“The workers... battle-cry must be: 'The Permanent Revolution.'” — Marx and Engels, 1850
The organisers of the Convention of The Left would like to invite you to the free one day conference - "Capitalism Isnt Working - What Is The Alternative?" - to be held at the Friends Meeting House, Manchester, from 10-5 on Saturday 24th January 2009.
As the governments announces new prostitution offences, we ask: who benefits from criminalising sex workers & clients?...English Collective of Prostitutes
Wednesday 3 December
Climate change or climate disaster?
Members of Permanent Revolution and the Green Left discuss the ever more dramatic threat to the planet and whether “ecosocialism” can provide an answer to the oncoming crisis
Last Saturday
saw tenants and staff protest outside the Town Hall at the
undemocratic nature of the new ALMO (Arms Length Management
Organisation), called Lambeth Living, which
now runs Lambeth Council’s
housing stock...
At a packed meeting trade union activists, Latin American solidarity campaigners and immigrant rights organisations came together to discuss how to build solidarity with Latin American workers in Britain who are organising for trade union rights at work. Dave Esterson reports....
100,000 school students across Germany went on strike on
Wednesday, November 12. In more than 40 cities there were rallies
and demonstrations instead of classes. In many places, university
students and teachers expressed solidarity.
People B4 Profit – Lewisham Public Meeting St Mary’s Centre,
Ladywell Road, Lewisham SE13 7HU
Britain today is seeing a concerted attack on its social services.
Health, education, housing and leisure facilities are seen not as
services for people but as a source of private profit. The
government and local authorities provide more and more
opportunities for private business to skim profits off the public
sector. Come to the meeting and join the fight against
privatisation! To find out more email: people-before-private-profit@googlegroups.com
Download leaflet here.
A new
leadership came out of the 1946 conference of the Fourth
International (FI), based in Europe rather than the USA. At the
core of the new leadership was the International Secretariat (IS)
of seven based in Paris which included Michel Pablo, the
International Secretary, Pierre Frank, Ernest Mandel and US
Trotskyist Sherry Mangan.
George
Binette ponders the meaning and consequences of Barack Obama's win
in last week's US Presidential election...I was born in the United
States a little less than 50 years ago. Among my most enduring
visual memories comes from the age of three as white cops, faces
contorted in hate, unleashed Alsatians and turned fire hoses on
black children...
Scott
is an activist at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill
(USA). He spoke with REVOLUTION about the political situation at
the universities a few weeks before the elections. We don’t
necessarily agree with all his points (for example, the support for
Cynthia McKinney), but we think this interview is an important
contribution to the debate.
Despite the financial crisis, despite the massive drain of
deposits and the losses from speculative trading, UBS announced
that it would pay millions in bonuses to its cadre. To protest
against this, the youth party of the Social Democratic Party of
Switzerland, the JUSO, called for rallies across the country on 29
October in front of the branches of the largest bank in
Switzerland
As US electors were going to the polls last night, economist Keith Harvey was reminding the Cardiff Radical Socialist Forum that the course of the election campaign turned on the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the signal that the US banking system was in crisis.
On Monday 20 October 2008 the National Union of Teachers (NUT) branch of St Paul’s Way Community School discussed an emergency motion to the East London Teachers Association (ELTA) asking them to support Adrian Swain’s campaign against victimisation. (Download petition here)
Some $2tr of global government public money into debt-ridden banks over the last week has eased the credit crunch marginally. Now attention turns to the recession in the major western countries and Japan, says Keith Harvey
There is no shortage of self-reverential looking back to 1968 in the media – the generation of “68-ers” who now run a lot of it have made sure of that. For all that, May 68 continues to traumatise our rulers. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, for example, recently fulminated against its “moral and intellectual permissiveness”.
In this issue we neither romanticise nor vilify these events. Rather, in two articles – one on the events in France, the other on the international setting – we examine the forces that took to the streets that year and the legacy it has left us with. Our film review continues the ’68 theme.
In an exclusive interview with a leading Venezuelan trade unionist we unravel the class dynamics of the Bolivarian revolution and present it alongside a series of impressions from a comrade who visited recently.
Will China fall prey to the fall-out from the global credit crunch? We attempt an answer in this issue when we examine what lies behind its rapid economic growth and the left’s confusion on the matter.
Finally we search among the ruins of Labour’s disastrous spring election results and see if we can detect signs of life for the far left.
Our autumn journal not surprisingly deals with the ongoing financial crisis and its implications for the British and world economy. Our lead article looks at Britain, while we interview Costas Lapavitsas on the financial crisis and its implications for Marxist theory. Two reviews continue the analysis, one a polemic with our former comrades in the LFI who dismiss the idea of long waves in capitalism.
A major article looks at the new leadership in Cuba and the direction in which the country is travelling – we think towards the market. Two other articles on Latin America look at the political crisis in Bolivia and developments in Chile under Bachelet.
Other pieces give an impression of the new working class in China and the history of the US working class. Trying to explain why the USA has never built a workers’ party is very relevant in a US election year where the voters again are faced with a choice between two bourgeois parties.
Our Editorial and Feedback sections address the thorny question of “left unity”, following a period of failures to hold together left electoral fronts and parties, in England and Scotland. It does it in the context of reporting on the growing discontent and struggles against Labour’s wage freeze.
If you find our journal stimulating, sympathise with its arguments and ideas, why not get in touch and help us? We are not just a journal but an organisation fighting to change society. Maybe you can too.
