Europe

The break-up of the former Yugoslav Federation led to an unmitigated disaster for the workers of all the republics that emerged from the debris. This article shows how the Croatian economy entered a long period of depression, with very high levels of unemployment. Now a certain stabilisation has been achieved but only at the cost of accumulating a huge foreign debt.

As we predicted, the coming to power of the right-wing ND government two years ago has had the effect of radicalising the workers and youth. A very militant primary school teachers' strike, massive student mobilisations and the recent local elections, all confirm this.

Hungary is preparing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1956 uprising. The Stalinists in the past presented that movement as reactionary. Today's regime is trying to usurp the banner of 1956, falsifying completely what really happened. It is our duty to explain what really happened. The heroes of 1956 were trying to build a democratic workers' state and genuine socialism.

We are publishing an appeal issued by the Czech Communist Youth Union (KSM) after the government recently banned their organisation. We ask you to support their struggle for the basic right to exist as an organisation. Send letters of protest and make the Czech Young Communists know that workers and youth around the world support them.

A massive protest movement against cuts to municipal budgets shook Denmark in September and October. Although the movement has entered a lull this does not mean the end of the struggle. The ground is being prepared for another major explosion of the class struggle in Denmark

We are making available to our readers this platform. It shows that after all the reactionary bloodletting and criminal break-up of the former Yugoslavia, the idea that socialism is possible is not dead.

John McDonnell, the left-wing Labour MP, has announced his intention to stand for the leadership of the Labour Party. He is Chair of the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs, the Labour Representation Committee, and the 'Public Services Not Private Profit' anti-privatisation campaign. He is also the national chair of Hands Off Venezuela and has been at the forefront of the campaign to defend the Venezuelan revolution. Read the interview on the Socialist Appeal website.

As could be expected, the Socialist Party (MSZP) and their coalition partners the Free Democrats (FDSZ) lost heavily in the recent council elections in Hungary. The problem is the people know what they are voting against but have no real alternative to vote for.Both main political blocs offer the same austerity programme. A genuine Left alternative is required.

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street, a landmark event in the history of the British working class, when workers in London’s East End dealt a severe blow to British fascism. In commemoration of this victory of the working class, we republish Ted Grant’s pamphlet The Menace of Fascism - What it is and how to fight it, which offers an analysis of fascism and a programme for how to fight it.

While workers in Britain are forced by Gordon Brown to accept miserably low wage increases, the big fat cat executives are reaping big bonuses. Darrall Cozens looks at the figures, highlighting how the same government that holds down workers’ wages facilitates the rich in every way.

From the ashes of the old SSP two formations have emerged, Solidarity and the SSP, but with exactly the same programme, including a strong element of Scottish nationalism. Nothing has been learnt from past experience. There is an urgent need to return to the genuine ideas of Marxism.

For only the third time in 84 years the Social Democracy lost the recent parliamentary elections in Sweden, leading to the resignation of its leader Göran Persson. Now a bourgeois four party “alliance” will govern the country. But anyone who thinks that the workers of Sweden have voted for more attacks on their living conditions is ignoring reality. The alliance announced the very opposite of what they are going to do. So a new period of conflict is being prepared.

Twenty five years ago British imperialism demonstrated its cold, calculating cruelty in the face of Irish Republican prisoners who felt they had no alternative but to make the ultimate sacrifice in the struggle for political rights, embarking on a hunger strike that would tragically end with their deaths. Gerry Ruddy of the Irish Republican Socialist Party has sent us an excellent and intimate analysis of those events, highlighting the need to build a revolutionary movement based on Marxism and rooted in the working class across all boundaries. Read the article on the Socialist Appeal website.