Tiananmen Square 20th anniversary. What is its place in history?
In the first of two articles being posted to mark the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen events in China, Heiko Khoo looks at the significance of what happened for the workers of today
International
Tienanmen Square: 20 years on
Today marks 20 years since the tragic
defeat of the movement of workers and students in Tienanmen Square. The
massarce (also known in China as the June 4 incident) remains a
sensitive subject for the Chinese officialdom. In the second of two articles being posted on the anniversary, we are republishing an analysis by Rob
Lyon, first posted on www.marxist.com in 2004.
Euro MEPs do very well – for themselves!
This Thursday will see elections for the European Parliament taking place. For many of those who can be bothered to vote, the election will be seen as a chance to send a message about the UK MPs Expenses scandal.But are the MEPs immune from this scandal?
Sixth national congress of the CMR: Venezuelan Marxists on the verge of a turning point
Comrades from eleven states across
Venezuela, including youth leaders and important factory
representatives, gathered over the weekend to attend the sixth congress
of the CMR, a congress that highlighted the immense work done over the
past year and the important steps forward in building the Marxist
tendency within the Venezuelan labour and youth movement.
Pakistan: Malakand/Swat – a vale drenched in blood and misery, but whose war is it?
The media make out that the Taliban have genuine mass support in
Pakistan, but in this article we see how they are actually promoted by
forces within the state that see them as a useful instrument in
terrorising the local people and as a means of maintaining their own
corrupt rule. And we shouldn’t forget the role of US imperialism in
promoting them in the first place!
Swine flu: No panic, No indifference Calderon is responsible for the health crisis!
The mass panic which has gripped Britain and the rest of the world
arising from the ‘Swine Flu’ outbreak has occupied the media for nearly a
fortnight now. Schools have been shut and people are being urged to
wash their hands like crazy. However those who have contracted the flu
have described the symtoms as being like a ‘bad cold’ and all seem to
be recovering OK. Yet in Mexico – where the flu outbreak evidently
started – many have died. Why is this? Marxist.com ‘s Mexican correspondent has sent this report on who is really to blame.
The Limerick Soviet of 1919
In 1919, the workers of Limerick undertook a two-week long general strike, in which a strike committee or ‘soviet’ made steps to establish workers’ control. However, due to the betrayals of the reformist labour leaders and petty bourgeois nationalists, this inspiring episode proved to be short-lived.
Inequality grows
The United States of America is the greatest capitalist economy in the world. What does capitalism bring? Does it bring better standards of living? Does it bring happiness? Does it bring justice and fairness? Those questions have been answered elsewhere, but the short answer is ‘no’. But one thing it definitely does not bring is equality of income and wealth.
May Day: Workers on the march
Today is May Day – International Workers Day. Mick Brooks looks at the origins and traditions of May Day and why it matters.
One the events board are just some of the events taking place today and over the weekend to celebrate May Day. In London workers will be assembling at 11.30 at Clerkenwell Green to march to Trafalgar Square – see you there!
The 2009 Election Results: Reflecting the state of the class struggle in South Africa
The workers and poor of South Africa voted massively for an ANC that had
been purged of its right wing. Now that the ANC is once more in office,
the bourgeois – having failed to stop this – are putting enormous
pressure on its leaders to steer away from any radical pro-worker
policies. What is required is a struggle within the South African
labour movement to anchor its organisations to genuine socialist
policies. David van Wyk in South Africa looks at the election results and what they mean for the working class.
G20 doing nothing about environmental catastrophe in Bangladesh
One of the issues confronting the G20, and one the official communiqué is likely to duck, is the threat of climate change making parts of the globe uninhabitable. Nowhere is the peril more present and manifest than Bangladesh, home to more than 130 million people. The G20 leaders may smile for the cameras as their conflab closes, but the working people of Bangladesh are at the sharp end of capitalism’s failure to deal with threat of climate change
G20 fiddles while poor starve
The G20 is in process as we go to print. Yet we can already make predictions as to the outcome of the talks. The poor will gain nothing from the summit. The Global Monitoring Report from Unesco estimates that as a result of the slump the 390 million poorest Africans will see their income drop by around 20% – far more than in the developed world.