In the recent midterm elections, the Republicans made a dramatic comeback after their electoral routing just two years ago. They gained several governorships, seats in the Senate, and took full control of the US House of Representatives. How was this possible?

In spite of all the promises about “change” when he was elected, Barack Obama has not improved the lot of working people in the USA. On the contrary, things have got a lot worse. What the workers of the USA need is their own political voice, their own party. We publish here last week’s statement by the Campaign for a Mass Party of Labor which explains the need for such a party.

The September elections have posed some serious questions before the Bolivarian Revolution. The opposition has organized a noisy campaign in the media to present themselves as "winners", despite the fact that they lost. What is the purpose of this campaign? A minority cannot turn itself into a majority, no matter how loud it shouts. But such a campaign can be advantageous to the counterrevolutionaries both inside and outside Venezuela.

We are publishing this article which we have received from the Cuban Communist Frank Josué Solar Cabrales as a contribution to the debate over the future of the Cuban revolution and the changes that are presently being proposed. See also Jorge Martín's article Where is Cuba going?

For the last 10 weeks the capitalist media has been whipped into a frenzy by the story of 33 trapped miners in the San Jose Copiapó copper and gold mine in Chile. Though the event has been widely covered, it has not been much reported on, but rather, it has been turned into a narrative that leaves an increasingly unoriginal Hollywood salivating with eyeball dollar signs. The television reporting, as the miners were being rescued, was nothing less than abysmal.

In the elections in Brazil on Sunday [October 3, 2010] the PT, the Workers’ Party, won more seats in the Senate, and also increased its Members of Parliament. However, Dilma Rousseff, (the candidate of the PT for President) narrowly failed to win in the first round. How do we explain this?

Dramatic events unfolded in Ecuador yesterday, when a sizeable group of the country's police forces tried to overthrow the left-wing government of Rafael Correa. The official reason for the rebellion of the police forces was a law passed by Congress on Wednesday that would end the practice of giving members of Ecuador's military and police medals and bonuses with each promotion.

The result of the elections to Venezuela’s National Assembly elections on Sunday was greeted by jubilation in the bourgeois media internationally. It is too early to make a definitive judgment about the results, and it has not been confirmed the right wing has overtaken the PSUV in votes. However, the deafening chorus of triumph in the international media is premature.

The mood at the Miraflores presidential palace on Sunday night was one of cautious waiting and one could even feel a slight nervousness in the air as thousands of Bolivarians had gathered to hear the first results of the country's parliamentary elections.

Writing from Caracas, Patrick Larsen sums up the basic challenges and the mood as millions of Venezuelans today will vote in the parliamentary elections. This is yet another battle between revolution and the counter-revolution which is preparing new actions to overthrow Chavez and crush the revolution once and for all.

On September 13, a statement by Cuba’s trade union (CTC) published in Granma announced a whole series of sweeping changes in the country’s economy. These measures are the result of the serious economic crisis affecting Cuba, which has been hit hard by the recession in world capitalism. This underlines Cuba’s dependence on the world market and the impossibility of “building socialism in one country”.

The past few years have been life-changing for the American working class. Attacks on our quality of life by the bosses and their government have been non-stop.

One could easily be forgiven for thinking the Baby Boomers appeared out of nowhere. The way it’s presented in the media, it would seem they just suddenly appeared -- near retirement, of course -- with their hands cupped firmly open, waiting to be paid. They’re going to break Social Security! Ever since I can remember, this has been the spin. Because “big government” can’t do anything right, all the money you paid in is hopelessly lost. This is a fundamental, and cynical, misunderstanding of Social Security. It’s a distortion of both what it is and how it works -- and convenient cover for those who want to dismantle and privatize it.

Nine years ago the whole was shocked by the dramatic suicide attacks on the Twin Towers in New York. That event was subsequently used as an excuse to increase massively spending on arms, to invade Afghanistan and Iraq and step up military operations in other parts of the world, all encapsulated in the idea of the “war on terror”. Today the world, far from being a safer place, has become more unstable, more dangerous. This is a clear symptom of the sickness that afflicts capitalism in its senile phase.

On September 26 the people of Venezuela will be electing a new National Assembly. The reactionary Oligarchy, backed by imperialism, is taking advantage of the shortcomings of the revolution to strengthen its position and prepare for the counter-revolution. The Venezuelan revolution has gone a long way, but key economic levers are still in the hands of the Oligarchy. What is required is to fully carry out the socialist revolution and expropriate the capitalists and landlords. That is the only way of making the revolution irreversible.