Last month’s elections reconfirmed Lukashenko as the president of Belarus. The Western media and governments have protested about the “lack of democracy”. In reality what is taking place is a conflict of interests over who should control the Belarusian economy.

The decision to close the Peugeot car plant at Ryton in Coventry and cease production of the best-selling 206 model was compared by one worker at the plant to knowing that a loved one was dying of cancer yet being shocked to know that death is at the doorstep. There is no time to lose if this struggle to save jobs is to win!

Mexican Marxist intellectual and Vice-rector of the Open University of Mexico Fernando Buen Abad Domínguez opposes the decision to exclude the Frederick Engels Foundation from this year’s book fair in Madrid. Also available in Spanish.

The Fundacion Federico Engels is the sole source of Marxist literature in Spain. The decision to exclude it from this year’s Madrid Book Fair is an act of blatant political censorship. Alan Woods is making a public appeal to get this decision overturned. Please add your voice to the protest! See also in Spanish.

The Madrid Book Fair organisers have taken a decision to exclude the F. Engels Foundation from this year’s book fair. The FFE is the main publisher and distributor of Marxist books in Spain and has been participating in the Madrid book fair since 1998. The growing interest that it has generated is seen as a threat by the organisers and sponsors of the Fair. The organising committee is meeting for the last time before the book fair on Monday April 24th. We have received an appeal for protest letters to be sent to the organisers asking them to review their position. There is a model letter in Spanish which you can sign. Make sure you send copies of any letters to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The withdrawal of the CPE is a humiliating defeat for Chirac and the de Villepin government. They came out of this ordeal completely discredited. After the struggle against pension reforms in 2003, against the referendum on the European Constitution, and the revolt of the estates in November last year, the massive mobilisation of youth and workers against the CPE constitutes new evidence that France has entered an era of great social and political instability.