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1914 marks the 100th anniversary of the First World War. However, this week also marks the centenary of the collapse of the Second International, whose leaders – on the 4th August 1914 – voted for the war credits in the German Reichstag, paving the war for the first imperialist war of the 20th Century. Rob Sewell looks back at this great betrayal.
We publish here the second part of our analysis of the recent elections in India and the state of the Left in the world’s second most populous country. The election of Modi will only be a prelude to a future of crisis and class struggle in India.
Sam Hall looks at the analysis presented in a recent UN report, which reveals the truth about forced migration and asylum seeking. The report is a condemnation of the political and economic situation in the world at the moment, highlighting the grinding poverty and terrible conflict that is the product of global capitalism.
In the Presidential elections held at the beginning of June, Assad was declared the winner with 88.7% of the vote. Whilst the election result is clearly exaggerated, it is still the case that a significant section of the population is backing Assad. Why is this?
For over forty years now privatisation has been at the core of right-wing economic thinking and strategy, pursued by both the Tories and New Labour alike. It was initially presented to us as a means of reducing the “bloated” state structure, cutting overheads, making public services and industries “more efficient” and so on. Reality has turned out to be quite the reverse.
As housing prices continue to soar, we publish here a report from Pete Gilman a Unite and Labour Party member in Islington, London, who looks at how rented accomodation is providing huge profits for big business and their Tory chums at our expense.
India has seen two very powerful general strikes in the past two years, revealing a sharp class polarisation in the country, and yet we have the disastrous result in the recent Indian elections for the Communist and left parties. This apparent contradiction has brought into sharp focus the role of the leaders of these parties and their total inability to offer a way out of the impasse they themselves have been responsible for creating.
The defeat of the attempts by the counter-revolutionary opposition to overthrow the Venezuelan government by force has given way to a wide debate amongst the Bolivarian rank and file about economic policy. Jorge Martin of the Hands Off Venezuela campaign analyses the latest events and debates in Venezuela.
News that the IMF might consider allowing the Irish government to pay off a large chunk of the bailout debt will no doubt be heralded as a great victory for the Coalition in Ireland. Séamus Loughlin from Fightback Ireland explains the reality: that the impact of this deal will only be felt as a ripple on the balance sheet.
We publish here the latest info on the blacklisting scandal from the Blacklist Support Group. Following the rejection of a public inquiry into national scandal of blacklisting by Tory Prime Minister David Cameron, the Labour Party has taken a welcome step forward by commiting to holding a full inquiry on the question of blacklisting if elected into government.
Health & Safety (H&S) issues have come to the fore again at Total’s Shetland Gas Plant (SGB), with hundreds of engineering construction workers refusing to work due to safety concerns. A Unite member report on the latest action by workers at the SGB.
Saturday 26th July saw another wave of protests in Britain against the military aggression of the Israeli state, who have continued their criminal attacks on the innocent people of Gaza. We publish here brief reports of two of the demonstrations in the UK from Socialist Appeal supporters in London and Newcastle.