On Saturday, December 8, Venezuelan
president Chávez announced that he would have to undergo another
surgical intervention in Cuba. Adding that “there are always risks in
processes like this” he explained that “if anything happens to me that
hinders me [from performing as president]”, vice president Maduro is his
preference to replace him.
Marie Frederiksen, editor of the Danish Marxist paper Socialistisk Standpunkt, speaks on the rise and fall of the Comintern – the Third International that was founded by Lenin, Trotsky, and the Bolsheviks after the Russian Revolution, and which was later left in ruins due to the mistakes of the Stalinist bureaucracy.
186 Doncaster Tesco distribution drivers, members of Unite
the Union, are being sacked and replaced by drivers on cheaper rates of
pay. Many have more than 20 years
loyal service but this counts for nothing in the world of Tesco.
Far from heralding a new promise for the British economy, the 1% growth figure announced a month ago has already been buried by a pile of bad news. Few economists are looking towards 2013 with any real hope. Socialist Appeal editor Rob Sewell explains why.
In the run up to Christmas we are seeing the usual desperate appeals
from charities to raise money but the recession has meant that even
their income is now falling. At the same time, the Tory-led Coalition’s
programme of cuts, combined with job-losses and pay freezes are forcing
more and more people to rely on hand-outs from charities.
After months of waiting, the first half of the Leveson
Report into press standards has finally arrived. Two thousand pages long and
nearly a foot high in printed form, it contains a mass of data into how the
press has operated and makes many damming comments on this– the recommendations
however are what matters. Leveson’s call for an independent panel to monitor
press standards, backed up by law, to replace the discredited Press Complaints
Commission, has split the Coalition.
John Pickard, former editor of the British Marxist newspaper “Militant”, speaks at the ULU Marxist Summer School 2012 on the role played by labour in the transition from ape to man and the Marxist analysis of human evolution.
Events in Greece are once again in the
headlines, after another day of militant strike action and the new
‘deal’ agreed by the EU today (Tuesday 27 Nov). This deal to reduce Greece’s debt is
completely inadequate to solve the problem and is an insult to the Greek
working class, who have now endured years of brutal cuts whilst the EU
dithers. The only real solution to Greece’s problems is for the debt to
be cancelled and for the expropriation of capitalism in Greece and
Europe.
Anger was simmering on Tahrir Square yesterday as hundreds of thousands poured in to the square to protest against Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi and his ruling Muslim Brotherhood (MB). Across the square large banners were inscribed with slogans such as “The Muslim Brotherhood has stolen the revolution” and “The Muslim Brotherhood are liars”. Throughout the day a seemingly never-ending stream of marches reached the square from all over the ancient city. In size and radicalism yesterday’s protest was equalled only by those that overthrew the hated dictator Hosni Mubarak in January 2011.
At the moment, the Chinese capitalist
class, on the whole, is happy to go along with the status quo. They see
no alternative, and are terrified of lifting the lid on the anger of the
working class, therefore they seek stability at all costs.
Xi Jinping, relatively unknown in the
West, will be China’s President for the next ten years, that is, if he
can keep a lid on the simmering pot of anger that China has become. The
new Prime Minister is Li Keqiang, apparently the outgoing President’s
favoured successor
Two funeral processions turned into
mass protests on the streets of Egypt today. Over the last 5 days
thousands of people have taken to the streets in order to protest
against a decree announced by the Egyptian president, Mohammed Morsi,
allowing him to rule more or less autocratically. The events have
publicly displayed the true nature of the Muslim Brotherhood who once
claimed to be representatives of democracy in Egypt. At the same time
these events show that none of the contradictions which led to the
revolution have been solved and that under the surface a new wave of
revolution is being prepared.