CPGB-ML delegation to Tripoli

A delegation of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) paid a short visit to Libya in the first half of June.  On their return the delegates gave their report to a public meeting held at the Marchmont Community Centre, Marchmont Street, London WC1 on 24 June.  The report will appear in the August/September issue … [Read more…]

OBITUARY: Ludo Martens (1946-2011)

On the afternoon of Sunday 5 June 2011, Comrade Ludo Martens, the founding president of the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB) passed away.  He is survived by two children – his daughter Amada and son Yakobu.  We send our heartfelt condolences to his children, to his family, and to the PTB for this irreparable loss.Early … [Read more…]

OBITUARY: Gordon McLennan

Gordon McLennan, the penultimate general secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), died from cancer on 21 May at the age of 87. The 15 years during which he led what had once been the revolutionary vanguard of the British working class were ones in which the party expelled and excluded hundreds of … [Read more…]

NHS up for Grabs

Editor’s noteThe National Health Service system in Britain, as indeed in many other West European countries, is a product of the special conditions arising from the aftermath of the Second World War.  The victories of the Red Army, the creation of an entire new block of Eastern and Central European Peoples Democracies, the ferment in … [Read more…]

Southern Cross: How capitalism abuses the elderly

The inability of the largest care home monopoly in the country, Southern Cross, to pay the rent on all the premises it uses, throwing into question the future of both the company and the 31,000 vulnerable elderly people under its care, raises issues way beyond the crass errors of one board of directors, the speculative … [Read more…]

OBITUARY: Val Cardwell

Comrade Valerie June Cardwell, known to all as Val, a lifelong fighter for the cause of Irish freedom, and a staunch communist, anti-racist and anti-imperialist, passed away suddenly in London on 14 June 2011, at the age of 63.Val was known to many campaigning for Irish independence and reunification, and other progressive causes, over decades, … [Read more…]

The devastating effects of the restoration of capitalism in the Ukraine

Comrade Tishchenko’s speech gives a graphic account of the devastating effects of the restoration of capitalism in the Ukraine, involving a precipitate decline in population, drastic reduction of living standards, a dramatic decline in GDP, unprecedented levels of unemployment, social degradation and destitution – all the things that the freedom-loving imperialist media are totally silent … [Read more…]

16th World Trade Union Congress

It was heartening to listen to the speeches at the World Federation of Trades Unions Congress in Athens. Speaker after speaker, from trades unions in many different countries, emphasised that workers all over the world were faced with more than a defensive economic agenda. In outlining the effects of the economic crisis in their own … [Read more…]

Imperialism and the world food crisis

Part 1The uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and other parts of the Arab world are universally recognised to be related to the escalating cost of staple foods in those countries.  Although food prices have risen everywhere, it is in third-world countries that the price hikes have been highest, and there is nothing, apart from war, like … [Read more…]