2009
28 December 2009 · 1 comment
Campaign for Free Public Transport to run workshop at Jan 23 Climate & Capitalism event
CfFPT WORKSHOP AT 23rd JANUARY 2009 "CLIMATE & CAPITALISM" EVENT Steph Prior & Claire O'Meara of the Greater Manchester CfFPT will lead off a workshop at a Green Left/Socialist Resistance or…
27 December 2009 · 4 comments
Copenhagen – farce then tragedy
Something rotten happened in Denmark. The fifteenth session of the Conference of the Parties, in which so many had invested so much hope, began as farce and ended in tragedy. Anyone who stil…
22 December 2009 · 2 comments
Green Left welcomes Green Party call to maximise anti-fascist vote in Barking
The London Federation of Green Parties has voted to advise the newly reformed Barking and Dagenham Green party not to stand a Parliamentary candidate and to focus instead on the locals. It w…
21 December 2009 · 2 comments
Copenhagen: a turning point for the movement
On Saturday Dec 12, 100,000 demonstrated in the streets of Copenhagen outside the COP 15 summit demanding urgent action against global warming - more than double the numbers that organisers …
14 December 2009 · 2 comments
The car industry: From lean production to the closure of Longbridge
We Sell Our Time No More: Workers’ Struggles Against Lean Production in the British Car Industry is by Paul Stewart, Ken Murphy, Andy Danford, Mike Richardson, Tony Richardson and Vicki Wass…
5 December 2009 · 2 comments
The One Democratic State Group launches in Gaza
"The One Democratic State Group is committed to the struggle for Palestinian rights. These rights will never be realized outside the framework of a unitary state with equality for all its ci…
4 December 2009 · · 4 comments
"Back the left": Sign this statement!
We believe that there IS an alternative to wars, cuts, privatisation, environmental destruction. We believe that the current UK election system does not allow our views to become represented…
3 December 2009 · 1 comment
Support Viva Palestina 3 with the convoy t-shirt
Mark Perryman writes: We're now equipping the entire convoy in T-shirts for free and need to sell some to cover the huge cost involved! Philosophy Football's latest Palestine T-shirt is in s…
1 December 2009 · 2 comments
World AIDS Day: Link up the struggle against HIV globally
Since AIDS was first identified among gay men in the USA in 1981, the association of HIV has led to global stigmatization of sex between men, and a repathologizing of homosexuality. Lesbian/…
30 November 2009 · 7 comments
A Rejoinder to Ron Ridenour’s series on Sri Lanka
I fear that the attitude of supporters of the Tamil cause towards Latin America is rather subjective, and that their approach is still sentimental. I will come to that later in my response, …
29 November 2009 · 1 comment
Defend Harrow's diverse and united community
“Stop the Islamisation of Europe” and the “English Defence League” a group of racist football hooligans with links to the fascist BNP are threatening to invade Harrow on Sunday December 13th…
28 November 2009 · 5 comments
Save 25% on Green Left/SR Palestine seminar
Green Left and Socialist Resistance are co-organising a seminar studying the causes of the Palestine conflict, with an emphasis on frequently ignored issues. Speakers include Gilbert Achcar …
27 November 2009
Read Socialist Resistance on your mobile
Socialist Resistance is now available on your mobile. You can visit http://mippin.com/socres to read the latest posts on our website, optimised for your mobile.
27 November 2009 · 2 comments
Post-War Internment Hell in Sri Lanka
“The impunity with which the Sri Lankan government is able to commit these crimes [referring to 2009 war atrocities, including brutal internment of 300,000 Tamils] actually unveils the deepl…
26 November 2009
Palestinian Trade Union Movement Unanimously Confirms Support for BDS
In reaction to reports alleging that a Palestinian trade union official has stated his reservations about the Palestinian civil society campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), t…
26 November 2009 · 1 comment
The Terrorists: International support for Sri Lanka racist discrimination
The Geneva Declaration on Terrorism, passed May 29, 1987 by the UN general assembly, points out that the main perpetrators of terrorism are governments striving to keep down parts of their p…
23 November 2009 · 4 comments
An assessment of the Respect conference
The Respect conference could have been a very positive event. It was attended by over 200 members and was located in Salma Yaqoob’s constituency of Sparkbrook and Small Heath in Birmingham w…
23 November 2009 · 1 comment
An assessment of the Respect conference: Alan Thornett
The Respect conference could have been a very positive event. It was attended by over 200 members and was located in Salma Yaqoob’s constituency of Sparkbrook and Small Heath in Birmingham w…
23 November 2009 · 2 comments
Sri Lanka: Equal Rights or Self-Determination?
“At independence, in 1948, the new political elite, in its rush for power, cultivated ethnic support in a society whose real imperative should have been the eradication of poverty. Language …
23 November 2009 · 1 comment
Morbid Symptoms: Current Healthcare Struggles
Leo Panitch and Colin Leys have just brought out the 2010 annual volume of the Socialist Register, Morbid Symptoms: Health Under Capitalism , published by Merlin Press in London, Monthly Rev…
23 November 2009 · 3 comments
The Limerick Soviet - Socialist Resistance forums
The traditional narrative of the Irish War of Independence dwells on the flying columns and Michael Collins. Yet not even Ireland was immune to the effects of the revolutionary wave in Europ…
19 November 2009 · 7 comments
Will Bonapartist Foneska outgrow Sri Lankan democracy?
Former Sri Lankan army chief General Sarath Fonseka's entry into the country's political arena might alter the geo-political equations in South Asia permanently. The Pentagon-friendly solide…
19 November 2009
Ian MacDonald memorial library announced
Ian, a long-time friend and a former member of the Fourth International in West London, has recently died. There is a tribute to him on the Surrey Unison website with a connected online cond…
18 November 2009 · 2 comments
Tamil Eelam: Historical Right to Nationhood
Sri Lanka—formerly Ceylon, in English, and Serendib in Arabic (which gave rise to the word serendipity)—is commonly referred to as the “pearl of the orient” due to its beauty and wealth of n…
17 November 2009 · 1 comment
Unite Against Fascism Festival in Harrow
The Festival of Unity is THIS SATURDAY from 7.00 pm at the Victoria Hall in Sheepcote Rd. while we have an impressive line up of speakers and performers and have already distributed well ove…
17 November 2009
Bensaid's "Strategies of Resistance & 'Who Are the Trotskyists?'"
