On June 7 and 8, left and Marxist forces from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine participated in an anti-war conference near Minsk. The conference produced a statement signed by its participants under the title of "Stop the War in Ukraine". We publish here the text of the speech by Artem Kirpìchenok, from the Russian section of the IMT, and his report of the conference. Since its publication, the statement has come under criticism from a

A Russian comrade of the IMT, Artem Kirpichenok, delivered a speech to the recent conference on “Co-operation and Solidarity of the Post-Soviet Left in Conditions of Ethnic and National Conflict” held in Minsk, highlighting the solidarity campaign which the IMT has been involved in promoting.

The antiwar meeting of leftists from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia in Minsk has been dubbed "the new Zimmerwald." In Zimmerwald, as you know, there was the anti-war Socialist Conference in 1915. But, as is known, the participants were divided into moderate and pacifist "Zimmerwald left" (Lenin, Zinoviev, Platten, Hoglund, Radek, Berzin, Borchardt, Nerman). 

The undersigned have decided to declare our position, which may be called the "Minsk left." The statement is open for signature.

The conference “Mutual Support and Solidarity of Post-Soviet Left in the Conditions of International and Interstate Conflicts” took place on 7-8 June in Minsk, where activists of communist and workers’ parties from Belarus, Ukraine and Russia took part.

Left forces from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus held a two-day antiwar conference near Minsk on June 7-8. The conference was organized by participants of the Internet-project “Prasvet” with a support of the webjournal Left.by 

The aim of the conference is to consolidate the coordination of internationalist Marxist left forces of three countries under circumstances of military-nationalist hysteria and the outburst of violence and repressions in Ukraine. The conference statement is open for signatures. These can be added in the online comments feature of the statement.

UKIP-mania has swept Britain, or rather, its chattering classes. If we were to form our opinions solely on the basis of those found in the bourgeois media (as the media’s own members do), we would be able to think of nothing but the inevitable rise of UKIP to electoral dominance.

Conor Burns, the backbench MP for West Bournemouth, can only be described as a caricature of a head-banging Tory with a hatred for working class people. Having strongly supported cuts to welfare across the board and been fiercely opposed to increased taxes on bonuses and the super-rich, Burns has now outdone himself once again by attacking a charity for tackling poverty.

The EU elections and opinion polls show that the right-wing government in Sweden is very unpopular and likely to get hammered in the upcoming elections.

The results of the European elections in Greece confirmed the general trends expressed in the first round of the Municipal and Regional elections (See Greek local elections confirm sharp class polarisation to the left and the right). Those parties that are either part of or are associated with the government, New Democracy (ND), PASOK and DIMAR suffered a clear defeat, as opposition to government policy among wide sections of the electorate was evident. But why did SYRIZA not benefit from this?

Resolution by the Danish revolutionary organisations Marxist Students and the Revolutionary Socialists.

Political debates, solidarity with the anti-fascist movement in the Ukraine, singing of workers songs, sports and a special political quiz - that was this year's international Pfingstseminar,  organized by the Austrian Marxist journal Der Funke.

Today another interview with Alan was published in a Greek paper. The paper is called "Εfimerida ton Syntakton” (Journal of Editors) (www.efsyn.gr) and is produced by a cooperative of journalists and press workers who used to work for the centre-left "Eleftherotypia" newspaper, which closed in 2011. The paper, which is run  under self-management and is self-funding, sells 25.000-30.000 copies daily.

Yesterday evening [Monday] hundreds of massive demonstrations and rallies took place in a semi-spontaneous manner across Spain to celebrate the abdication of King Juan Carlos and to call for a republic. The central slogan was the demand for a referendum for the people to decide whether they want a monarchy or a republic.

Last night (2 June 2014) saw the founding meeting of the ‘Solidarity with the Antifascist Resistance in Ukraine’ campaign, which was hosted by the Marxist Student Federation in SOAS, London.

An impressive rally was held in Edinburgh on Monday only hours after King Juan Carlos announced his abdication thousands of miles away in Spain. The protest of upto 150 people was called to coincide with mass demonstrations in cities all across Spain and amongst Spanish communities abroad. Edinburgh has a very large community of young Spaniards and they now constitute one of the largest groups in the city. They have come in their thousands after being driven into economic exile by the failures of the capitalist economy in Spain to provide even a basic living and hope for the future.