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As
Portugal’s right-wing government announced the harshest austerity cuts
in the country’s history, economic forecasts were revised down and the
main trade union confederations CGTP and UGT announced the calling of a
general strike.
On October
15, Rome saw one of the biggest demonstrations of the last few years in
Italy. Up to half a million people flooded the streets of the capital.
Not only was this a huge demonstration in terms of the numbers taking
part, but even more significantly you could hear the most radical
slogans of the last decade. The masses, inspired by Athens, Madrid and
New York, chanted “we don’t want to pay the debt”, “No to austerity”,
“No to the dictatorship of the ECB and the banks”, etc.
The decision of the Secretary Of
State to revoke Marian Price’s release from prison has been met with
widespread opposition from the Republican movement. The justification
given was that the threat that she poses has “significantly increased”
and that she had been encouraging support for an illegal organisation
based on her involvement in an Easter comm
As the crisis of capitalism continues
to pile attack after attack on living standards, the student and labour
movements in Britain are preparing for their largest mobilisations in
decades and crucially are coalescing this Autumn into a momentous month
of activity in November. No one can deny that the national student
demonstration (9th November) and the coordinated strike action (30th
November) are really part of the same struggle.
Today ULU Marxists received a letter from a student at New York University (NYU),
Cecilia Gingerich, who was a member of the University of London Marxist
Society while studying in London in the spring of 2010. She is now a
participant in Occupy Wall Street and in her letter gives a first hand
account of her experience of the movement from the beginning, her
narrowly escaping the mass arrest of the 700 protestors on October 1st
and the impact that had on the movement in the following days. Now the
unions have joined the protestors on Wall Street, along with walk-outs
from high schools and colleges, which Cecilia has participated with
students from her own university.
Marxist ideas have never been more relevant and more needed than in this
present epoch. Students, especially those entering university for the
first time, have become radicalised and are asking profound questions
about our society. Above all they want to change society in a
revolutionary way – from Wall Street to Cairo radicalised students are
demanding a different kind of society and are experimenting with
different methods of mobilisation to effect that. Underneath this
process lies a thirst for revolutionary ideas. This enthusiasm was
certainly experienced by Militant Student supporters up and down the
country as they took part in freshers fairs.
The
financial crisis in Greece is constantly in the headlines and focusing
everyone’ attention on what it could lead to. As we have explained
before, the reason for this is not due to the objective economic weight
of the Greek economy within European and world capitalism. In absolute
terms Greece only accounts for 2% of the European Union’s GDP and even
its public debt is only 3% of the total public debt of the Eurozone. The
point is, however, that Greece is the weakest link in European
capitalism which is now at the centre of the global capitalist crisis.
Last week Wall Street was rocked by a mass demonstration of over 15,000 people
protesting against “corporate greed.” The crowd jammed the square and
stretched for blocks along Broadway. This unprecedented protest was a
manifestation of the mood of anger, bitterness and frustration that has
been accumulating for years in American society, which had already
previously erupted in the big demonstrations and walkouts in Madison,
Wisconsin, culminating in the occupation of the Capitol.
“Enough is enough! We are the 99%!”
This is the sentiment being expressed by the brave youth now occupying
Freedom Plaza in New York City, just a few feet away from Wall Street.
This is the pent-up feeling of millions—no—billions of people around the
world. Enough unemployment! Enough war! Enough poverty! Enough
discrimination!" The Wall Street campaign is growing – here is what the US Marxists have to say.
The Tory Party conference is the place where leading Conservatives get
to "let their hair down" and head off into flights of fancy about giving
the working class/young people/foreigners (delete as applicable) a good
hammering. This is not just to cuddle up to the Torygraph and the Daily
Mail but to square things with the assembled Tory ranks in case they
are needed for election purposes.
The 24 hour strike by UNISON members to defend Health and
Education Services in Northern Ireland is an indication of the scale of the
crisis in the public sector. But its also the most significant trade
union struggle to hit the North since the onset of the current economic
crisis.
On Sunday October 2nd, some 40,000 trade
unionists and anti-cuts campaigners took part in a March for the Alternative
through the streets of Manchester city centre to lobby the Tory Party
Conference. Although this was a national TUC organised event it was obvious
that most of those present came from the North and North West of the UK with
only a sprinkling further south from Wales, Bristol and some parts of London.