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The latest news and analysis from The Communist, alongside reports of our activity. For Marxist theory and history, click here.

US elections: Welcome to the “School of the Democrats”

US elections: Welcome to the “School of the Democrats”


The U.S. has elected a new president,
Barack Hussein Obama. Along with the dramatic turn in the economic situation,
this marks a definite turning point in the history of the country and of the
world. Big illusions have been created that Obama will provide “change”. What
American workers have voted for is an end to policies that benefit the rich,
but Obama does not represent real change. In the coming years workers will
learn from real life experience that what is required is a genuine voice of the
US working class, and that can only be a mass party of labor.

Back to Corporate Welfare

Back to Corporate Welfare

US Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich described the
$700bn bail-out of the US banks by the Bush administration as: “The largest
single act of class warfare in the modern history of this country” In Britain £50bn is being doled out in a similar scheme.
That’s approximately £833 for every man, woman and child in the country, or
£1,500 for every taxpayer. If someone was to help themselves to £1,500 of your
money and spend it wouldn’t you at least want to know how and why? Yet the
language saturating the media is full of panic and obfuscation.

London Bus Strike – United Action

London Bus Strike – United Action

,

6,000 London bus workers from 3 different companies have been taking
co-ordinated strike action in pursuit of a basic wage of £30,000. Since
privatisation, drivers from different companies have different wages
and conditions. The companies argue that they need to be competitive,
i.e. offer lower wages than competitors to get work. There is no
justification for bus drivers being on different rates of pay if they
do the same job. This strike has been building up for years and is long
overdue.

The U.S. Elections and the Working Class

The U.S. Elections and the Working Class

Elections can reveal a lot about a country, and the fast-approaching
U.S. presidential election is proving to be no exception. Above all,
the current election shows just how much working Americans need their
own political representation. This fact is expressed and cynically
taken advantage of by Barack Obama’s campaign slogan: “Change We Can
Believe In.” Even the “old guard” represented by John McCain has had to
raise the idea of change in his campaign rhetoric.

US Elections: Just Who is Joe Biden?

US Elections: Just Who is Joe Biden?

Millions have hoped against hope that Barack Obama represents real
change. But these sincere hopes were dealt another blow with the
selection of Senator Joseph Biden from Delaware as Obama’s vice
presidential running mate. Biden has had a long career in politics, and
is often portrayed as a “liberal.” However, a brief look at his
policies only goes to show the sorry state that bourgeois liberalism
finds itself in!

Editorial: Now for the economic fall out

Editorial: Now for the economic fall out

Sooner or later the financial tsunami will run into the sand, but in
its wake the real economy will be left in recession. The immediate
crisis will have abated, but the sludge, mud, sewage and devastation
lasts much longer. They’re still mopping up the mud from the 2007
floods… how long will the recession last and how deep will it go?

ULU Marxists: In the Footsteps of Marx

ULU Marxists: In the Footsteps of Marx

A successful ‘Marx in London’ tour was organised last
Saturday by ULU Marxists as part of its activities in promoting the ideas of
Marxism. About 20 students came on the tour to see the sights where Marx
worked, lived and drank in London. Rob Sewell introduced the tour with an account of Marx’s
life and times.

Education Grants to Working Class Families being cut

Education Grants to Working Class Families being cut

Following the government’s £50 billion plus handout to the
banks and city gents, they are now short of cash. We can all expect to be
forced to pay for this through higher taxes and cuts in government services,
with the money from the taxes used to fund the millionaires’ bailout. For
students going to university this has begun sooner than expected.

Iceland – what happened?

Iceland – what happened?

“The
Icelandic economy is prosperous and flexible” (IMF 4 July 2008)

(There
is) “a very real danger…that the Icelandic economy, in the worst case, could
be sucked with the banks into the whirlpool and the result could be national
bankruptcy.” (Iceland’s Prime Minister Geir Haarde – address to the nation 6
October 2008)

What happened to Iceland in the period of three
months to explain this change?

Youth radicalisation in Japan

Youth radicalisation in Japan

Communism is
suddenly back in fashion in Japan. The reason is not hard to seek. ‘Lifetime
employment’ is a thing of the past for young workers, who face a casualised and
insecure future. One in three is temping. Some 44% of country’s workforce are
part-time only, while a profusion of short-term contracts has created a
generation of freelancers who are often ‘between jobs’. They have already worked
out that, as recession bites, they will be first in the firing line. They are
drawing political conclusions in increasing numbers.

Rural reform and revolt in China

Rural reform and revolt in China

China’s urbanization process has
reached a critical juncture. Inequality between town and country is producing
explosive revolts surrounding the cities. The problem of how to contain these
revolts is at the core of policy making and is reflected in conflicts inside
the Central Committee of the ruling Communist Party.

 

The background to this is that rural
rebellions have escalated over recent years. Yu Jianrong director of the Rural
Development Institute’s Social Issues Research Center at the Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences gave explicit warnings to the Chinese leadership of a revolutionary crisis developing in
the countryside and new proletarian zones in the interior provinces. 

Capitalism has failed utterly

Capitalism has failed utterly

Over the past couple of weeks, Britain,
many other European countries and the US have announced plans to nationalise
large chunks of the financial sector, thereby taking a good proportion of the
commanding heights of the economy into public ownership. The British government
has been forced to effectively part-nationalise three of the country’s biggest
banks, RBS, Lloyds TSB and HBOS. The plan, which includes putting treasury-appointees
on the boards of all three banks, will cost the taxpayer in the region of £37
billion. Many of the major European powers are unveiling similar plans, and
even the US, the ideological bastion of free-market capitalism, has been forced
to invest $250 billion into buying stakes in nine of its banks (though these
‘non-voting preference shares’ mean the US government will have no direct control
over the running of these banks).

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