Wildcat strikes sweep Britain Last week industrial action began at the Lindsey refinery in Lincolnshire. Swiftly the strikes spread to Grangemouth in Scotland, Wilton in Cleveland and all over the country. By Friday 3,000 skilled workers were out from 11 plants. On Monday thousands more joined the action. As a news item, the dispute has been highlighted by pictures of workers carrying placards with the slogan, ‘British jobs for British workers.’ However, most of the workers on strike are aware that their enemy is the employer. That, after all, is who they are striking against.
Ireland: IRSP calls for nationalisation of Waterford Crystal We publish the Editorial of the latest edition of The Plough, which reports on the occupation of Waterford Crystal.
Warning from Ireland: "Public service pay cuts will be considered" The Irish government is looking for €2bn worth of cuts and that means pay cuts for public sector workers.
Ireland: Grim reading. Labour must be prepared to fight. In Ireland unemployment is rising at the fastest rate since the records began in 1967. It's now standing at 295,000, having grown by 120,987 in the last year.
Ireland: Waterford Crystal and the sting in the tail from the Celtic Tiger Reports that Waterford Crystal and the Wedgwood China Company were to go into administration will add yet more gloom to the outlook for the Irish economy. [Since this article was written the factory has been occupied]
The “Greek December”: a short balance sheet of a betrayed movement The huge eruption of youth protests in Greece in December have receded. The key element in explaining this was the role played by the leaders of the main workers' parties, who rather than build up the protest and involve the labour movement as a whole, worked to re-establish calm. Here the Greek Marxists explain the background to how this came about, but also stress the generalised mood of protest is simmering below the surface preparing new social explosions.
Ireland: government nationalises Anglo Irish Bank while the country faces the second worst recession in the EU The Irish economy is facing a serious downturn, with bank after bank facing crisis and unemployment shooting up. The government insists on bailing out the banks with public money desperately trying to stave off a recession. But they cannot escape the inescapable.
Next source of financial turmoil - Eastern Europe The financial crisis is affecting East European countries in a big way. The banking system is in a mess, and is leading to serious concern among major West European banks that have invested heavily in these countries. It is also provoking a new wave of mass protests.
Iceland: Mass protests bring down government Protests in the capital Reykjavik have brought thousands of people on to the streets in the biggest demonstrations the country has ever seen. As a result, the coalition government between the Samfylkingin (Social Democrats) and the Conservative Independence Party has broken up. The government of Iceland is thus the first to fall as a consequence of the present economic crisis. It will not be the last.
“Pakistan's Other Story - The 1968-69 Revolution” Inaugurated in London On Thursday, January 22rd, there was a successful inauguration of Dr. Lal Khan's new book, "Pakistan's Other Story - The 1968-69 Revolution" in London. Young and old, students and trade unionists, turned up to hear a panel of speakers including Zakir Hussain, Qayyum Butt, and Alan Woods who addressed the audience before Lal Khan spoke. (Including videos of the speeches)
Russia: The assassination of Stanislav Markelov On Monday afternoon (January 19), after leaving a press conference, Stanislav Markelov was shot dead near Kropotkinskaya metro station in Moscow. Anastasiya Baburova, who was with Stanislav at the time, was also murdered. Some activists and journalists have asked who was responsible for these disgraceful murders. It’s not possible to say at this stage, but nobody believes that the state will seriously seek to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice.
Britain: Banks in meltdown. Take them over. Stock exchanges in Britain and the USA have been on the slide over the past few days. The reason is not hard to seek. The FTSE has been spooked by bank shares collapsing. Barclays, for instance, saw 25% of its share price shaved off in one hour last Friday (16.01.09). This was the day after the bank announced 2,100 job losses. It’s starting to look like the time back in October when it seemed that banks such as Barclays and the Bank of Scotland (now HBOS) that had been in existence for hundreds of years would be destroyed by a share collapse in a matter of hours.
Book Launch in London: "Pakistan’s Other Story - The 1968-69 Revolution" Lal Khan is presenting his new book on the Pakistan revolution of 1968-69 in London this Thursday, January 22. Alan Woods, author of the introduction of the book, will also be speaking at this event.
IMT Winter School in Berlin – Forward to the future, don’t forget the past Last weekend the IMT organised the 5th Northern European Winter School in Berlin. 150 comrades and sympathisers from many different countries came to a city with a great revolutionary history and tradition. We set ourselves the target of learning from the ideas and lives of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, and to study the successes and the mistakes of the German Revolution. On Sunday we participated with a sizeable block at the traditional Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht commemoration demonstration.
Revolutionary ferment in Greece – a taste of what is to come for the whole of Europe The events that have unfolded over the past month in Greece have revealed the immense revolutionary potential that had accumulated below the surface of society. The anger of the youth can only be explained by the severe crisis of capitalism afflicting the country, a reflection of the international economic crisis. And the conditions that exist in Greece are the same that exist across the whole of Europe.
