Around the world

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 […]

26 October saw one of the largest anti-war demonstrations in Washington DC since the Vietnam War. The Demonstration was organised by ANSWER, a coalition developed by the ’Workers World’ organisation. The coalition started after the […]

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.

As anticipated, the Dutch government consisting of the Christian Democrats, the CDA, the liberal VVD and the hard right LPF (List Pim Fortuyn, whose leader was shot dead last May), collapsed on the 16 October. […]

OVER 800 people, including a state minister, were killed by the Islamic militant groups during legislative assembly elections in Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK).

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 […]

THE BOMBING of a tourist area on the Indonesian island of Bali has been blamed by Western governments on the Jemaah Islamiah Islamic group with links to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qa’ida terrorist network.

The Austrian section of the CWI (SLP) is standing in the 24 November general elections in Vienna and is in sixth place on the ‘voting list 6’. This is higher than the Liberals and a […]

Maavak Sozialisti (Socialist Struggle) in Israel held its formal founding conference over the last weekend (11-12 October). 25 people (mostly young) participated in the event, which exceeded our expectations and was characterised by an enthusiastic […]

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 horrific bombings at the nightclubs in Bali have left up to 300 Australians dead, the biggest toll since the 500+ killed in the Vietnam War. The victims were overwhelmingly young people, mainly working class […]

The terrifying carnage which ripped through the Sari nightclub at Kuta beach in Bali, Indonesia, has shocked working people and youth internationally. Hundreds have been left maimed and injured as the death toll rose to […]

Report of Democratic Socialist Movement conference, 5-6 October 2002

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 […]

THIRTEEN DEMONSTRATORS were arrested on 30 September, including the general secretary of the left-nationalist National Awami Party (NAP), when police baton-charged and tear-gassed a peaceful demonstration protesting against the extension of the Mangla dam in […]

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 […]

In Kenya 240,000 teachers have entered into their second week of a national strike action to demand an outstanding salary increment which they won in 1997 after the teachers paralysed the education system by going […]

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

In the Central Asia republics, national and local power as remained in the hands of the former party elite, and with the exception of Kyrgizia, the president is the former communist party [former ruling party] […]

EVERYONE SAW the copious media coverage marking the first anniversary of the 11 September attacks. But how many saw mention that this month also marks the twentieth anniversary of the massacre of at least 1,500 […]

An enormous anti-war demonstration, which one TV station estimated at 450,000 – strong, marched through London on 28 September.

UNDER PRESSURE at home and abroad, president Bush went to the UN on 12 September to call for action against Iraq.

On 22 September, the Social Democrats and Greens succeeded in defending their government position in the national elections but with a very small majority.

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

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has called a two-day general strike for 1-2 October, to protest against the ANC government’s privatisation programme.

"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 […]

The Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM), the Nigerian affiliate of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI), calls on the Nigerian working people and youth to oppose the planned military action by the US and its […]

Around 1,000 people gathered on 17 September at The Hague in the Netherlands to protest against the plans by the new coalition government (which includes the populist right wing Pim Fortuyn List) and to also […]

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 […]

TONY BLAIR said that he and Bush have decided to give Saddam Hussein "one more chance".

CWI analysis vindicated by events

At a special court hearing last Friday, a criminal court judge in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, suddenly decided that there were "no legal grounds" for holding workers’ leader, Saken Zhanusev, on remand (i.e. in prison) until his […]

The New Zealand general elections in July 2002 saw many unprecedented changes in voting patterns. The Labour Party was, with a small rise in support, able to remain in power by forming a new coalition […]

A THOUSAND people polled by The History Channel named the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon a year ago on 11 September as "the most memorable event in world history". This is […]

WILL THE United States go to war against Iraq? Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld appear determined to bring about a ‘regime change’ through a pre-emptive strike. They undoubtedly have the military power to destroy Saddam’s regime. […]

The last day of the Earth Summit completed the humiliation of the ANC government in what it had hoped would be its finest hour. ‘Civil society’ delegates walked out in disgust, Colin Powell was shouted down […]