Europe

From 17 to 23 September, about 1,000 delegates at the ver.di national congress will discuss the future direction of the trade union. Ver.di is a public and service sector union and the second biggest in […]

All the opinion polls in Norway are predicting huge electoral gains for the Conservative opposition and the right wing ‘Popularists’, and huge losses for the Norwegian Labour party. On the 11th of September 2023, the […]

The death of the Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin and other leaders of the Wagner group in an aircraft crash has intensified the tensions inside Vladimir Putin’s regime and the Russian state. So far, it is […]

Statistics recently published by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) show unemployment among black and minority ethnic (BAME) people was at 6.9% in 2022, over double the unemployment rate of white people – 3.2%. The unemployment […]

The age of austerity is clearly not over as capitalist politicians of all persuasions compete to manage economic crisis in the interest of the capitalist class. PAUL KERSHAW reviews a book that places economic austerity […]

The next UK government is likely to be a Labour government led by Keir Starmer. The huge lead that Starmer currently enjoys is not a vote of confidence in him, the current leadership of the […]

The Omagh bomb of 25 years ago was the end of any significant republican armed campaign in Ireland or elsewhere. The backlash ruled such out for many years. The Omagh bombing was one of the […]

The UK civil service trade union, PCS, is balloting its members on its response to a government pay offer. Socialist Party (CWI) members in PCS are part of the Broad Left Network (BLN), campaigning for […]

Facing a potential electoral landslide against them, the Tories are desperate. Hundreds of Tory MPs threatened with losing their jobs are desperately clawing to find a ledge to cling onto. Narrowly holding onto Boris Johnson’s […]

Scotland’s council workers are heading towards another autumn of strike action over this year’s annual pay rise. All three trade unions’ members overwhelmingly rejected an offer of 5.25% – 5.5%. Unite has returned strike majorities […]

Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland, available on BBC iPlayer, is one of the outstanding documentaries on the conflict in Northern Ireland that is euphemistically known as the ‘Troubles’. Rather than an overarching narrative, […]

On Tuesday, July 25, Boris Kagarlitsky, a well-known left-wing university teacher in Moscow, was arrested. It appears as if a political purge is going on in the country. This arrest came only a few days […]

“Voters were pissed off with us”. That response of a Tory MP to two crushing by-election defeats on 20 July was putting it mildly. A 24% swing from the Tories to Labour in Selby and […]

Note: The  article below was written in May 2023,  by Tom Hoffman, a member of the German section of the CWI (Sol -Socialist Organisation Solidarity). From the end of last year, young Sol members, who […]

Up to 6,000 people joined last Wednesday’s “Zero Tolerance for Racism” march in central Helsinki, demanding the fall of the National Conservative/Basic Finns-led far-right coalition, just one month after it the government was formed. The […]

In May, the Oxford Union Debating Society, with its £150-a-year membership fee, met to discuss the class basis of politics. Dave Nellist, former Labour MP and now a member of the Socialist Party’s national committee, […]

Workers in Tara Mines in Navan, Ireland, have voted to accept the proposals from the management of the mine. This was recommended by the three unions representing the workers; SIPTU, Unite, and Connect, following negotiations […]

A year and a half after the “turning point” proclaimed by German Chancellor Scholz, not a day goes by without reports of disputes within the “traffic light” coalition ruling Germany, the right-wing populist AfD (Alternative […]

As we go to press, Rishi Sunak is trumpeting his upcoming ‘big’ announcement on the NHS. The idea that this out-of-touch millionaire head of a dysfunctional government and a party tearing itself apart can save […]

“Democratic capitalism” is in crisis, warns Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, in his new book. Such is the severity of this crisis its very survival is in question. Wolf confirms early […]

The news that Tara Mines, in Navan, Country Meath, has been placed under care and maintenance until further notice, with indefinite layoffs, has shocked the workers and local community and plunged them into great uncertainty. […]

During the month of May, two mass shootings took place in Serbia within two days. The first shooting was at a school in Belgrade, carried out by a 13 year old, who killed his school […]

Despite the mass strike and June’s explosive revolt, Macron is continuing to roll out his programme. The substance has not changed: attacking the living conditions of the majority of the population to allow the top […]

A crisis has hit RTE (Raidió Teilifís Éireann), the Irish state broadcaster, following revelations that undisclosed payments were made to its star presenter, Ryan Tubridy. RTE was forced to apologise after admitting that between 2017 […]

