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Ian Johnson On Tuesday 30th September 2003 The Hague Tribunal heard a submission from the Prosecution that if accepted would mean the imposition of Defence Counsel on President Milosevic against his will, and would enable the trial to proceed without the presence of the accused. This basic denial of the right of the accused to … [Read more…]

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe announced on 7 December that Zimbabwe was officially quitting the Commonwealth in response to that body’s decision (predictably spearheaded by the ‘white’ members – UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) to maintain Zimbabwe’s suspension, originally put in place after allegations of fraud and intimidation during the 2002 presidential election. He stated: … [Read more…]

In the latest Queen’s Speech, the Labour Government signalled not only the fact that it would continue to play the ‘racist card’ but also that fact that every card in their deck is racist! On asylum they gloat “applications in September 2003 have fallen by more than 50% when compared to October 2002 (from 6700 … [Read more…]

Marxists cannot but have indulged in a wry smile at the public humiliation and resignation of Eduard Shevardnadze – one of the principal architects of the dissolution of the USSR and a close collaborator of Mikhail Gorbachev – from the Georgian presidency on 23 November. Very few people are so deserved of the label ‘arch-reactionary … [Read more…]

The Iraqi national resistance against the imperialist armies of occupation continues its inexorable march forward – broadening, deepening and gaining strength with each passing day. More than twice as many US soldiers have been killed since 1st May, when US President Bush declared the end of major combat operations, as did during the war right … [Read more…]

It is five and a half years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) signalled the start of a new phase in the struggle for Irish liberation. 30 years of popular struggle and armed conflict had brought the British to realise that, although they were not beaten outright, neither was there any chance … [Read more…]

Tens of thousands of women are trafficked every year into the sexual slavery of prostitution. Deception, intimidation, and body parts in bin bags, forms the terrorising reality for those whose lives have been stolen and traded as a sexual commodity in the twenty first century slave trade. A former head of the Vice Unit in … [Read more…]

We are happy to report that the WTO Ministerial Talks held from 10-14 September 2003 in Cancun, Mexico, collapsed in disarray – as indeed it had been widely predicted they would. The context of these talks is the attempts by imperialist finance capital to ‘globalise’ investment, competition policy, government procurement and ‘trade facilitation’ (the so-called … [Read more…]

In March this year, just as British and US troops were launching their illegal and barbarous invasion of Iraq, BECTU, the Broadcast, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union, passed a resolution at its annual conference calling for a vote on continued affiliation to the Labour Party. This month (November 2003), the union will finally ballot its … [Read more…]

Bolivia has been described as a beggar sitting on a mountain of gold. It is a description that applies to any number of the world’s super-exploited and oppressed countries. Imperialism helps itself to the gold only with the beggar’s permission, obtained through depositing pennies in the begging bowl or, if necessary, by force. The people … [Read more…]