War and Terror

The people of Iran face two threats simultaneously: the prospect of imperialist American-led military action and sanction and the ongoing but accelerated repression and despotism of the Islamic regime in Iran. The threat of the occupying imperialist forces and their long-term plans for the region and Iran are better known in the west. The occupying capitalist forces know that the prospect of a military action or sanctions against Iran will harm the people of Iran but that has no place in their calculations. The occupying forces ultimately want a change from the above and Iraq are painfully...

Rosalind Robson reviews The Last Tommy (BBC1), and The Somme, (Channel Four) For socialists the two world wars of the last century are of tremendous importance. These events gave birth to massive class struggles. In the First World war, workers who had been conscripted to fight the bloody battles, were to turn against the ruling class, the brass and the politicians, who had pushed them to slaughter. In Russia, in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, workers made revolutions. Revolutions which were to shape the course of revolutionary Marxist politics up to the present day. Strange then to think...

In the last fortnight China has stepped up its claims to Taiwan, and strengthened its opposition to any attempt by the Taiwanese government to seek independence. The US now appears to beleive that China is more serious than ever about these claims, and will seek to reincorporate Taiwan sooner rather than later. The US is in an awkward position. Its interest in Taiwan is more economic than political. The US now conducts vast amounts of trade with China, and China provides the US with large quantities of funding to sustain the US Trade and Budget deficits. The US does not want to jeopardise...

On the Sydney (Australia) demonstration of 18 March, as well as London’s, there was a voice for the Iraqi labour movement. Members of Workers’ Liberty Australia and other supporters of “Aus-Iraq” distributed a leaflet headed: “No to occupation, no to ethnic and sectarian division, yes to the civilising, unifying power of Iraq’s trade unions”. The Sydney demonstration, however, was small — fewer than a thousand. There were 800 in Dublin, 450 in Warsaw, and according to the Los Angeles Times 1000 in New York, 7000 in Chicago, 200 in Washington. 1000 in Stockholm, 2000 in Copenhagen. The London...

Les attentats à la bombe de Londres Déclaration de l’Alliance for Workers Liberty du 7 juillet 2005 à 17H L’AWL condamne les attentats à la bombe, commis ce jour (7 juillet) dans le Métro et les bus à Londres. Les victimes sont issues au hasard dans la population diverses de Londres, beaucoup d’entre elles se rendaient à leur travail. A l’heure où nous rédigeons cette déclaration, les rapports officiels font été de 37 morts et de plus de 700 blessés. Le site Web Al-Saha a publié une déclaration dans laquelle, « Al-Qaida en Europe » proclame sa responsabilité. « Le temps est venu de la revanche...

The sums spent by the world’s richest governments on aid and debt relief pale in comparison to the amount they spend on weapons. In 2004 — the sixth successive year in which global arms spending increased — the global total spent on munitions topped $1 trillion for the first time since the height of the Cold War. The amount spent on aid that year was $78.6 billion. The US alone spent $455 billion on arms, an increase from the previous year of 12%; its aid spending is about 4.1% of its total arms bill. It accounts for 50% of world arms spending, despite having only around 5% of the global...