Welfare Officers (EWOs) in Northern Ireland work to make sure children from disadvantaged households or vulnerable backgrounds don’t lose out on getting an education through absenteeism. They also have a particular role in supporting […]

Following a highly polarised Scottish election, the Scottish National Party (SNP) will again form the new government at Holyrood. By winning 64 Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) – one short of a majority – […]

The postponement of the 2020 elections meant that 6 May 2021 was a bumper election day, including more than 4,000 council seats, thirteen directly-elected mayors, the London assembly, plus the Scottish parliament and Welsh Senedd. […]

Nordic paper and wood products giant, Stora Enso, announced on 20 April that it plans to close two paper mills – the Vesiluoto mill in Kemi, Lapland, and the Kvarnsveden mill in Börlange, central Sweden. […]

Following a highly polarized and bitter election campaign, the right-wing party, Partido Popular (PP), has emerged victorious in the elections in Madrid. Led by the far-right figure, Isabel Ayuso, the PP emerged as the winners, […]

“A carnival of reaction” Today, 3 May 2021, is officially marked as the hundredth anniversary of the creation of Northern Ireland. With sectarian tensions rising once again, the real history of the tumultuous decades leading […]

Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, made his ‘State of the Nation’ speech on 21st April as protest demonstrations were taking place across Russia. In April last year, his annual address had included an announcement about a […]

Capitalism is increasingly reminiscent of what is called a ‘Royal Rumble’ in professional wrestling. In this sport what is happening in the ring becomes more and more confusing due to the arrival of more and […]

The importance of building a socialist alternative in elections has long been recognised by Socialist Party Scotland. We are currently helping to pioneer the Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition’s challenge for the Scottish parliamentary […]

In the early hours of Friday, 23 April, Gardaí [Irish police] at the behest of big business, KPMG/Debenhams, forcibly removed former Debenhams retail workers and their supporters, including Militant Left (CWI Ireland) members, from a […]

Corrupt politicians with their snouts in the trough are nothing new. From ‘cash for questions’ under Tory prime minister John Major, to ‘honours’ for business people under New Labour leader Tony Blair, and then the […]