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In the middle of the night of the 31st of May, 64 km off the coast,
Israeli commandos rappelled down from helicopters onto the 6 ship
flotilla. Activists say they boarded the ships firing. The Israeli
government decided to use deadly force to maintain their blockade of
the Gaza strip, provoking waves of protest. These events have exposed
the policy of Israeli imperialism to the masses everywhere: Gaza is a
ghetto, kept in starvation conditions, and no one may interfere. This
will have effects across the world, even in Israel itself.

What has the banking crisis cost us all? Andrew Haldane of the Bank of
England has tried to work it all out in a paper called ‘The $100
billion question’.

In
the second part of his article, Alan Woods looks at the dire economic
situation the European Union faces. He also analyses the effects of the
European crisis on the world economy.

We publish here an article which looks at thge Labour leadership campaign from an Irish point of view.

As part of their visit to Britain in May 2010 to attend the Hands
Off Venezuela conference, Venezuelan revolutionaries Katy Jaimes and
Elias Chacón also spoke at fringe meetings at the conferences of the
Public Commercial and Services Union in Brighton and the Communication
Workers Union in Bournemouth

After talk of the so called "credit crunch" gave way to optimistic
comments about the "green shoots" in the economy, events in Greece
caught the bourgeois commentators unaware. Now the world economy has
once again been plunged into chaos and uncertainty as the governments
of Europe try to contain the fall-out from the near-default of Greece
and it is the workers who will be presented with the bill.

The Labour Representation Committee (LRC) has
issued the following press release outlining union support for John
McDonnell to be on the ballot for Labour leader.

Under
heavy Gardaí surveillance, including a helicopter, a crowd of over 1500
filled up Molesworth St, opposite the Dáil’s gates on the 18th
May. It was the second protest, after the 11th of May, organised by the
Right to Work Campaign (RWC) sponsored by the union UNITE and the
support of all the left groups with presence in Dublin, including SF.
There were also two banners of the Labour party, although this party is
not officially supporting the protest.

With Labour Party officials now having been forced by pressure
from below into extending the time period for MPs to nominate for the
position of Labour leader, the campaign to get John McDonnell onto the
ballot has been given a new impetus. As part of this Jerry
Hicks, the left candidate for the position of Unite General Secretary,
has issued a press release giving support to John:

For all those of us who had hoped that
the Labour Party leadership election campaign might bring some serious
debate
on the need for socialist policies, we have this morning received yet
another
blow. After the NEC decided to make the period for candidates to collect
nominations from MP a mere four days (24-27 May), in the way of the
uphill
struggle for John McDonnell has been placed another formidable obstacle
in
Diane Abbott.

Against the backdrop of a Con-Lib
government intent on savagely cutting public spending to make working
people
pay for the crisis of the capitalist system, the annual Conference of
Trades Councils
took place in Blackpool on the weekend of May
15^th and 16^th.

On
Monday, May 17th, 1.3 million ballot papers will go out for an election
that has the potential to worry the ruling class even more than the
general election, which we were told had world financial markets in
jitters.