Canada: May Day in Montreal About 800 demonstrated in Montreal on May Day, facing a brutal intervention of the police, while on May 3rd the official union rally attracted around 50,000, significantly up on last year's numbers.
Canada: Protest Repression of Student Dissent at University of Toronto – 14 students arrested 14 students at UofT, including Canadian Marxists active with Fightback, have been arrested on false charges for fighting for free education. The charges include assaulting a police officer and forcible confinement, which could lead to serious jail time. The University is trying to crush this movement under repression before it takes off. Solidarity action is needed now!
Bolivia: the oligarchy prepares a major challenge on May 4th The oligarchy in Bolivia has launched a major challenge to the Evo Morales government in the form of a referendum on an "Autonomous Statute" in the Eastern Department of Santa Cruz. They are using this question to mobilise the forces of counter-revolution. Morales must stop dithering and take firm action.
U.S. Food Prices Rising Fast Inflation in the USA is rising across the board. And it's not just housing, gasoline, heating, transportation, health care and education. The cost of that most basic of all necessities - food - is now also quickly rising for American workers and their families.
Fernando Lugo - Who he is and what he can do for Paraguay After the recent elections, Fernando Lugo, of the Patriotic Alliance for Change will become the President of Paraguay. He leads a contradictory coalition, but he is clearly the expression of the deep-seated desire of the masses for serious social change.
Venezuela Six Years after the Coup Six years after the coup against the democratically elected government of Hugo Chávez was defeated by the magnificent mobilization of the masses, the contradictions within the Venezuelan revolution are as sharp as ever.
SIDOR: multinational resists nationalisation - workforce moves towards workers' control After the announcement that SIDOR has been nationalised, the owners have been manoeuvring, with the clear intention of sabotaging the steel plant. The workers have responded immediately by going on the offensive and taking control of the situation.
USA: Recession Will Hit Workers & Poor Hardest Almost overnight, the media, corporate CEOs and government officials have gone from proclaiming that the U.S. would somehow avoid an economic slump, to all but recognizing that the country has probably already entered a recession. They are simply acknowledging what millions of workers have known for months and even years: the economy is in trouble, and working people and the poor are being hit hard.
USA: Obama and the Democrats' Foreign Policy Many people are looking to the Democrats, and in particular to Barack Obama for a real change, especially when it comes to the Iraq war. But on the question of war and foreign policy, does Obama really differ from the current White House administration, or from his party mate Hillary Clinton, or for that matter, from the entire DC political establishment?
Mightier than the sword – the impact of the ideas of Thomas Paine on the American Revolution The year was 1776 and it was time for Americans to sever links with Britain and assert their independence. Thomas Paine set himself the task of writing what was to become the biggest-selling, most widely read and successful political pamphlet in history: Common Sense.
Canadian Perspectives 2008 - Draft Discussion Document Canada has one of the highest levels of strikes in any country in the world. It has also experienced several factory occupations over the past year or so. Now its giant neighbour, the USA is in recession. Canada is facing a turbulent period, where all relations, economic, political and social, will be turned upside down.
Where is Cuba going? Jordi Rosich, who recently took part in the Havana Book Fair, looks at the different pressures that Cuba is facing. He highlights the danger of capitalist restoration, particularly the so-called Chinese model,and what this would mean for the Cuban revolution. But the future of Cuba has not yet been decided. It also depends on the spread of the revolution internationally.
Defend Adilson Mariano against unjust prison sentence Adilson Mariano is a PT councillor in the town of Joinville, Brazil. He has been sentenced to more than one year in prison for having led demonstrations against the unjustified increase in bus fares. Here we publish an appeal and model letter for you to send off to the authorities. Please participate massively in this campaign.
Cuba, October, youth and the future Last November 6 in the evening, on the eve of another anniversary of the October Revolution, around five hundred young Cubans gathered to celebrate the occasion. Still, those who find this piece of news unlikely or perplexing, regardless of what side they’re on, should make an extra reading for good measure: that’s right, Cuban youths hailed the Revolution.
Balance sheet of the PSUV congress: the Bolivarian masses are pushing for revolutionary action The two-month long series of congressional assemblies of the PSUV in Venezuela recently came to an end. The debates in the congress clearly indicate that a left-right polarisation is taking place within the party, with the rank and file seeking a revolutionary way out and a right-wing bureaucracy that is trying to mould the party to its own outlook.
