Europe

Just six months ago, Boris Johnson swanned into office as British Prime Minister, with the biggest Tory parliamentary majority since 1987. The Socialist newspaper, in our special edition produced the day after the general election, […]

Following the killing on 25 May of unarmed black man George Floyd by Minneapolis police, there has been an outpouring of anger against systemic racism and widening inequalities in the USA. It was only after […]

On May 11, Vladimir Putin ended the “non-working days” regime and local authorities are gradually ending the self-isolation rules. This is happening while Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Putin’s Press Secretary, Dmitry Peskov, and the head […]

Workers at the Instant Upright company, based in Dublin, are locked in a battle with their employer, like the Debenhams’ shop workers also in Ireland. Billy Flynn from CWI Ireland reports from the picket line: […]

The figures for Covid-19 deaths in Britain, broken down by ethnicity, caused widespread shock and anger when they were released on 7 May by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). After adjusting for age, black […]

It was always unavoidable that mistakes would be made during the handling of this pandemic. No public health threat on this scale has existed in any developed economy for many decades – and given that […]

With planning, personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators, and other key products should have been easy to provide. Yet as each day goes by, the scale of the government’s unpreparedness for the Covid-19 crisis becomes more […]

“Meet the new messaging: same as the old messaging. Only even vaguer and more confusing. Not so much 15 minutes of TV fame as uncomfortably like watching someone have a breakdown in front of you. […]

Like many ruling administrations internationally, the Scottish National Party (SNP)-led Scottish government has seen an increase in approval ratings and support during the Covid-19 pandemic. A recent YouGov poll found 74% of Scots held the […]

World War Two saw both civilians and soldiers exposed to the horrors of total war. When it was over there was a determination not to return to the horrors of poverty that had characterised the […]

This week will mark seven weeks since Britain entered lockdown. It appears that the death rate from Covid-19 is finally starting to fall. Nonetheless, the official number of deaths is now higher than every European […]

There is a growing scientific consensus that successful management of the coronavirus crisis requires a comprehensive plan – combining mass testing, contact tracing, and supported isolation of potentially infected individuals. But a managed plan of […]

Overworked, underpaid, struggling to afford the basics – this is true of the situation facing many ‘key workers’ that the Covid-19 lockdown has so clearly demonstrated society is dependent on. This was also the situation […]

In the space of one week, the trade union movement is marking two of its most important annual days – International Workers’ Memorial Day, on 28 April, and May Day on 1 May. Coming as […]

On 3 April Sweden’s Radio P3’s news programme ran an article relating reports from anonymous medical workers who claimed that covid-19 patients who would have survived with intensive care were being denied it. Johan Styrud […]

Today, 25 April, marks the 46th anniversary of the ‘carnation’ Portuguese revolution. A half-century of brutal right-wing dictatorship rule was swept aside in a day. The revolution started at 12.25 am, on Thursday 25 April […]

Twenty six transport workers have died from covid-19 in London, the majority were bus drivers. Now London bus drivers have forced Transport for London (TfL) and bus companies to implement safety measures to protect them […]

In the main, there is support among the working class for the lockdown measures in Ireland. Workers recognise the imperative of defeating covid-19 and that this will necessitate often severe constraints on daily life. Social […]

The deep crisis in Russia arising from both the ‘oil war’ and the covid-19 pandemic will soon be widely felt. However, Russia is not ready for it. According to analysts, the consequences of the crisis […]

A leaked internal Labour report, a mammoth 851 pages in length, has detailed internal sabotage by senior party officials of former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s attempts to radicalise Labour policies. The report – ‘The […]

The coronavirus pandemic in the UK has not yet passed its peak. Hundreds are still dying every day, and yet the pressure is mounting for the Tories to announce an ‘exit strategy’. But where is […]

The public campaigning of Socialist Organisation Solidarity (Sol, CWI in Germany) is, like all left organisations, greatly affected by the covid-19 crisis. We were involved in tenants’ protests and campaigns for free public transport. With […]

Below is the first of two articles on Germany and the covid-19 crisis. The second article, which will be published on Wednesday 15 April, will discuss the campaigning work of Sozialistische Organisation Solidarität (CWI Germany) […]

The first cases of Covid-19 appeared in France, in late January, but the government waited until March to take the epidemic seriously, after it had already been declared as a pandemic by the World Health […]

