Europe

On March the 15th a Viennese court made a final ruling in a court case that extreme anti-abortionists have run against Claudia Sorger, the spokesperson for women’s affairs of the Socialist Left Party (SLP), the […]

Last Sunday, France went to the ballot box for regional and district elections.

France goes to the polls next Sunday, 21 March, for elections in the regions and districts (‘departements’ that are divided into ‘cantonments’).

“The wars are yours – the deaths are ours,” read one placard on a demonstration in Madrid in the early hours, last Sunday morning. It summed up the mood of millions throughout Spain just days […]

Last Friday saw up to 4,000 defiant nursery nurses, parents and supporters demonstrating on the streets of Glasgow for a decent pay deal. The protest marked the fifth day of indefinite strike action by Scotland’s […]

Die Grÿnen, Les Verts, the Green Party – the German, French and UK Green Parties, along with 29 other European Green parties, are now one party standing on one platform.

After eight months of industrial action by Scotland’s nursery nurses, and with no end in sight, UNISON are preparing to ballot to increase the action to an all out indefinite strike from March.

The Dutch right wing coalition government plans to soon start deporting “failed asylum-seekers”. But protests are springing up across the Netherlands, and a national demonstration is set for 10 April.

Growing support and influence for socialist alternative to New Labour

Government scapegoats asylum seekers for cuts and economic slowdown

No way forward shown

Historic decision shows willingness by union to support socialists

"AS ANY inept DIY bodger could tell you, whitewash, applied carefully and thinly will last years. Too thick and it will flake off in no time." (Letter to The Guardian, 29 January)

LAST SUNDAY, 25 January, the founding convention of Respect took place and agreed to launch an electoral campaign across England and Wales, headed by George Galloway MP, for the June European and Greater London Authority […]

Police treatment of school students was not within the law

ISR member Karl Debbaut acquitted.

As socialistworld.net has previously reported, Germany has witnessed a wave of protests and strikes both on the industrial and social fields, as well as series of student strikes, towards the end of last year.

Socialists oppose right wing agenda

While the right wing Raffarin government in France increases its attacks against the social gains of the past, there is a continued radicalisation amongst workers and youth.

The ultra nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS) has become the biggest force in Serbian politics following the country’s general election on 28 December 2003.

Workers at the main production base in Italy of “Europe’s Enron” have no sympathy for those they call the “magnificent eight” now locked up in Milan’s notorious San Vittore prison.

NEW LABOUR’S National Executive Committee (NEC) has recommended that Ken Livingstone should be readmitted into the party. That’s just three years after his expulsion in 2000 for standing as an independent mayoral candidate against Labour’s […]

70,000 university students took to the streets in Frankfurt, Berlin and Leipzig on Saturday, 13 December, defending the right to decent education.

“Europe is experiencing a new phase of class struggle, from Italy and Portugal, in the South, to Germany, Austria and Britain, in the North,” said Tony Saunois, introducing the discussion on Perspectives for Europe, at […]

The recent Northern Ireland Assembly elections have produced a recipe for ongoing political stalemate and paralysis. Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) are the clear victors and, no matter how they try to […]

On 9 December, in Kassel, in Hessen state, the first cross sector local work stoppage against social cuts, and in defence of free wage bargaining, took place. This action is part of the current wave […]

Over a million and a half people from all parts of Italy crowded into Rome’s Piazza San Giovanni last Saturday (6 December) to attend the ’Defend Your Future’ rally organised by Italy’s three biggest union […]

A community struggle, spearheaded by members of Offensief (Dutch CWI), successfully prevented council plans to close the Ganzenhoef community centre in South East Amsterdam.

NORTHERN IRELAND’S elections on 26 November were extremely polarised with the hard-line Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) on one side and Sinn Fein on the other, gaining support.

