Workers' Liberty

The Olympic spectacular in August this year is likely to be another step on China’s march towards great power status. For sure the media will marvel at the incredible stadia, the clean streets of the capital and the immensity of the country.

So spare a thought for the workers on Beijing’s Olympic construction sites,

After winning 1.5 million votes in the April 2007 French presidential election, the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire launched a call for a new “anti-capitalist party” to bring together activists from across the spectrum of the far left in a joint organisation.

Will the stock-market crash of 21 January continue, or ease? We don't know. But what about the monolines?

An editorial in the Financial Times (21 January) summed up well the Government's new plan for the collapsed bank Northern Rock.

A critical exmaination of Joel Kovel’s eco-socialism as set out in his book The Enemy of Nature. That book has recently been updated and republished to include more emphasis on the effects of global warming, which Kovel argues has “become the defining issue of the ecological crisis as a whole”.

BY Vicki Morris

FRESH from his PR appearance on the BBC, President Vladimir Putin of Russia is preparing to host the leaders of the new free world at the G8 summit at St Petersburg (15-17 July).

Document passed at AWL conference 29-30 April 2006.

Call for an Alliance Against war in support of Iranian workers’ struggles

-The threat of a war against Iran is looming. Conflict and contradictions between the interests of neo conservatives in power in the USA and the defenders of the rule of capital in Iran’s Islamic Republic has entered a dangerous phase.

The Zanon factory in Neuquén province in Argentina has operated under workers’ control for four years. It is a great example of the creativity of working class people. Julian Pununuri from Zanon spoke to Paul Hampton during his recent UK tour, organised by No Sweat and the Argentina Solidarity Campaign.

By Chris Reynolds

Why should Marxists want to narrow our appeal to “the workers”, enrolling people from other classes only to the extent that they rally behind the working class? Why not seek a broader unity of “ordinary people”? These questions are live among “anti-capitalist” activists, and on the left generally.

Gordon Brown says that the European countries should stop apologising for their role as colonial powers in past. Colin Foster explains why to “forgiving and forgetting” the past will stop us from understanding the problems African and other Third World countries face in a post-colonial present.

By Vicki Morris

Mayday in Europe, in addition to the traditional marches, witnessed a number of “Euromayday” events. The organisers are more or less anarchistic activists involved in struggles of the unemployed and insecurely employed and are generally scornful of the “organised” labour movement.

On Worker-communist Circles
WPI Briefing Interview with Siyaves Azeri

Fundamental developments in the labour movement in Iran
Asqar Karimi

Important developments are taking place in the labour movement in Iran, including a new wave of strikes and solidarity actions with a more radical and assertive working class coming to the fore of the political scene in Iran in the past year. This powerful movement deserves recognition and support.

Why are the G8 bothered about Africa? A report by the Council on Foreign Relations (a right-wing US think-tank) published last year sheds light on the real issues involved.

Dave Morris and Helen Steel, aka the McLibel 2, won another round in their battle against the McDonald’s burger chain at the European Court on Tuesday 15 February.

In January the International Climate Change Taskforce Report concluded that drastic action was necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stave off immensely damaging and irreversible climate change. On 16 February the Kyoto Protocol on limiting emissions came into operation. We asked environmental campaigners for their evaluations and for their thoughts on alternative energy sources and use.

By Martin Thomas

The world has the technology to slow global warming. Because of entrenched capitalist interests, that technology is used only minimally.

I’m convinced by Paul Hampton’s argument about the ineffectiveness of Fairtrade as a way to tackle sweatshops (Solidarity, 3/64).

I also find the Fairtrade approach distasteful: it emphasises what is different between people in the developed world and people in the third world over what we have in common. From our end, it sounds like “what can I, who have so much (including a fearful chocolate addiction), do for you, who have so little (no shoes on your feet, no roof over your head, and dirty, illiterate children)?”

The Group of Eight (G8) is an alliance of the governments of the world’s richest seven industrialised countries PLUS RUSSIA, and IS DUE TO meet on 6–8 July at Gleneagles in Scotland. Paul Hampton explains why it is important to demonstrate against IT

Within No Sweat we debate what is the best way to stop sweatshop labour. One of the biggest debates we have is around the role to be played by FAIRTRADE goods. Here Paul Hampton explains what he sees as the shortcomings and drawbacks of FAIRTRADE. We invite other readers to join the debate

Liam Conway reviews Shopped by Joanna Blythman

Sacha Ismail reviews The Manchurian candidate

In the famous 1960s film of the same name, American soldiers in the Korean war are brainwashed by Chinese Stalinists to carry out assassinations as part of a power struggle with witch-hunting US McCarthyites. A sophisticated satire on the totalitarian symbiosis between the two Cold War camps? Well, as I haven’t actually seen it, I can’t say.

Philip Havering reviews Anti-capitalism: where now? Edited by Hannah Dee. Bookmarks, 2004, £6

Under the banner of “Corporate Social Responsibility” the big companies and transnationals claim to have changed their ways. BP is now green. Nike promises transparency. Gap spends a packet on rebranding itself as a company that cares about the people who stitch its clothes.

On November 2 you will be called on to vote for president - at least those of you who are over 18 and are US citizens and have a permanent address.

Polls have shown that a clear majority of 18 to 35-year olds are opposed to Bush. And with good reason! In the last four years Bush has launched the country into two major wars, and it is the young who are called on to fight and die for the profits of American oil companies.

A is for ATTAC

The biggest “movement for another globalisation” in France, which has a large international network. It has a considerable overlap with official politics, for example in the French Socialist Party. But some revolutionaries are active within it.

Can we change the world without taking power? Without organising ongoing, structured, political movements (parties)? John Holloway, in a much-read book (Change the World Without Taking Power, Pluto 2002) says we can.