We here publish the second part of Stamatis Karagiannopoulos's article on the situation in Greece. The series was originally published in Greek on the website of the Communist Tendency of Syriza at the end of April this year.

For the first time since the break-up of Yugoslavia, the workers and poor of Macedonia, following the examples set in Bosnia, are uniting across national divisions in mass protests against the government. The terrorist attacks have not divided, but strengthened and united the movement.

The terrorist attack that took place in Kumanovo on 9th and 10th May resembled in its intensity the incidents that occurred during the conflict of 2001, when similarly fierce battles were waged in the villages near Kumanovo, Slupcane, Matejce, Vaksince and other places. The Kumanovo region has always been inhabited by a mixture of peoples (Macedonians, Albanians, Serbs, Roma, Turks, etc), but it is also a region with a long tradition of coexistence and joint struggle over and above national divisions.

SYRIZA and the Independent Greeks (ANEL) have just completed three months in government in Greece. The economic, social, and political situation in Greece is characterised by the worsening of the profound crisis of Greek capitalism, and by the increasing intransigence of the foreign creditors. Its fate is being sealed by the shattering of the delusions of the new administration with regard to the possibility of breaking with austerity and memoranda within the framework of bourgeois politics.

The last few weeks have seen a wave of political killings in Ukraine. All the deaths have been of high profile figures associated with opposition to the current Kiev government. The two most recent killings, one of a former Party of Regions MP and the other of a journalist and author, coincided with the victims’ details being published on a website called The Peacekeeper shortly before their deaths.

Today, big business and the fat cats of the City of London are celebrating the victory of their friends in the Tory Party. Champagne bottles are popping and share prices soaring. The party of the rich is back in the saddle, and with an unexpected majority in the House of Commons. This will be a government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. The super-rich non-doms will be expressing a sigh of relief. Their loot will now be safe under a Tory government.

With just one week to go till the British General Election, polling in Scotland, and the SNP in particular, has been at the forefront of reporting. Ever since a poll in October showed the SNP to be on 54% and Labour 23%, projecting Labour to fall from 41 to 4 seats and the SNP to go from 6 to 54 (out of 59 Scottish seats), focus has been on the rise of the SNP and demise of Scottish Labour. Polls have shown that rather than Labour closing the gap, the SNP’s dominance in Scotland has solidified and even extended. An STV poll released earlier this week put the nationalists on 54% of the vote, predicting that the SNP could conceivably win every single constituency in Scotland.

A stand-off is taking place between the Greek government and the country’s creditors that could end up with Greece defaulting on its debt, leaving the euro and even the EU itself. This would have very serious consequences both for the Greek people and the European and world economy. What is this leading to?

Without doubt, we live in the most turbulent period in history, characterised by instability and volatility at every level: economically, politically, and socially. The global economy is in the seventh year of crisis, with no end in sight. Meanwhile, fires are burning across the world, with the imperialist powers locking horns in Ukraine, Syria, Yemen and beyond. But at the same time, mass movements and revolutionary currents are developing everywhere, most sharply in Greece and Spain with the rise of SYRIZA and Podemos.

Last week several thousand gold miners marched in Athens against the government (the media claimed there were 6,000 protesters, although this is visibly an exaggeration). They were demonstrating against the government’s plans to close the Skouries gold mine in Chalkidiki, owned by the Canadian mining company El Dorado and also partly by Greek investors.

Muslims in France were the first "collateral victims" of the killings of last January 7-9 in Paris. Anti-muslim propaganda has been a constant theme in the media and in the political discourse in France. Of course by attacking the Muslims they really mean Africans who are the real objective of their attacks. But since the January events, media sensationalism and racist acts have skyrocketed. These constant attacks against one section of the workers of our country must be challenged by the entire labour movement.

The death of more than 800 people who drowned when a small fishing boat capsized 60 miles south of the Italian island of Lampedusa late on Saturday brings the death toll to of people among people attempting to reach Europe by boat in 2015 alone to 1,600. This tragic event highlights the dramatic situation that has developed in Africa and the Middle East after years of imperialist meddling.

The workers of the Tuzla-based detergent factory DITA in Bosnia and Herzegovina have occupied their workplace and are refusing to recognise the authority of the trustee managing the bankruptcy, unless the interests of the workers are protected, or new investment is found to reactivate the factory.

We have entered into a new period on an international scale: a period of deep economic crisis, social and political instability. The masses everywhere are beginning to question things that were previously taken for granted. The whole political scene is a seething cauldron. In such a period sharp and sudden changes are implicit in the situation. The Scottish referendum was just such a sudden change, a political earthquake that upset all the calculations of the politicians. It represented a fundamental turn in the situation.

On April 9, the Ukrainian Rada passed 4 pieces of legislation submitted by the government that ban all symbols and propaganda of communism. After the law comes into effect, any monuments of communist figures which have not already been destroyed by fascist thugs in the last few months must be demolished. As well, any cities and streets which are named after communists are to be renamed.