Chris Flood, a Socialist Party member from Lewisham won a council by-election in his area yesterday winning a stunning 32% of the vote. He joins Ian Page, the other Socialist Party councillor on the local […]

On 9 December, strike action against the bosses’ federation attacks on wages and conditions and national bargaining will take place in Kassel and the Northhessen region. The strikes will also be directed against the social […]

“We are witnesses and protagonists of a newly- now unstoppable- broad social protest movement in Germany. The mood…amongst the population, and even more in the workplaces and councils, has turned in the past weeks”. (From […]

The struggle of the cockpit and cabin-stuff of the ’Austrian Airlines’ (AUA) has finally succeeded in stopping the immediate attacks of the management.

The one thing the main political parties here are all agreed on is that Northern Ireland should be sold to private profiteers.

The current strike of the Austrian Railways is challenging the right wing coalition government.

ON WEDNESDAY 29 October around 1,400 people came to a meeting in London entitled ’British politics at the crossroads’. The audience were primarily political and anti-war activists and they had come to hear George Galloway […]

THE COURAGEOUS unofficial action by tens of thousands of postal workers in the last two weeks has shown that bullying bosses can be stood up to and forced to retreat.

Today’s much bigger than expected 100,000 strong Berlin protest against social cuts has demonstrated the enormous discontent and rage that is building up in Germany.

George Galloway, MP for Glasgow Kelvin, has been expelled from the Labour Party for sticking to his principles and opposing Bush and Blair’s war against Iraq. This was a war – for oil, profits and […]

THE THOUSANDS of Georgians waving the flag of St George outside the parliament building in Tbilisi weren’t celebrating England’s rugby world cup victory – they were cheering the resignation of Georgia’s President Eduard Shevardnadze.

Defend the right to have an effective trade union

1,500,000 take to the streets on day of general strike over pensions.

The second European Social Forum (ESF) is taking place in Paris from 12 to 15 November. The first one in Florence was a success, particularly with the involvement of young people, workers and trade unionists […]

October 25 saw the congress of biggest trade union in the world, ver.di, unanimously back the anti-cuts demo called for November 1 in Berlin.

On Wednesday, 15 October, flying staff at Austrian Airlines struck for the fourth time in three months.

It is a tradition for the German chancellor and the leaders of the political parties to give a speech to the national congresses of the big trade unions.

Over 60 people, mainly trade union activists and Works’ Council members from Vienna, and the neighbouring provinces of Lower Austria and Upper Austria, took part in the first conference of the “Platform for fighting and […]

The latest venture of Italy’s right wing government onto the field of class battle is a blatant all-out attack on the whole of the working class.

On Monday morning, 29 September, 8,000 dockers from all over Europe gathered in Rotterdam for a lively and militant demonstration against the so-called ’Port Package’ – an attack on the right and conditions of dock […]

Demonstrations of dock workers took place in several European cities yesterday against EU plans to deregulate harbours.

ISR coordinator faces six month jail sentence. Picket of the court – pictures. The case was adjourned.

We, signing organisations and persons, want to protest in the strongest terms at the permanent injunction that Fingal County Council has taken out against fifteen anti-bin tax campaigners. In particular we are protesting against the […]

Pictures by Paul Mattsson        

It’s likely to be another ‘Hot Autumn’ for the working class in Italy this year. The ruling class plans a major attack on pensions. There will be further attempts to cut back workers’ real wages […]

Leaflet by the Socialist Party

On Saturday 13 September 15 to 20,000 Trade Union members demonstrated in Prague. The protest was against an austerity package proposed by the government. These reforms were renamed by trade unionists as "deforms” as they […]

THE SCHOOL student and student strikes on the day war with Iraq began (Day X) will never be forgotten by the thousands who participated in them. All over Britain school students organised debates, actions, protests […]

Exclusive pictures from inside (19 pictures) and outside (12 pictures) the arms fair held in London.

On 5 September 300 steel workers gave voice to their anger against the privatisation of the last 35 percent of the once fully state owned steel works Voestalpine in Linz, Upper Austria.

30 years after the first big demonstration against the military bases in Larzac, southwest France, over 350,000 people met there again this summer, three times more than expected.

Devolution for Scotland has proved to be a disappointment. For many people in Scotland the achievement of an elected devolved parliament after almost 300 years of centralised Westminster government was rightly seen as a step […]

The industrial action by Scotland’s nursery nurses for pay and recognition for the job we do is now entering it’s fourth month.

