In the twenty four hours following Wednesday?s destruction of the sacred Shiah Askariya mosque in Samarra, north of Baghdad, Iraq shuddered on the edge of a bloodbath. It is most likely that elements within the insurgency opposed to the setting up of the new government used the bombing to deliberately provoke a much sharper sectarian polarisation. Across the country there were snapshots of what a future civil war may look like if the Iraqi working class and poor peasantry are not able to build and maintain class unity in the face of this threat.

By Kevin Simpson, CWI (more…)

The Australian Wheat Board (AWB) has been caught red handed supporting the regime of Saddam Hussein through the use of bribes disguised as trucking fees in order to keep its wheat sales.

By Gary Duffy, Socialist Party Sydney (more…)

President Hugo Chávez continues to rally workers and poor behind his Bolivarian revolution and ?anti-imperialist alliance?. While enjoying massive popular support, however, there are signs that economic imbalances and rising corruption are beginning to threaten some of the reforms implemented so far. Karl Debbaut, a recent visitor to Venezuela, reports. (more…)

The Collingwood Action Group (CAG) has called a rally against the Victorian State Government’s approval of the Banco development for Smith St, Collingwood in Melbourne. See previous reports on our SP Council web site (click here) The rally will be held on 1:00pm on Saturday 4th March 2006 outside the Banco site at 154 Smith Street, Collingwood. (more…)

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price is a new film by Robert Greenwald that exposes the brutal nature of the world’s largest corporation. In an indication of the intensifying anger at the corporate domination of U.S. society, of which Wal-Mart is the central symbol, hundreds of thousands of people flocked to libraries, union halls, and campuses to see the film in the first week of its release in November.

By Dan DiMaggio, Socialist Alternative (US, CWI) (more…)

Part One of a Two Part Series

Since the historic civil rights and black power movements, the African American community has faced an unrelenting attack by big business and the two-party system to overturn every gain made by the black revolt of the ’50s and ’60s. Today, economic depression, political disenfranchisement, and cynicism about political change are the key features of the state of black America. The past year has also highlighted the true nature of America’s racist capitalist system.

By Eljeer Hawkins, Socialist Alternative (CWI), Harlem, New York (more…)

Set in the USA of the 1950s, it tells the story of an actual conflict between television reporter and presenter Edward R. Murrow and Joseph McCarthy, the arch-witch hunter who chaired the House of Un-American activities committee.

By Bob Sulatycki, Socialist Party (more…)

On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the ‘People Power’ mass movement of 1986, which brought down the hated Marcos dictatorship, Philippines president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, declared a State of Emergency. This was ostensibly to head off an attempted coup from within the army.

By Clare Doyle, CWI (more…)

Last nights first Yarra Council meeting for 2006:
1. Voted to introduce the most progressive pro-worker IR policy in Australia. The task now is to spread this action to all Councils! Well done to SP, ETU, ASU, Union Solidarity and others for their help and push for this resolution. See Appendix A below for the full resolution. (more…)

Last weeks Dunfermline and West Fife by-election was a major defeat for the New Labour government.Not only did the Liberal-Democrats overturn an 11,000 Labour majority in a solidly working class constituency, with a significant ex-mining community; they did so in the seat in which Tony Blair?s heir-apparent Gordon Brown lives.

By Philip Stott, International Socialists (CWI Scotland), Dundee (more…)