Review: The Power Of Yes
Mick Brooks reviews a new play by David Hare which deals with the events surrounding the start of the great financial crisis.
Soldiers for hire
Exploitation and robbery – colonial style – is alive and well and now, more than ever
mercenary soldiers are doing the dirty work. Unaccountable and secretive,contracted armies are the preferred method powerful western states use to destabilize governments and secure control of natural resources. With state complicity, soldiers for hire are uninhibited by fear of prosecution and use what ever means necessary to undermine national liberation movements and impose imperialist chains and the rule of Western big business.
Bolshevism and Stalinism
The history of the Russian Revolution is intimately associated with the names of Lenin and Trotsky, its two great leaders. They attracted all the praise and they bore all the hatred. The reason for this is not difficult to understand. The October Russian Revolution, led by the Bolshevik Party, was the greatest event in history. For the first time, the workers and peasant took power into their hands, swept aside the landlords and capitalists, and proceeded to organise a democratic workers’ Soviet Republic.
The authority of the new Soviet government rested upon a congress of soviets (workers’ committees) elected from factories and barracks.
The next recession
The deepest and longest economic recession in the advanced capitalist economies since the 1930s is more or less over. But it won’t be long before capitalism plunges into another. That won’t happen in 2010, but there will be another economic slump before the new decade is out.
Interpol plots with Iranian regime
The international police organisation INTERPOL has posted wanted alerts on a number of Iranian political dissidents. This revelation follows in the wake of the December 26-27th protests in Iran which drew millions onto the streets nationwide. Clashes with police led to military units being ordered to fire on demonstrators, an order which is alleged to have been disobeyed.
Solidarity with UNITE strikers @ Fujitsu
Unite members at the Fujitsu plant in Manchester are taking action in defence of jobs, pay and pensions. An appeal to the labour and trade union movement to give support has been sent out from Manchester Trades Council. Click on the heading to find out more.
TSSA Members Strike to Defend Rail Services.
Members of the Rail union TSSA came out on strike this week. Darrall Cozens, a former TSSA member himself, explains the background to this dispute and why your ticket matters!
The Relevance of Marxism Today
The current recession has given people a thirst for knowledge;
a desire to understand what is happening. People no longer need to be convinced
of the failure of Capitalism – they can see and experience it for themselves.
The public look to the bourgeois economists and reformist politicians for
answers and they get no explanation other than some muttering about “greedy
bankers”. This article published by a Cambridge student magazine explains what the Cambridge Marxists have to say about this.
2009: recession and class struggle
It is customary at this time of year to look back over the events of the last 12 months. In this article published in the final issue of Socialist Appeal for 2009, Terry McPartlan takes a trip back over the highs and lows of the year (and decade) now ending.
Turmoil, Floods and Crisis: Ireland in 2009
The last
year has marked a huge turning point in the Irish economy and most
importantly a huge shift in the relations between the classes in
Ireland. While the Celtic Tiger had been on life support for a while,
2009 saw a huge crisis that has had massive economic consequences and
political change that will play out for a whole period. This year
represented a shift from one historical period to another; a whole new
perspective has opened up for Irish society, not just in the 26
counties, but increasingly across the whole island as the impact of the
capitalist crisis begins to be felt to its full extent in the north.
Editorial: 2010 Elections, austerity and struggle
New Year is meant to represent a new beginning, a clean
slate. Old Father Time gives way to a new bouncing baby. But what can we expect
in 2010? Will it be a new shiny outlook
for world capitalism or will 2009 just seem to be dragging on under a new name?