The latest news and analysis from The Communist, alongside reports of our activity. For Marxist theory and history, click here.
Honduras: In a previous article we pointed to
the fact that the Tegucigalpa/San José Accord signed on October 30 was
a farce. Events have now confirmed that we were right. To accept the
agreement now would be a betrayal of the mass movement. What is
required now is an active boycott, combined with mass mobilisation for
the overthrow of the present illegitimate regime
Saturday November 14th saw the Scottish Defence
League’s attempt at a Glasgow
city centre rally fail miserably. The group spent most of the day confined in a
pub, protected by hundreds of police, before being forced onto chartered buses
in the face of a much larger counter demonstration. However, the story is not
simply one of the far right being driven from the streets by a left wing
demonstration. There are many political lessons to be learned from Saturday’s
events and the lead up to it which are important for those attempting to
effectively oppose the English Defence League and its Scottish ally
The Glasgow North East By-election was billed by political
commentators as a final test for Gordon Brown and his leadership of the Labour
Party. If he was to loose another Labour heartland seat in Glasgow to the Scottish National Party (SNP)
then he would struggle to hold on to his position as party leader. Despite many
early predictions to the contrary, Labour held on to the seat (formerly held by
the speaker and therefore previously benefiting from no opposition from Tories
or Lib-Dems) and actually managed to increase their percentage of the vote. But
this hides the real story. Labour got 3,000 less votes than they did in 2005, these
votes did not fall to the Nationalist, who lost 1,000 votes on last time but
instead fell into mass abstentions making this the lowest turn-out in a
Scottish by-election ever.
New
Labour, the government that introduced tuition fees and student loans in 1998 and
then narrowly passed a bill to introduce top-up fees of £3,200 per year from
2006, have recently launched a “higher education finance review” to look into
raising the cap on tuition fees (possibly up to £7000 per year) and examine the
way in which universities should be funded. The appointment of Lord Browne, a
friend of Peter Mandelson and former chief of the multinational oil-giant BP,
to chair the fees review has not done anything to encourage university
students, who already face the prospect of an accumulated debt of over £23,000
upon graduation.
Students at the London College of
Communication occupied the main lecture hall as part of a campaign to
oppose planned cutbacks.The action started on Monday night and
continued untill Wednesday afternoon. The decision to occupy was taken after a meeting on 9th
of November where management refused to compromise on a “restructuring” plan
that will involve course closers and staff redundancies, which have already amounted to over 150.
“Poor Mexico! So far from God, so near to the United States.” The
famous words of Porfirio Díaz are truer today than at any time in the
tempestuous history of this country. The crisis of world capitalism has
hit Mexico hard. And its extreme dependence on the USA, which
previously was presented as something beneficial to the Mexican
economy, has turned out to be a colossal problem.
Last week, a mob from the English Defence League (EDL), a rag-tag collection of football
‘service crews’ and other assorted hooligan and racist elements, mobilised in
the northern city of Leeds. Clearly hoping to capitalise on their ‘successes’
in Manchester (where they managed to mobilise several hundred people) and Luton
(where the absence of any counter-mobilisation by the labour movement allowed
the EDL’s thugs to attack Muslims in the street), several hundred of these
fascist yobs gathered in City Square. Over 1500 (see picture) came to oppose them.
Over the last few months we have posted reports on strike actions involving bus workers in Northumberland, Doncaster, Manchester and Essex. Now action has arrived in the capital city itself. Bus workers in East London are out today in a dispute over wages and conditions – and the red flags are flying in Romford!
A lot of noise had been made about
the so-called “reinstatement of Zelaya”, but is that what is really
happening? So far a lot of wheeling and dealing has taken place, but no
concrete steps to put Zelaya back as the legitimate president. We will
see in the coming days how real this agreement is.
Cynicism is a very useful tool for
those in power. Although it inherently expresses a sense of
dissatisfaction, it offers nothing as a way out. The charade of the
two-party system has done a lot of damage to American workers’
perception of politics in general, and created a situation where
cynicism and apparent apathy is widespread. What is needed in the US is
a party that represents working people. Such a party would go far in
combatting the cynical and apathetic attitudes of many toward politics,
as there would finally be a force led by workers in the interests of
workers.
Why is New Labour hurling yet more of our
money at the banks? The London ‘Metro’
screams that the latest deal is the “World’s biggest bank bailout.” It’s
costing every household in Britain £2,000, on top of all the money wasted last
time round
This plan costs nearly £40bn, more than the
£37bn the government pumped in to the banks a year ago. £40bn would build more
than 1,500 schools, but the banks, we are told, are more important than our
kids’ future. Brown boasted last year that he had ‘saved the world.’ Not quite,
it seems. Now the banks are in further financial difficulties and back with
their begging bowls.