Europe

Belgian CWI member, Els Deschoemacker, who took part in the general strike demonstrations in Seville yesterday spoke to Geert Cool: "The demonstrations yesterday were massive. Estimations say there were 200,000 in Seville. In Barcelona it […]

Up to 1,000 social workers and administrative staff throughout Northern Ireland took part in a solid one-day strike yesterday (19 June 2002).

20 June 2002 – Today’s 24-hour general strike in protest at the Aznar government’s decision to cut unemployment benefits has ground much of Spain to a halt. BBC World Service comments, "The strike got under […]

Several demonstrations are planned to protest against the World Bank’s Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE) Conference in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, 24-26 June.

THOUSANDS OF building workers downed tools and walked off sites throughout Germany to demand a 4.5% pay rise. The strikers are also demanding a rise in the minimum pay rate for workers in the former […]

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 […]

Chirac’s victory in the second round of the French National Assembly elections has been widely presented as a further part of a European swing to the political right.

On 20 June, workers in Spain will strike for 24 hours against the imposition of a law that drastically cuts unemployment benefit.

Anti-capitalist protesters, trade unionists, and socialists will be demonstrating against the upcoming European Union summit to be held in Seville on 20-21 June 2002. CWI members and supporters from Spain and also from a number […]

The second round of local elections affecting 25% of Italy’s electorate confirmed a big electoral swing against the Berlusconi forces after a year of his belligerent right wing government. Even in the North, the center-left […]

The results of the June 2 first round of the national assembly elections are not simply a right wing success and do not give a full picture of French politics.

Over the last few days, sectarian conflict has increased in various parts of Belfast. Both sides have blamed each other for starting the recent trouble. But what is the real cause of the outbreak of […]

THIS WEEKEND’S Golden Jubilee celebrations survived a crisis – Buckingham Palace started burning down. After the public were evacuated and firefighters efficiently got the blaze under control, TV commentators asked the question on everyone’s lips: […]

The first-round success of far-right leader, Jean-Marie le Pen, in the French presidential elections shocked the world. Hardly discussed, however, were the votes for the Trotskyist parties. Socialism Today interviews Alex Rouillard, organiser for Gauche […]

In a whole series of elections in Europe, far-right parties have made significant gains. The recent votes for Le Pen in France and the Pim Fortuyn List in the Netherlands have rocked the establishment parties […]

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 […]

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.

David Nellist, 1417, 52.8%

“SO MUCH has been transferred to the national level, and so much of the financial control is retained there, that being asked to vote in a local election is like being asked to select which […]

“THIS IS a disaster” – that was Burnley Labour leader Stuart Caddy’s response to the BNP winning three council seats in Burnley. That feeling is echoed throughout the country.

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 […]

Local authority elections took place in most parts of England on 2 May. We contested 30 seats. In general our votes increased [see table below]. By comparison, we received more than double the average Socialist […]

DURING PEACEFUL protests last year on May Day in London, the Metropolitan police at Oxford Circus penned thousands of people in, for several hours. Two of those held are to sue the police for wrongful […]

Le Pen’s success in reaching the second round of the French Presidential elections has highlighted the series of setbacks the so-called "centre-left" governments have recently suffered in European elections. This follows recent election gains for […]

Turnout

As all the first-hand reports make abundantly clear, 16 April 2002 in Italy was a day like no other. The first 8 hour general strike in the country for 20 years was solid. The response […]

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 saw Italy’s first united general strike in 20 years.  All the unions were involved, even the CGT, a very right wing union. First reports are saying 95% of public sector workers took strike action. […]

Saturday 23 March will be one of the most memorable days in the history of Italy. Three million people made their way towards the Circus Maximus, not far from the world-famous Coliseum, at the heart […]

The basis for the return of Berlusconi was created by the complete failure of the previous government, the ‘Olive Tree’ coalition, composed of the ex-Communist Party, now ‘rechristened’ as the Democrats of the Left (DS), […]

The workers and young people of Italy are locked in a mighty battle with the Berlusconi government. 100,000 marched through the centre of Rome last Friday, 15 February, in a demonstration organised by the unions […]

80,000 turned out in Belfast, despite the wind and rain, to support the trade union demonstration against sectarian attacks. This was bigger than any of the previous anti sectarian trade union rallies that have been […]

On Saturday December 1, 2001 the Socialist Alliance (SA) held a national conference to agree a new constitution. The SA was founded by ourselves and others in the mid 90s with the aim of bringing […]

Italy is the European country which has seen the biggest and most widespread protests against the US bombing of Afghanistan. It is also the only country that has seen its prime minister urging the population […]

Italy is the European country which has seen the biggest and most widespread protests against the US bombing of Afghanistan. It is also the only country that has seen its prime minister urging the population […]

In a matter of days a mass revolutionary movement has swept the autocratic regime of Slobodan Milosevic from power. After week long strike action, up to one million people converged on Belgrade on 5 October […]

Thousands of us are marching today because we have had enough of poverty, cuts and privatisation, and low paid jobs – and we are fighting back. We are here to oppose the continued destruction of […]

OVER 5,000 joined CND’s protest against Bush and Blair’s war plans outside Downing Street on 22 September.

One after-effect of the World Trade Centre attack has been an increase in racism and racist attacks. One Afghan taxi driver, who came to Britain to escape persecution in Afghanistan, was paralysed from the neck […]

The situation outside the Holy Cross primary school has developed into an ugly stand-off as community leaders talk about trying to settle the conflict. At root, this conflict is about redefining boundaries between Catholic and […]

NATO HAS launched ’Operation Essential Harvest’ in Macedonia, marking the fourth intervention by Western forces in the Balkans in ten years.

The 300,000 strong 21 July demonstration and the state repression in Genoa are turning points both in Italy and for the growing worldwide opposition to capitalist globalisation.

The mid-May Italian election victory of Silvio Berlusconi’s right wing House of Liberty alliance grabbed the headlines. Some commentators, like the Wall Street Journal, hoped that the defeat of the Olive Tree centre-left government, along […]

LAST WEEK the Macedonian army and police launched their biggest offensive so far against rebel Albanian forces. The horrific prospect of all-out civil war has come one step closer.

In the Czech Republic, political competition has made television into an unscrupulous battleground for ambitious bureaucrats, reflecting a government led by rival parties, the rightist ODS and the leftist CSSD, who each want so badly […]

The European Union (EU) summit in Nice was supposed to be one of the most important conferences in Europe’s history. But the marathon summit ended in a messy deal of scaled down ambitions couched in […]