It’s official low pay, long hours and being overworked kills. This is the conclusion of recent research into stress in the work-place.

"Cuts necessary in Poland after Yes to the EU", was the headline in the Swedish daily, Dagens Nyheter, the day after the Polish referendum of 8-9 June. The establishment was relieved because they avoided the […]

Whilst the revelations flow thick and fast in the Hutton Inquiry, the central exercise for Blair and his cronies is how to deflect and avoid blame. A shoddy string of Pontius Pilates roll out before […]

Postal workers will shortly be balloted on taking industrial over an 18 month pay deal of 4.5%. If they vote for action this will be the first national action for 7 years and the first […]

John McAllion was for many years an outspoken Labour MP at both Westminster and Holyrood parliaments. 

Top bosses’ pay keeps going up and up. A recent survey by the Guardian newspaper found that the senior directors of the UK’s biggest 100 companies increased their income by a staggering 23% last year […]

The Scottish National Party (SNP) is still reeling from their drubbing in the May 1st elections to the Scottish parliament.

Blair’s web of deceit continues to unravel

The first thing that made the teachers angry was the ’decentralisation’ of education. This is a government project that aims to transfer education financing, management and recruitment from the state to the regions. But there […]

COMING ON top of the controversy surrounding weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), the death of scientist Dr David Kelly has brought about the most serious crisis that New Labour has faced since coming to power […]

WITH THE Assembly in long term suspension, the main political parties are once again enjoying the luxury of permanent opposition. They have suddenly found their voice again and are able to lay the blame on […]

An important case in defending women´s right to abortion was won on 10 July at the end of a lower court trial. SLP member Claudia Sorger (the Socialist Left Party is the CWI´s affiliate in […]

THE REPERCUSSIONS of the RMT’s potentially historic decision were downplayed by New Labour spin doctors. But last week’s events show clearly how far the disenchantment and anger of ordinary workers towards New Labour have stretched […]

THE FOREIGN Affairs Select Committee spent four weeks investigating the reasons Blair gave for taking Britain into a war against Iraq. The title of their proceedings – ’The decision to go to war against Iraq’ […]

Seven Socialist Party members have been elected to the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS).

Socialism 2003 took place over the weekend of the 28 and 29 June. Below are reports from the main rallies and interviews with participants.

ON JUNE 12 the two central leaders of the French trade union movement came down to Marseille to address a mass rally at the end of a 260,000-strong demonstration. Bernard Thibault, leader of the Confederation […]

During the first months of this year, city centres across Europe reverberated to the chants of the millions who took part in what was the biggest anti war movement in history. More recently the streets […]

The ‘SME’ case now running in the Milan courts, which includes il Presidente del Consiglio, Silvio Berlusconi, among the defendants, may never get to the stage where it sentences him to prison, as happened with […]

GORDON BROWN’S Commons statement on the euro, the world’s biggest currency union, deliberately faced both ways. The government said it would try to "break down anti-euro prejudice", but it would not hold a referendum on […]

Strikes and protest actions are continuing across France on a daily basis, against the Raffarin government’s pension ‘reform’ plans.

A SOLDIER from Warwickshire, Fusilier Bartlam aged 18, is being questioned following pictures of Iraqi POWs allegedly being mistreated.

AS TONY Blair jetted his way through the Gulf area, meeting Kuwaiti sheikhs, lecturing to British squaddies and kissing Iraqi children in one big photo-opportunity, evidence was growing that he and US president Bush lied […]

Across France in countless villages, towns and cities, French workers from both the private and public sector, students and young people demonstrated in their hundreds of thousands and took strike action on Tuesday 3 June, […]

More than 1 million workers in 18,000 workplaces all over Austria, a third of the entire Austrian workforce, took industrial action on 3 June – the country’s biggest strike since World War Two.

Mass strikes and demonstrations on Tuesday, 3 June, show a hardening mood of combativity and solidarity in the battle against pension reform.

AS STRIKES and demonstrations against public sector cuts sweep France, Germany, and Austria, the mainstream British press’s most prominent mention of this mass movement is in the gossip columns – apparently Madonna is upset because […]

LOW-PAID hospital workers in east London, working for private contractors ISS Mediclean and Medirest have scored a victory in their fight for a living wage.

