China has been making news due to its powerful
economic growth. The other side of this story, however, is to be found
in the terrible conditions and low pay that many of its workers have to
suffer. Here is one example of a milkman.
The Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign
has launched Revolutionary Flood Relief and Protest Committees across
Pakistan, especially in the intensely affected areas, to conduct an
efficient and effective rescue and relief effort. Fifty seven camps from
this campaign have been set up in various regions and the PTUDC is appealing for
help.
On Thursday, July 22, Venezuelan
president Chávez decided to put the
border with Colombia on maximum military alert, after Colombian
president Alvaro Uribe made accusations that Venezuela was harbouring
FARC guerrillas and demanded an “international commission of enquiry”.
The FIAT plant at Pomigliano d’Arco
(Naples) has become the centre of attention for all militant trade
unionists in Italy. The bosses are trying to implement new draconian
work conditions and in the process have used all kinds of bullying
methods. But they can push too far and the workers are reaching the
limit and preparing to fight back.
The recent G20 summit in Toronto brought
to the surface all the
contradictions of global capitalism. Every capitalist nation wants to
climb out of the crisis at the expense of its competitors. Everyone is
calling for demand to be kept up, while at the same time applying cuts
in public spending at home. At the heart of this are the mountains of
debt that have accumulated everywhere.
The public clash between Obama and his
top general in Afghanistan
highlight the difficulties US imperialism is facing in what is clearly
an unwinnable war. What the general has done is to express in public
what is normally reserved for private conversation, but it does bring
out clearly the impasse the US is facing in Afghanistan.
The mood leading up to this weekend’s G20
summit and the protest
against it became increasingly tense throughout the week. The police
and the state spent plenty of time informing the public of its vast
arsenal, troop numbers, facilities, and readiness to defend the
fence—itself a graphic symbol of the growing class divide not only here
in Canada, but around the world. Rob Lyon reports on the action on the streets.
Alan Woods concludes his analysis of the unfolding crisis of capitalism
in Europe and how it is impacting on the organisations of the working
class.
Alan Woods continues his analysis of the crisis facing European capitalism and their institutions.
After months of build up, the World Cup is finally underway. As it
approaches the end of the first week, in what is a month-long bloated
competition, something has become rather clear. Hype is
everything.
Marxists in the US have just finished discussing and agreeing a new perspectives doument on the ongoing crisis of the system in America. Given the importance of what happens in the most powerful capitalist country on earth, we are reproducing that document for UK readers.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, June 1 and
2, most workers returned to work at the Honda plant in Foshan, China,
after strike action which had started on May 17. As www.marxist.com reported
earlier, the workers were fighting for substantial wage increases.