February 11 saw 300,000 people march in the Portuguese capital Lisbon against the reform of the labour law and the austerity measures proposed by the government as part of the bailout agreed with the troika. The CGTP trade union, which organised the demonstration under the slogan of “no to exploitation, inequality and impoverishment”, described it as the largest in 30 years.

Tuesday's 24-hour general strike in Greece – the 16th day of general strike in the last two years – highlighted on the one hand the willingness to fight which exists within the working class and on the other, once again, the ineffectiveness of such strikes that are not part of a more general and coordinated and long-term struggle.

On January 30 the three Belgian trade unions called a 24-hour general strike in both the public and private sectors. It was the first general strike since 1993. The immediate background was the public sector general strike on December 22 against the austerity measures of the new Socialist Party government led by Elio Di Rupo.

In the Netherlands there is a very militant cleaners’ strike that has been going on for more than a month. This is not the first time; in 2010 they were out on strike for nine weeks, the longest strike in the Netherlands since the 1930s. There are lessons in this for the whole labour movement.

In 2010 there was a right-wing government installed in the Netherlands. After a honeymoon period, it seems its initial popularity has faded. Internally it is in crisis, it has just faced a teachers’ strike and the Socialist Party is at its biggest popularity ever in the polls.

Greece's "technocratic" prime minister Papademos is desperately trying to make the three parties supporting his government (PASOK, ND and LAOS) agree to yet another round of brutal austerity cuts. The enormous pressure created by the relentless attacks on the working people of Greece is reaching breaking point. Health workers at a hospital in Kilkis have decide to take over their hospital and put it under workers' management. There is a new epidemic of homeslesness affecting people whose lives have been shattered by the crisis and the austerity measures. 

There is an old Lithuanian saying: “labour embellishes the person”. But the situation in our country calls to mind more to the Latin proverb “labor hominem firmat” (“labour hardens the person”). It certainly hardens the mind of the beer-producing company ‘Svyturys-Utenos Alus’ (part of the ‘Carlsberg Group’), as the workers had a chance to witness for themselves.

Workers have reacted with anger and bewilderment at the latest statements coming from Ed Miliband and Ed Balls endorsing continuation of the Coalition’s public sector wage freeze and in effect accepting Coalition cuts. This represents a sharp turn to the right by the Labour leadership, justified – we are told– by the remark that a “changed” Labour Party needed to deliver “fairness” in tough times.

Ed Miliband’s leadership of the Labour Party is turning into an elaborate parody of the emptiness of reformism. With capitalism unable to afford any reforms, he is like the school pupil who works extremely hard to avoid working whilst giving the impression of being studious. He is trying very very hard, tossing and turning, to give the impression that reformism can work without any actual reforms. Unfortunately for Ed, in this case the illusion does not work.

When the Irish Catholic priest Fr. Hugh O’Donnell decided it was time to build a Catholic church in Belfast he had a problem: it costs a lot of money to build a church. The Catholic population of Belfast was too small and too poor to provide enough money, so if he had to rely on the Catholics alone it would take forever. He had to seek help elsewhere. So he asked the Protestants of Belfast to help him out. As you do.

“In the space of twenty years, in a throwback to eighty years ago, millions believe the racist, chauvinist ‘ideas’ of the 1930’s.” writes Attila Csernok in Népszava, a Hungarian liberal daily. Is the situation in present day Hungary that critical? Does the election of the Fidesz government in April 2010 by a two thirds majority mean a return to the horrors of 1930’s Hungary?

There are many ways to judge the health of a society. The speculators in the European Bond Markets judge the health of nations by the state of their public finances; socialists and trade unionists point to the way that old people and children are treated and especially the position of women in society. Economists look at the volume of imports and exports and at the rate of economic growth.  One measure looks at the scale of inequality within society.

The Great Unrest is the term used by historians to describe the period  a 100 years ago when Britain saw many industrial conflicts such as the Cambrian Combine Strike, the Tonypandy Riots and many other struggles.  In Wales there was also a major dispute in the Cynon Valley and riots in Llanelli during the Railwaymen's strike. Strikes occurred in Clydeside, London, Liverpool, Hull and many other towns and cities throughout the land.   Important ideas were developed and discussed during this period which had a profound affect on the Labour and trade union movement. Darrall Cozens, a member of the UCU and Coventry NW Labour Party, considers what we need to learn from

Margaret Thatcher is a hate figure for millions in Britain who suffered under 13 years of her rule. We, who opposed Thatcherism to the bitter end, will never forget the mass unemployment, the cuts, wholesale privatisation and the attacks on the trade unions as well as our democratic rights. Those who fought back were regarded by Thatcher as “the enemy within,” a term she used against the National Union of Mineworkers, as they fought for their communities and their jobs. Thatcher represented capitalism ‘red in tooth and claw’ and we will not forget it.

Last week the Internet was flooded with numerous reports and video evidence of fraud and violence in polling stations in favour of Putin’s United Russia. The party “won” 49.32% of the votes on this basis in the recent parliamentary elections. This was the trigger for the masses to take to the streets.