International Politics

Latin America – China axis of hope

31st August 2012 Socialist Action 0

by Brian Williams

The two most important developments in the world today, from the point of view of the advance of socialism, are in Latin America and China.

In Latin America forces seeking to establish socialism have advanced as part of a turn to the left by almost all of the continent. In Venezuela a direct struggle to establish the second socialist state in  Latin America, after Cuba, is underway. For more than a decade that socialist programme has commanded the support of the majority of Venezuela’s population against the determined opposition of the US and its allies.

Photo: Eduardo Carrasco

We are the 99 per cent

20th October 2011 Socialist Action 0

By Jane West

The US ‘Occupy Wall St’ protest – which itself marks the emergence of the first signs of a radicalisation in the US in response to the global economic crisis – inspired a global ‘Day of Rage’ last weekend (15th/16th October) focused on the world’s stock markets and financial systems, which saw protests in most of the advanced capitalist countries.

The Occupy Wall St protest itself began on 17th September under the slogan of ‘We are the 99 per cent’ – referring to the disparity between the 1 per cent that own 40 per cent of the wealth in America and the 99 per cent that share the rest.

On 15th October, the movement went global, with rallies of various sizes reported in 951 cities in 80 countries. The Guardian featured a world map showing the location of the main protests.

Lowkey’s new album: promoting the anti-war message into the charts

18th October 2011 Socialist Action 0

By Mushtaq Ahmed

Last weekend (15/16 October) Lowkey released a new album, Soundtrack to the Struggle, which rapidly became propelled to number seven in the iTunes chart. This is a phenomenal achievement for an artist with no major record label backing. Add to that the fact that he has been defined by his strong stance on the injustice suffered by the Palestinians, and his support for the revolutionary developments in Latin America. This makes this achievement all the more impressive, given that BBC 1Xtra earlier this year censored the word ‘Palestine’ from a track by MC Righteous. Lowkey has been at the forefront of The Equality Movement together with MC Logic and journalist Jody McIntyre who reviews the album here.

Photo by MCpl Robert Bottrill, Canadian Forces

Osama Bin Laden and the ‘war on terror’

4th May 2011 Socialist Action 0

By Jane West

The ‘war on terror’ launched after the 9/11 terrorist attack on New York’s World Trade Centre has included so far the invasion of Iraq without the support of the UN on an illegal mission of ‘regime change’, the torture and humiliation of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the incarceration of hundreds without trial in Guantanamo Bay, the invasion of Afghanistan, the deaths of at least three times the number of US military personnel than the total dead on 9/11 and many times that number in civilian deaths.

Dilma election poster

Two trends in world politics

5th November 2010 Socialist Action 0

By Jane West

Dilma election poster

Photo WavesDream

The recent results of the elections in Brazil and the USA highlight two divergent trends in world politics. Trends in the countries dominated by imperialism continue to go to or remain on the left. Since the outbreak of the international financial crisis political trends within the imperialist countries have moved to the right.

No butter, just guns

1st December 2009 Socialist Action 0

The international financial crisis is frequently interpreted as being characterised by operations of avaricious and immoral bankers, motivated purely by personal greed, acting with complete indifference to the population of this or any other country, who recklessly operated financial derivates they did not understand within a casino economy, and whose net useful contribution to society has been shown to be less than zero – all of which is true. But this is only the mechanism by which the economic crisis worked itself out – not its cause. Furthermore, if this had been the real driving force of the economic crisis it would be relatively easy to deal with – tough financial regulation and similar measures would suffice.