New Year is meant to represent a new beginning, a clean
slate. Old Father Time gives way to a new bouncing baby. But what can we expect
in 2010? Will it be a new shiny outlook
for world capitalism or will 2009 just seem to be dragging on under a new name?
The dramatic collapse of the talks at
the Climate Summit in Copenhagen serves to highlight one thing: the
capitalist governments of the world cannot solve burning issues, such
as damage to the environment provoked by the anarchy of the market. The
thirst for profit is in direct contradiction to the interests of the
working people of the world. Social revolution on a global scale is the
only real answer to the problem.
At a public meeting organized by
various trade union, political organizations, and solidarity campaigns
(including Hands Off Venezuela), more than 3,000 people in Copenhagen
heard President Hugo Chávez correctly point out that a socialist
revolution is the only solution to the problems of humanity.
At 5.30am on Saturday 19th
December, after almost two weeks of negotiations, the UN Framework Convention
on Climate Change in Copenhagen
ended with an almost universal agreement that the summit had been a complete
failure.
In the freezing cold on Saturday December
19th members of the UNITE union from the threatened Ericsson plant
at Ansty near Coventry were out in
Coventry city centre distributing leaflets to the public as part of the
campaign to keep the plant open.
The Canadian occupation of Afghanistan
is on its last legs. Richard Colvin’s testimony, admitting that
Canadian soldiers were complicit in the torture of prisoners, is the
finishing touch. We reproduce an article published by the Marxist site Fightback which looks at the Afghan war from a Canadian perspective.
The last day for wellred book orders to be placed from UK customers so that they arrive before Xmas is lunchtime 21st December. We have a load of new titles (including some added last week) so why not pay us a visit at www.wellred.marxist.com.
As the climate change "summit" continues in Copenhapen, we reproduce here an English translation of a leaflet produced by Marxists in Denmark for a demonstration last Saturday
Earlier this week two
hundred angry North London residents packed into an emergency meeting convened
by Islington’s Labour MP, Jeremy Corbyn, after a government document was leaked
revealing plans to close Archway’s Whittington Hospital Accident &
Emergency department.
More than a few ‘commentators’ on the defacto cuts announced on
Thursday by UK Chancellor Darling, as part of the plan to make the public
sector pay for the banks’ bailout, sought to praise the ruthless cuts
announced on the same day in Ireland. The message is clear so far as
these characters are concerned – we need to cut and cut hard. We reproduce a statement issued by the Irish Marxists on the day the cuts were made public.
With the news this week of the100th death this year of a British soldier in
Afghanistan, this imperialist adventure will once again dominate the
news. In a article published in the current issue of Socialist Appeal
published at the end of November, Rob Sewell looks at the latest
situation and its background.
Many of us know that the origins of Christianity have nothing to do with silent nights or wise men. So what are its true origins? John Pickard looks at the reality of how this religion came about.