News

Last Saturday’s “Que Se Lixe a Troika” (Fuck the Troika) demonstrations represent a qualitative as well as quantitative shift for the anti-austerity movement in Portugal, says socialist activist Mark Bergfeld, who recently attended the Left Bloc Congress. In more than 40 towns and cities across Portugal, 1.5 million people (800,000 in Lisbon) took to the […] Read more »

Hard on the heels of the social and political protests of 1968 – and the accompanying English psychedelic and art rock scenes – emerged Glamrock. Perhaps most significant for challenging gender stereotypes – think Bolan and Bowie – it had a short but intense manifestation before Punk hit (literally) – followed by Thatcherism – in […] Read more »

Ken Loach is a socialist and a filmmaker who has never hidden his politics and always sought to grapple in his work with very real problems faced by working people and their everyday life experiences. In this respect he is unique. Here Oliver Huitson interviews Ken about his latest film and how he sees politics […] Read more »

04.06.1913 One hundred years ago the Epsom Derby was disrupted by perhaps the most famous protest at a sporting event in history. Britain at the time was bitterly divided. The early Trade Unions and others striking against poverty wages and appalling working conditions. The cause for Ireland’s Freedom was attracting support on both sides of […] Read more »

Tobias Abse reveals the reactionary nature of Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement and the tragic fragmentation of the Italian Left The Italian general election of 24-25 February 2013 has been a political earthquake or, to adopt Beppe Grillo’s own vocabulary, a political tsunami. We can all agree that it represented a massive popular rejection of […] Read more »

At a massive rally in Lisbon today, the crowd sang Grandola, Vila Morena, the anthem of the country’s carnation revolution in the 1970s which overthrew the fascist regime. Grandola, Vila Morena tells of the solidarity amongst the people of Grandola, and was played at a concert in Lisbon on the 24 March 1974 by José […] Read more »

Twenty seven comrades came to the third Left Unity meeting, for the majority this was their first meeting. The meeting was introduced by Gioia Coppola, an communist from Italy who gave a report on the recent Italian elections. She was despondent about the prospects for the left and saw little positive in the vote for […] Read more »

A falling pound will lower the living standards of workers and the poor, says economist Michael Burke. The British pound has begun to fall once more on the international currency markets. It may be further helped on its way by the loss of the AAA credit rating. This will have important domestic economic consequences. The currency is […] Read more »

Kevin Ovenden looks at the rise of the right wing UKIP party in Britain which won a large vote in the Eastleigh by-election yesterday UKIP’s central slogan was “Stop open-door immigration” – lumping together the movement of EU nationals with asylum seekers and others through a deliberate sleight of hand into a single racist or […] Read more »

Polish socialist Szymon Martys reports on preparations for a general strike in Silesia The Silesia region in the South-West of Poland is preparing for a general strike. This will be the first such strike in Poland for 32 years. It is being organised by all the major trade unions – NSZZ “Solidarnosc” (“Solidarity”),  Ogólnopolskie Porozumienie Zwiazków Zawodowych […] Read more »