October, 2011 - Socialist Action

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 (15^th/16^th 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 17^th 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 15^th 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.

Poland: centre-right re-elected after avoiding recession

17th October 2011 Socialist Action 0

By David Brown

While governing parties throughout Europe are losing elections, Citizens’ Platform (PO) has been re-elected as the largest party in Poland and will again form a coalition government with the Peasants’ Party (PSL).

The major reason for its victory is that the Polish economy has continued to grow throughout its term in office, with Poland being the only EU country to have avoided a recession since the outbreak of the global economic crisis.

Martin McGuinness for President

14th October 2011 Socialist Action 0

By Frances Davis

On Thursday night (13 October) Martin McGuinness’ speech to a packed rally in Dublin’s Mansion House demonstrated beyond any shadow of a doubt why the left and progressives everywhere should not only support his bid for the Irish Presidency, but draw inspiration from it.

His speech gave a strong message to all of the detractors and the right wing establishment in the 26 counties, who have done everything possible to malign his candidacy. Far from having anything to hide or regret, he explained how he was not only right to have followed the course he had, but proud of his history.

No imperialist intervention in Syria

11th October 2011 Socialist Action 0

By Jane West

As the imperialist intervention in Libya moves into its endgame with the NATO pounding of Sirte, the West’s attention is moving more decisively towards the situation in Syria.

So far the imperialists have drawn back from openly threatening military intervention. This is not because it is not on their agenda, but because a number of factors have temporarily stayed their hand.

The latest phase of the Euro crisis

10th October 2011 Socialist Action 0

By Tom O’Donnell

The foolish vanity that the current crisis in the European economy and financial markets was confined to the so-called ‘peripheral’ economies of the Euro Zone has been exposed as complacent self-delusion. Among the recent development the large Belgian-French-Luxembourg bank Dexia is threatened with bankruptcy despite already having been bailed out by the governments. Crucially, yields on French and Belgian government debt have climbed to reflect the increased risk of taxpayer funds being used for further bank bailouts. Their yield premia over Germany is now equivalent to the premium paid by Irish and Greek governments as the crisis began to unfold. The crisis has migrated from the ‘periphery’ to the ‘core’.