The CWI can report with great relief, that after heroic efforts to establish the whereabouts of all its members, the United Socialist Party in Sri Lanka has found that it sustained no direct loss of life. The tsunami had crashed into areas where many USP members and their families lived and worked.

Both the military and corruption sabotage relief work
By Arne Johansson Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna (CWI Sweden)
While Aceh on the northern edge of Sumatra has registered nearly two-thirds of the total death toll by the Asian tsunami, the Acehnese so far have received only 30% of UN food deliveries. More than two weeks after the catastrophe many [...]

By Lance Sharkey
First published in 1942 this was the single most influential pamphlet of the Communist Party of Australia - the largest (per capita) and most influential CP in the English-speaking world at the time. Despite the Stalinism of the party, this pamphlet remains one of the best introductions for young workers as to the [...]

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the 1905 Russian Revolution, where the Russian working class first showed its strength. The Russian Revolution of 1905 began on Sunday 9 January, after more than one thousand people men, women and children were massacred by military guards outside the Winter Palace of the tsar.
By PerAke Westerlund, CWI [...]

Comrades
Especially those comrades and supporters outside Victoria, please consider as big as possible a donation to our special socialist appeal to help rebuild our party (the United Socialist Party) in Sri Lanka who have lost a Central Committee member and many resources through the tsunami. Please post your pledge to SP, PO Box 1015, Collingwood [...]

No important event has a neutral or apolitical effect - not sport, music, or even natural disasters like the Indian Ocean tsunami. The Indonesian government is taking advantage of the tsunami to attack GAM (the Aceh guerrilla/independence movement). One tactic by Jakarta has been to introduce reactionary groups like the Islamic Defenders Front, Jemaah Islamiah [...]

Rosa Luxemburg was a great Marxist writer and workers’ leader who played the key role in the 1918 German Revolution and was murdered in the process. 100 years ago she wrote this brilliant essay after the eruption of Mt. Pelee that killed 40,000 people on the French Caribbean colony of Martinique.

Good reading in run-up to public meeting next Tuesday in Melbourne (see article below for details of meeting).
This article has comments on the situation, especially in the north and east of Sri Lanka, from Senan, a CWI member from Jaffna, living in London. He includes comments from phone conversations with Siritunga Jayasuriya, Secretary of [...]

There will be a public meeting to discuss the tsunami tragedy from a socialist perspective on Tuesday January 18th at 7pm at Trades Hall, cnr Lygon+Victoria Sts, Carlton South. Speaker: Sri Lankan Socialist Sampath Perrera.

By Jagadish Chandra, New Socialist Alternative (CWI, India)
Tsu-nah-mee means ?harbour waves? in Japanese. The monumental tidal wave which hit the countries on the Indian Ocean on December 26, has taken more than 150,000 lives. It has left millions who survived with their lives devastated for decades to come. The worst hit parts of India [...]