South Africa: the fight for equality continues

It can never be said that the struggle against apartheid in South Africa was a waste of time or a pointless exercise that changed nothing.  It certainly did not change everything but it was a necessary step in the struggle to emancipate a people who have been impoverished and brutalised by a system that not … [Read more…]

Revolutionary crisis in Thailand

The south east Asian nation of Thailand is in the grip of an increasingly profound revolutionary crisis, which may yet end in a bloody crackdown and the reassertion of openly dictatorial rule by the wealthy elite around the royal family and the military top brass or, as we fervently hope, the coming to power of … [Read more…]

Venezuela: BBC forced to apologise

It seems that the ‘objective’, ‘unbiased’ BBC is not quite as objective and unbiased as its masters in Britain’s imperialist bourgeoisie would have us – and the rest of the world – believe. The broadcaster has just been forced to apologise to the Venezuelan embassy for statements made by the well-known television historian Simon Schama … [Read more…]

No comfort for US imperialism in Iraq, Iran and Palestine

Occupation wades deeper in Iraqi bloodAll carefully crafted pretence that it was now “all over bar the shouting”, with the occupation supposedly winding down, the resistance dormant and Iraq returning to “business as usual”, was rudely dispatched by the violent upheavals accompanying and following the election.According to the testimony of eyewitnesses recorded by the New … [Read more…]

Soong Ching Ling and the Women’s Movement in China

If on the occasion of International Women’s Day we wanted to find some striking proof of the ability of women to transform themselves and society through courageous struggle, there could be no better place to start looking than the history of revolution in China.  To learn more about this question, it is worth reading something … [Read more…]

The future, it seems, is not orange in the Ukraine

In 2004 the people of the Ukraine were treated to US imperialism’s non-invasion method of controlling a state that is not doing what is required by the US.At that time the government was pro-Russian and led by Viktor Yanukovich, the President. The West backed Viktor Yushchenko against him in an election and, after the count … [Read more…]

Yemen: It’s democracy that the US is fighting, not Al Qaeda

A pair of trousers catches fire in an aeroplane close to Detroit and missiles rain down on Yemen.  Is this what is called the butterfly effect?  For Mohammed Hassan, the terrorist threat is only an excuse.  In this latest chapter in our series ‘Understanding the Muslim world’, our specialist [Mohamed Hassan] explains what is really … [Read more…]

It is not the BNP but the Labour Party that needs exposing

BECTU members received the following email from their union in February:“I am writing to let you know about EXPOSE, a new campaign of media workers and students – journalists, technicians, designers, musicians and actors – that is dedicated to exposing the British National Party as the racists, homophobes, anti-Semites, women-haters and fascists that they are.“BECTU … [Read more…]

Claudia Jones, communist

Today is Mother’s Day. Claudia Jones too thought often of her mother. At a party given for her in New York, Claudia spoke about the early influences that pointed her in the direction of communism:“On this, my 37th birthday, I think of my mother. My mother, a machine worker in a garment factory, died when … [Read more…]