Workers' Liberty

Last week my seventy year old mother, who walks with the aid of a stick, was deemed a security threat by a bus driver.

* The 1906 Speech of Leon Trotsky, on Trial for His Life, to the Tzarist Court.
* Introduction: Sean Matgamna

The “war on terrorism” being waged by George W Bush’s US hyperpower and its political satellites, such as Tony Blair’s Britain, poses strongly the question of the attitude of Marxists toward political violence.

Tubeworker is still trying to get our head round the idea that while the country as a whole has a security level of 'critical', ours is a mere 'serious' (one step less serious than 'critical'). What, is London Underground some kind of place of safety, a refuge from the unsafe streets?!

Racists have exploited the London bombings to mount a renewed attack on Britain’s Muslim communities.

Andy Hilton reviews That Summer Day, a short film by Clive Bradley.

Why is it that whenever a "disaster" happens we have to stop for 2 to 3 minutes to pay "respect"? Today got me thinking about this with the 7/7/2005 train bombings. I work in a "super" market and was pushing a noisy cage not realising the rest of the shop had gone quiet, when I walked past a manager who promptly starred at me with his finger to his lips. That got me thinking, why am I standing here? Why should people blown up on a train be any different from the thousands of other people blown up that day? If it's right to be silent for every war and bombing anniversery no-one would ever talk.

ICFTU ONLINE...
Iraqi trade union leader kidnapped, tortured and murdered 30/5/2006

Brussels, 30 March 2006 (ICFTU OnLine): In the latest brutal attack against the Iraqi trade union movement, the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW) has reported the kidnapping and murder of Thabet Hussein Ali, Head of the General Trade Union for Health Sector Workers, on April 27. Ali was taken by a terrorist group as he was leaving his union's headquarters in Baghdad’s Al-Mansour neighborhood.

Tubeworker of 26/07/05 discusses the aftermath of the Al Qaeda bombings and the police shooting at Stockwell.

Click 'read more' to read the text; 'download' to download.

The response to 7/7 from the Respect/SWP axis has been smug, thoughtless, and irresponsible.

The same sort of Islamist terrorists who killed more than fifty people in London on 7 July are also killing people in Iraq, and on a far bigger scale.

By Mike Rowley

There is every sign that the Government plans to use the terrorist atrocities in London as a cover for accelerating its attacks on civil liberties.

The bomb attacks on Thursday 7th July were despicable. 55 people died, and many more were injured.

This was an attack on us at work, and on our passengers going about their daily lives. The bombers killed innocent civilians, members of London's diverse population.

The nazi British National Party thought it could benefit from stirring up racism and Islamophobia after the London bombings with a disgusting official election leaflet showing a picture of the wrecked bus, and an illegal hate sticker that used the local council's logo. The voters of Becontree saw through them and voted overwhelmingly against the BNP.

Bigots, racists, and fascists are seizing on the reaction to the 7 July bombings in London to launch attacks on Muslim people.

We have published a special issue of Tubeworker in response to last Thursday's bomb attacks on London Underground. It outlines the issues facing people at work, and goes on to examine the politics behind the atrocity.

Click 'read more' to read the text; 'download' to download (two-page PDF)

The Alliance for Workers' Liberty condemns the bombings of the Underground and buses today (7 July) in London. The victims were a random selection from London's diverse population, many of them people on their way to work.

To use civilian planes, full of people, to attack buildings full of civilians, mostly ordinary workers, is a crime against humanity, whatever the supposed aims.

What cause could the hijackers have been serving when they massacre thousands of workers in New York? Not "anti-imperialism" in any rational sense - whatever anyone may pretend or imagine - but only rage against the modern world. Only on the basis of a dehumanised, backward-looking world-view could they have planned and carried out such a massacre.

By Chris Reynolds

At least 338 people have died since gunmen claiming to champion Chechen national rights seized a school in North Ossetia (a territory neighbouring Chechnya) on 1 September and took pupils, teachers and some parents hostage.

No more lies!

We reproduce a statement signed by 'The Families of the victims of the 11 March', delivered at 2am to the demonstration on 14 March. It appears in Spanish on the website of El Militante, a group linked to Socialist Appeal in Britain.

Against the terrorists - international working-class solidarity

The bombing which killed over 200 people at three railway stations in Madrid in the morning rush hour of 11 March was an unspeakable atrocity.

by Gerry Byrne

My immediate reaction to the Madrid bombing I imagine I shared with millions across the political spectrum. It is the second thoughts that divide us. I don't quite know how to express my disquiet at some of those second thoughts expressed on the left.