There is an ongoing political, economic and social crisis in Turkey. The pandemic has acted as a great accelerator, speeding up the processes that already existed. It has certainly made the situation far more difficult […]
Shock waves from the Ukraine war are being felt across the world. Its impact on food supplies and tourism is shaking the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries, all of which had huge problems […]
Iran has not been at rest since the beginning of 2022. Amongst the protesters were teachers who, under the leadership of the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations, led a campaign of protests and […]
On 15th May, Lebanese voters went to the polls in one of the strangest elections in recent years. The unprecedented social collapse in Lebanon over the last few years was the background to this election. […]
For weeks, the horror of Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has dominated the news. Alongside this carnage, there has also been the ongoing civil war in Yemen. However, this merciless war in Yemen, and all […]
The war in Ukraine and the further twist it has given to the sharpening of international relations is, amongst other things, now seemingly blocking a conclusion to the nuclear talks in Vienna. These discussions concern […]
Today, 21 March 2022, marks the 19th anniversary of the bloody and ‘illegal’ invasion of Iraq by the US and its allies. Below are two articles on the Iraq catastrophe, written in 2020 and 2019, […]
On New Year’s Eve, Buckingham Palace announced that former Labour prime minister Tony Blair would be rewarded with the Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter by the Queen. Should we be […]
Football’s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) is currently taking place, with millions following the tournament in the continent and worldwide. Egypt is the most successful nation in the cup’s history, winning the tournament seven times (including […]
After being without a government for almost a year, the new Lebanese government of billionaire Nijab Mikati is already beset with crises, just a few months in. There has been no respite from the ongoing […]
Having ruled Turkey for almost two decades, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government is at its most vulnerable. With Turkey staggering on from one crisis to another since 2018, in a highly polarised political environment, a new […]
Workers’ rights in Egypt are harshly repressed under President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi’s brutal regime. There have been very few strikes in recent years. Workplace activists have been jailed, where torture is widely used. However, two large […]
While the US, British and other western governments lick their wounds following their ignoble retreat from Afghanistan, after 20 failed years of ‘nation building’, another ‘failed state’, Libya, marks ten years since the West helped […]
On the twentieth anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York which took place on 11th September 2001 capitalist commentators are revisiting these historic events. The anniversary comes as US and […]
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 […]
Why would a UK trade union not support a struggle against low pay and excessive workload by trade unionists in another country? In a meeting of Unison’s national executive council on 14 July, hands were […]
On 14 August, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), led by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, celebrated its 20th anniversary against a background of environmental, economic and political crisis. The wildfires that spread across […]
A year ago, a huge devastating explosion started at Beirut’s port and ended with the loss of over 200 lives, with 7,500 injured and around 300,000 people made homeless. That evening of 4 August 2020 […]
Following three days of strike action by government hospital ancillary workers, the employers have agreed to cancel the elimination of 200 posts created to handle the Covid pandemic. But there is no concrete agreement on […]
On Sunday 25th July, the president of Tunisia, Kaïs Saied, carried out a coup. This is in a country that has been labelled, “The Arab world’s only democracy”. He sacked the prime minister, Hichem Mechichi, […]
Over the last year it seems as if just when all possible descriptions have been exhausted for the deteriorating social, economic and political crisis in Lebanon, a new downward turn in the situation develops. The […]
Almost immediately after last month’s Iranian presidential election, a national strike began in the country’s strategically important oil, gas and petrochemical sector and is still continuing. Organised from below through unofficial bodies, this strike has […]
The CWI has consistently argued that the working class is the only force that can solve the enormous social and economic capitalist crises in the Middle East, and end the occupation and repression of the […]
Ancillary staff at government hospitals in Israel are taking strike action after three years of negotiations with the ministry of finance. An agreement was not reached over the question of workloads. The finance ministry totally […]
Ebrahim Raisi’s election as president, openly described in Iran as ‘engineered’, revealed the regime’s weak popular support. The mechanics of his ‘victory’ were those of rulers fearful of the population. Facing a rising tide of […]
The eleven-day Israeli air bombardment of the Gaza Strip and retaliatory Hamas rockets fired into Israel, ended with a shaky ceasefire and both sides claiming victory. Although suffering large numbers of casualties, Hamas, the Islamist […]
