The introduction of capitalism, accompanied by rapid industrialisation
over the last 30 years, has turned China into a seething cauldron of
discontent. Conditions faced by the workers, many of them migrants with
no rights, are similar to Victorian times in Britain. “Masses of
labourers, crowded into factories, are organised like soldiers”,
explained Marx and Engels in the Communist Manifesto, which is a fitting
description of working life in China today. The scene is being set for a
massive social explosion.

Greece stands on the threshold of a revolutionary situation. In the last
period two million workers and youth have repeatedly taken to the
streets to say that enough is enough. Capitalism, which has become a
world-wide and interdependent system, today manifests itself in a global
crisis which is in turn generating an international movement. For this
reason the developments in Greece cannot be viewed in isolation, but as
the latest flashpoint in what is an interlinked chain of events.

The powerful 24-hour general strike
and the mass demonstrations of June 15 in Greece demonstrated how deep
the anger of the Greek working masses runs. It served to send the ruling
class a warning: that this is no ordinary protest movement, but one
with revolutionary connotations. That is why they hurriedly patched
together a new government, in the hope of cutting across the movement.
But to no avail!