Fri 27, March 2009 @ 16:29
The failure of Lehman Brothers on September 15th posed the total
collapse of the US financial and capitalist system. The capitalists
survived that through nationalising large parts of the financial
system and throwing $12 trillion dollars at the problem in the US
alone. But even then they couldn’t avoid the downswing. This
article considers trends in the rate of profit, how they relate to
the current crisis and shows that it remains above all a crisis of
the financial sector....writes Bill Jefferies...
read more...
Thu 26, March 2009 @ 18:17
April 1st is only a week away! Below is the crucial information
you will need for camping in the square mile during the G20.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=49600653225
Please post in your profile invite friends to join and check out
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/g20
for updates. Our facebook event has too many attendees so we are
blocked from messaging them -- we need everyone to get this
information out.
read more...
Wed 25, March 2009 @ 00:09
The G20 meeting in the UK next week brings together the leaders
of countries that account for 80% of the world economy. They are
contemplating the fate of their capitalist economy as it falls into
the abyss.
For the PDF of this leaflet
click here
read more...
Tue 24, March 2009 @ 19:30
Since the credit crunch erupted demand for Chile's main export -
copper - has fallen sharply. While the Bachelet government is using
resources set aside during the boom to help plug the gap in state
finances, unemployment is growing as the Chilean economy
grinds to a halt. Diego Carmoni explains how new united fronts and
campaigns are fighting back...
read more...
Mon 23, March 2009 @ 18:21
On
Saturday, 70 activists gathered outside Manchester town hall to
protest at the continuing imprisonment of asylum seekers in Pennine
House Detention Centre, adjacent to Manchester Airport. How many of
the happy holiday makers are aware of what is going on just 100
yards away from Terminal 2, I wonder?
read more...
Sun 22, March 2009 @ 20:05
On Saturday the 7 February, 2009 after several weeks of record
breaking high temperatures, the south east Australian state of
Victoria experienced its hottest day on record. The mercury soared
to over 47°c in parts of the state and in Melbourne reached a high
of 46.4°c.
read more...
Sun 22, March 2009 @ 19:59
Forty years ago the mobilised masses of the nationalist
minority in Northern Ireland took the fight against their social
and national oppression into their own hands. It was a year of
crucial political opportunities in which Irish revolutionary
socialists were severely put to the test.
read more...
Wed 18, March 2009 @ 10:34
BNP leader Nick Griffin and his the “Battle of Britain” road
show will appear this Friday 20 March at the Broadclyst
Village (Victory) Hall, about 10km northeast of Exeter on the
B3181.
read more...
Wed 18, March 2009 @ 10:31
The leadership of Unison, Britain’s biggest public sector union
has set up a McCarthy style trial to investigate four union
activists. Many members of Unison are bewildered at the priorities
of the union spending money and resources to witch hunt committed
trade unionists out of the union. An protest will take place from
8.30 am onwards on Thursday 19th March as the four victimised union
members arrive to face these hearings.
read more...
Mon 16, March 2009 @ 10:13
Your significant theoretical contribution to the left and
therefore your purpose for being has been your serious economic
research resulting in support for the long wave theory of economic
cycles. In particular your location of Chinese economic development
within this cycle....However in hindsight it can be seen that in
2005 the long boom had peaked. After that what followed was a
speculative orgy based on residential and non-residential property
which swept outwards from the USA to engulf every country including
China....writes Brian Green....
read more...
Sun 15, March 2009 @ 17:54
Despite the successful elimination of yet another two murderous
leaders of the Islamic Republican Party (IRP), Radjai and Bahonar,
the inefficacy of the tactics of individual terror and urban
guerilla warfare, divorced from mass working class action, has been
highlighted in Iran over the last few months.
read more...
Sun 15, March 2009 @ 17:53
Iran is locked in a bitter struggle marked by bloody repression
on the side of the Khomeini/IRP Government on the one hand and the
campaign of resistance and counter terror from the Mojahedin and
the supporters of the ousted President Bani-Sadr on the other.
read more...
Sun 15, March 2009 @ 17:52
The turbulent course of the Iranian Revolution has, over the
past few months, taken yet another dramatic and violent turn. Since
the Shah's fall the factions of the ruling class in Iran have been
unable to resolve the struggle for power.
read more...
