Journalist and founder of the whistleblower organisation WikiLeaks Julian Assange can now be extradited to the US to face charges of espionage, ruled Her Majesty's High Court on 10 December. This ruling was in favour of an appeal by the US government to overturn the previous decision by the Westminster Magistrates' Court from January, which denied the extradition on the grounds that the harsh and restrictive prison conditions that Assange may face could worsen his mental wellbeing, creating a real risk of suicide.

After nearly 19 years in power, the strongman image of Turkey’s longest-sitting head of state, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is rapidly deteriorating. The world economic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has delivered another, severe blow to his crisis-ridden regime.

Over the past several days, a massive tornado outbreak in the US has led to a series of deaths in workplaces, due to the bosses’ refusal to take even minimum steps to keep employees safe. Tragedies such as these amount to corporate murder. They expose the callousness inherent to capitalism, which sacrifices workers’ lives on the altar of profit on a daily basis.

Less than 24 hours after South African scientists announced the discovery of the new Omicron COVID-19 variant, rich countries in Europe, as well as Canada and the United States, slapped highly damaging, blanket travel bans on a swathe of southern African countries. The imperialists are reacting in a haphazard fashion to the discovery of this new strain, whose emergence they facilitated to begin with through hoarding the world’s vaccine supply.

On 27 November, protests broke out against amendments to the Referendum Law – eliminating the need for a 50 percent turnout of adult citizens to ensure the validity of the referendum – as well as against the Expropriation Law – making it easier for the state to expropriate the private property of ordinary working class people. All this is being declared as “in the public interest” – by which, of course, are meant the interests of big business.

This month marks the 30th anniversary of the collapse of the Soviet Union. The most powerful deformed workers’ state was collapsing into chaos as supposed communists were looting the state and its assets, cheered on by the imperialists of the west. Capitalism reared its ugly head, and the workers of the Soviet Union had to pay the price.

A row over an alleged Downing Street Christmas party held during lockdown has added further fuel to the fire for Boris Johnson and his scandal-ridden government. The labour movement must mobilise to kick out these crooks and charlatans.

In 1965, reactionary military generals in Indonesia began an anti-communist massacre, slaughtering up to two million members and supporters of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) in one of the twentieth century’s worst mass murders. This year – after six decades of cover up – documents have been released that show the pivotal role played by the British secret services in moulding public opinion in preparation for the slaughter, through a series of propaganda leaflets disguised as the writings of concerned Indonesian emigres.

On 4 December, hundreds of workers both from the public and private sector; as well as trade union representatives, students and peasant leaders, gathered in Lahore from all over Pakistan to attend the central workers’ convention hosted by the Red Workers’ Front. The convention was held in the Bakhtiar Labour Hall, which belongs to the Hydro Union for WAPDA (the state electricity department), the largest public sector union in Pakistan. This was the conclusion of a long series of conventions held in dozens of cities across the country in November.

There is a growing demand for revolutionary ideas as more and more Canadians realize that capitalism has failed. A recent study showed that 35 per cent of the population support moving away from this system, and in the current context it is not hard to see why. It is with this in mind that Fightback magazine recently went fortnightly, meaning we doubled our rate of publication to provide a Marxist analysis on current events every two weeks!

The past month has seen mass protests across Europe as governments introduce coercive and discriminatory measures to contain a new wave of the pandemic. Protests have erupted in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Bulgaria to name a few countries. Similar developments have also been seen in other advanced capitalist countries, including the United States and Australia.

The 1988 Uprising of Myanmar was a turning point in the country’s history. For the first time in over a century, the Burmese masses directly confronted a military dictatorship and toppled it. During the mass struggles against the military coup in 2021, many activists looked to the experience of 1988 for inspiration. Unfortunately, however, the 1988 uprising ultimately ended in defeat, similarly to what happened this year. In order to move forward, we have to ask ourselves what factors led to the 1988 movement’s failure, what mistakes were made. Were any of these present in this year’s movement as well? We need to make a serious analysis of this uprising to draw historical lessons and

The following is the founding editorial of The Struggle, a Myanmar-based, Marxist militant publication in solidarity with the International Marxist Tendency. In the brutally difficult conditions in the country, a team of Marxist revolutionaries still managed to produce a PDF magazine, which they are distributing through their Facebook page “Revolutionary Marxism” (which as of now has over 7,100 likes). Please contact that page if you would like a copy of The Struggle. The English translation below is slightly edited from the Burmese original, clarifying a few points for

In recent days, cities and towns across Morocco have witnessed mass youth movements involving students and unemployed university graduates. Like all serious and deeply-rooted movements, it was marked by mass participation of young women, who stood at the forefront and brought with them high levels of militancy. The movement has been received with warm sympathy by all layers of the poor, not only because its demands are legitimate, but because the masses are angry and looking for a point of reference to rally around.

A strike has been raging for a fortnight in Guadeloupe, triggered by the imposition of compulsory vaccinations. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back following a long period of attacks. Similar explosions are taking place throughout French imperialism’s overseas territories.

Québec solidaire recently held its national congress. The leadership are on clear a rightward trajectory, seeking to water down the party’s anti-capitalist and socialist traditions in order to “prepare to govern". By this, they mean making the party acceptable to the establishment, and ready to govern within the limits of capitalism.

Since 8 November, thousands of farmers have been protesting in Isfahan, Iran, over the drying up of the Zayanderud river, the major river in the province. They have been calling for the distribution of water reserves to farmers. Having been ignored by the regime, farmers occupied the dried-up riverbed in front of Khaju bridge. In the early morning of 25 November, riot police set the farmers’ tents ablaze: the beginning of a government crackdown against the increasingly militant protests. Clashes between protesters and the regime continued for three days, with 210 arrested, 20 injured and three deaths confirmed.

Xiomara Castro, candidate of the Libre party (Freedom and Refoundation Party), the main force in the opposition coalition, has won the elections in Honduras. The regime established by the 2009 coup has been overthrown. With 40 percent of the votes tallied, Xiomara is ahead with 53.61 percent against 33.87 percent for Nasry Afura (nickname ‘Papi a la orden’ – ‘Daddy of law and order’) of the National Party, the candidate representing the continuity of the coup.

The presidential elections in Chile will go to a run-off between the far-right candidate José Antonio Kast, and Gabriel Boric from the Apruebo Dignidad coalition (“Approve Dignity”: a conglomerate involving the leftist coalition Frente Amplio, plus the Communist Party). This comes after a first round where Kast won 28 percent and Boric obtained 26 percent of the vote, a difference of 150,000.

A worrying new variant of COVID-19 has emerged, designated B.1.1.529 or Omicron. This strain was an inevitable product of the reckless pursuit of short-term capitalist interests, which are dragging out this seemingly endless pandemic nightmare.