1917: From July to October
As part of the build-up to the 93rd anniversary of the Russian
Revolution of November 1917, we reproduce here chapter 26 of Leon
Trotsky’s My Life, headed From July to October.
Where is the Venezuelan revolution going?
A contribution to the discussion on property and the tasks of the revolution.
The September elections in Venezuela have posed some
serious questions before the Bolivarian Revolution. The opposition has
organized a noisy campaign in the media to present themselves as
"winners", despite the fact that they lost. What is the purpose of this
campaign?
Fighting The Cuts
As the scale of the cuts start to sink in, we look at the background to this crisis and ask – why has this happened?
Notes of a traveller in France: “here we go, here we go”
Comrades on holiday in France get a taste of the protests taking place there!
Support NUJ members fighting for fair pensions at BBC
NUJ members at the BBC have voted by 70% to reject the latest offer
from the management on pension changes and are intending to take action
by striking for 48 hours on 5 and 6 November and again on 15 and 16
November with further dates to be named in the coming days. Here is the
text of an appeal now being circulated.
Here we go…
PRESS RELEASE FROM THE JERRY HICKS CAMPAIGN. Up and down the country, hundreds of workplaces
have already been leafleted, but the next two weeks are
crucial even though we will be doing stuff until the final
day of balloting [19th November] Unite
member or not, everyone will be affected by the result and
who becomes the General Secretary of Unite.
France: a general strike needed to defeat the government
On Friday, October 22, finally the
French government managed to get the pensions reform passed through the
Senate. The increasingly unpopular government of Sarkozy, faced with an
unprecedented movement of strikes, demonstrations, road blockades, mass
pickets and general assemblies, hoped that this, together with the
beginning of the All Saints school holidays, would bring the mass
movement to a halt. This does not seem to be happening, however.
Currency wars: what’s next?
Although everyone has claimed that they have learned the lessons of the
1930s, the ruling classes are again engaging in the same policies that
proved so calamitous 80 years ago. Deep tensions inside the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) have recently emerged over currency
manipulation as countries take action to defend their own national
interests against their rivals
Public vs Private
Since the days of the Thatcher government, public sector workers have
had to live with the repeatedly stated ‘fact’ that the private sector is
supposed to be better, more efficient and cheaper at providing services
than the public one. This was the stated logic behind decades of
privatisation and outsourcing.
Browne Review: Education for profit?
Given the cuts already announced to Higher Education (HE), a leading
group of professors was asked by The Guardian (19th October) what HE
would look like in 10 years given the Browne report. The comments were
startling but not surprising.
Browne Review: Fight cuts in education
October 12th was a dark day in the history of British education. Lord
Browne’s review, set up to find ways to off load the burden of higher
education from the state’s balance sheets, went significantly further
than had been expected. In announcing that there should be a complete
free market in higher education, with universities able to charge
whatever they like, Browne signalled that the crisis of capitalism has
forced the government to go much quicker and deeper in their plans to
remould higher education than they had expected.
20,000 march in Edinburgh against public sector cuts
On Saturday 20,000 people marched through
the streets of Edinburgh to show their opposition to cuts in public services.
The march was called by the Scottish Trade Union Congress to launch their
“There is a Better Way” campaign, which they have described as the beginning of
the fight against Tory cuts north of the border.