Strategies of Resistance & 'Who Are the Trotskyists?' , is a collection of works by Daniel Bensaïd including his history of Trotskyism, newly translated into English by Nathan Rao. This 182-…
17 November 2009 · 2 comments
Vote Labour where there’s no left candidate? - Socialist Resistance statement
A debate has emerged on voting in the general election following the Respect conference, in particular whether socialists should vote Labour where there is no left candidate. The Socialist R…
17 November 2009 · 1 comment
Cuba & ALBA Let Down Sri Lanka Tamils
"Those who are exploited are our compatriots all over the world; and the exploiters all over the world are our enemies… Our country is really the whole world, and all the revolutionaries of …
14 November 2009 · · 3 comments
Four goals for a new party: speech at the 'Anticapitalism' rally
The people on this platform share a lot of ideas. -- We want a working-class party to the left of Labour, with a socialist programme that confronts the dual crises of the ecology and the eco…
13 November 2009 · 1 comment
Mobilise against BNP conference in Wigan
North West Unite against Fascism (UAF) is calling an emergency demo against the Nazi BNP's national conference, which is being held in Greater Manchester. Protestors are asked to assemble at…
13 November 2009 · 2 comments
All I want for Christmas is a Trotsky number four shirt
"The revolution will inevitably awaken in the British working class the deepest passions which have been diverted along artificial channels with the aid of football." Leon Trotsky Philosophy…
11 November 2009 · 14 comments
Socialist Resistance welcomes new electoral coalition
At the RMT organised conference on labour representation on Saturday (Nov 7) some of the organisations which had comprised the no2eu campaign during the European elections — the SP, the AGS …
9 November 2009 · · 3 comments
Sri Lanka - West looks on as repression escalates
Fred Leplat reports on the defeat of the Tamil liberation movement. The vicious offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) launched by the Sri Lankan army at the start of …
9 November 2009
New Socialist Resistance out this week
The new Socialist Resistance is out this week. Articles include: The rise of the far right; The 3 main parties agree to savage the working class; What’s behind the Left Bloc success?; Climat…
9 November 2009 · 1 comment
The St Paul's Way Dispute
We have been asked to publish this account of events in St Paul's Way School in east London by a group of union members who used to work there. On 30th March 2009 the St Paul's Way (SPW) Hea…
8 November 2009
Harrow needs help for mass mobilisation against EDL
Below is an appeal for funds for anti-fascist activities in Harrow. I hope you will be able to respond with your customary generosity. The fascists not only exploit racism to divide us, they…
7 November 2009 · 4 comments
Chris Harman: a life in the heart of the struggle
Chris Harman, the editor of International Socialism and a central committee member of the Socialist Workers' Party (SWP), died from a massive heart attack on November 6th. He was 67. We, and…
5 November 2009 · 2 comments
Aztec Civilisation meets the Spanish Empire
A. Kennedy reviews the Moctezuma exhibition at the British Museum. Moctezuma was the ruler who allowed the Spanish, led by an adventurer called Hernan Cortes, to seize the Aztecs’ Central Am…
5 November 2009 · 3 comments
For a United Challenge at the General Election: New SR leaflet
Despite the crisis of the thirty-year neo-liberal project, the three main parties are promising more of the same. All they have on offer is war, environmental destruction, unemployment, publ…
5 November 2009 · 1 comment
Why we do not and should not call for a ban on the fascists by the representatives of the State
In calling on the Home Secretary to ban the EDL march in Leeds, the anti-fascist movement is making a serious error. This will only come back to haunt our movement in the future and we will …
5 November 2009 · 3 comments
How to fight against fascism
Socialism or Barbarism, the choice that Rosa Luxemburg presented to the German working class, from her prison cell in 1915, is as relevant today as it was then. Clara Zetkin wrote in 1923 th…
5 November 2009 · · 1 comment
A Forgotten Chapter in the Working Class Fight for Democratic Rights
By Ian Angus November 5, 2009, is the 215th anniversary of the acquittal of Thomas Hardy on charges of High Treason. Hardy is nearly forgotten today, but for decades workers and democrats in…
3 November 2009 · 3 comments
Defeating the far right
The reappearance of the extreme right on the streets of Britain is a worrying development. The English Defence League (EDL) has organised explicitly Islamophobic demonstrations in several ci…
3 November 2009 · 1 comment
£40bn more to be added to banking bail-out 'fiddle'.
Today, it has been announced that another £40 billion is to go into the Lloyds/HBOS & RBS Bank bail-outs. Alastair Darling says it represents a "better deal for the taxpayer". But "better de…
2 November 2009 · 5 comments
PROTEST AT THE US EMBASSY! Reinstate President Zelaya Now!
Defend human rights in Honduras! - statement by the Emergency Committee Against the Coup in Honduras Wednesday November 4, 5.30-7.30pm At the US Embassy, 24 Grosvenor Square, London, W1A 1A.…
2 November 2009
Convert the ailing car industry!
With the economic recession and environmental crisis alternative plans for socially useful, sustainable production have never been more relevant argues Lars Henriksson. Lars Henriksson is a …
30 October 2009 · 3 comments
Copenhagen débacle looms
Rivalry between the major capitalist powers, made worse by the global recession, looks set to scupper the Climate Change Summit says Phil Ward. Any hopes that the December Climate Change Sum…
28 October 2009 · · 1 comment
What’s Behind the Left Bloc's Success in Portugal?
By Ralph Blake Portugal’s left Bloc have achieved a major break through in the last five months. They polled nearly 11% and 10% respectively in the recent European and parliamentary legislat…
28 October 2009
Climate change devastates East Africa
The persistent severe drought in East Africa which is now affecting 23 million people, is in a region of the world, where there is not only hunger and thirst but wars, external as well as ci…
27 October 2009 · 1 comment
Green Left welcomes Birmingham Greens decision to stand aside for Salma Yaqoob
Green Left welcomes the decision of Birmingham Green Party to stand aside in the parliamentary constituency of Hall Green to let Salma Yaqoob of Respect contest the general election there. T…
23 October 2009
The rise of the British far right
The election of two BNP MEPs in the June European Elections sent shockwaves through the political establishment. The BNP gained nearly a million votes, massive publicity and, crucially, a de…
22 October 2009 · 2 comments
A Striking Postal Worker speaks out!
