Alan Woods’ new book "Reformism or Revolution" launched at successful meeting in Madrid On Monday over one hundred people crowded into the CAUM Centre in Madrid to hear Alan give a speech launching his latest book, which is an in-depth reply to the reformist ideas of Heinz Dieterich, who has been providing a theoretical back-up to the bureaucracy within the Bolivarian movement which is attempting to slow down the pace of the revolution. If listened to, these reformist ideas would lead to the derailing of the revolution.
Greek edition of "Lenin and Trotsky – What they really stood for", by Ted Grant and Alan Woods The Editorial board of the Marxist journal, Marxistiki Foni, has just published a Greek language edition of Lenin and Trotsky - What they really stood for. It is dedicated to the memory of the founder of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT), Ted Grant. The book is now available to order.
Britain: Crewe and Nantwich by-election: Brown government facing electoral wipe-out The New Labour government is on the rocks. The wreckage of Blairism, under the leadership of Gordon Brown, was dealt a further crushing blow at the Crewe and Nantwich by-election. A 7,000 Labour majority was turned into a 7,000 Tory majority in a swing of 17.6%. It was the Tories' first by-election gain in 30 years.
Britain: Catastrophe at Crewe The Crewe by-election, with an 18% swing to the Tories, confirms that they are on target for a landslide win in the next general election. Railway workers and other working class people who have voted Labour for generations have finally had enough. The betrayals and disappointments of New Labour have caused these electors to break the habit of a lifetime. Make no mistake about it. Mass working class abstentions have done for Brown and his witless crew.
Revolutionary days - May 1968, a personal memoir Alan Woods went to Paris in May 1968 seeking contact with revolutionary workers and youth. He describes here what he encountered, the mood, and the discussions with workers and students. He explains how the workers were looking for leadership but never found it, neither in the ultra-left groups, nor in the Stalinist leadership that betrayed them.
“1968 – We shall win the last battle” conference in Berlin Over the weekend of May 2-4 a conference was held in Berlin on the theme of "1968 - We shall win the last battle", organised by the youth and students of the German Left Party (Die Linke). There were 1600 people taking part in the conference and the Marxists of Der Funke intervened in the debates, organised a stall with literature, provided international speakers from Spain and Pakistan and one of the Der Funke supporters, and member of the national council of the youth wing of the party, made one of the concluding speeches.
The upward curve of the strike movement in Russia Although still in its early stages, there is clearly a reawakening of the Russian working class taking place with a growing number of strikes taking place. Once this picks up steam at some later stage it will cut across all the confusion and demoralisation that have been dominant features in the past.
Russia: A miners’ strike in Severouralsk An example of a very militant strike in Severouralsk, one of a series in the recent period. The miners were determined but the bosses were ruthless. This experience is another indication of growing working class militancy in Russia.
Russia: An interview with striking train drivers, summing up their experience We provide an interesting interview with Moscow train drivers who were recently on strike, that reveals the terrible conditions imposed on the workers but also the militant mood of the organizers.
Britain: The housing tsunami Up till recently, Britain’s main high street banks had not seemed to have suffered much – they were all announcing big profits and there was little talk of large ‘writedowns’ of worthless assets. But now the Royal Bank of Scotland has announced that it lost £4bn in the last three months as a result of the world’s great credit crunch and it must write off £5bn in loans and debt securities that it had on its books as worthless. The credit crunch is going to hit Britain in a big way.
Britain hit by biggest wave of strikes in decades "Britain has been hit by what trade unions have called the biggest wave of work stoppages since the Labour government came to power 10 years ago, with up to 400,000 public sector employees going on strike." (Reuters: Headline and opening sentence Friday, 25 April 2008)
Britain: Local elections - Labour trounced but ultra-left fail to cash in New Labour suffered a humiliating defeat in the recent local elections, but those left groupings who were hoping to capitalise on Labour's difficulties also found themselves in a mess. As Ted Grant explained, the working class always ignore these sectarian grouplets on the fringes of the labour movement and in times of struggle always turn towards their traditional organisations.
Britain: New Labour meltdown The Tory victories in the local elections on May 1st mean that the Conservatives will almost certainly go on to win the next general election and form the next government. Theoretically the Labour leadership could turn the situation round, but they seem incapable of changing their disastrous course. New Labour is in meltdown.
The French Revolution of May 1968 May 1968 was the greatest revolutionary general strike in history. This mighty movement took place at the height of the post-war economic upswing in capitalism. Then, as now, the bourgeois and their apologists were congratulating themselves that revolutions and class struggle were things of the past. Then came the French events of 1968, which seemed to drop like a thunderbolt from a clear blue sky. They took most of the Left completely by surprise, because, they had all written off the European working class as a revolutionary force.
Ireland: ten years on from the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement In looking back at the Good Friday Agreement, Gerry Ruddy points out that it has served to stabilise British rule in the North as Sinn Fein has been absorbed into the establishment. In this situation he stresses the need for republican socialists to focus on working class and socialist policies.