The ongoing expansion of Jewish settlements and other Jewish-only infrastructure in East Jerusalem and the West Bank has been destroying Palestinian hopes of having their own state. The area that was designated to the Palestinians […]
There can be no doubt that May’s round of death and destruction in Israel-Palestine will have serious repercussions in the whole Middle East. All the questions relating to the conflict in Israel-Palestine have been thrust […]
Recent days have seen more strikes and protests by workers in Iran, more signs of the general revival of the workers’ movement there since 2017. The May Day statement (below) issued by 15 Iranian workers, […]
When a ceasefire took hold after eleven days of the war on Gaza by the Israeli military, Gaza’s traumatised population re-emerged onto the streets to survey scenes of terrible devastation. This was the fourth war […]
The turn to devastating bloodshed by the Israeli regime has followed weeks of brutal Israeli policing in and around Jerusalem’s old city, and a number of planned evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in […]
Weeks of repressive, brutal Israeli policing of Palestinian gatherings and protests in East Jerusalem have led to a new round of bloody conflict. Rather than just being confined to Jerusalem, this time the Israeli authorities […]
Weeks of repressive, brutal Israeli policing of Palestinian gatherings and protests in East Jerusalem have resulted in a new round of escalated conflict. In April, Israeli security forces erected barriers to prevent Palestinians from congregating […]
Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency reported on 8 May that the country’s largest sugarcane factory, Haft Tappeh, has been re-nationalised. The factory was privatised in 2015. Since then, the workers have been fighting for its […]
Over the last week, protests have re-emerged onto the streets of Lebanon. The increasing collapse of society impels the masses to challenge the continuing misrule of the sectarian establishment. Blockades of roads with burning tires […]
Even before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the Turkish economy was on the brink of collapse as the country was grappling with currency depreciation and high inflation rates since the 2018 economic crisis. The […]
Demonstrations have been continuing at Boğaziçi University since January 2021. Students and university staff are resisting the appointment of a government loyalist, Melih Bulu, as rector, by Presidential Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The reason for appointing […]
Ten years ago a mighty uprising of Egyptian workers and youth ousted President Hosni Mubarak’s brutally dictatorial regime, an event that resonated around the world. Starting on 25 January 2011, increasing numbers turned out in […]
The year 2011 began with mass protests spreading across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) which shook the ground beneath the feet of the region’s many autocratic regimes. The decades-long dictators – Ben Ali […]
Like many countries around the world, 2021 has begun with a new lockdown being implemented across Lebanon, until the end of January. This is a result of a dramatic increase in the numbers of Covid […]
Metal workers employed by a factory in Corum, Turkey, joined the United Metal Workers union to improve low wages and bad working conditions in the factory. They have been sacked by the management on trumped-up […]
On 30 October, four representatives of the Haft Tappeh Workers’ Union were arrested by the Iranian regime’s security forces and imprisoned in the Shush detention centre. The arrested workers are Ebrahim Abasi Monjezi, Yousef Bahmani, […]
After reaching a peak in August, the tensions between Turkey and Greece, both of which are members of Nato, over natural gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean Sea have now entered a new phase, with […]
Popular support for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s dictatorial regime is vanishing. Only fourteen per cent of adults took part in August’s Senate election, despite polling stations open for two days and voting is compulsory. […]
Since the beginning of August, Iran has seen more and more workers from different sectors follow the example of the Haft Tappeh sugar cane workers who went on strike on 14 June. These workers started […]
Public service workers in Turkey who were expelled in the aftermath of the failed coup attempt against the Erdogan government in July 2016 are continuing their determined resistance. Their struggle sets an example for the […]
Weekend after weekend, the official residence of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has been besieged by angry protesters demanding his resignation. The loudest chants are “Big business and government are mafia!” On 31 July, over […]
In the face of daily furious protests on the streets, one by one, Lebanon’s government ministers resigned, until the whole cabinet resigned on Monday 10 August, knowing it had no authority to continue. The government […]
The worst ever explosion in Lebanon’s history, on Tuesday in Beirut’s port, caused horrific devastation of both life and infrastructure. Over 157 people were killed, many are missing and around 5,000 injured. The whole port […]
With a strike involving thousands of Haft Tappeh sugarcane refinery workers about to enter its third month, other significant strikes began in Iran at the start of August. Some were in the oil industry where […]
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