A postal worker and trade unionist explains why the public should back the posties in their battle! This statement is circulating around the trades union movement and internet. Please pass i…
18 October 2009
Capitalism - a system of growth and waste
This is an edited version of Ian Angus' opening remarks at the Socialist Resistance and Green Left Climate and Capital event. Videos of the event, including Ian's contribution can be found h…
18 October 2009 · 1 comment
Several thousand march for Tamil human rights
Several thounsand Tamils marched through London on Saturday 17 Oct 2009 to protest against the continued detention of civilians in Sri Lankan camps, calling on the UK government to press for…
16 October 2009
London meeting: The far right in Britain - What it is and how to fight it
Far right, racist and fascist parties are getting a high profile. The BNP, with its Holocaust deniers, got 2 Euro MPS elected and plays the respectable card. The English Defence League organ…
16 October 2009 · 1 comment
Build a mass anti-fascist movement and a broad, socialist party
Socialist Resistance's anti-fascist bulletin, produced by our Birmingham branch, published its third issue a few weeks ago. It contained a powerful editorial outlining the need for a anti-fa…
12 October 2009 · 3 comments
Manchester anti-fascists confront English Defence League
On Saturday October 10, around 2000 anti-facists mobilised in central Manchester to prevent the English Defence League from marching through the city centre. According to this report from a …
11 October 2009
Protest against Sri Lanka's death camps
11 October 2009 · · 3 comments
Cuts in Services, Jobs, Wages and Pensions to Pay for Their Crisis
Cuts: that’s what all the major parties - Labour, SNP, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats - are arguing about. But not if there is an alternative to the cuts but who would be the best at ma…
10 October 2009
GMB and Unison announce line up for “Refuse to be Beat” benefit gig and rally in Leeds on Sunday 18th October 2009
GMB AND UNISON TO ADD £50,000 TO HARDSHIP FUND AS STRIKE BY 600 CLEANING STAFF IN LEEDS HEADS INTO ITS SIXTH WEEK Paul Kenny GMB General Secretary, while on the picket lines in Leeds this mo…
8 October 2009 · 6 comments
Cambridge left moves towards election unity
At a second meeting of the left in Cambridge decisions were taken to establish an alliance of various political groups and individuals to stand in the local elections in Cambridge, and possi…
2 October 2009
Free download: The Middle East In Flames - new SR pamphlet
Socialist Resistance has published a collection of articles on Palestine, Israel & the Middle-East, It's available as a free download at http://bit.ly/9lDra or by post for £1.20. It's part o…
2 October 2009 · 2 comments
Portugal’s Left Bloc Consolidates Its Gains
Ralph Blake, a supporter of the Fourth International whose mother escaped to Portugal in the 1930s from Franco’s Spain - only to seek refuge in Scotland during the 1950s from Salazar’s dicta…
2 October 2009 · 2 comments
G20: USA restructures the management of Global Capitalism
The recent meeting of the G20 leaders in Pittsburgh has seen the USA radically restructure the management of global capitalism’s finance and economic systems. The G20 came in to existence in…
1 October 2009 · 5 comments
Green Left- "Support Salma Yaqoob"
“Green Left calls upon our fellow Green Party members in Birmingham not to stand a candidate in the constituency of Birmingham Hall Green in the coming general election in order to give a st…
1 October 2009
Stella D'Oro: Last ditch effort to save good union jobs
Three months ago, we told you about unionized bakery workers at Stella D'Oro in New York City who'd been on strike for ten months. We asked you to send messages of protest to the private equ…
30 September 2009
Join NW TUC on October 10 to stop EDL in Manchester
Alec McFadden writes: "The North West TUC in conjunction with Searchlight and Unite Against Fascism will be the umbrella organising body to prevent the fascist “English Defence League” holdi…
29 September 2009
You can help the new Socialist Resistance
In the few months since Socialist Resistance refounded itself as an organisation, we’ve welcomed several new members and renewed contact with many more long-time sympathisers who want to mov…
28 September 2009 · 2 comments
Portugal's Left Bloc wins sixteen seats
The coordinator of Portugal’s Bloco de Esquerda ( Left Bloc ), Francisco Louçã, last night thanked the 550 thousand Portuguese who voted for the Bloco in yesterday’s parliamentary elections,…
25 September 2009
Call for action in solidarity with migrants in Calais
No Borders London call for action in solidarity with migrants in Calais! Join us in a demonstration at 5.30pm, on Tuesday 29th September 09, outside the French Embassy, 58 Knightsbridge, Lon…
24 September 2009
Victory for Tower Hamlets College strikers
The striking teachers at Tower Hamlets College have won their demands and have voted to return to work tomorrow (Friday). Their all out strike action has been rock solid for the last four we…
24 September 2009
Join Friday's demonstration of support with Belgrade Pride
As the message below from a supporter of the banned Pride demonstration in Belgrade shows, much is at stake in the struggle for civil rights in Serbia, not only for the LBGT community but al…
21 September 2009
Global Fight for Climate Justice: on Amazon, new review
The Global Fight for Climate Justice , the latest book from Socialist Resistance, is now available on the book selling website Amazon. Click on this link to buy the book directly from the pu…
21 September 2009
Britain’s unions commit to a mass boycott movement of Israeli goods
In a landmark decision, Britain ’s trade unions have voted overwhelmingly to commit to build a mass boycott movement, disinvestment and sanctions on Israel for a negotiated settlement based …
21 September 2009
Save Our Schools Campaign Intensifies
The campaign to save three local High Schools from closure by Wigan Council intensified this week with the formal submission by local residents and save our school campaigners of their Villa…
19 September 2009
TUC backs People's Charter
The idea of, and campaign for a fighting alliance of progressive forces around the People's Charter was given a tremendous boost yesterday as a result of the TUC agreeing 'resoundingly' to b…
19 September 2009
Galloway visit provides momentum for North West electoral bloc
Saturday's visit by Respect MP George Galloway to Wigan is set to become the launch pad for a new 'Left of Labour' campaigning and electoral bloc of progressive organisations, trade unions, …
19 September 2009 · 1 comment
Videos show speeches and discussions at ecosocialist seminar
Thirty-two videos are now online showing the discussions at the 'Climate and Capitalism' seminar on September 12th. Visit http://tinyurl.com/ecosem to view them. The videos give an excellent…
19 September 2009 · 6 comments
Respect victorious in Birmingham’s Sparkbrook by-election
This was going to be a difficult battle for Respect. A by-election gave the mainstream parties the chance of pouring outside resources into Sparkbrook in a way that would not be possible in …
13 September 2009 · 3 comments
Making our programme common sense for millions
Speaking at the Climate and Capitalism seminar on September 12, Socialist Resistance executive member Liam MacUaid outlined the organisation's goals in co-sponsoring the event with Green Lef…
10 September 2009
Vestas campaign update, 10 September 2009
The workers and supporters are maintaining a blockade of the factory. The main leverage they have over politicians and the Vestas company is to prevent Vestas removing the remaining blades a…
1 September 2009
Women and the crisis of civilisation
As ecosocialists, understanding how the economic and ecological crises work together and reinforce each other has been a preoccupation of this magazine over the last months . In this piece, …
1 September 2009
The Respect conference, the crisis, and the general election
Respect could use its upcoming conference to get ready for next year's elections. The first priority of the Respect conference — which is to be held on November 14 th in Birmingham — must be…
28 August 2009 · 3 comments
State regulation of counselling and psychotherapy - for or against?
