Donetsk miners to the workers of Europe: “help us break the stronghold of fascism in Ukraine” We have received the following appeal, signed by Mikhail Alexeevich Krylov, Representative of the Independent Donetsk Miners’ Trade Union. Krylov was co-chairman of the City Strike Committee in Donetsk during the big miners’ strikes in 1991 and later on in the 1990s. He is now the head of the Independent Miners Union of Donetsk, which organises over 1,000 mine-workers.
Political cover-up of child abuse: yet more scandal rocks the British Establishment Another day, another scandal. In the wake of allegations of the political cover-up of child abuse in the 1980s, Teresa May, the Tory MP and Coalition Home Secretary, has announced that there will be a government inquiry into the case. But no amount of inquiries or investigations will be able to repair the public’s trust in the Establishment, which has reached rock-bottom levels after years of seemingly endless scandals amongst those at the top of society. The latest revelations only serve to reinforce the stench emanating from the elites – a stench that reveals how the whole system is rotting from the head down.
Over 100 present at the British Marxist School to discuss "A Century of Struggle" Over 100 comrades attended the 4th annual Marxist Summer School in London, hosted by the IMT and UCLU Marxist Society from 20th-22nd June. The theme of this year’s school was ‘A Century of Struggle’ to commemorate not only capitalism’s passing over into imperialist barbarism in World War One, but also the manifold revolutions led by the working class in a period where capitalism has ceased to play any remotely progressive role.
Ireland: Sinn Féin - filling the vacuum without any answers Sinn Féin made a big surge in the Euro and Council elections. What are the reasons behind this development? What programme does Sinn Féin propose? And what does the growth of SF mean for workers across the Island?
Britain: London's housing crisis Converted garden sheds, industrial outbuildings and domestic garages are now common features in London's housing market. They are the symptoms of London's housing crisis, demonstrating that capitalism exploits every angle and turns a profit out of the most soulless conditions.
Britain: Muslim youth and political Islam The British press are raging about the number of British youth who may have joined ISIS, the Islamic fundamentalist organisation, supposedly a break-away from Al-Qaeda, which is fighting in Syria and Iraq. Alarms are ringing about the political consequences of having these young men, radicalised and hardened by war and military training, returning to political activity in Britain. It has been estimated that the number of Muslim youth from Europe who have travelled to fight in Syria and Iraq number at least in the hundreds.
Britain: Labour under Miliband: heading for disaster? With falling living standards and more draconian cuts on the way, the Tories have presided over the biggest assault on the conditions of working class people in living memory.
Right Sector neo-nazis attack trade union conference in Kiev A trade union conference was violently attacked by fascist thugs on June 26 in Kiev. The Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine was holding its congress and was due to elect the union leadership, when it was interrupted by a violent attack by “Right Sector” and “Social-National Assembly” neo-nazi thugs, as well as the Maidan self-defence militia.
Britain: Rupert Murdoch’s judicial circus and the sacrifice of Andy Coulson The phone hacking scandal that led to the closure of the News of the World (NotW) newspaper brought to the surface the real state of things within the British establishment. Three years later, verdicts have now been issued that have found Andy Coulson, former editor of NotW and former Director of Communications for David Cameron, guilty of conspiring to hack phones. Meanwhile Rebekah Brooks, former Chief Executive of News International, parent company of NotW, was found not guilty of all the charges against her.
Britain: The Rich List 2014: trickle up economics "I’ve never seen such a phenomenal rise in personal wealth as the growth in the fortunes of Britain’s 1,000 richest people over the past year." (Phillip Beresford, compiler of The Sunday Times Rich List)
Ukraine: Breaking with the pro-war nationalist hysteria Disastrous conflicts such as civil wars are often remembered for their perpetrators in the form of leaders and generals. It is often forgotten the influence of the media in creating war hysteria. In the conflict in Ukraine, the media’s influence has played a critical role in justifying the actions of the oligarch rulers in Kiev; especially among the masses in Western and Central Ukraine.
São Paulo : solidarity with the antifascist resistance at the Ukraine Consulate In response to the call made by the International Marxist Tendency in solidarity with the Ukrainian workers and their organizations, Esquerda Marxista and the PCB (Brazilian Communist Party) held a rally in front of the General Consulate of Ukraine in São Paulo.
Ukraine: Critical comments on the Minsk anti-war declaration 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...
Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity Campaign in Minsk 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.
Ukraine: Borotba's Statement on the Minsk Antiwar Declaration 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.