The Crisis of Capitalism and the tasks of the Marxists – Part Three
In the final part of his article, taken from a speech made last summer to a meeting of Marxists from around the world, Alan
Woods highlights the significance of the Iranian revolution and the
impact it will have on the whole of the Middle East and beyond. He
explains how all the conditions emerged for a successful revolution,
bar one, that of the revolutionary leadership, which must be built.
Save Our Crews! Barnsley Firefighters protest
Fire fighters from all over the country
staged a mass demonstration in Barnsley on Tuesday 28th September in
support of South Yorkshire fire-fighters, who are
protesting against an arbitrary change of shift patterns forced upon them by
ultimatum by their bosses, South Yorkshire Fire Authority.
Picket Of Honduras Embassy
Socialists, trade unionists and activists are invited to an emergency
picket of the Honduras Embassy this Monday, 5th October between 4.00pm
and 6.00pm.
German elections usher in a new period of instability
Sunday’s elections in Germany reveal an enormous
shift within the electorate. Of particular importance is the
massive decline of the SPD vote, mirrored by a huge increase in support
for DIE LINKE which stands to its left. The victory of the right-wing
parties means the German capitalists are preparing for an offensive
against the biggest and most powerful working class in Europe.
Leeds SA on campus!
Between
Wednesday 23
and Friday 25
of September, supporters of Socialist Appeal could be found running a
stall outside the University of Leeds – bringing the ideas of
Marxism onto the campus. The comrades sold 24 copies of the new
Socialist
Appeal
all-colour paper over the three days as well as other literature
Pension fund scandal lives on
Nearly two decades ago. Robert Maxwell – former Labour MP, newspaper
tycoon and (so it turned out) conman died after ‘falling’ off his luxury
boat. Soon after all the scandals he was involved in were revealed to
an amazed world. He was living a great big lie and – worst of all – it
was at the expense of those former and then-current employees of the
Maxwell-owned Mirror Group who discovered that their pension fund had been milked dry by Maxwell.
Northern Ireland – Sammy lets the cat out of the bag: what will the cuts mean for workers?
Northern Ireland: A recent paper on the public spending of
the Stormont Executive confirms that cuts are on the way, which will hit
jobs and services. How will this affect the delicate political balance set up
by the Good Friday Agreement?
Editorial: The socialist case against the cuts
You
couldn’t make it up! About two years ago the banks in Britain, the USA and all over the world began to
go bust. It started over here with Northern Rock and culminated in the USA with the
collapse of the giant Lehman Brothers, the biggest corporate bankruptcy in
history. The problem for governments was that the banks were threatening to
take whole chunks of the capitalist system over the precipice with them. The
banking collapse and the ‘credit crunch’ were the triggers for a general crisis
of capitalism.
Perspectives for the Student Movement
Nowhere is the chasm between leadership and rank and file more seemingly unbridgeable than in
the student movement. In 2009, students in the UK have spontaneously occupied
universities to protest at Israel’s
war on Gaza, to
fight against deportations of university cleaning staff, and against massive
cuts in teaching staff. At the same time, they face the worst attacks on their conditions
in living memory in the form of increasing fees, the end of grants, and the
vanishing jobs market. This is clearly an explosive combination.
Tower Hamlets Victory
The London School Students Union have dropped us a line to say that as
of yesterday (Thursday), the UCU strike at Tower Hamlets is over – the
management have capitulated and the lecturers’ demands have been met!
After a month of solid striking, which has seen strong daily pickets,
widespread and heartfelt support and large community demonstrations,
they won the dispute.
Lurgan: more tensions, but still no answers
Following a widescale and carefully orchestrated police operation
aimed at disrupting ‘dissident republican’ activity and two nights of
rioting in Lurgan, it would appear that the north of Ireland’s social
peace has not been in such a fragile state since the signing of the
Good Friday Agreement eleven years ago.