The British government is preparing to regulate the activity of counsellors and psychotherapists through the Health Professions Council. This process is being marketed by the HPC as protecti…
28 August 2009 · 4 comments
Countermobilisation stops fascism, not state bans
Following two city centre confrontations in Birmingham in recent weeks, voices have been raised for the police to impose a ban on the English Defence League and other right-wing groups from …
27 August 2009
Climate Emergency Copenhagen
In December this year, Denmark will host a major United Nations conference in Copenhagen. At this conference, the world’s rulers will negotiate their solutions for dealing with climate chang…
26 August 2009 · 1 comment
Swine flu – how frightened should you be?
Ryan Jeffries, who works in the NHS reports on how the service is coping. By the end of August the total of swine flu deaths in Britain reached 59. Each of those deaths is, of course, a trag…
26 August 2009 · 1 comment
Patiently deciphering religion
Reason, Faith and Revolution by Terry Eagleton (Yale University Press, 2009) Reviewed by Andrew Johnson In recent years, there has been quite an outpouring of books on the subject of religio…
25 August 2009 · 3 comments
The Banks, the Stock Market, the Bank of England and the Economy: Is The Crisis Over?
Over the last few weeks there have been lots of telling economic and financial data from which some commentators have drawn the conclusion that the worst of the economic and financial crisis…
24 August 2009
Wigan People's Alliance launched
Despite Wigan's 5-0 thrashing by Manchester United in the town on the same day, when it comes to 'Premiership' flight progressive politics the day's result from the nearby Pemberton Labour C…
23 August 2009 · · 1 comment
Left Unity: a view from Fantasy Island
John Lister reviews Mark Perryman’s Compass ‘Think Pieces’ pamphlet ‘We’re all in this together’ To judge from this barely coherent 5-page pamphlet, Mark Perryman appears to live in what fol…
22 August 2009 · 5 comments
Lucas Aerospace- When Workers Planned Production
Today, the twin drivers of economic recession and the possibility of catastrophic climate change are beginning to push working people towards action. A series of small-scale but high profile…
15 August 2009 · 3 comments
Galloway at Wigan "People's Alliance" launch on Saturday 22nd
The combined efforts of the Wigan area based Community Action Party, the South Lancs Branch of the Respect Party, local Socialist Party supporters and other progressive forces to forge a bor…
15 August 2009
Book online to save 1/3rd on Climate and Capitalism seminar
Green Left and Socialist Resistance are offering a one-third discount on their Climate and Capitalism seminar on September 12. The discount is available with the new leaflet, now online at h…
10 August 2009 ·
Political blogs
Mike Tucker looks at some of the best left-wing Blogs and websites Internet savvy, US style: Doug Henwood , is an American talk-show host, and writer on economic issues, and former stockbrok…
10 August 2009 · 1 comment
Vesta demonstration
SATURDAY AUGUST 8 As a result of a court order the occupation of the Vestas plant came to a dramatic end on Friday with 2 of the workers abseiling down from the balcony and a third leaping t…
10 August 2009
Birmingham Socialist Resistance open letter to the Birmingham socialist left
No to a massive assault on jobs, wages, pensions and welfare! For a joint socialist left General Election Campaign in Birmingham ! Support the Respect Candidate in the Sparkbrook by-election…
27 July 2009
RMT calls for show of strength in support of Vestas wind turbine occupation
OFFSHORE ENERGY UNION RMT today called for a show of strength from trade unionists and environmental campaigners in what will be a crucial week for the workers involved in the occupation to …
27 July 2009
Demonstrate to show support for Vestas occupation
Workers at Vestas wind turbine blades risk unemployment as their factory is scheduled to be shut down on 31st July. They have currently been in occupation for seven days. This is the only su…
25 July 2009 · 1 comment
Report from Vestas: Save or Planet! Save our Jobs!
Yesterday evening (Friday) a lively march took place from the centre of Newport to the Vestas plant in the industrial estate on the outskirts of the town. What had been about 100 people in t…
24 July 2009 · 8 comments
Cops harass environmental meeting
Police taking photos of campaigners attending a formal meeting with an MP and planners, have added a new dimension to the campaign against the extension of the runway at Southend Airport. Ca…
23 July 2009 · 2 comments
Crow brings TUCG unions' solidarity to Vestas workers
Bob Crow will be at Vestas Blades today to express the full solidarity of the Trade Union Co-ordinating Group (TUCG) to workers occupying their factory on the Isle of Wight. The group compri…
23 July 2009 · 1 comment
From the other side of the world, Hugo Blanco thanks the Vestas workers
Recently, in Peru, indigenous ecologists were massacred by the government, which was acting in support of large multinational companies devastating the Amazon rain forest. This has shaken us…
23 July 2009
Sweden joins international solidarity with Vestas
Anders Svenson, a leader of the Fourth International in Sweden and one of the country's most-read political bloggers, has published this report of a solidarity protest in Malmö. Below is our…
22 July 2009 · 3 comments
Save Vestas! London public meeting this Friday
A Vestas worker, Chris Baugh (PCS Ass. Gen. Sec, pc), Seamus Milne and Jonathan Neale are speaking on Friday at a meeting called by the Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union Group in s…
21 July 2009
Hands off Lalgarh! Picket of the Indian High Commission
Stop State Terror – Scrap the SEZs! Picket of the Indian High Commission The Aldwych, London WC1 Friday 24 July 2009, 3.30pm – 5.30pm In a test case establishing the fact that its model of n…
21 July 2009 · 2 comments
Vestas meeting report: workers call for nationalisation
Vestas workers are on the TV news calling for nationalisation: the first meeting to shows its solidarity was in Portsmouth, which started just as the occupation began. One of Socialist Resis…
21 July 2009 · 1 comment
SR greets Vestas occupation
Socialist Resistance welcomes the courage and decisiveness of the workers at Vestas Blades. Your actions challenge the hypocrisy of the government - and the myth that the hidden hand of the …
20 July 2009 · 2 comments
Support Vestas occupation's campaign for green jobs
On Monday evening workers at the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight occupied the St Cross factory in Newport. This measure has been taken due to the consistent failure of Vesta…
20 July 2009 · 1 comment
Act now to save Vestas Wind Turbine factory!
