The Pensions Crisis

Last year’s plummeting share prices have caused thousands of people to be deprived of all or part of the occupational pensions they expected to receive on retirement. This, among other things, has caused the government to set up under Adair Turner, former CBI chief, a commission to investigate the pensions situation and to come up … [Read more…]

Ukraine’s Election Farce

()As we go to print, Viktor Yushchenko has claimed victory in the re-run for the Ukrainian presidential elections held on December 26, 2004. On the other hand, Viktor Yanukovich, declared the winner in the last elections, annulled by the Ukrainian supreme court, has refused to concede defeat, claiming that there were huge violations and that … [Read more…]

ZIMBABWE: Fourth Congress of ZANU-PF

In their thousands, the delegates started arriving at the Harare International Conference Centre (HICC) on Wednesday, 1st Dec, with high expectations that the Congress will address their uppermost concerns, ranging from progress on the land acquisition and resettlement programme to economic turnaround and job creation, extra resources for new farmers to ensure the productive use … [Read more…]

Blunkett Goes But The System Carries On

David Blunkett has taken a leading role in making it almost impossible for people, especially those from the oppressed and super-exploited countries, to be allowed to settle in Britain. He has now had to resign ostensibly because he facilitated a visa allowing a Filipino domestic servant indefinite leave to remain in the country – ironic! … [Read more…]

CPB sowing illusions about imperialism

On the 22 November 2004, the revisionist daily paper, the Morning Star, published an article by a leading member of the Communist Party of Britain (CPB), Kate Hudson, who is also the Chairwoman of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). The article starts by announcing that the re-election of President Bush in the USA was a … [Read more…]

Iraq: Anglo-American imperialism heading for defeat

Widespread Resistance In the middle of November, following its barbaric assault on Fallujah, the US-led occupation of Iraq boasted that it had broken the back of the resistance and captured Fallujah. Barely a month later, it is patently clear that, far from overcoming the resistance and pacifying Iraq in readiness for the election farce set … [Read more…]

Intifada – Four years of Israeli savagery and heroic Palestinian resistance

28 September 2004 marked the fourth anniversary of the Al-aqsa Intifada. These have been four years of unprecedented violence, cruelty and repression unleashed by the fascist state of Israel on the Palestinian people; equally they have been four years of truly heroic resistance by the Palestinian people which has won them the admiration of progressive … [Read more…]

Scargill’s tribute to Paul Foot

At the end of July, journalist and writer Paul Foot died of a heart attack at the age of 66. His obituaries appeared in many leading bourgeois dailies. Socialist News, the vacuous bi-monthly sheet of the near extinct Socialist Labour Party (SLP) of Arthur Scargill, also honoured Paul Foot in its September/October 2004 issue in … [Read more…]

Ray Stevenson passed away

It is with great sorrow that Lalkar learned of the death of Ray Stevenson, the Associate Editor of North Star Compass and Executive member of the International Council for Friendship and Solidarity with Soviet People. He passed away after a long illness on Tuesday, August 24, 2004 in Toronto at the St. Michael’s Hospital. He … [Read more…]

Zimbabwe will never be a colony again

At the invitation of ZANU(PF), Harpal Brar, Editor of Lalkar and Chairman of Zimbabwe Solidarity Front, attended a Conference in Harare, April 20-23, with the theme The Liberation Struggle Continues. Based on his participation at the Conference, the papers presented at it, as well as other information, he wrote an article on the land question … [Read more…]