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October 2011

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Rome: October 15 – half a million people protest against the ECB and austerity measures

On October
15, Rome saw one of the biggest demonstrations of the last few years in
Italy. Up to half a million people flooded the streets of the capital.
Not only was this a huge demonstration in terms of the numbers taking
part, but even more significantly you could hear the most radical
slogans of the last decade. The masses, inspired by Athens, Madrid and
New York, chanted “we don’t want to pay the debt”, “No to austerity”,
“No to the dictatorship of the ECB and the banks”, etc.

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The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists – A Two Handed Play, Review

Whilst chatting with students at Worcester University, I was presented
with a flyer for a production of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
that night in the university, an opportunity not to miss. However my
expectation of a theatrical interpretation of this socialist classic by
just two actors was very low but this was blown away as soon as the
performance began.

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N. Ireland: Free Marian Price!

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The decision of the Secretary Of
State to revoke Marian Price’s release from prison has been met with
widespread opposition from the Republican movement. The justification
given was that the threat that she poses has “significantly increased”
and that she had been encouraging support for an illegal organisation
based on her involvement in an Easter comm

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Cambridge Students Union calls on Students to Strike!

As the crisis of capitalism continues
to pile attack after attack on living standards, the student and labour
movements in Britain are preparing for their largest mobilisations in
decades and crucially are coalescing this Autumn into a momentous month
of activity in November. No one can deny that the national student
demonstration (9th November) and the coordinated strike action (30th
November) are really part of the same struggle.

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Occupy Wall St. – Letter from a participant

Today ULU Marxists received a letter from a student at New York University (NYU),
Cecilia Gingerich, who was a member of the University of London Marxist
Society while studying in London in the spring of 2010. She is now a
participant in Occupy Wall Street and in her letter gives a first hand
account of her experience of the movement from the beginning, her
narrowly escaping the mass arrest of the 700 protestors on October 1st
and the impact that had on the movement in the following days. Now the
unions have joined the protestors on Wall Street, along with walk-outs
from high schools and colleges, which Cecilia has participated with
students from her own university.

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Militant Students at Freshers Fairs

Marxist ideas have never been more relevant and more needed than in this
present epoch. Students, especially those entering university for the
first time, have become radicalised and are asking profound questions
about our society. Above all they want to change society in a
revolutionary way – from Wall Street to Cairo radicalised students are
demanding a different kind of society and are experimenting with
different methods of mobilisation to effect that. Underneath this
process lies a thirst for revolutionary ideas. This enthusiasm was
certainly experienced by Militant Student supporters up and down the
country as they took part in freshers fairs.

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The impending default and the new wave of working class revolt in Greece

The
financial crisis in Greece is constantly in the headlines and focusing
everyone’ attention on what it could lead to. As we have explained
before, the reason for this is not due to the objective economic weight
of the Greek economy within European and world capitalism. In absolute
terms Greece only accounts for 2% of the European Union’s GDP and even
its public debt is only 3% of the total public debt of the Eurozone. The
point is, however, that Greece is the weakest link in European
capitalism which is now at the centre of the global capitalist crisis.

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USA: Wall Street rocked by anti-capitalist protests – time to build a labor party!

Last week Wall Street was rocked by a mass demonstration of over 15,000 people
protesting against “corporate greed.” The crowd jammed the square and
stretched for blocks along Broadway. This unprecedented protest was a
manifestation of the mood of anger, bitterness and frustration that has
been accumulating for years in American society, which had already
previously erupted in the big demonstrations and walkouts in Madison,
Wisconsin, culminating in the occupation of the Capitol.

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USA: Youth hits the streets

“Enough is enough! We are the 99%!”
This is the sentiment being expressed by the brave youth now occupying
Freedom Plaza in New York City, just a few feet away from Wall Street.
This is the pent-up feeling of millions—no—billions of people around the
world. Enough unemployment! Enough war! Enough poverty! Enough
discrimination!"  The Wall Street campaign is growing – here is what the US Marxists have to say.

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Theresa May and the cat that never was

The Tory Party conference is the place where leading Conservatives get
to "let their hair down" and head off into flights of fancy about giving
the working class/young people/foreigners (delete as applicable) a good
hammering. This is not just to cuddle up to the Torygraph and the Daily
Mail but to square things with the assembled Tory ranks in case they
are needed for election purposes.

Battle of Cable Street mural

Cable Street 1936: An historic stand remembered

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The 4th October marks the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street, a momentous event in which the working people of London united to deliver a decisive blow against the menace of  British fascism. In this article, Andy Southwark commemorates the brave stand of those workers who fought the Mosleyite thugs, while drawing important lessons for today’s struggles against the English Defence League and BNP.

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