Demonstration to save Vestas Wind Turbine factory called by The Campaign Against Climate Change Wednesday 22nd July , 6.00 pm Outside the Department of Energy and Climate Change, No 3 Whiteh…
19 July 2009
Capitalism in Crisis - The Left’s Response: Convention of the Left one day special conference
contributors include Caroline Lucas (Green Party), John McDonnell MP (Labour Representation Committee), Kay Phillips (Respect Party) and more. For further details of the Brighton conference …
18 July 2009
Viva Palestina US Crosses Into Gaza; Venezuela next
At approximately 1820GMT on July 15 2009, the Viva Palestina US Convoy finally crossed into Gaza from the Rafah Crossing in Egypt. Headed up by the British Member of Parliament, George Gallo…
17 July 2009
Defend the four found guilty by Unison witch-hunt
The kangaroo court set up by the unison bureaucracy (called the hearings) has found the four Socialist Party members (Glenn Kelly, Brian Debus, Suzanne Muna and Onay Kasab) guilty of produci…
17 July 2009
Protest Against Destruction of Calais Jungles
The French Government are planning the destruction of the main Pashtun Jungle in the Dunes of Calais on 21st July, prior to a mass deportation flight to Afghanistan. Campaigners are calling …
15 July 2009
Another immigration raid on workers who had organised for the living wage
The 'Stop the Deportation of SOAS University Cleaners!' group has written to let us know that workers in the UNITE union at MITIE/Willis - who also organised around the living wage and who h…
15 July 2009
US: Who Gets the Green Jobs, and Are They Any Good?
Just because a job’s green doesn’t mean it’s good. With everything going green—if it really is—what does that mean for our workplaces? A union-backed report by Good Jobs First cautioned that…
14 July 2009
Campaign against Climate Change calls for support for Vestas
As you probably know, the Vestas corporation is planning to close the only factory making wind turbines in Britain, on the Isle of Wight. There is now a campaign among local people on the is…
10 July 2009 · · 1 comment
The Amnesty demand of Strangers Into Citizens
Following the biggest ever demonstration of migrant workers Bill MacKeith looks at some of the issues raised by the Strangers Into Citizens campaign Over 20,000 people attended the biggest-e…
8 July 2009
Socialist Resistance relaunches as part of the Fourth International
Socialist Resistance, the ecosocialist magazine in Britain, has relaunched itself as the British section of the Fourth International, the worldwide socialist organisation. A national confere…
8 July 2009 · 8 comments
Class struggle and ecology
...we with flesh, blood and brain, belong to nature, and exist in its midst, and... all our mastery of it consists in the fact that we have the advantage of all other creatures of being able…
6 July 2009
Teachers strike to save jobs
NUT members at Haggerston School in Hackney, east London, will be on strike on Thursday 9th July. Last week the head teacher and governors confirmed that they plan to make six teachers redun…
5 July 2009
Re-Arming the Left
Economic Catastrophe: The current political crisis takes place against the background of the worst economic crisis for at least 80 years, maybe longer. For half a century Marxists debated wh…
2 July 2009
Updated leaflet for Climate and Capitalism seminar
A updated leaflet is available for the upcoming Climate and Capitalism seminar, as part of a series of mobilisations for the event (replacing yesterday's leaflet). To download it visit http:…
28 June 2009
This week: How workers of Ford in Europe are fighting back
The crisis in the car industry is hitting hard. Union leaders have been responsible for negotiating shorter weeks and pay cuts. But where workers have taken decisive action important victori…
28 June 2009
Leaflet published for 'The Global Fight for Climate Justice'
Download our new Climate Justice leaflet to promote our new book on 'The Global Fight for Climate Justice'. The book will be launched at the Climate and Capitalism conference, but we'll have…
27 June 2009
SR & Green Left plan 'Climate & Capitalism' seminar
Planned for Saturday September 12, Climate and Capitalism is the first seminar organised jointly by Green Left and Socialist Resistance, the ecosocialist currents in two of Britain's left pa…
24 June 2009 · 1 comment
A new look for 'Socialist Resistance'
Issue 55 of 'Socialist Resistance' comes out next week, with a fresh new design, just in time for the Marxism festival in London. The headline sums up the mood across the left: 'Election dis…
23 June 2009
What to do to help the SOAS cleaners
We have only days to get the message to Alan Johnson, MP Secretary of State for the Home Office, who has the power to intervene and save our cleaners. 1. Please send urgent faxes immediately…
23 June 2009 · 1 comment
Iran union: Any suppression or threat of civil liberty condemned
From afar it's very difficult to say whether or not Ahmadinejad won the Iranian Presidential election only as a result of ballot rigging. The point of course is that whether or not this is t…
22 June 2009
Wigan anti-school closure campaign hotting up!
On Saturday 20th June, over 250 people from Atherton and the surrounding area took part in the first protest march in the town for more than 15 years. (Atherton is located in the eastern par…
22 June 2009
New GMB statement on lock-out at Lindsay Immingham
The recent GMB statement about the dispute at North Lindsey, below, shows excellent reasons why active trade unionists should get to the National Shop Stewards Network Conference on Saturday…
22 June 2009
Tour: Campaign against closure of the Ford factory in Bordeaux
The Ford factory at Blanquefort (near Bordeaux, France ), which employs 3,500 workers, has been threatened with closure since 2000. The CGT union has led the campaign against closure with th…
21 June 2009 · 3 comments
Troops out of Tamil homeland; Release the prisoners
The massive demonstration in London on June 20th reflected the widespread shock and anger of the Tamil diaspora. The key demands that have to be raised are the right to live in the Tamil hom…
21 June 2009
Reinstate the Lindsey oil refinery workers: Protest on Monday!
Following its conference today the Campaign Against Immigration Controls (CAIC) called for the immediate reinstatement of the workers who were sacked by Total, Jacobs and other subcontractor…
21 June 2009 · 3 comments
Campaign Iran: Support democracy struggle, not Western hijack
In light of the current events in Iran, Campaign Iran has decided to issue a statement regarding its position on the elections and the subsequent wave of protests. Campaign Iran is an organi…
20 June 2009
Power cuts warning amid protests against sackings
Electricity supplies could be threatened as power workers join walkouts in protest against the sacking of hundreds of workers at the Lindsey oil refinery. No2EU supports the protests against…
19 June 2009 · 1 comment
Hazel Blears Must Go!
The decision by Salford New Labour Party apparatchiks last night to vote down two motions of no confidence in local MP Hazel Blears (by almost 3 to 1) and thereby effectively endorse her as …
19 June 2009 · · 4 comments
Sri Lanka after the bloodbath
In an emergency session held on the 26th of May in Geneva, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) voted not to have an inquiry into human rights abuses and war crimes committed by t…
15 June 2009 · · 8 comments
Peter Gowan: explained dynamics of post-Soviet Europe
Peter Gowan , a former leader of the International Marxist Group, editor of Labour Focus on Eastern Europe and expert on US imperialism at London Metropolitan University, where he was Profes…
14 June 2009
European elections — an alarm is ringing
Socialist Resistance statement: The European election results are not good reading for the workers’ movement. Across Europe the turnout was only 43.2% and the main winner was the centre righ…
13 June 2009
What kind of new organisation do we need?
