We publish this article by Renfrey Clarke, the Moscow-based left wing journalist, about the present situation of the labour movement. We think the article not only provides us with a lot of information but also contributes to the debate about the challenges facing the Russian working class.

The July elections represent another turn in the situation in Russia. On the surface, the result was a massive victory for Russian capitalism. Despite the frightful collapse in living standards, crime, corruption and mafia capitalism, Yeltsin won. This was a heavy defeat for Stalinism, not socialism or genuine communism, but it will usher in a new period of convulsions for Russia. The underlying processes remain as contradictory and explosive as before. The result has resolved nothing.

The only way out, the labour movement

Recent events in Northern Ireland have shown the volatility and underlying weakness inherent in the 'peace process.' Despite the ceasefire, despite hours and hours of talks between all the various sectarian politicians and the governments in London, Dublin and Washington, little or nothing has changed.

Lessons of the 1931 National Government

In August 1931, the Labour movement was reeling from the ravages of a world slump and the collapse of the second Labour government. After an intense campaign in the capitalist press, the Labour prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald, crossed the floor of the Commons with a handful of supporters to join with the Tories and Liberals in forming a National Government. This reactionary government unleashed an all-out assault on the conditions of the working class, and especially the unemployed. This event was considered one of the greatest betrayals in the history of the Labour Party. "The

Until recently, the formal aim of the government's refugee policy was to help people have a decent life. The new right-wing government in Denmark has once and for all broken with this principle. The main purpose of the proposed "foreigners-law" is to accept as few refugees into the country as possible. This cynical aim is not just the dream of the extremely right-wing Danish People's Party. It is the main goal of three in the new law. The proposed law published on January 16 puts forward three goals for the new foreigners policy:

On February 4 the Spanish government announced the contents of the new so-called Quality Law for Education. A new law that the Spanish Students' Union has been denouncing since last year. The government has been trying to convince the population that they want to improve the education system. But after the campaign of privatisation in hospitals, industry and other areas they are not going to fool anyone. According to the right-wing Popular Party government this law will solve the problem of high drop-out and failure rates among students. These excuses hide the real reactionary measures of the Popular Party.

The general strike of high schools and technical colleges on March 7 against the "Quality Law" and the VT Law has been a success. More than 2 million students stopped classes; the support of the strike was 90% and thousands of students have taken part in more than 40 demonstrations and rallies in Vigo, Orense, Coruña, Santiago, Gijón, Oviedo, Vitoria, San Sebastián, Bilbao, Zaragoza, Valencia, Palma de Mallorca, Barcelona (where we denonuce the brutal repression of the Catalan autonomous police and we demand the immediate resignation of those responsible), Tarragona, Girona, Lleida, Madrid, Valladolid, Albacete, Guadalajara, Ávila, Sevilla, Granada, Málaga, Jaén, Huelva, Badajoz,

We are also publishing two articles from the British Marxist magazine Socialist Appeal about the

Dawn Stuart, a young Belfast City Council worker, and Marxist, has been successfully elected to the national leadership, the GEC, of the TGWU. Dawn stood on a programme of union democracy, and for a fighting campaigning union. The success of her campaign is an important breakthrough. After her victory Dawn spoke toSocialist Appeal.

The recent broadcast of two unusually frank TV dramas exposing the horrors of Bloody Sunday in 1972, is a timely reminder of the role played by British imperialism in Ireland. If it is possible, the murder of those thirteen innocent people fighting for their rights is made even more tragic by nightly news bulletins thirty years later reporting the mounting toll of sectarian violence which shatters the myth of the so-called peace process.

In the last few weeks we have witnessed a debate in the media about the events on Bloody Sunday. Both Sunday and Bloody Sunday[two films] were released about the massacre 30 years ago.