Archives

Alan Woods’ stirring speech and coherent argument at a
meeting of about 150 people at the UEA massively boosted the interest of
students and youth in the Venezuelan Revolution, thus proving the huge
potential in this 21st century revolution for invigorating and giving hope to
the workers and youth of the world.

The Public
Services Not Private Profit Campaign was launched last year by a number of
trade unions and John McDonnell MP as a response to the inability or perhaps
lack of will from the TUC to provide a robust response to New Labour's slash
and burn approach to public services.

The John McDonnell world tour of the North East takes place
on March the 17^th, taking in venues in Newcastle, Sunderland and
Stockton, three areas that were devastated by the Tories in the 1980's and
where today workers and their families are still waiting for New Labour to
deliver.

China hints at a tax on capital gains and the Shanghai stock exchange falls by 10%, but then the fall affects all the other major stock exchanges. What does all this indicate? Michael Roberts gives his view on the question.

Michael Meacher has announced that he is to put his name forward as a potential candidate for the leadership of the Labour Party when Blair steps down. It is another attempt to derail the growing groundswell of support for John McDonnell, whose growing popularity is seriously worrying the Blair/Brownites.  

After months of industrial action by COMMUNITY trade union members at the McKinnon Mills clothing factory at Coatbridge in North Lanarkshire, workers have won their demand for a 2.5% pay increase.

The World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University has carried out what it declares the 'most comprehensive study of personal wealth ever undertaken'. Unsurprisingly it concludes that the wealthy few are getting richer and richer at our expense.

All the figures on the British economy reveal the underlying sickness of the whole system. The indebtedness of the population has reached record levels. Now all the signs are there of a coming serious slowdown. This is what Gordon Brown will inherit as he prepares to become the next Labour Prime Minister.

The replacement of the old Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) with the PSNI has received the support of Sinn Fein leaders. This has opened up a heated debate among Republicans on whether this is acceptable or not. Here we provide three articles written by comrades of the Irish Republican Socialist Party, where they explain why Republican socialists cannot accept such a force.

George W. Bush last month announced his "new strategy" for Iraq. His speech consisted of the usual rhetoric about "establishing democracy" and "defeating the terrorists" but particularly a lot of wishful thinking. Like an about to be defeated poker player, US imperialism faces the problem every gambler has when he is losing: if he leaves the table, he won't be able to win back his losses. But a final bet can prove fatal too.

A reader has objected to some of Michael Roberts' criticisms of Andrew Glyn's latest book. Among others it deals with the question of whether profit rates in the post-war period were affected by wage increases. Roberts replies showing that the fundamental reason for the decline was the same as that stated by Marx.

Workers at ITN, the
company that provides news for ITV1 and Channel 4, have forced their management
to compromise on their controversial proposal to cut pensions and extend the
retirement age from 60 to 65.
This comes after unionised staff voted for two 24-hour strikes in response to what were felt intolerable impositions from management.