This piece by Alan Thornett was published earlier this year as a contribution to our discussion on regroupment. The document was uncontroversial among those who have had a chance to discuss …
12 June 2009
The Global Fight for Climate Justice
As capitalism continues with business as usual, climate change is fast expanding the gap between rich and poor between and within nations, and imposing unparalleled suffering on those least …
11 June 2009
Linamar convenor Rob Williams re-instated
Rob Williams unite convenor of the Linamar car parts plant Swansea and vice chair of the National shop stewards network (NSSN) has won his campaign against his sacking by Linamar management …
10 June 2009
After the European elections - videos
Videos of Alan Thornett and Stathis Kouvelakis discussing the European elections results, particularly as they impact on Britain and France can be seen here . Click To Play Click To Play
9 June 2009
I Am Revolution - a biography of Ernest Mandel
Ernest Mandel began earning his reputation at an anti-Stalinist revolutionary socialist thinker and militant almost from childhood. His family background helped. Henri Mandel helped set up f…
9 June 2009 · · 2 comments
European Elections - right on the rise
These European elections have first confirmed a broad popular abstention. Nearly 60% of voters did not go to the ballot boxes. This abstention can give only a deformed vision of the real rel…
8 June 2009 · 2 comments
No2EU calls for unity to defeat the BNP
No2EU:Yes to Democracy coalition convener Bob Crow has called for urgent discussions involving socialist organisations, campaigns and trade unions to build a concerted response following the…
8 June 2009
RMT: passengers must not pay the bill for the bankers!
Firstly let me apologise about any disruption to your travel but London Underground and TfL have deliberately provoked the dispute on the tube network: · On London Underground, bosses are th…
7 June 2009
SR greets Australian left: socialists must pose international solutions
This weekend the Revolutionary Socialist Party , one of the Australian organisations that Socialist Resistance co-operates with (another is the DSP ), has its first major conference. Chris B…
7 June 2009 ·
New Labour – not so green after all
New Labour has always talked a good fight when it came to climate change and the need for dramatic CO2 reduction, but delivered little. Last autumn though, in the reshuffle following the tra…
6 June 2009 · · 1 comment
Jack Jones - No friend of the union left
image no longer in the archive Jack Jones (March 1913 - April 2009) the former General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) died in April at the age of 96. He was gene…
6 June 2009 ·
Policing in 2009: all change?
On BBC 2’s Question Time at the end of April, right wing historian and media pundit David Starkey raged against British police. He complained about their increasingly paramilitary style and …
6 June 2009
Capitalism profits as Australia burns
“The worst natural disaster in Australia’s history” was how the premier of the south-eastern state of Victoria described the horrific bushfires that raged over wide areas in February, killin…
4 June 2009 · 1 comment
South African masses have little hope from General Elections
The South African general elections, held in April this year, would be considered by many to have been a significant event, but that is probably more an opinion than fact. Certainly, great i…
3 June 2009
Euro Election Platform Confirms General Election Left Electoral Challenge Likely
Leaders of the RMT backed trade union/left alliance ‘No2EU-Yes to democracy’, which is standing in all eleven regions in the Euro Elections on Thursday, made it clear yesterday that the need…
2 June 2009 · · 1 comment
Economism - Mass movements and the fight for socialist politics
Many of us yearn for more spontaneous militancy in the working class – more of the spirit we have glimpsed in the Visteon occupation, or maybe the Lindsey oil refinery strikes earlier this y…
31 May 2009
What next after the elections? Join the discussion on the 9th
The results of the elections will give preview of the period ahead. Across Europe, traditional parties of the left will be punished for their co-operation to make workers pay for the crisis …
31 May 2009 ·
Pakistani socialists oppose Taliban and state repression
Attempts by the Pakistan military to stop the Taliban and their allies advancing through the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan have led to more than 2 million people fleeing th…
31 May 2009 ·
Crisis at Westminster: Respect to broaden challenge at General Election
There is a political earthquake shaking Westminster politics. MPs of all the main parties have been found with the snouts in the trough – claiming fat expenses on everything from sink plugs …
28 May 2009
Somalia Torn Apart
It is almost 20 years since Somalia was under the rule of a central government led by the military dictator, Syad Barre. He was defeated by the warlord, Aideed and the country then fragmente…
23 May 2009
Urgent appeal: Pakistani workers need relief from Taliban and military operations
This is a formal appeal by the Labor Relief Campaign to help in the fight against Taliban and military operations. The purpose is to provide immediate help to some of the more than 1.5 milli…
21 May 2009 · 2 comments
SR's response to the corruption crisis
We are witnessing a profound crisis of the political establishment, which is drowning in the stench of corruption. After various unsuccessful attempts by Parliament to block a series of Free…
20 May 2009
UNITE march reflects undemocratic constraints on protests
At last weekend's national march for jobs Socialist Resistance supporters distributed a leaflet drafted by our comrades in Birmingham. The main article is below, and a few extra points have …
19 May 2009
FI: Sri Lanka's merciless war has brought no political solution
On Sunday 7th May the weapons of the Tamil Eeelam Tigers were silenced and they heard of the death of their leader Vilupillai Prabhakaran. This was the end of a brutal and merciless military…
19 May 2009
SR condemns police attack on Tamil protestors
The brutal way in which thousands of Tamil people, who had been demonstrating in Westminster for the last few days were dispersed last night by the police, should be condemned by all those w…
17 May 2009 · 1 comment
UNITE jobs demo in Birmingham: Lots of hot air from Simpson & Woodley but little prospect of a real fight
The centre of Birmingham was briefly awash with thousands of red "Unite the Union" flags yesterday, as members of Britain's largest trades union, along with their families, and small conting…
14 May 2009 · 1 comment
Video: Socialists and the capitalist recession
The video of Andy Kilmister's introduction at the launch meeting for our book on Socialists and the Capitalist Recession is now online. Andy's introduction drew on the new wave of annual acc…
11 May 2009 · 3 comments
No2EU supporters confront BNP in Carlisle
No2EU:Yes to Democracy supporters clashed on saturday with members of the BNP in Carlisle as they were out campaigning for for RMT-backed left-wing coalition which is contesting seats across…
9 May 2009 · 2 comments
Linamar attack on Rob Williams part of a plan to drive down workers' wages and conditions
It has become clear why Linamar management sacked Swansea Unite Convenor Rob Williams on Wednesday. Group President Brian Wade outlined to Tony Woodley the Company's 'proposal' to lower term…