An attack on workers’ pensions by French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has combined with other issues, particularly education decentralisation, to fuel a massive response by workers the length and breadth of France.

Paris pictures home page.Five pictures on each page.   Photographer: Paul Mattsson   one two three four five six seven eight nine

The streets of Paris resounded to the beat of drums and marching feet, this Sunday (25 May). Music blared. Rail workers ignited red flares filling the air with smoke. It was a riot of colour. […]

Following the official revelations of last month concerning the role of the "Italian intelligence services" in Iraq, the last fig leaf of Italy’s inactive participation in the invasion of Iraq has been taken away. Any […]

The International Socialists play an active role in the SSP. We are committed to building the SSP into a mass force with a clear socialist programme. We are also the Scottish section of the worldwide […]

WITH 17 SOCIALIST, Green, health campaigners and left independents elected to the Scottish parliament the political establishment was rocked by the results of the recent Scottish elections.

CLARE SHORT left Blair’s cabinet with a bang. Her resignation speech contained a withering attack on the "control freakery" of the Blairite "clique" at the top of the party and Blair’s "presidential" rule by "diktat". […]

On 13 May, in the late afternoon, 200,000 people (according to the ÖGB, the Austrian trade union federation) marched through the streets of Vienna against the government’s pension ‘reforms’ (the police said "over 100,000" participated).

IN MAY 2002 24 security workers at Belfast international airport were sacked for going on strike. The events around the sackings have led some of those involved to suspect collaboration between the management and local […]

TONY BLAIR hoped his Iraq ’victory’ would help New Labour in the 1 May elections. But rather than a ’Baghdad bounce’, it was more like a ’Baghdad trounce’. New Labour lost votes nationwide due to […]

Tuesday, 6 May, was a historic day for Austria. For the first time in decades the Ã-GB (Austrian trade union federation) called for a national day of action, including strikes. According to the Ã-GB about […]

GEORGE GALLOWAY’S name has been added to the notable list of those who stood against the might of the British political establishment and were subsequently ferociously witch-hunted and smeared.

April 29 saw up to 3,000 workers attend a morning open-air workplace meeting of the OMV (Austrian oil company) and other companies in Vienna in protest at the government’s attacks on the pension system. This […]

May 1st will see the second elections to the Scottish parliament. After four years of devolution, extreme disappointment would sum up the mood of working class people towards the inability of the political establishment to […]

The Austrian ÖVP-FPÖ coalition government started its general attack on the country’s pension system while missiles hit cities in Iraq. The implementation of these "reform" plans will mean that working people can expect between 10% […]

Half a million people demonstrated in bright Spring sunshine on the streets of Rome last Saturday, 12 April. A record-breaking peace banner in the colours of the rainbow – one kilometre long and 13 metres […]

Schröder’s policy statement amounts to a declaration of war on the workers, the unemployed and the pensioners. He has presented a catalogue of cruelty which severely cuts back the standard of living, the social security […]

The 2003 Scottish Socialist Party conference met recently against the backdrop of a likely war in Iraq and two months before the Scottish parliament elections.

The re-formation of the coalition government between the People’s Party (ÖVP) and the far right Freedom Party (FPÖ) will leave many people in Austria angry, demotivated or frustrated. The fact that any other government coalition […]

ALL THE political commentators are busy speculating in Scotland on just how the massive anti-war mood, reflected in the 80,000-strong demonstration in Glasgow on 15 February, will translate into votes at the Scottish parliament election […]

The recently launched campaign Youth Against War has organised a successful day of action on February 25th. The campaign was recently launched by different school students’, students’ and appretices’ anti war committees – many of […]

Last week-end saw dramatic scenes of direct action in Italy to stop the movement of US military supplies in the country. One major rail convoy was forced to stop and to re-route in a number […]

Oggi i lavoratori hanno nuovamente fermato l’Italia. Gli effetti della crisi economica mondiale si fanno sentire anche in Italia,la cui economia deve affrontare anche motivi specifici di crisi. Su scala mondiale il sistema capitalistico sta […]

