Europe

This firefighters' strike - whatever the eventual outcome - represents the opening shot in a new stormy period facing Britain. It is a fundamental turning point. Socialist Appealhas repeatedly explained that we have entered the most turbulent period internationally since the second world war. A series of general strikes have rocked Europe, from Greece, Spain and Italy. France has been shaken by mass demonstrations against privatisation. Now Britain has become affected by this changing mood, reflected by the shift to the left in the trade unions.

On Tuesday November 18th, President George Bush arrived at Buckingham Palace for a three-day state visit, complete with red carpets, banquets and cannon salutes. Outside the palace gates, a huge security operation was under way. Some 5,000 British police officers were on hand to protect the president, along with the 700 or so secret-service agents Mr Bush brought with him. More than 200,000 people participated in the biggest weekday demo in the history of Britain to protest at his visit and to cheer the symbolic toppling of his statue.

We have received this report fromGoran Markovic, President of the Main Board of the Workers' Communist Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina and are happy to publish it. It highlights the reawakening of the workers in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the terrible war that tore this country apart. The interesting thing is that workers on both sides of the divide are struggling for the same things.

The Belgian government, together with other EU countries, has declared Iran a "safe country", by which they mean that no-one is in danger of state repression there. This is clearly a manoeuvre. Iran remains one of the most dangerous countries for anyone struggling for genuine human rights, and particularly workers' rights. Support the 250 asylum seekers!
In the Cause of Labour - A History of British Trade Unionism

There are many narrative histories of the struggles of British workers. However, Rob Sewell’s book is different. This book is aimed especially at class-conscious workers who are seeking to escape from the ills of the capitalist system, that has embroiled the world in a quagmire of wars, poverty and suffering. This history of trade unions is particularly relevant at the present time. After a long period of stagnation, the fresh winds of the class struggle are beginning to blow.

Today the railworkers' union, GdE organised a 12-hour strike against the plans of the right-wing government to split the Austrian Railways into different units which has to be seen as a major step towards the privatisation of the railways.

Socialist Appeal's deputy editor, Rob Sewell, interviewed Mick Rix, the former general secretary of ASLEF and instigator of the new Labour Representation Committee, about his views and prospects of reclaiming the Labour Party.

John Maclean was undoubtedly a class fighter and Marxist, but he made one important mistake, and that was to succumb to the idea that a socialist revolution would be possible in Scotland, separate from the rest of Britain. Ted Grant briefly comments on why this was.

Strikes, demonstrations, political crises, Britain looks a lot different now than it did when Blair and co came to power. For us the task of the hour is to give active support to workers struggling to defend jobs and services and carry that fight over into the Labour Party, into a fight for socialist policies.

In the recent period Greece has been gripped by a wave of strikes involving ever wider layers.The PASOK government is facing more and more opposition as the effects of its austerity measures bite into the living standards of ordinary working people. This has opened up the prospect of the PASOK possibly losing the next general election.

In response to the way globalisation affects road transport workers the T&G in the UK and Ireland is launching a pilot project to recruit non-English speaking international drivers, whose pay and conditions are inferior to both EU and UK wages and conditions.

This month marks the 80th anniversary of the death of John Maclean. Maclean was an outstanding figure. He was Britain's most famous Marxist propagandist and revolutionary organiser. At great personal cost, he hailed the Bolshevik Revolution and fought hard to promote the world socialist revolution. The following article gives a glimpse of his life, commitment and contribution to the workers' movement.

On Friday October 24, about ten million workers took part in the 4-hour general strike called by the trade union federations Cgil-Cisl-Uil in opposition to the Berlusconi government’s proposed counter-reform of the pension system. According to the trade union leaders, 1.5 million people participated in over 100 demonstrations throughout the whole of Italy.

On September 10 thousands of Danish students took to the streets to demonstrate against the education policies of the conservative government, which is reducing the quality of education. The national secondary school students’ union (DGS), had called for a one-day strike against the cuts in secondary school education.

George Galloway, the Labour MP for Glasgow Kelvin, was yesterday expelled from the Labour Party by the three-member National Constitutional Committee, which is in reality a kangaroo court designed to simply rubber stamp whatever Blair wants. George Galloway took a clear stand against the war in Iraq. This is the reason why he was expelled. They had tried to remove him on the basis of falsified documents “found in Iraq”. As they were not able to remove him with these, they decided another road.

In the last week of September, the editor of marxist.com, Alan Woods participated in a speaking tour organised by the supporters of the Russian Marxist tendency, the Rabochaya Demokratiya (Workers’ Democracy) group.

The Irish Republican movement has been struggling for a united Ireland for decades. Today it is no nearer this objective than when it was founded. Marxists understand that a united Ireland can only be achieved on a socialist basis. So long as capitalism dominates Ireland there will be division and strife. Therefore it is time to take stock of the past of the Republican movement and to draw a balance sheet. Only by such means can we build the revolutionary movement urgently needed to prevent a further descent into sectarian chaos and achieve instead the historic task of overthrowing capitalism and constructing the 32 county Socialist Republic.

Pierre Broue is internationally renowned for his tireless work as a historian of the international revolutionary movement. His histories of the Bolshevik Party, the Communist International, the Spanish Revolution, and above all his recent Life of Trotsky have been widely admired. His latest book on the Left Opposition is yet another major contribution by this outstanding Trotskyist writer, who has dedicated his life to the fight for international socialism.

Ten years ago this month in Moscow (on October 3 and 4) the “White House” (as the Russian Parliament building is known) was bombed, and hundreds of people were killed. This was the civil war between President Yeltsin and the Parliament (the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation). Today the Russian authorities prefer not to remember those events, not just because of the bloody nature of what happened, but also because what happened back in 1993 questioned the legitimacy of the present Russian system.