Around 5,000 protesters, predominantly women migrant workers from Indonesia and the Philippines, joined the march organised by the Hong Kong People’s Alliance Against the WTO - a broad coordinating group in which the HKCTU trade union organisation plays a key role.
By Laurence Coates with the CWI campaign team in Hong Kong (more…)

The case of workers at the Hong Kong-owned battery producer Gold Peak’s three China-based factories, who are suffering from exposure to the chemical cadmium, has received international attention. (more…)

The Socialist Party utterly condemns the racist violence on the streets and beaches of Sydney over the last few days. The riots are a setback to the struggle against the Howard government and the capitalist system itself which lies at the heart of the problems faced by both muslim and white youth in Australia. (more…)

Striking workers at Colrain are urgently requesting support for their dispute after a manager drove through the picket line Monday morning badly injuring one worker. The situation on the picket line is stable at the moment with workers receiving support but there is a concern that management may attempt to break the picket very soon. (more…)

The community of Dongzhou in Guangdong province is in a state of shock four days after paramilitary police opened fire on thousands of demonstrators protesting against seizure of their land to build a coal-fired power plant.
Laurence Coates reports from Hong Kong (more…)

HUGO CHÁVEZ has won his eleventh election victory since becoming president of Venezuela in 1998. In elections for the National Assembly his MVR party won 68% of the vote giving it 114 out of 167 seats. This was an increase of 28 and means it has the two-thirds majority needed to make changes to the constitution.

By Christine Thomas, Socialist Party
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Sunday’s monster demonstration, for one person one vote in Hong Kong, has shaken the territory’s capitalist elite and their allies in Beijing?s nominally ‘communist’ dictatorship, writes Laurence Coates. (more…)

One of the biggest demonstrations in Hong Kong was held on Sunday 4 December. Erik Dalén from the CWI was on the demonstration and reports below.
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Hundreds of thousands of people are yet to receive help after the devastating earthquake hit Pakistan and Kashmir on 8 October. The reason? Corruption, repression and political manoeuvring. Khalid Bhatti, of the Socialist Movement Pakistan (part of the Committee for a Workers? International), reports on the role of the military-backed regime and the right-wing nationalist and religious forces which are vying for influence.

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Why SP fights for a socialist alternative
Our environment is deteriorating rapidly. In the past 50 years, human activity has changed the ecosystem more rapidly and extensively than in any other half-century in human history. Global warming has caused the arctic ice sheet to halve in thickness in just 30 years. Half the earth’s forests have disappeared as have an even higher proportion of wetlands.
By Roger Shrives and Judy Beishon, Socialist Party (more…)