Ireland, after a long period of economic boom, is
now feeling the effects of the worldwide slowdown. Some have made big money,
but at the other end of the social spectrum there are many who have lost out.
Now is the time to raise the banner of genuine socialism within the Republican
movement and the working class as a whole.

The British bourgeoisie and its apologists
have always tried to bury their revolutionary past. They continually promote
the false idea that “gradualism” has always been the true British tradition.
Revolutions were always affairs of the continent, but have no relevance here. Next
year, on the 450th anniversary of the death of the great
revolutionary Oliver Cromwell, will be no exception.

The Communications Workers Union (CWU) invited Hands Off Venezuela
along with other Latin American solidarity campaigns and guest speakers to
speak at a Latin America fringe meeting held on the opening day of the Union’s
Annual Conference in Liverpool last Sunday. The CWU
renewed their affiliation to Hands Off Venezuela, reaffirming the importance of
the Venezuelan revolution to workers here in the UK.

A MAJOR conference of European railway trade unionists
aimed at developing strategies to resist and reverse the tide of EU-driven rail
privatisation and ‘liberalisation’ is to be hosted in London on Tuesday by
Britain ‘s biggest rail union. RMT general
secretary Bob Crow, European Transport Workers’ Federation general secretary
Eduardo Chagas, Kelvin Hopkins MP and John Hendy QC will be among the keynote
speakers at the event, which will be attended by trade unionists from 15
European countries.

UNISON members in Scotland will soon be balloted for industrial
action over their 2008 pay claim. Ballot papers will be sent out at the
beginning of July with votes due back by 31st July. This is an extremely tight time scale and will present a
challenge to activists. The decision to call a vote on industrial action was taken
at a delegate conference in Glasgow on 29th May following a period of informal
consultation.Some 20% of members took part in the consultation by
attending meetings or by voting through e-mail or ballot. Those that took part
were overwhelmingly for strike action.

BRITAIN’S BIGGEST rail union got rock-solid support from
12,000 Network Rail maintenance members from midday Saturday June 14th
as a two-day strike over harmonisation of terms and conditions got under way. After voting by a margin of nearly three to one for action,
RMT member did not book on for shifts that commenced between midday tomorrow
(Saturday June 14) and 17:59 on Sunday. Members also did not undertake any
overtime or ‘on-call’ work between 06:00 on Saturday June 14 and 06:00 on
Monday June 16.

In spite of all the main parties, big business, the media
and even most of the trade union leaders campaigning for a "yes" vote in
yesterday’s referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, the "No" won the day. This was a
slap in the face for the Irish government and the European Union bosses.

2008  was the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Fourth
International. The International was established by Leon Trotsky and
his supporters in September 1938. As part of the commemoration of this
event Rob Sewell
draws out some of the key lessons and methods on which the Trotskyist
movement was built during
the 1930s. He also explains that while the Fourth International no
longer exists in an
organisational form, it continues for Marxists today in our theory,
programme, method and approach.