Sun 15, March 2009 @ 17:52
Wars in general expose with unprecedented sharpness the
weaknesses of self-proclaimed revolutionary organisations. As far
as the war between Iran and Iraq is concerned, the political
short-comings of the Iranian Left have been exposed with a
vengeance. WORKERS POWER No 18 carried a detailed account of our
understanding of the tasks facing revolutionaries during this
war.
read more...
Sun 15, March 2009 @ 17:51
“We Marxists differ from both pacifists and anarchists in that
we deem it necessary to study each war historically (from the
standpoint of Marx’s dialectical materialism) and separately.”
(Lenin-Socialism and War). The war between Iran and Iraq, a war
between two non-imperialist but capitalist states has thrown
Lenin’s injunction to study particular wars and their historical
implications, into sharp relief.
read more...
Sun 15, March 2009 @ 17:50
The Iranian bourgeoisie and the Khomeini led Islamic
establishment are continuing their offensive against the
independent organisations of the working class in Iran. They are
intensifying their attacks on the Left and the movements for
democratic rights that gathered considerable strength in the
struggle to bring down the Shah.
read more...
Sun 15, March 2009 @ 17:49
The alliance of forces that overthrew the Shah in Iran is in
disarray. Khomeini and the Mullahs are set on firmly establishing a
repressive and reactionary male from the mosques. The Mullah super
referendum - where the names of those who voted against an Islamic
republic were noted down by the scrutineers - has strengthened his
hand.
read more...
Sun 15, March 2009 @ 17:49
The insurrection in Tehran was not alone a blow to the Shah's
generals, eight of whom have now paid for their crimes before
firing squads. It was also a serious blow to the Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini, to the mullahs and to their bourgeois allies. Khomeini
and Bazargan had been involved in intensive negotiations with the
generals...
read more...
Sun 15, March 2009 @ 17:46
The Ayatollah Ruahollah Khomeini has said that he regards the
mass demonstrations in December and January as a referendum in his
favour and as a mandate to name the members of a provisional
council made up of 'Moslem believers', a new premier and a
provisional government.
read more...
Sun 15, March 2009 @ 17:45
The continued savage repression since the Shah's flight has
written in the blood of hundreds of courageous Iranians the truth
that the military Bonapartist tyranny still exists, it merely has a
new and pathetic 'Bonaparte'. The Bakhtiar regime balances
precariously on the temporary impasse between the rabid
reactionaries of the High Command and the mass movement on the
streets, the bazaar merchants, the students and the striking
workers, who have made Iran 'ungovernable'. Bakhtiar may well
be
read more...
Sun 15, March 2009 @ 17:42
The prolonged revolutionary situation in Iran holds enormous
potential for destabilising Western imperialism economically and
politically. Carter and Owen, those sermonisers on ‘human’ rights
and Christian values, know that there are serious interests at
stake in hand. Serious enough for them to stand shoulder to
shoulder with the Shah as he sheds rivers of blood to
preserve...
read more...
Sun 15, March 2009 @ 17:40
The total cessation of oil exports from Iran is undeniable
testimony to the tremendous weight Iran's workers have thrown into
the scales in the struggle against the blood soaked Shah. The
strikes by bank workers, state employees, newspaper workers and car
workers, are inexorably strangling the functioning of the Iranian
economy.
read more...
Sun 15, March 2009 @ 17:39
The massacre in Teheran on the 8th of September, which resulted
in the death of hundreds of unarmed demonstrators, has given a
temporary breathing space to the Shah. The corrupt despot’s regime
rests solely on brutal forces of repression. He is armed, and
backed to the hilt, by those bastions of ‘human rights’ Jimmy
Carter, James Callaghan and David Owen.
read more...
Fri 13, March 2009 @ 20:40
The fascist BNP Nazis have launched a “Battle of Britain” in
anticipation of the Euro elections and the possible election of
their leader Nick Griffin. They lost the first battle. Their plans
smashed in dramatic style.
(Pic fascists protected by cops)
read more...
Thu 12, March 2009 @ 07:34
The BNP leader Nick Griffin is planning on speaking at a
BNP Rally/Public Meeting at
the Pure Night Club, Bridgewater Street, Leigh this Friday (13th
March) at 7.30pm
read more...