FIFTEENTH OF FEBRUARY marks an historic day of anti-war protest worldwide. Never before have we seen a mass anti-war movement of this character before a war even starts. It is even bigger than the movement […]

Following the breakdown of the coalition between the conservative People’s Party and Haider’s far right Freedom Party last September, Austria held new elections in November that resulted in gains for the conservatives and a disaster […]

Federal (regional) state elections took place in Hessen and Lower Saxony, last Sunday. In Hessen the right wing Christian Democrats (CDU) went up by 5.4% to 48.8%, the best result for the Christian Democrats in […]

Prague – The independent federation of tram drivers (FRT) organised a one day strike on February 4 over wage claims. The main demand is that tram drivers wages would be equalized with the wages of […]

It’s official. Six years of a New Labour government and four years of the Scottish Parliament has made little or no difference to the lives of millions of working class people in Scotland.

The second elections to the Scottish Parliament take place on May 1st 2003. May Day is the traditional day of celebration and commemoration for the international workers and socialist movement. But the first four years […]

ON 14 January an estimated 70,000 Turkish Cypriots – one-quarter of the northern Cypriot population – marched through divided Nicosia in support of a United Nations (UN) plan to re-unify the divided island.

MATTHEW RICHARDSON from Lincoln reports how, led by a fire tender and carrying a coffin to symbolise the demise of the fire service, 200 firefighters and supporters marched through the centre of Lincoln.

In January the Scottish Executive attempted to put an amendment – the abolition of Section 19 – through parliament which would have made it easier to to close fire stations in Scotland. It would have […]

"It was the only genuinely anti-war amendment. Both the SNP and the Liberal-Democrat amendments would have given the sanction to the UN Security Council to go to war. The Security Council is dominated by the […]

"This movement today, not Tony Blair, is speaking for the British people," declared Aslef member Andrew Murray, opening the Stop the War national conference. 800 activists came from local coalitions, political parties, trade unions and […]

Even over Christmas and on New Year’s Day, there have been demonstrations of protest, with blockades, in a number of factories of the Fiat group (like Termini Imerese and Mirafiori).

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 FIAT workers’ battle has taken on a European dimension. A two hour European strike of FIAT group workers has been called for 16/12, against the programme of group `restructuring’, already underway.

No ai processi politici !Verità su Genova! Libertà per tutti gli arrestati !No al governo Berlusconi!

MANY FIREFIGHTERS and other workers will have looked on bewildered as the FBU (Fire Brigade Union) executive council called off the eight-day firefighters’ strike due to begin on 4 December.

"THE GOVERNMENT has completely lost control of the agenda. This is no longer just a dispute between the FBU and the government: it has descended into a fight between the government and the whole union […]

Eye-witness report from Henry Silke, with references to the Irish links of the local fascists.

Camera crews, reporters and members of the International Socialists (CWI) along with other Scottish Socialist Party members waited outside the Blackness Fire Station in Dundee for the 6 o’clock start to the first national fire […]

FORTY-THOUSAND PEOPLE from all over Europe flooded into Florence, Italy, for the European Social Forum, nearly double the number the organisers had been expecting.

The many hundreds of thousands of Italian protesters were joined by tens of thousands of foreign participants in the European Social Forum assembly and by others, like the French CGT union, who came to Italy […]

From 1-3 November, the national conference of the German section of the CWI took place. It was the biggest conference of the German section ever.

"IT SEEMS that every 25 years when the Queen has a jolly, we have a strike."

In Naples, as everywhere else in Italy on 18 October, the general strike called by the Cgil trade union federation got support from a wide range of other organisations like Cobas, Sin.Cobas, the unemployed movement, […]

Last week’s general strike in Florence was very successful, with many factories practically empty. Local transport was on strike in the afternoon, when nearly everything stopped.

Yesterday’s general strike surpassed all expectations as literally hundreds of thousands of angry workers and youth took to the streets in 120 cities across Italy. This was the second general strike in defence of article […]

PEOPLE HAD been expecting this suspension and now fear that it could be permanent. We will now likely face a long drawn out political crisis with little hope of any agreement at the end.

