Europe

The victory of Tony Woodley as general secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union, Britain's third biggest union, is a further confirmation of the continuing swing to the left in the British trade unions. It is also a clear indication of the discontent within the union rank and file with right wing trade union leaders and the policies of the Blair government.

Today Austria is going on strike. It is the biggest strike movement the country has seen for decades. All sections of the Austrian working class will participate in this mobilisation against the pensions reform planned by the right wing government.

Mick Brooks looks at the question of the movement of labour (emigration and immigration) and how the bosses have always managed to have a flexible approach on this question depending on the needs of their system at any given moment. In the end whether they are campaigning for it or against it, it is always used to enhance their profits as they attempt to divide the workers on this issue.

This weekend the AMICUS conferences (of the MSF and AEEU, the two unions that have merged to form Amicus) start in Blackpool. This document analyses the present situation in the union and also looks at its history and how the left managed to win the position of General Secretary of the AEEU - a good insight into the state of the British trade unions as they steadily shift to the left. It also looks at the tasks ahead for the left in the union.

On May 16, Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered his state of the union address. In comparison with the triumphal statements of the past, it displayed unusual frankness about the country's problems. The truth of the matter is that capitalism has been a nightmare for the Russian people and the position of the masses is not improving, but getting worse.

Two different worlds were visible in Germany last weekend – with a huge gap separating the one from the other. In Berlin, the SPD leadership were celebrating the party’s 140th anniversary. As party leader and chancellor Gerhard Schröder defended his counter-reformist "Agenda 2010" and praised Tony Blair’s "New Labour" as a successful example of "modern" social democracy. At the same time, up and down the country, some 90,000 workers responded to a call by the Trade Union Federation, the DGB and demonstrated against Schröder’s attempt to dismantle the welfare state. In East Germany, 84% of all steel workers organised in the IG Metall voted in favour of industrial action for the 35-hour

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Clausewitz stated that war is the continuation of politics by other means. But in the present epoch peace is also the continuation of war by other means. As we predicted, the détente between Russia and America would not last for long. The underlying antagonisms flow from a real conflict of interest on a global scale.

The debate over whether Britain should join the Euro is heating up. On both sides of the debate we find a capitalist logic being applied. One side stands for so-called British "sovereignty", the other praises the merits of the wider market. Neither side is defending the real interests of the workers. As Mick Brooks points out, "The answer is surely for us to control the movement of capital by taking over the means of production, not relying on the goodwill of our enemy, the capitalist class."

A process of radicalisation is taking place among the British engineering workers (or metal workers). This is reflected in the main union of the sector, Amicus. The old rightwing lost the position of General Secretary recently. Now the left of the union is preparing to take a majority on the union's national executive committee.

I read the latest propaganda with a feeling of foreboding, and we must constantly remind ourselves as Marxists just what sort of thing we are up against on a daily basis from those spokespeople of capital.