Europe

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.

While no money is available for spending on healthcare, education, pensions, etc., billions of dollars are spent on building up massive security systems. Each terror scare adds to the profit margins of the big security companies. It is an indication of the sickness of the society we live in.

In the recent period the Spanish School Student Union and the Frederick Engels Foundation in Vitoria (Gasteiz), in the Basque Country, have become the victims of fascist harassment. UGT activists have been physically attacked and hospitalised. Before something serious happens, these fascist thugs and their backers in the state, must be made aware that workers and youth around the world have their eyes on what is going on. Stop the fascists now!

The capitalist system that flourished in the time of Dickens is still upon us, as are all of its ills and evils. Reminiscent of the popular festive tale A Christmas Carol, in 2006, we still find that the everyday lives of working people are subject to the whims of a minority of parasitic individuals. This has found expression most recently in the Farepak fiasco.

It is 100 years since the Labour Party first emerged as a force in parliament, and 100 since the Trades Dispute Acts granted British workers some basic rights against prosecution by employers in case of strike action. Today workers have fewer rights than they did then. Since 1906 the British ruling class have attempted to break the link between Labour and the unions, but have systematically failed.