Ex-USSR

Editorials: 1. The Road to Peace. 2. No, we are not beaten!

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Editorial

The road to peace:

"Negotiations are once more under way on arms control. Anything that lessens the danger of nuclear conflict is to be welcomed. But nothing agreed between the superpowers merits the trust of socialists... The real road to peace lies not in negotiation between capitalist and bureaucratic imperialists, but in the direction of consistent democracy in international affairs and the overthrow of the imperialists by the working class, East and West..."

No, we are not beaten!

"Have the Tories seen off the British working class? They think so; and they can make an impressive case... The working class has suffered severe defeats... Structural changes in the workforce have weakened the labour movement... The new sections of the working class have the same bread-and-butter needs for militancy as the old sections... [but] they need bold leadership to galvanise them and are demoralised by timidity..."

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A collection of short articles from Workers' Liberty 12-13, August 1989

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Click here to download the pdf including all these short articles from Workers' Liberty 12-13, August 1989.

Strikes in Stalinist and ex-Stalinist states; Rushdie; EU; Dock Labour scheme scrapped; more on USSR strikes; strikes in UK; abortion rights in USA; world economy; British economy; Scottish left and Assembly; independent union in China.

Collection of articles from Workers' Liberty 7, June 1987

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AWL

Collection of short articles from Workers' Liberty 7, June 1987.

Workers hit back at Haughey: Cuts to Irish heathcare

South Africa: Free Moses Mayekiso! Leading Black South African trade unionist facing death-penalty

Stalinism: Gorbachev and Soviet workers

Union mergers: Reshaping of the British trade union movement.

Malta: Fall of the governing Labour party

Australia: Bob Hawke's governing Labor Party seeks 3rd term

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Workers Against Gorbachev

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Editorial

Many socialists exaggerate what Gorbachev has done. It is understandable that the first stirrings of open political life for decades in the USSR should be welcomed. But if Gorbachev's reforms lead to workers' liberty in the USSR, it will only by shaking up the system and creating openings for the workers to move against the system and against Gorbachev himself.Click here to download pdf.

Introduction

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It is 20 years since the destruction of the Berlin Wall by the people of then divided Germany signalled that Russia’s control over Eastern Europe was collapsing. Russia had held Eastern Europe in a brutal grip for four and a half decades, since the end of the Second World War.

4. Stalin’s system collapses

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The system Stalin built in the old Tsarist empire has collapsed irretrievably. The USSR is collapsing, too: most of its republics have now declared themselves independent. In most of those republics the “Communist Party of the Soviet Union” has either been banned outright, or banned from activity in the army and the KGB, and in factories.