Ashes and Diamonds
The Ashes & Diamonds exhibition will be on show at Wortley Hall, see www.wortleyhall.org.uk from November
7th – 12th.
News and analysis
The latest news and analysis from The Communist, alongside reports of our activity. For Marxist theory and history, click here.
Greece: The first death, but millions are in an all-out struggle
On Thursday in Athens during the mass
workers’ protests we saw the state collaborating with hooligans and
provocateurs against the labour movement. What is now required is a
political general strike! Here we publish a statement by the Greek
Marxists of Marxistiki Foni.
After the death of Gaddafi: Revolution and counterrevolution in Libya
The death of Gaddafi and the final collapse of his regime closes one chapter. However, this merely marks one turning point in the situation. Now that the old regime is finally gone, a struggle will open up over the future of Libya. In this struggle we will see the forces of both revolution and counter-revolution trying to get the upper hand. Here we publish an analysis of the situation by Alan Woods.
Capitalism’s Lost Generation
A new International Labour Organisation reports says that as much as 50%
of youth are now unemployed in many countries. Capitalist crisis has
meant soaring unemployment especially amongst the young. The report
warns of difficult years ahead where young people may resort to violence
to vent their anger at governments worldwide.
After The Fox: Tories and big business
As the Coalition intensifies its attacks on working people, it
clearly reveals itself as a government completely in the pockets of big
business. In fact it is a government of the stinking rich, for the
stinking rich, by the stinking rich.
Greece October 19-20: After earth-shattering general strike –what next?
Today
(October 19), the first day of the 48-hour general strike in Greece was
sensational. Apart from the government and public utilities workers that
participated in the strike massively, hundreds of thousands of workers
from the private sector came out on strike for the first time, and also
joining the millions of striking workers were tens of thousands of small
businesspeople and shopkeepers who closed the shutters to their shops
in solidarity.
Portugal: right wing government’s austerity cuts prepare social explosion
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.
Rome: October 15 – half a million people protest against the ECB and austerity measures
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.
N. Ireland: Free Marian Price!
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
Cambridge Students Union calls on Students to Strike!
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.
Occupy Wall St. – Letter from a participant
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.
Militant Students at Freshers Fairs
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.