VOTING TAKES place this month for the general secretary of NIPSA, Northern Ireland’s biggest trade union with a membership across all areas of the civil and public service. It can play a crucial role in […]

The Summer months in Italy saw only a temporary suspension of the open warfare between the classes provoked by the hated Berlusconi government. Now, with the World Cup and the August holidays well and truly […]

Today (October 5) 10,000 people, mainly youth, took part in an anti war demonstration called by the Florence Social Forum. This was part of a national day of action which saw over sixty demonstrations and […]

A SEA of up to 400,000 protesters flooded into the Embankment, London on 28 September to say ’No’ to war against Iraq.

Joan Littlewood, the radical theatre innovator who transformed British drama in the 1950s and 1960s, died on 20 September, aged 87.

"Time for a change in Germany", was the title of last week’s right wing magazine, The Economist (London). This reflected the wish of the international and German capitalists for a new coalition government of the […]

LAST FEBRUARY, 70,000 people went to the World Social Forum (WSF) in Porto Alegre, Brazil. It was set up in opposition to the World Economic Forum of government ministers that took place at the same […]

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 […]

New figures published last month by the Pesticides Residue Committee (PRC) for the British government have raised serious concerns over the safety of fresh fruit and vegetables, both imported and UK grown produce. The government […]

US PRESIDENT George Bush has rewarded his right-wing, anti-abortion Christian fundamentalist backers by blocking $34 million family planning aid to the United Nations Population Fund.

With a chant of  ’Genoa Libera’ 150,000 youth and young workers marched through the streets of Genova on Saturday. They marched to commemorate the year since the G8 summit which saw a police riot and […]

FIGHTING BROKE out at last weekend’s annual Orange Order parade at Drumcree. Demonstrators threw missiles at police, resulting in 24 injured as well as two civilians. However, Drumcree is not the issue it was. The […]

The signing last Friday afternoon of a deal with the government and employers by the leaders of the two smaller trade union federations in Italy – the Uil and Cisl – has sparked a new […]

The crisis surrounding Mirafiori car plant and the whole Fiat Empire is sending shockwaves through Italian society. In America they say, “What’s good for General Motors is good for the USA”. In Italy the same […]

International solidarity needed!

The BBC current affairs programme, Panorama, recently broadcast a two part investigation on Northern Ireland that revealed more details of the dirty undercover war carried out for decades by the ‘security forces’. Most of the […]

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 […]

"The sad statistics about African economic performance have become so familiar as almost to lose their ability to shock: that, for example, more than half the population lives on less than $1 a day, 250 […]

Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in Seville last Saturday in a massive anti-capitalist protest. The government and the police desperately tried to play down the turnout. The local police claimed up to 60,000 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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

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.

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 […]

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.

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 […]

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.

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 […]

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 […]

The angry scenes in Austria this past week have shown that the entry of Jorg Haider’s Freedom Party into the Austrian government will not go unchallenged.

The war in Chechnya, ruthlessly conducted by Russia’s new capitalist rulers, has been a human, economic and environmental catastrophe. Thousands of civilians are being massacred. There are over 260,000 refugees in Ingushetia alone. Thousands of […]

The recent roots of the bloody break-up of the former Yugoslavia lies in the deepening crisis it faced in the 1980s. Throughout the 1980s its economic situation worsened. By 1987 inflation was running at over […]

The massive NATO attack on Serbia has hugely exacerbated the crisis in the Balkans and threatens to widen the conflict further, with terrible repercussions. Already there has been Serb shelling of Albania and pro-Serb riots […]

The launch of the euro has been presented as a new era for Europe ; or in the words of the finance minister of Portugal, the euro is here to stay, it is now impossible […]

Over the last few months, all over Europe, from France to Greece, Belgium to Italy, Germany to Spain, there have been mass protests against unemployment and cuts, and struggles for improved living standards.

The clashes and deaths in Kosovo have put on the agenda the possibility of war breaking out in the Balkans for the fourth time this decade. Already over 100,000 have been killed in the three […]