Keir Starmer’s premiership hangs in the balance. A leadership contest is almost certainly on the cards, with Labour Party members set to decide who will be Britain’s next prime minister.

Almost 90 days since their unjust arrest, Ehsan Ali and other leading members of the Awami Action Committee are still being held on false charges and in dire conditions in Gilgit-Baltistan. The Free Ehsan Ali Campaign is calling for an international day of action, to be held on 4 June. JOIN USoutside of Pakistan’s diplomatic missions all over the world!

The indictment of former Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for influence peddling and money laundering has stirred up a huge political storm. This comes on top of a cascade of legal initiatives by the state apparatus aimed at cornering the government of the present Socialist Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez.

In the early hours of 7 May, three Ukrainian drones entered Latvian airspace. Two of those fell onto Latvian territory near the Russian border, setting off a chain of events culminating in the collapse of the government. This is the price the Latvian ruling class is having to pay for turning the country into the most bellicose ally to Ukraine, thereby letting NATO put a huge target on their back.

From 23-25 May, 200 communists gathered in Ivry-sur-Seine to take part in the Second Congress of the Parti Communiste Révolutionnaire (PCR). Activists from Paris, Toulouse, Lyon, Bordeaux, Nantes, Caen, Brest, Bourges, Montpellier, Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, Nîmes, Strasbourg, Morlaix, Grenoble and Saintes were present. They were joined by international delegations from the Swiss, Belgian, Canadian, and German sections of the Revolutionary Communist International (RCI), of which the PCR is the French section.

The Epstein files give us something unusual. Never before have we had such an insight, albeit partial and uneven, into the inner workings of the capitalist class.

The cities of La Paz and El Alto have for weeks been inundated with marches, pitched battles with police, strikes, and blockades, sparked by the fight against counterreforms and inflation. Now, the struggle has gone beyond these demands, and is calling for the right-wing government to fall. How did we get here, and where is the movement going?

In the elections of 2022, Lula received the votes of 60.3 million Brazilians (38.6 percent of the electorate). How many of these actually supported the political agenda of the coalition led by Lula cannot be known. What is certain is that more than 60 million Brazilians did not want Bolsonaro to remain in office as President of the Republic and went to the polls with the common goal of removing him.

With 350 participants, this year’s Pfingstseminarwas by far the biggest ever. And with over 100 comrades from the RKP in Germany in attendance, it was a truly internationalist school. Under the motto “Down with Imperialism!”, the event served as a powerful impetus for building the forces of revolutionary communism in the German speaking world. We also welcomed comrades from Britain, Switzerland, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Hungary.

What will Israel, the Gulf, the Middle East and Asia look like after the Iran War? This was the starting point for this week’s special Q&A episode of Against the Stream, in which Hamid Alizadeh and Jorge Martín worked through the best and toughest questions from our comment section.

The US-Israeli war on Iran is a turning point, not just in the balance of forces between the powers, but also in the world economy. It is bringing to the fore all the contradictions that have been accumulating over the past period: inflation, debt and the looming recession.

“The crucial task of our generation is to overthrow this system and this Epstein class.” With these words, Sereina from the Executive Committee opened the Third Congress of the Swiss Revolutionary Communist Party.

In Toronto during the long weekend of May 16–18, the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) held its third annual congress. Taking place at a time of immense turmoil, the 437 participants discussed the depth of the capitalist crisis and the necessity of building a party up to the task posed by history.

A stereotype holds that British workers have always been conservative and averse to radical class struggle. But a century ago, they waged a general strike that reached revolutionary proportions, threatening the very foundations of capitalist society. The Guardiannewspaper declared on 10 May 1926: “It is just a week since Civil War was declared in this country. It is not a war of arms; it is not yet even a war of tempers; it is a trial of strength.” But the strike ended suddenly after 9 days, at its peak. What happened?

Mozart’s opera ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ caused a storm when it was first performed in 1786. In this article, Alan Woods explains the subversive nature of the opera, and how it revolutionised the art form. Importantly, he shows how it gave expression to the growing ferment in society, which culminated in the French Revolution only a few years later.