Europe

The Blair government’s decision to press ahead with huge spending on updating Britain’s nuclear arsenal highlight the growing contradiction between the needs of ordinary working people and the people at the top. If ever these weapons were used it would be the end of civilisation as we know it. More reason therefore to struggle for genuine socialism.

All the figures on the British economy reveal the underlying sickness of the whole system. The indebtedness of the population has reached record levels. Now all the signs are there of a coming serious slowdown. This is what Gordon Brown will inherit as he prepares to become the next Labour Prime Minister.

The replacement of the old Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) with the PSNI has received the support of Sinn Fein leaders. This has opened up a heated debate among Republicans on whether this is acceptable or not. Here we provide three articles written by comrades of the Irish Republican Socialist Party, where they explain why Republican socialists cannot accept such a force.

The stench of sleaze emanating from Number 10 Downing Street marks the end of the Blair era. Brown is no alternative. Both men will lead the Labour Party to defeat in the future. What is needed is a genuine left alternative. That is why it is so important that John McDonnell gets the required number of nominations to be able to stand for the party leadership.

The Czech Ministry of the Interior recently banned the KSM (Communist Youth Union) simply because it "strives for revolutionary overcoming of capitalism and... removal of private ownership of the means of production and its replacement with collective ownership." Here we provide a letter from the Czech Young Communists, explaining the latest developments.

While there is growing awareness that the coalition forces have been defeated in Iraq, to withdraw now would be seen as a catastrophe for the American Administration, a humiliation with far-reaching consequences similar to their defeat in Vietnam.

The collapse of the former Yugoslavia had led to a swathe of privatisations, cuts in social spending and a systematic dismantling of all the gains of the past. But one event back on November revealed that below the surface a new situation is brewing. Suddenly in reaction to worsening conditions, the imposition and increase in fees and so on, the students in one Faculty occupied the university building in an exemplary manner.

The Austrian labour movement and Social Democratic Party have been rocked by a scandal. After months of promises, the SPÖ jettisoned its central election promises in order to join a coalition government with the bourgeois People's Party. The betrayal of the leadership of the party has become the focal point in the formation of a left opposition within the party.

Family, friends and comrades of Phil Mitchinson gathered in Cardiff on Saturday 13th January for a memorial meeting.  We came together to celebrate his life that ended so tragically.

Over the weekend of the January 6-7 a Northern European Marxist School was held in Stockholm, Sweden. There were around 40 people present from Sweden, Denmark, Poland and Great Britain. The school was organised by the Marxist tendency in the Swedish Labour Movement gathered around the paper Socialisten.

The right-wing ND government is now pressing ahead once more with its plans to privatise university education. This has reawakened the student movement which has mobilised on a massive scale. Conveniently for the right-wing, last week there was a missile attack on the US embassy, which is now being used to justify greater state repression.

The Haute-Garonne federation of the French Young Communists (MJCF - the youth section of the French Communist Party - PCF) elected an entirely new leadership at the end of November. At its federal congress in Toulouse, an overwhelming majority of delegates elected supporters of the Marxist journal La Riposteto lead the federation.

HOV Belgium participated in organising a large meeting of some 350 people in solidarity with the Venezuelan Revolution. With a packed agenda, important speakers from both Belgium and Venezuela spoke on the revolution and the need for solidarity. Meetings such as this show concretely that the ideas and the message of the Venezuelan revolution are spreading well beyond the borders of the Latin American country.

Hayden Phillips' inquiry into political party funding which was leaked last week aims to impose a cap of £50,000 on donations to political parties. Hidden behind this proposal is an attempt to stop the trade unions funding the Labour Party in a big way and thus break the influence of the labour movement as a whole over the party.

On Thursday, December 14, there was a rally against fascist aggressions outside the offices of the F. Engels Foundation and the Students Union in Vitoria-Gasteiz (in the Basque Country), which have been the object of fascist attacks six times in the last few weeks. See the Spanish version here.