“The workers... battle-cry must be: 'The Permanent Revolution.'” — Marx and Engels, 1850
In autumn 2008 following the first meeting of The Convention of the Left, we launched an initiative to bring together all the campaigning groups, trade union activists and others active on the left in Lewisham. The idea was to form an umbrella group which would support each others’ campaigns and activities....write Eleanor Davies and Kirstie Paton....
Defend Alberto Durango! Demo 12th Feb
In an act of vindictive union busting Alberto Durango, a leading activist in the campaign to achieve justice for cleaners in London, is facing the sack. Alberto, a leader of the Latin American Workers Association and member of UNITE, has been in the forefront of a series of campaigns to organise mainly migrant workers to challenge the exploitation and dire working conditions amongst cleaners. Venue now changed: UBS Capital, 100 Liverpool Street, London EC2M 2RH
Six members of the Serbian section of the International Workers Association, the Anarcho-Syndicalist Initiative are facing charges of “international terrorism” in relation to an attack on the Greek Embassy in Belgrade. The six; Tadej Kurep, Ivan Vulović, Sanja Dojkić, Ratibor Trivunac, Ivan Savic and Nikola Mitrovic, have been imprisoned on remand since early September, originally being held for three months before being finally being charged in December, much longer than the legal thirty day period allowed under Serbian law. Their trail is due to begin on February 17th but maybe delayed due to the possibility of a lawyers’ strike on the 16th.
The SWPs Right to Work (RTW) Conference was in its own terms a stunning success, around 800 participants crowded into Manchester’s Central Hall to effectively found the campaign and see an SWP left turn. A consequence no doubt of the absence of the left trade union bureaucracy, neither Serwotka, Crow nor Wrack turned up....
Archive article
I propose to make a series of amendments and additions to Comrade Trotsky's theses. . . . First of all I want to give the basis for the amendment which we are introducing on the question of militarization....V V Osinsky, Minority Report on Building the Economy, Ninth Party Congress, 1920 (Protocols of the Ninth Congress of the Russian Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Moscow, Party Press, 1934)
The US economy grew by 5.7% in the final quarter of 2009. For the whole of 2009 it declined by -2.4%, while 7 million US workers have lost their jobs through the course of the crisis, it appears the Great Recession is over for now. Bill Jefferies considers the prospects for recovery.
The strength of the working class movement has never rested in parliament. Rather it lies in the workplaces and communities, and on the streets where working people can demonstrate their power by directly challenging the capitalists’ control of society, the state and economy.
For us, the Haitian people, the earthquake in Port au Prince, on 12 January 2010 hurt deeply. In fact, apart from the destruction of the public buildings most of our neighbourhoods were destroyed. Not surprisingly they are the most fragile and the most unstable: the state never gave them any service, any attention or helped them consolidate. On the contrary, we need to be able to move, so we have neither time nor capacity to be able to consolidate our position from being precarious.
A tragedy has deeply affected Haiti. The epicentre of the worst earthquake in Haitian history was near the capital of the country, destroying two thirds of Port-au-Prince. The situation is dramatic, three million homeless, over 100,000 dead, hundreds of thousands injured and dead bodies everywhere.
Little more than a year ago hundreds of thousands of excited and hopeful Americans crowded into Chicago’s Grant Park on a chill November night. They stood enraptured by Barack Obama as he promised them “change you can believe in”. A global television audience of hundreds of millions watched, spellbound by his oratory.
Report from the Luxemburg-Liebknecht-Lenin-Weekend-2010 of the Revolutionary Internationalist Organization (RIO)
The Presidential
elections, which took place on Sunday 17th January in Chile, saw a
victory for right-winger Sebastian Pinera ending a 20-year rule by La Concertación, the
centre-left coalition that ousted Pinochet.
The Movement of
People and Workers (MPT) a left-wing coalition uniting left groups
and many trade unions, led a campaign calling for a “spoilt ballot”
as neither of the candidates represented an alternative for the
working class. Pinera is a billionaire businessman with links to
Pinochet supporters. Frei the Concertación candidate, which
includes the Socialist Party, was nonetheless a multi-millionaire
representative of the Christian Democrats.
This is a
statement by trade union leaders in the MPT supporting the campaign
and calling for a spoilt ballot.
In the final part of his account of the recent Bolivian elections Diego Mocar argues that Morales' policy of placating the opposition is self-defeating and outlines a set of policies that represent a revolutionary break with this path.
The dramatic impact of the recession on jobs
and pay has highlighted the state of working class organisation and
its ability to resist these attacks. PR14 leads on an assessment of
the trade union movement’s response to the crisis – do the rash of
unofficial actions and occupations this year signal a new mood of
resistance or are they isolated and defensive struggles?
This summer the Tate Modern ran a centenary exhibition linked to the 1909 Manifesto of Futurism published by the French paper Le Figaro. Futurism was an important European art movement with its strongest following in Italy and Russia.
The winter 2010 issue of Permanent Revolution is out now featuring articles on the retooling of British fascism, finance capital after the credit crunch, the Left Party in Germany, a critique of Robert Brenner and much more.. Order your copy now online
