Peter Hadden died peacefully at his home in Belfast on 5 May 2010 and was cremated at Roselawn Cemetery on 10 May. Peter, who died of cancer which he had fought every inch of the way over the previous three years, was 60 years of age.

This obituary will not do justice to Peter Hadden, no obituary could. It is based on the contributions by the following, friends and comrades of Peter, at the funeral itself and at the celebration of his life afterwards – Philip Stott (Scotland), Stephen Boyd, Lucy Simpson, Billy Lynn, Per-Åke Westerlund (Sweden), John Maguire (Visteon), Daniel Waldron, Carmel Gates, Gary Mulcahy, Peter Taaffe, Kevin McLoughlin, Ciaran Mulholland and Joe Higgins MEP.

(more…)

The fightback has just begun!

For fighting unions and mass workers’ parties! For international solidarity and socialism! No to war and occupation! Support the Greek general strike against capitalism’s austerity! For a European-wide day of action on 5 May!

This is a “situation of war” – said Greek Prime Minister, Papandreou, in presenting the case for cuts, in an attempt to prepare the Greek population for his government’s draconian measures. But this is a war – not only in Greece – which the bosses and their governments have declared, faced with the economic downturn, as the crisis continues, despite the limited recovery the economy is showing at the moment in a number of countries. It is a social war of rich against poor, bosses against workers, the rulers of the richer countries against the poor countries. The situation has also seen the continuation of bloody wars and occupations around the globe, with death-tolls mounting in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. This year’s May Day celebrations can mark a step forward in the development of an international struggle of working people.

(more…)

New website of the USP now online!

In late December the United Socialist Party (USP) in Sri Lanka launched its presidential election campaign by distributing their election manifesto in the North, East, and Central Provinces. This incorporated most major cities in these provinces including Jaffna.

As part of the campaign USP leader and presidential candidate Siritunga Jayasuriya has held a number of pocket meetings and public gatherings in the areas of Hatton, Thalawakele, Lindula, Nuwara Eliya, and surrounding areas. Siritunga addressed plantation workers and other communities in these areas.

(more…)

Savage social cuts, workers’ resistance and growth of socialist ideas

The Socialist Party extends warm New Year greetings to all of our members and supporters and to all of our sister sections and groups worldwide. We thank all those who have given assistance – large and small – to our party over the past year.

We call on those who have not yet joined our ranks to do so and help us meet the challenges for the international workers’ movement in 2010 and to help in the struggle for a socialist world, a new society free of the diseases of capitalism - mass unemployment, poverty, wars and environmental catastrophe.

Below, Peter Taaffe, General Secretary of the Socialist Party in England and Wales, looks at the main events of 2009 and perspectives for 2010.

(more…)

Statement by the IEC of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI)

The following CWI Statement was adopted by the CWI’s International Executive Committee (IEC) at its recent meeting in Belgium, 2-9 December 2009. This very successful meeting brought together over 70 representatives from Europe and Russia, Asia, Central Asia, Latin and North America and Africa. Comrades Stephen Jolly and Anthony Main attended the meeting from Australia.

(more…)

Workers start the fight-back

Representatives of sections of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) from Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa are meeting in Belgium, this week, to discuss the world situation in a period of deep capitalist crisis and when working people are facing intense attacks against their living standards.

Report from Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) meeting, Belgium

(more…)

The United Socialist Party (USP), the Sri Lankan section of the Committee for a Workers’ International, held its eleventh national congress from 31 October to 1 November 2009 in Colombo.

By Siritunga Jayasuriya, United Socialist Party, Sri Lanka

(more…)

Journalist held for two hours at border and banned from country
Laurence Coates, a Sweden-based journalist and socialist activist, was turned back at the Chinese border in Shenzhen and refused entry as a “potential threat to national security”.

From chinaworker.info

(more…)

Urgent action needed to protect the environment!
The above headline may read like the title of a dodgy 1980’s pop song, but the reality is much worse. The Kyoto Protocol was the ‘green’ buzz-word of the 1990’s, an agreement among the world’s capitalist leaders which was supposed to solve the global warming crisis.

By Ger Hughes, Socialist Party Sydney

(more…)

60 years on – The lessons for today
The 1949 coal miners strike saw 23,000 workers withdraw their labour between June 27 and August 15 of that year. The dispute dominated Australian politics at the time and saw elements of revolution and counter-revolution which has been a rarity on Australian soil. It also marked a turning point between two distinct periods in working class struggle.

By Stephen Jolly, Socialist Party

(more…)