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This is the slogan of the Fire Brigades Union, demanding a 40% increase in the wages of its members, from £21,500 a year to £30,000. Howls of protest have needless to say arisen from all the bourgeois media. Typical is Martin Wolf in the Financial Times of 28 October 2002: “… [W]hen overall inflation is … [Read more…]

The first global recession of the 21st century The capitalist world did get that luck [which Mr. Martin Wolf spoke of in his article in the Financial Times on 23 December 1998 – see Part One of this article in the last issue of Lalkar] for a brief period but ran out of it, as … [Read more…]

The British government and the unionists in Northern Ireland were compelled to sign the Good Friday Agreement owing to the strength of the national liberation struggle of the majority of the Irish people. However, it has been their endeavour ever since the agreement was signed to frustrate its implementation. As a result the Good Friday … [Read more…]

In the face of worldwide opposition to a new US war against Iraq, as well as Iraqi willingness to comply with existing UN resolutions on disarming Iraq of the weapons of mass destruction (WMD), US imperialism, hell-bent on waging a war of aggression, continues to intensify its criminal preparations for such a war. Of course, … [Read more…]

The British government and the unionists in Northern Ireland were compelled to sign the Good Friday Agreement owing to the strength of the national liberation struggle of the majority of the Irish people. However, it has been their endeavour ever since the agreement was signed to frustrate its implementation. As a result the Good Friday … [Read more…]

The recent election in Sweden was characterised by some commentators as a “non-event” and “completely unnecessary”, since the Social-Democratic government remained in power, with the same two parties (Left Party and Green Party) supporting it in parliament – just as before. Göran Persson stays on as prime minister, and can continue in the role he … [Read more…]

In 1997, Laurent Désiré Kabila, a long time Congolese guerilla fighter against Mobutu’s dictatorial and kleptocratic regime, took advantage of the geopolitical change in the region, when Congo’s neighbours in the east and Angola decided to do away with Mobutu who was harbouring rebel groups against them. It was the end of the Cold War … [Read more…]

“Commerce is at a standstill, the markets are glutted, products accumulate, as multitudinous as they are unsaleable, hard cash disappears, credit vanishes, factories are closed, the mass of the workers are in want of the means of subsistence because they have produced too much of the means of subsistence, bankruptcy follows upon bankruptcy, execution upon … [Read more…]

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In response to an article by Giles Shorter on ‘The threat of War between India and Pakistan’ in the July/August issue, Comrade Taimur of the MKP (Workers and Peasants Party of Pakistan) sent us his criticisms of it. We are pleased to publish Comrade Taimur’s observations in this issue and would hope to reply to … [Read more…]