Last Friday, Paris was the scene of mass slaughter in which at least one hundred and twenty-nine people, mostly young kids enjoying themselves in cafes and a rock concert, were shot down in cold blood. The killers, shouting Allahu Akbar, discharged magazine after magazine, calmly reloading before killing more defenceless people as they lay helpless on the ground.
Reactionary Islamic fundamentalist terrorism has struck again last night in a co-ordinated attack on different sites in Paris leaving over 128 dead and more than 100 severely injured. This is a wholly reactionary attack against ordinary working people, many of them youth, enjoying a night out in restaurants, concert halls and a football stadium. We condemn the murderous gang which carried out these attacks and we express our solidarity with the people of Paris.
For a very long time British politics has resembled a stagnant pond. With the election of Jeremy Corbyn in a landslide victory it felt as if a huge stone had been thrown into it, making gigantic waves that have transformed the entire political landscape. But not everyone is pleased. Even before he was elected, Jeremy Corbyn faced an orchestrated campaign of vilification that in sheer viciousness and intensity has no precedent in recent British politics. Day in, day out, the public is subjected to a deafening cacophony in which the howling of the wolves is accompanied by the snarling of the dogs and the hissing of the snakes.
The International Monetary Fund has been forced, not only to repeatedly downgrade its growth forecasts, but to now predict a fall in World GDP in dollar terms, the first since 2009. This is a reflection of the crisis-ridden world we are in.
The IMF economists have been repeatedly forced to eat their words as the world economy, supposedly in its seventh year of “recovery”, has leaned from one crisis to another. The world slump of 2008-9 was a defining moment. It ushered in a protracted crisis, described by Lawrence Summers, the former US Treasury Secretary, as “secular stagnation”.
The current refugee crisis has brought out some of the horrors of capitalist society, as well as the contrast between the basic human solidarity of ordinary working people and the cold calculation and callousness of capitalist rulers in Europe and elsewhere.
The Greek crisis is approaching a denouement. This marks a turning point for the working class of Greece and the whole of Europe. Last January Greece voted for a government that promised to end the austerity policies that have ruined the country. The election of Syriza gave hope to many people throughout Europe. But precisely for this reason, the political leaders in Brussels and Berlin decided to crush the new government, to humiliate it, to sabotage it and finally to bring about its overthrow.
A new explosive period is opening up in Greece where the ideas of Marxism will be more necessary than ever before. This means that support for the Communist Tendency of Syriza will be crucial.
Our tendency is the only one inside SYRIZA that is funded exclusively by our own members and supporters. But the situation is moving very fast, with constant turns and changes, which require regular analysis on the part of the Marxists and a stepping up of their activities, with pamphlets, leaflets and more regular public meetings.
All of this costs, and while the comrades in Greece are making big sacrifices, they are also facing a difficult situation in terms of job losses, and cuts in wages and pensions. We are therefore calling for financial support from the comrades and readers of the In Defence of Marxism website to help us spread the ideas of Marxism in Greece.
The struggle of the Greek workers is the struggle of all working people. By helping the Greek Marxists financially, you are also strengthening the struggle for socialism in your own countries!
Click this link to the main IMT website to donate:
http://www.marxist.com/the-greek-referendum-say-no-to-austerity-break-with-capitalism.htm
New Zealand's economic situation is changing for the worse, as the general crisis of world capitalism is unravelling and China's growth is slowing down affecting the whole of the Pacific and Austrialia in particular. Austerity policies are being carried out by the National Party-led government, undermining the political support for the right wing and creating the conditions for an intensification of the class struggle in the period ahead. This perspectives document should be viewed as an addendum to the 2014 document, as the general processes outlined in the previous document are apparent in the present situation.
The 20 September 2014 was a bad day for the working class of New Zealand. For New Zealand workers the re-election of a National government, and for the first time under MMP with an absolute majority, does not bode well for the future of workers living standards and conditions of employment, as well as the poor.
The Scottish Referendum produced a seismic shift in the political landscape of Scotland. The campaign shook up the whole of society and touched those who had never even voted before. The turnout was an unprecedented 85%, more than three and a half million people, bigger than any election ever held in UK history. This alone makes it a political earthquake. Although the Scots rejected independence, they have sent shockwaves through the British political Establishment.
This article looks at the situation in Pakistan, and describes on the one hand the effects of decades of rule by an inept and corrupt ruling class that has proven incapable of developing the country and on the other, highlights the immense work done by the comrades of The Struggle in building a Marxist Tendency in these every difficult conditions. [The text is a transcript of several talks given in the USA on Pakistan].
.Comrade Riaz Lund, a leading member of the Pakistan section of the IMT and well-known class fighter in Karachi, has been shot in cold blood by assassins. In a cowardly and brutal assault, he was hit three times, twice in the stomach and once in the chest