7 May 2009 · 2 comments
No2EU – Yes to Democracy declares slate of candidates for June 4th vote
No2EU – Yes to Democracy, Britain’s newest political party, today declared its full slate of candidates for the Euro elections on June 4th. No2EU – Yes to Democracy is running in every regio…
7 May 2009 ·
A message to Respect supporters in the North West: Euro Elections - Respect says unite red and green to stop the BNP
With a headline including the words ‘European Elections’ it's a good bet than many people will think this article isn't for them. After all the majority of people don't vote in these electio…
7 May 2009
Rob Williams sacked by brutal bosses: Step up the struggle
Rob Williams, trade union Convenor of Linamar Swansea and vice chair of the NSSN, was sacked by the Linamar management last week, and then temporarily re-instated following militant action b…
5 May 2009
Former Brighton councillor to run for EU seat
A former Brighton councillor is to come out of political retirement to fight for a place in the European Parliament. Working class activist Dave Hill, a political icon in the city in the 197…
5 May 2009 ·
No2EU’s Bob Crow to join mass demonstration at Olympic site over attack on pay and conditions
The convenor of the No2EU – Yes to Democracy euro election platform, RMT general secretary Bob Crow, will join with a thousand construction workers on the gates of the Olympic site in Stratf…
3 May 2009
Socialist Resistance Public Meeting: The New Anti-Capitalist Party
Speaker: Fred LePlat Tuesday 19th May, 7.30pm, Bennetts Bar, Bennetts Hill, Birmingham City Centre. In early February, the 3,000 strong LCR (Revolutionary Communist League) dissolved itself …
2 May 2009 · 2 comments
Protest against the suspension of SSP councillor Jim Bollan
The only SSP councillor in Scotland has been suspended for 9 months by the standards commission. On this occasion they consisted of a trade expert and an architech, with no connections or el…
2 May 2009
Sixty titles are now available from Resistance's online bookstore
In addition to selling around 15 books of our own, Resistance also distributes books from other progressive publishers and keeps a stock of valuable second hand titles which are useful for r…
2 May 2009
Video: Jerry Hicks' Amicus campaign shows how socialists must offer alternative solutions
Jerry Hick's campaign for the leadership of Amicus led to a dramatic outcome: the Respect activist came second and built a dramatic momentum in the movement. He explains the way in which the…
1 May 2009
No2EU's May Day message to workers: Voting is the best way to stop the BNP
In this statement distributed to NO2EU supporters (and published as a letter in The Guardian newspaper today) Greg Maughan argues that to defeat the BNP it is necessary to offer working clas…
28 April 2009 · 1 comment
Can Darling's budget solve Britain's crisis?
Budget speeches are not as significant as they once were. But one of the main things to emerge from Alistair Darling’s pronouncements last week was the scale of the crisis now facing British…
28 April 2009
Wanted: Office space in the North West
Respect is going through a very exciting period in its development with a growing membership and reputation. This has been especially pronounced in the North West. There is certainly going t…
27 April 2009 · 18 comments
SR: Supporting ‘no2eu-yes to democracy’ on June 4th
In our national aggregate of March 21 st and our statement on March 31st we welcomed the launching of no2eu-yes to democracy campaign. We repeat that here. The scale of the economic and envi…
25 April 2009
Revolution in South Africa - video
To mark the publication of Leonard Nikani’s autobiography, a graphic portrayal of a black man growing up in racist South Africa, My Life Under White Supremacy and in Exile, by Socialist Resi…
25 April 2009 ·
Celyn - green, red and spiky!
image no longer in the archive Celyn is a new bi-monthly publication that promises to be green, red ... and spiky! The first edition is due to come out during the first week in May to coinci…
24 April 2009
Prisme Occupation Ends Friday 25th April at 5pm
After 51 days the Dundee Prisme workers have decided to end their occupation. In the press release below, the strikers explain that the occupation, which began to secure redundancy payments,…
24 April 2009
NO2EU leader Bob Crow to join Visteon picket line
NO2EU –Yes to Democracy convener Bob Crow will join sacked Visteon workers outside the company’s Basildon plant on Monday morning (27 April) at 9.30am. The company, a spin-off of the car gia…
23 April 2009 · 6 comments
Anticapitalist European left: make the capitalists pay for the crisis
Socialist Resistance and the International Socialist Group have joined the Socialist Workers' Party, Socialist Party and the rest of the European anti-capitalist left in endorsing a statemen…
23 April 2009
Podcast: Norman Traub on the struggle against white supremacy in South Africa
Fifteen years after coming to power, the ANC has generated a tiny black elite, but otherwise left white supremacy intact in South Africa. In the podcast below, Norman Traub, a veteran South …
21 April 2009
Police shut budget protest by 'Their Crisis Not Ours!'
The police refused to authorise our planned demonstration on Whitehall at 11.30am today (April 21) and made clear that, if it took place, the organiser will be liable to arrest and imprisonm…
20 April 2009
School union group appeals for support
Defend St Paul’s Way Community School! Over the past year there has been a concerted campaign by the Local Education Authority in Tower Hamlets, via an Interim Executive Board (with no paren…
20 April 2009
International solidarity with Alexei Olesinov, on trial for his anti-fascist beliefs!
Today, Monday, 21 April 2009, a verdict will be announced in the trial of Moscow anti-fascist Alexei Olesinov. He has already been in pretrial incarceration for more than five months (since …
17 April 2009
Galloway's searing attack on the Charity Commission's hypocritical witchhunt
George Galloway has written a damning letter to the UK Charity Commission about their behaviour over the Viva Palestina convoy, which delivered £1million of aid directly to the people of Gaz…
16 April 2009
Socialists and the Capitalist Recession & ‘The Basic Ideas of Karl Marx’
The credit crunch of 2008 produced an international recession in 2009. In this new book Claudio Katz and Michel Husson, both fellows of the International Institute for Research and Education…
15 April 2009
NUT: Time to Boycott Israeli goods and institutions
The near-universal revulsion at Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza in January has created a situation in which we can build a stronger and more effective movement in solidarity with the people …
15 April 2009
Academies – a key battle
More and more cracks are appearing in the Academies policy – we’ve won the argument but we still need to win the battle. There is still – after 6 years - no convincing evidence to support th…
15 April 2009
Fifteen years of ANC rule: what future for South Africa?
While there is deep disillusionment among the masses with the policies of neoliberalism pursued by the ANC government, radical alternatives are emerging on the political landscape. We believ…
15 April 2009
Visteon: Who is going to deliver on Green Jobs? That'll be us, then!