Nahel: another 17-year-old dead, after so many others: Alhoussein, Zineb, Adama, Cédric, Zyed, Bouna… Nahel’s death both shocks and revolts us. The policies of Macron and Darmanin (and Valls and Sarkozy before them) are constantly […]

‘Brilliant. And serious.’ ‘Exactly what’s needed at this point in time – now we need to get out there!’ These words were echoed by many of the hundreds in attendance at the conference of the […]

In 2015, the Comunidad Valenciana celebrated the end of 16 years under the governance of the People’s Party (PP). The PP lost the absolute majority they had enjoyed in the region since 1999. A coalition […]

As expected, the second round of the Greek general election has resulted in the main party of Greek capitalism, New Democracy (ND), winning an outright majority. To the delight of capitalist commentators internationally, the result […]

In a dramatic turn of events last weekend, the Russian mercenary leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, staged an armed uprising only to turn his fighters back from a march on Moscow after a truce was struck with […]

Jonas Grampp is a member of the youth group of the Berlin region of the German Railway and Transport Union (EVG) and of the youth representative committee of DB Netz AG, the railway infrastructure division […]

The economic rush to the bottom and the callousness of capitalism is seen in the recent Greek boat tragedy. On 13 June, a boat carrying an estimated 750 refugees capsized. Seventy-eight are confirmed dead, while […]

Politics are hot and cold in Austria these days. The leadership race at the Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) June 3rd party congress saw the election, as Chair, of Andreas Babler, a former Socialist Youth […]

Far-right and fascist activity have not abated in Ireland over the past few months. Instead, it has intensified and widened. From Inch in Co. Clare to Portrush in Co. Antrim far-right forces increasingly feel confident […]

“Unite or die” because our party is facing an “existential threat”, Rishi Sunak, the British Prime Minister, warned the Tories nine months ago when he first became their leader and therefore – without the electorate […]

From its foundation, DIE LINKE (Left Party) was an amalgamation of political currents, some of which had contradictory ideas of left politics. Roughly speaking, one could for a long time speak of a left camp […]

Since 9 July 2021, a remarkable story of a working-class fightback has developed in Campi Bisenzio, on the industrial outskirts of Florence, Italy. On that day, the entire 500-strong workforce of GKN Driveline Firenze, a […]

At a time of increasing turmoil in the US and globally, Bernie Sanders has produced a devastating critique of capitalism. But unfortunately, not with a clear path to a real socialist and democratic alternative. This […]

Around 1,650 contractors across five companies are due to strike in June in the North Sea. The planned action is for two 48-hour strikes starting June 1 until June 3 and then June 8 to […]

The recent, and unfinished, crisis in the Scottish National Party raises questions about the future prospects for Scottish independence. PHILIP STOTT from Socialist Party Scotland (CWI Scotland) analyses current events and looks at where the […]

After the British Labour Party national executive committee voted 22-12 to ban its former left-wing leader, Jeremy Corbyn, from standing as a Labour candidate in the next general election, HANNAH SELL looks at the fight […]

On Monday 22 May, with trade unionists demonstrating outside parliament, Tory MPs voted the anti-strike ‘Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill’ through the House of Commons, meaning that is set to become law within weeks. Fire, […]

A 24-hour strike by BBC journalists in Northern Ireland was 100% solid on 19 May. Workers in the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) walked out on one of the busiest news days of the year […]

Sinn Féin, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Alliance Party emerged as the main winners in the recent local government elections in Northern Ireland. This shows a greater political polarisation taking place among nationalists […]

Sol – Sozialistische Organisation Solidarität (CWI Germany) mourns the death of National Committee member, Jan Horsthemke. We are sorry to announce that our Dortmund comrade and member of the Sol National Committee, Jan Horsthemke, decided […]

The first round of Greece’s 2023 general election took place on Sunday 21 May. The results gave no single party the overall majority needed to immediately form a government on their own. However, the main […]

In response to the article: ‘What are ‘the markets’ anyway?’ published in the Socialist issue 1209 we received an email from Cathy in Nottingham asking: “Could we have an article which explains how the markets, or […]

A debate in Germany over the Building Energy Act, the so-called “heat transition”, has been boiling up for weeks. The conservative CDU has announced that it will make the fight against this law an issue […]

Prepare for a workers’ stand in the general election People want ‘Tories out’. That is the bleedingly obvious lesson from the 4 May local election results. The Tories (i.e. the ruling Conservative Party) set their […]