As coronavirus deaths continue to mount at a terrifying rate – the UK Tory government’s responsibility for worsening the crisis is becoming clearer every day. We are reading heartbreaking stories of NHS staff dying in […]

Over five hundred people in Sweden have now died from COVID-19, more than in Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland, combined. Far too late, the Swedish government is slowly planning to implement lockdown of the kind […]

Keir Starmer, as was widely predicted, has been elected leader of the Labour Party. He won on the first round with 56.2% of the vote. Almost half a million people voted in the election, and […]

The popular myth about Finland is that of a socialist paradise. It is true that, unlike in other countries in Europe, much of the social-democratic welfare state has been preserved. The coronavirus pandemic, however, has […]

In the early stages of a war or national emergency, there is often a mood to pull together in the ‘national’ interest, and the idea that ‘party politics’ should be put to one side. An […]

Anger is building at Boris Johnson and his Tory Westminster government over the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. The lack of widespread testing, hundreds of thousands of workers losing their jobs, the fear over the […]

The Covid-19 pandemic is everywhere exposing the dirty underbelly of modern capitalism. In  Northern Ireland, decades of attacks by Tory and New Labour governments in Westminster, and from local parties, on NHS services, have left […]

On 31 March 1990, a massive demonstration surged into central London. It was the culmination of months of organisation and defiance of the Tory government’s hated poll tax by millions of overwhelmingly working-class people. The […]

Even during a global pandemic, profit is the top priority for capitalists. On the one hand, our freedom of movement is restricted, and, on the other hand, we are supposed to continue working with numerous […]

All that seemed solid now seems to be melting. This is the effect of the coronavirus crisis. The governing Tories in the UK cut – but now they spend. They privatised – but now they […]

At the beginning of the coronavirus lock-down in France, Macron gained some support, trying to appear as the ‘strong man’, taking action to stop the virus from spreading. But this is very fragile. By the […]

Like most of the world, Southern Ireland has been hit hard by the COVID-19 ‘coronavirus’ crisis. By mid-March schools, colleges, pubs, creches etc., were on an initial two-week shutdown. Transport links have been severely curtailed. […]

Many frontline local authority workers, including in Belfast, Northern Ireland, will be asked to maintain essential services throughout the coronavirus crisis. In doing so, they need to remember their first priority is their own survival […]

A newly spreading virus is a danger that can befall any society. The question facing the world today, however, is what kind of society can best meet such a challenge. As the coronavirus pandemic spreads, […]

On 15 March, Leïla Messaoudi of Gauche Révolutionnaire (CWI France), was elected to the local council of Petit-Quevilly in the city of Rouen, where she has lived for 14 years and worked for 23 years. […]

“We are at war!” President Emmanuel Macron declared in his speech to the nation on the evening of Monday, 16 March. It came just one day after less than a third of voters turned out […]

The following ‘workers’ charter’ to deal with the coronavirus crisis and workplace related issues, is produced by Socialist Party (England & Wales section of the CWI). The charter outlines a fighting programme for the current […]

Italy is in lock-down in the fight against coronavirus. Bars, restaurants and shops are closed, with the exception of supermarkets, pharmacies and newsagents. And yet, under pressure from the bosses’ organisation, Confindustria, workers are still […]

British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, won the general election, last December, by trying to pose as a ‘man of the people’. Despite the rhetoric the first budget of his premiership showed clearly that, like all […]

With confirmed coronavirus cases in the thousands, the government of Italy has placed the entire country on lockdown. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte first quarantined 16 million of the country’s 60 million population in infected ‘red […]

Nine weeks after the first Covid-19 coronavirus patient was identified in Wuhan it had spread to 98 countries. This is much faster than the 2003 Sars coronavirus outbreak, which eventually spread to 37 countries. However, […]

The biggest one-day fall in stock markets since the financial crisis; an oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia; and the fastest drop in the cost of oil for 30 years. The impact of […]

Last Saturday, a ‘stop the stitch-up’ demonstration took place in Dublin, opposing attempts by the two main establishment parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, to form a government despite faring badly in the recent general […]

Girls and young women involved in research into sexual harassment say they aren’t shocked by its results (The State of Girl’s Rights in the UK at plan.uk.org). The research found that as many as two-thirds […]