Wed 11, March 2009 @ 23:09
Demonstrate together against detention - Saturday, 21st March,
12.00
Assemble Albert Square, Manchester - Bike ride or train -
terminal 2 - Detention Centre, Manchester airport 2pm
Thousands of asylum seekers are currenlty being kept in prisons
throughout the UK. They haven't committed a crime, but they can be
imprisoned indefinitely.
Some of these people are imprisoned in Pennie House, the
immigration prison located at Manchester Airport.
Meanwhile, the immigration minister, Phil Woolas' office is only
a few miles away. And while hundreds of innocent people are kept in
prison with no knowledge of when they will be released, he
continues to make racist and xenophobic statements at every
opportunity.
We demand the immediate closure of all immigration prisons and
that everyone be free to come and go as they please regardless of
the country of their birth.
read more...
Wed 11, March 2009 @ 18:18
The National Union of
Teachers (NUT) has given the green light to strike action by
members at St Paul’s Way Community School demanding the
reinstatement of a teacher sacked for wearing trainers.
read more...
Tue 10, March 2009 @ 17:18
Alan died suddenly from a suspected massive heart attack at his
home on Saturday 7th March.
Alan, a council tenant in Camden, was there at the start of the
Defend Council Housing campaign in 1997. It has been a collective
effort of many, and Alan played down his individual selfless
efforts, but he inspired and led in a way that contributed the
binding glue of this collective.
read more...
Mon 09, March 2009 @ 22:56
Organisation for the demonstration "Abolish All Immigration
Prisons" on
21st March is making progress.
read more...
Mon 09, March 2009 @ 18:24
THis is a tale of two books. Both come from the same end of the
political spectrum but there the similarity ends.
Piterberg’s The Returns of Zionism is a tour de force and deserves
a place on the bookshelf of anyone seriously interested in an
analysis of the historical, political and ideological origins of
Zionism. Meyer’s book is best placed on the coffee table...writes
Tony Greenstein...
read more...
Mon 09, March 2009 @ 18:21
Liverpool, in the early post-war decades, shaped Terence Davies
and this film beautifully plunders the archives to bring it alive.
Davies’ bitter-sweet commentary, poetic one minute, ribald the next
and topped off with a wonderful soundtrack, is the sincerest
homage.
read more...
Mon 09, March 2009 @ 18:19
Uli Edel’s film is about the German Red Army Faction (RAF), an
urban guerrilla organisation which grew out of the radical politics
of 1968. Group members were largely middle class left wingers who,
from the late sixties to the “German Autumn” of 1977, were
responsible for actions that escalated from arson attacks on empty
department stores in protest at the Vietnam War, to bank robberies,
bombing campaigns on US military bases and finally to the
assassination of key members of the German ruling class.
read more...
Mon 09, March 2009 @ 18:17
The American satirist, Dennis Perrin, has fashioned a blunt but
effective instrument to undermine the US Democrats’ supposed
anti-war credentials.
read more...
Mon 09, March 2009 @ 18:14
Robert Bruner and Sean Carr’s study provides an excellent,
informative and very accessible introduction to the crash of 1907,
and attempts to draw out some of the historical lessons from it and
pre-conditions for such financial crises in general. In fact in the
period from 1814 to 1914 the US saw 13 bank panics of which 1907
was one of the largest.
read more...
Mon 09, March 2009 @ 18:12
It seems ridiculous that as we come up to the 25th anniversary
of the great coal strike of 1984-85, the NUM and the pit
communities, now find themselves in conflict with people we would
have once hailed as comrades and friends in the left and
environmental movements....by Dave Douglass of the IWW and
NUM...
read more...
Mon 09, March 2009 @ 18:10
I am pleased with the alacrity with which Permanent Revolution
reviewed my book The New Civilisation? Understanding Stalin’s
Soviet Union 1929-1941. Unfortunately, Bill Jefferies’ enthusiasm
to carry out this assignment has led him to make some assumptions
with which I must take issue.
read more...
Mon 09, March 2009 @ 18:06
Two cops – one a rookie, the other a seasoned detective called
McNulty – sit in a surveillance car across the street from where a
tall, well-dressed black man is deep in conversation with a real
estate agent. McNulty has his binoculars trained on the black man
as the rookie enquires if he is a drug dealer and the detective,
letting the binoculars fall but keeping his eyes peeled on his
target, replies:
read more...
