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.
What does Kim Jong Il’s defiance mean for the Bush military doctrine? Can these events lead to yet another US military intervention? Offensiv takes a closer look at the Korean crisis.
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 […]
Last December’s negotiations between the existing EU members and the candidate countries for enlargement drew to a close at the Copenhagen summit. The 10 countries invited to join in May 2004 are Cyprus, the Czech […]
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.
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 […]
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.
"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 […]
War on Iraq.
Canada’s 40-year old system of socialised medicine is under threat. Powerful private corporations have lobbied heavily for entry into what they see as an untapped, lucrative market. Ontario’s conservative government has been hungrily looking for […]
On the 20 February, Saken Zhanusov and Rustem Zhanusov were sentenced to 3 years in Kazakhstan’s notorious prisons. Their comrade Ramil Mingazov, for reasons of health, was ordered to pay a large fine.
"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 […]
CWI group campaigns against war.
A special congress of the Lagos State chapter of the National Conscience Party (NCP) was held in Lagos on Monday, 6 January 2003. The main purpose of the congress was to elect party candidates for […]
In the light of Hans Blix and the weapons inspectors’ report that there is no "smoking gun", conclusive evidence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq, the prospect of an immediate war against Iraq […]
A document made public last Tuesday by a British student group ’Campaign against Sanctions on Iraq’ revealed that as many as 500,000 people in Iraq could suffer injuries and require medical treatment if the United […]
The Steel and Engineering Workers’ Union of Nigeria (SEWUN) picketed the Nexans’ Kabelmetal factory in Lagos on Friday 10 January 2003 to demand the reinstatement of Rufus Olusesan, a member of the Democratic Socialist Movement, […]
There were delegates representing many different sectors including women, students, youth, farmers, fisher folk, tribal rights activists, daliths (’untouchables’) and trade unionists. Peace/ anti-nuclear and environmental activists were also present. The Left parties also present […]
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).
The recent decision by the New Zealand government to offer covert military support for a US-led assault on Iraq has provided the final confirmation of what many people in this country have known for a […]
Towards the end of December 2002, CWI comrades in the CIS heard that the case of well known worker activists in Karaganda, Kazakhstan facing serious court charges (see previous reports) is coming to a conclusion. […]
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 registration of the National Conscience Party (NCP) and twenty-one other political parties by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) represents a major victory for the Nigerian working people in their struggle for democratic rights […]
Though hardly any of the political observers predicted a defeat for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), very few foresaw the huge victory that the protagonists of Hindu chauvinism managed to secure in the Gujarat elections […]
"The peace process is the most important issue in Sri Lanka today. The war shows the incapability of the capitalist class to develop society. It is extremely weak and dependent on reactionary elements to stay […]
Mass privatisations started in 1994 and it took them four years to privatise allmost all main industries, oil and gas. More than 300 mines were taken over by transnational corporations from the West, more than […]
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.
Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, was a city of protests last weekend. The reason for this was that Denmark was the holder of the EU presidency and all the European Union leaders were in town. […]
Following the defeat of the coup in April the CWI warned: "…it is now essential that the working class and oppressed in Venezuela seize the initiative and take the necessary steps to overthrow capitalism and […]
Jagadish Chandra, New Socialist Alternative (Nava Samajavaadi Paryaya – the CWI’s section in India) spoke about the struggle against privatisation in India in an interview with Offensiv (newspaper of the Swedish section of the CWI) […]
No ai processi politici !Verità su Genova! Libertà per tutti gli arrestati !No al governo Berlusconi!
EU/EMU kan inte bli något annat än storföretagens och de rikas vapen mot arbetare och ungdomar. Inom EU är det direktörer som bestämmer och politikerna som verkställer. Toppmötet i Köpenhamn kommer att bli ännu en […]
The early general elections in Austria held on 24 November saw a huge victory for the conservative Peoples party (ÖVP) of chancellor Schüssel, getting 42,3 % and becoming the largest party for the first time […]
WHILE THE US and British governments relentlessly prepare to attack Iraq as part of their ’war on terrorism’, a suspected al-Qa’ida cell blew up a hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, packed with Israeli tourists. Most of […]
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.
AN INFLAMATORY Nigerian newspaper article connected to the Miss World contest sparked off bloody religious sectarianism in the northern city of Kaduna. The fighting later flared in the capital Abuja leaving 215 people dead, 1,200 […]
"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.
On Friday, November 8, 2002, the Supreme Court in a unanimous decision dismissed the appeal of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) against the Federal Court of Appeal judgement of 26th July 2002 which had […]
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 […]
Kurdish people, known as the Kurds, live in an area that consists of south-eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, north-western Iran and a part of Syria.
MILLIONS OF big-business dollars were used by both major parties to campaign for votes. Both represent big business. The Republicans, however, push more aggressive pro-business policies and heavily outspent the Democrats, by $527.4 million to […]
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 10 October 2002 judgement of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) conferring ownership of the oil-rich Bakassi peninsular on Cameroun has been received with shock and disbelief by many Nigerians, including ordinary working people.
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 […]
Never in living memory has a sitting president strengthened his party’s position in both the Senate and the House of Representatives in mid-term elections. This is in spite of the deepening economic recession.
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.
THE ISRAELI ’national unity’ government coalition has collapsed following the withdrawal of six Labour ministers. Elections have been called for early next year.
"IT SEEMS that every 25 years when the Queen has a jolly, we have a strike."
When the National Party, traditionally the main capitalist party in New Zealand, was defeated at the polls in November 1999 workers breathed a collective sigh of relief. After fifteen years of neo-liberal ’reforms’ the new […]
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