A brief report from a WIL member on the ground in Madison, WI, written just before the big demos planned for Saturday, February 26th

After more than a week, demonstrations by public sector workers defending their pay, benefits and their right to union representation continue to grow. The struggle in Wisconsin is rapidly becoming a nation-wide struggle, a kind of American "Tahrir Square," a point of reference for workers under attack around the country.

On Friday, February 11th, recently-elected Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) announced that he is prepared to use National Guard troops as part of his plan to rob public workers of their right to have a union. According to the Governor, the National Guard will be put on alert “in preparation of any problems that could result in a disruption of state services.” But public sector unions and students in Wisconsin have responded in a big way, flooding the state Capitol building with over 30,000 protesters, and with students taking action at five high schools. See also a recent leaflet from Socialist

Amid mostly worrying news on the economy, one bright spot has emerged over the past two months. Ford, GM and Chrysler, the long-troubled “Big Three” auto makers, have seen big increases in profits and are adding new jobs, investing in, and expanding plants. The business media credits the “fresh thinking” of new management for the turnaround. But auto workers know better after more than 5 years of massive concessions and layoffs. So, we’re left to wonder: if there was “shared sacrifice” during hard times, shouldn’t there be shared gain when things improve?

According to a study published in the academic journal Health Affairs, the United States now ranks 49th in the world in overall life expectancy, a dramatic fall from just a few years ago. In 1999, the US ranked 24th.

The ruling class has always been telling us that we need to make cuts in order to eliminate the national deficit.  They have talked about cutting taxes and government spending in order to accomplish this.  In addition to this, they are in favor of cutting "entitlements" such as Social Security and raising the retirement age, thereby making the working class pay for their crisis.

On Friday 10^th of December, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez publicly asked the PSUV deputies in the National Assembly to pass a new Enabling Law, giving him power to take rapid action, faced with the natural disaster caused by the heavy rainstorms, which have left around 100,000 Venezuelans homeless.

This past Saturday (4th Dec.), thousands of workers, coming from as far as Gaspesie, braved the cold to march in solidarity with the locked out employees of Journal de Montréal. Pierre Karl Peladeau, a media baron who owns 99 newspapers and magazines, has locked out the Journal de Montréal workers for nearly two years. These 253 workers have become a symbol of resistance against the media monopoly of the big bourgeoisie.

Two months have passed since Venezuela's legislative elections on September 26, which gave a marginal victory to the forces of the revolution in the total vote and a 98-67 majority in terms of seats in the new National Assembly which will be installed in January. What lessons are being learnt from that experience?

In January of this year an article appeared in the main bourgeois paper in Brazil that referred to me as “Chavez’s adviser”. A few weeks later the same story appeared on the frost page of the Venezuelan opposition paper Tal Cual, edited by Todor Petkoff, who wrote the article. I answered Mr. Petkoff at the time. But, as a cynical journalist once said: why let the facts spoil a good story?

On October 2nd, some 175,000 union members, activists, students and others converged on the National Mall in Washington, DC to demand jobs, funding for health care, education and public services. The One Nation rally was the first national demonstration organized by the AFL-CIO union federation since 1981.

Wednesday 3 November in Havana marked the start of a three day conference on “Socialism in the XXI century” organized by “Cuba, theory and society” under the auspices of the Havana Institute of Philosophy. Among a small number of foreign guest speakers was the editor of Marxist.com, Alan Woods. We publish here the report written by Alan on his return.

HAVANA, Cuba, Nov 5 (acn) British journalist and writer Alan Woods described the whole judicial process against the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters -incarcerated in the United States for more than 12 years now- as shameful for the US legal system.

This weekend in Hamilton saw the annual convention of the Ontario New Democratic Youth (ONDY), which turned into one of the most intense and crucial political battles that the NDP youth wing has ever seen. The ONDY has been sharply divided for weeks following the de-chartering of the Toronto Young New Democrats (TYND), one of the largest and strongest clubs, by the ONDY executive in a secret “in camera” meeting, using evidence that TYND members were not allowed to see. This un-democratic attack stemmed from the desire by members of the ONDY executive and certain Party staffers to rid the ONDY of so-called “radicals” by any means.

Quebec solidaire has issued a call for platforms in the lead-up to the party’s congress. They propose discussing these platforms in a series of citizen circles. The two following documents have been submitted by the International Marxist Tendency (Quebec), a recognized collective within QS.