10am to 4.30pm
Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL.
(nearest tube Holborn)
By Andrew Williams
The UN General Assembly motion on Syria agreed last week, condemning President Assad and calling for him to step down, was organised by the US and its closest allies, including Saudi Arabia, to try to give legitimacy to their growing intervention in Syria.
By Frances Davis
Almost one year on from the general election in the southern Irish state, which saw the crushing defeat of the Fianna Fáil government and the election of a Fine Gael/Labour coalition, the Irish economy remains in deep crisis. Implementing the same austerity policies as the previous government, the devastating impact on living standards continues, in parallel to the effect of similar Tory policies in Britain.
The Coalition of Resistance and the People’s Charter are appealing for support for a campaign against the extreme 'austerity' measures being imposed on the Greek population.
The statement, set out below, should be given widespread backing and can be signed here.
By Jane West
While it is welcome that Stephen Hester, CEO of the publicly-owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has been forced to forego his grotesquely inflated bonus – and that his predecessor Fred ‘the Shred’ Goodwin has been stripped of his knighthood – the truth is the whole furore has been used to divert attention from the most central issue and real scandal relating to the banks.
By James Wilkins
The latest economic figures showing that the British economy shrank in the last quarter of 2011 underlines the damage that Tory economic policy is causing – both to growth and living standards. A clear alternative to its ‘austerity’ policies is needed, but the Labour front bench’s recent further capitulation to the Tory economic framework weakens both the struggle for such an alternative and its own electoral position.
By Stephen MacAvoy
On 13 January Ed Balls, previewing a speech to the Fabians, launched a new Labour policy – that Labour supported the Tory-led governments public sector pay freeze and it would start from a baseline of maintaining Tory cuts.
The most advanced political struggles taking place in the world today are in Latin America where, breaking the trend of 30 years of defeats for the international left, mass socialist movements have won elections and used government to drive back US imperialism on the continent and to make substantial improvements in the living standards of the majority. (For more see Latin America and socialism of the 21st Century)
Any confusion about what is driving developments in Syria should be blown away by the increasingly open intervention of Saudi Arabia, primarily through its agent, Qatar, in stepping up the offensive against the Assad regime. This escalated recently with the call by the Qatari dictator, Emir Hamad, for the Arab states to intervene militarily.
The recent grotesque furore whipped up against Diane Abbott, based on an entirely mischievous and unsustainable accusation of racism, coming within a day of the long-awaiting verdict in the Stephen Lawrence trial, looked remarkably like an opportunist backlash against the progressive discussion on racism that began to unfold as a result of the trial.
By Jane West
Following the mass protest on the weekend of 1st/2nd October, hundreds of primarily young people remain camped out in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park under the slogan of ‘Occupy Wall Street’, and calling for action against the banks to alleviate poverty and unemployment.
While the precise demands of the protests are vague and varied, there is no doubt about the overall character of the mobilisations – they reject that the American people should be forced to pay for an economic crisis made on Wall Street.
By Jane West
The mobilisations in Wisconsin in response to Republican proposals to strip public sector workers of collective negotiating rights indicate that the US working class may just be beginning to stir from the slumber that has gripped it through three decades of assault on its living standards.
A demonstration held on Saturday 12th March after the Republicans found a way to force their legislation through despite the Democrats’ blocking tactics saw a demonstration up to 100,000. Initial large protests were further galvanised by the decision of the Democrat members of the state legislature to render the body inquorate and absent themselves. In order not to be subject to subpoena they had to go outside the borders of the state.
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