Mon 09, March 2009 @ 14:54
Many of you will know Steve Cohen, a long-standing socialist and
fighter against all forms of racism and immigration controls. Sadly
Steve died, peacefully, at about 5 on Sunday morning.
read more...
Sun 08, March 2009 @ 22:06
We would like to ask you to consider supporting and if possible
sending delegates to a trade union conference on Palestine
Solidarity. The conference is being organised by Liverpool Friends
of Palestine (affiliated to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign -
PSC) and the Merseyside Association of Trades Councils, on 18 April
in Liverpool. The conference is supported by Manchester PSC and we
hope it will be attended by delegates and individual trade
unionists from across the North-West.
(For official
letter click here)
read more...
Sun 08, March 2009 @ 17:18
The 2nd trade union conference of the Campaign against Climate
Change on 7th March in London attracted around 170 activists from
across the country. At last year’s conference there was plenty of
debate about the possible role of carbon trading and pricing as
levers for change, with many trade unionists and environmental
activists dismissing calls for socialism and a planned economy as
pie in the sky. This year such faith in market mechanisms was less
in evidence – not surprising given the complete collapse of the
financial system on which such initiatives would depend. Helen Ward
reports from the conference.
read more...
Sat 07, March 2009 @ 14:03
The spring 2009 issue of
Permanent Revolution is now on sale for £2.50 for 60 pages of
analysis and argument on national and international issues.
Articles on Palestine-Israel, credit crunch, Lindsey refinery
strike, the new anti-capitalist party in France and the discussion
underway inside the Socialist Workers Party (UK). Plus briefings,
reports and reviews.
read more...
Fri 06, March 2009 @ 16:50
Launch of a national campaign against sanctions on Iran in House
of Commons - March 16, 6pm.
Speakers include: John McDonnell MP; Jenny Jones Green Party London
Assembly Member; Yassamine Mather Iranian exile, chair HOPI
read more...
Thu 05, March 2009 @ 13:41
Starting at 5pm on Wednesday
4th March, an occupation by workers at the Prisme Packaging factory
in Dundee began after the twelve employees were told their
contracts were being terminated immediately and that they would not
be receiving a penny of redundancy pay
read more...
Thu 05, March 2009 @ 02:15
In the latest developments parents have demanded that
Lewisham Council 'Stop and Think' before they demolish a popular
local primary school...Due to a flurry of objections by local
parents, the Council has been forced to call a public meeting at
Lewisham
Bridge Primary School on Thursday 12 March
6pm. 
read more...
Mon 02, March 2009 @ 22:15
Our campaign continues, we need to understand what progress
looks like and acknowledge that we have moved forward. We are not
complacent and understand that we have much still to achieve, we
have always said we are in for the long haul, the campaign will
evolve, some initiatives will succeed and others won’t but the
campaign will continue until we achieve fair access to construction
projects on guaranteed terms and conditions for all workers.
read more...
Sun 01, March 2009 @ 22:13
Opinion is divided over China’s vulnerability to the credit
crunch. Bill Jefferies argues that the country’s dependence on
exports has been exaggerated. It could yet remain an engine of
world growth
read more...
Sun 01, March 2009 @ 21:35
Voting in the election for the general secretary of the Amicus
section of Unite is underway. It was called because Jerry Hicks,
interviewed here, submitted a legal challenge to the sitting
general secretary, Derek Simpson, continuing in office beyond his
official retirement due date.
read more...
Sun 01, March 2009 @ 18:27
Labour may be productive or unproductive. The same is true for
polemics, but for different reasons. A productive polemic engages
with what the target actually says and forces the target to respond
to these arguments. An unproductive polemic is unproductive in the
same sense as Soviet shoe “production”: the shoes are ill-fitting
and tend to fall apart rapidly. Unproductive polemics
characteristically merely reproduce the writer’s prejudices.
read more...
Sun 01, March 2009 @ 18:25
Dave
Esterson takes issue with a new book by Mike Mcnair that seeks to
rehabilitate Karl Kautsky, a leader of the Second International,
and his method of party building
(Pic: Mike McNair's main man)
read more...
