Npower, one of the ‘Big Six’ energy companies, has recently announced that it will raise its electricity and gas prices further. Even the Tories have been forced to acknowledge that the “markets aren’t working” when it comes to energy prices. We say: nationalise the energy industry without compensation!
One hundred years ago the Russian Revolution shook the capitalist world order to its foundations. We launch here our official 1917 centenary campaign, commemorating the historic events of the Russian Revolution.
In just under a week, on 23rd February, two by-elections will take place in the constituencies of Stoke-on-Trent Central and Copeland. With no clear left alternative provided by the Labour Party, UKIP are threatening to eat away at the Labour vote, particularly in Stoke. Kelly and Joe from the Sheffield Marxists examine the factors behind UKIP’s potential success.
The resounding victory for Pablo Iglesias and his list of candidates at the recent Podemos congress, the National Citizens’ Assembly, marks an important development for millions of workers and youth in Spain. At the same time, it represents a defeat for the ruling class, who hid behind the right-wing stance of Íñigo Errejón.
The last decade has seen a sharp rise in profiteering from the building and maintenance of social housing. Although most building projects have concentrated on the upper-end of the market, there has also been some public funding made available for working-class accommodation – a source of easy profits for the private firms involved.
After years of stagnation and struggle under the “Socialist” government of Hollande in France, the establishment parties have been completely discredited and the situation has grown into a full-blown political crisis. The next presidential election, taking place in the next few months, is set to be the most unpredictable in generations.
Sarah Taylor of the Newcastle Marxists looks at a little known strike that took place in Washington, near Sunderland, a centenary ago, when over 1,000 school children took part in a strike to ensure they were provided with free school lunches. Today, school students are again on the front line in the fight against austerity and the broken capitalist system.
Rob Sewell replies to the slanders and distortions presented in the Evening Standard by liberal historian Victor Sebestyen about Lenin, the Bolsheviks and the Russian Revolution in relation to the exhibition Russian Art 1917-1932 at the Royal Academy.
With around 500,000 protesters on the streets, the ongoing anti-government protests in Romania have seen the largest number of people involved since the collapse of the Ceausescu regime in 1989. These protests come after a year of rising unrest and political crisis. A mood of anger and resentment has been on the rise. But what is the nature of this movement?
Last Saturday, 11th February, around 100 students and young workers from at least 20 schools, colleges, and universities across the country gathered in London for the annual national conference of the Marxist Student Federation. The number of attendees was a fitting figure to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution.
Nearly 3,000 members of the British Airways “mixed fleet” cabin crews have walked out as part of a six-day strike aimed at fighting what their union rightly describes as poverty pay. Unless a deal is reached, a fresh four-day strike will begin on 17th February. However, British Airways (BA) bosses are digging their heels in and refusing to negotiate.
In the second of a series of videos celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, Alan Woods – editor of In Defence of Marxism, www.marxist.com – examines the lies and slanders used to attack the Revolution, the Bolsheviks, and the ideas of Lenin and Trotsky.