Being shown round the Ford Visteon occupied car parts factory, in Enfield (North London), during the 8 day occupation by the workers, its clear that the workers anger at their bosses, is mat…
11 April 2009
FI debates climatic threat, human constraints and the political responses
We are reproducing below the reworked version of the report on Climate change and Climate campaigns, drafted by Daniel Tanuro and ggiven at the meeting of the International Committee (IC) of…
11 April 2009
Respect demands "Ceasefire now in Sri Lanka – stop British complicity"
Duncan Chapel is speaking for Respect at today's mass demonstration of Tamils demanding a ceasefire in Sri Lanka. In his speech to the rally, he will start from the appalling reality of huma…
7 April 2009
'Signpost Palestine' offer supports Gaza convoy
A very special package is on sale in support of Viva Palestina. The latest from Philosophy Football is a brilliant new T-shirt design which uses the front cover of the Viva Palestina CD, whi…
7 April 2009
The culture of revolution - Rodchenko and Popova Defining Constructivism
1917 to 1924 in revolutionary Russia were years of war, famine and hardship followed by reconstruction. They also yielded a rich seam of artistic activity. A cultural avant garde emerged wit…
7 April 2009 ·
The G20 Summit – A New World Order or a sideshow to the crisis?
The G20 crisis was greeted with a chorus of hype greater than any other summit for years. That is not surprising, since the main purpose of the summit was as a piece of theatre – to demonstr…
6 April 2009
Strong lobby supports SOAS union leader
There was a strong turnout of staff and students on April 6th to support Stalin Bermudez' appeal against his sacking by SOAS. In spite of the Easter vacation, 70+ joined the lunchtime protes…
3 April 2009
Why the Scottish Socialist Party Annual Conference decided to run in the Euroelections
This year the Scottish Socialist Party annual conference was in a village hall on the sunny, bright but breezy island of Arran for the last week end in March. One of the most important debat…
3 April 2009
125,000 to march in London for Sri Lanka ceasefire
British Tamils Forum have organised another Mass Protest March on Saturday 11th April, between 1pm and 4.30pm from Temple and Finish at Hyde Park. We are expecting 125,000 people to demonstr…
2 April 2009 · 1 comment
The Nature of the Crisis: theory, strategies & prospects
These notes start from Alan Thornett ’s characterisation of the crisis in his document, Capitalism's Crisis and Our Response . What this note hopes to do is to go into a bit more detail abou…
1 April 2009
Socialist Resistance - new issue out now
The April-June issue of Socialist Resistance magazine came out on Wednesday, in time for the mobilisations on Financial Fools Day . It features major articles on the British economy; the eme…
31 March 2009
Support Visteon workers!
200 Visteon car plant workers in Belfast are blockading their factory after the Company went into administration today. If they get away with it, over 600 workers in ex-Ford factories in Bel…
31 March 2009 · 16 comments
Euro-election campaigns need grass-roots democracy, say SR and ISG
The RMT transport union is backing a national alternative in June's European elections. ' No2EU - Yes to Democracy ' aims to provide a working class alternative in the elections, and has bee…
30 March 2009
Scottish Socialist Party to contest Euro-elections
Last weekend's Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) conference decided by a two-to-one margin to contest the June 2009 European elections. The decision was taken at the party’s annual conference, …
30 March 2009 · 3 comments
Five steps to fight Canada's ban on Galloway
The attempt to bar George Galloway from Canada is backfiring spectacularly. It seems the neo-conservative minister for immigration in Canada has unwittingly provided a huge boost to the Viva…
24 March 2009
Our common stance in the European elections
A conference of the European anti-capitalist left took place in Paris last December on the invitation of the LCR and the NPA. The organisations that supported the conference have made this c…
23 March 2009
Left Euro-election campaigns are a welcome development
Last weekend's revolutionary regroupment meeting adopted resolutions welcoming the decisions of the north-west Green party and the RMT-backed No 2 EU alliance to run progressive campaigns in…
22 March 2009 · 1 comment
Climate Change – the most urgent issue facing the working class
A couple of weeks ago, two and a half thousand climate scientists met in Copenhagen ahead of the UN talks that are to be held in the city later this year. At the end of their historic meetin…
22 March 2009
Help get The Respect Paper out on March 28!
Respect is busy preparing for Saturday's national demonstration. Respect's new website - therespectparty.net - is up and running. The party has also made sure the March issue of The Respect …
21 March 2009
Support Respect's campaign in Royal Docks
Respect is standing in a by-election in Newham in the Royal Docks ward. Our candidate is Haroon Juneja. As we don't have much time or people on hand, we urgently need some help for two major…
20 March 2009
Chinese liberals' Human Rights Charter excludes workers
Last November, dozens of well known Chinese intellectuals launched the Charter 08 to call on Chinese government to respect basic civil and democratic rights. Soon afterwards the core leader …
20 March 2009
What happened in Leigh was a victory for our side
Last week Socialist Resistance printed an appeal for an anti-BNP mobilisation in Leigh, and a report celebrating a successful counter-mobilisation . Steve Hall, author of both articles, has …
19 March 2009
In every crisis an opportunity - Socialist Resistance editorial
The Spring 2009 issue of Socialist Resistance is dedicated to two apparently contradictory themes. We devote a lot of space to looking at the extent of the capitalist crisis. Unemployment in…
19 March 2009
Ireland: shootings are political cul de sac - Socialist Resistance editorial
Two soldiers and a police officer were shot dead by republican groups in the space of 28 hours in early March, in the North of Ireland. This followed a period of less successful attempts to …
19 March 2009
BBC workers strike to defend World Service jobs
The BBC workforce has overwhelmingly voted for strike action against offshoring and job cuts. There will be a protest demo on the 30th of March in front of Bush House prior to the strikes on…
18 March 2009 · 20 comments
Viva Vanni! After the Gaza mission, a ship aids Tamils
The Tamil diaspora in Europe is to charter a ship and set sail from London to the war zone in Sri Lanka. Tamil people in Vanni are facing an ever worsening plight for their very existence. T…
17 March 2009 · · 4 comments
25,000 hear Socialist Resistance's solidarity with Tamil struggle
40,000 people demonstrated in front of the EU and UN headquarters in Europe on March 16th. They demand an end to the Sri Lanka's government's genocide, that emergency aid be allowed into the…
14 March 2009 · 6 comments
BNP "Battle for Britain" Roadshow comes to an abrupt halt in Leigh!
- Aspiring Brit-Führer Griffin's visit to the town is seen off by Anti-Fascists! - Nazi 'flying' stormtroopers get 'hammering' from AFA! - Local Anti-fascists say "Don't come back! "Master r…
14 March 2009
Case dropped against Jewish activist charged over “bloody hands” protest for Palestine
Pro-Palestinian campaigners claimed victory this week when charges were dropped against a Jewish activist arrested for protesting at a celebration of Israel’s 60th anniversary last June. Nao…
14 March 2009 · 1 comment
The politics of fightback: Capitalism's crisis and our response, part 3
The banking crisis broke out again in full force in Britain in mid-January forcing Brown into a new round of bailouts in the financial sector. By February 2009 a trillion dollars have been h…
12 March 2009 · 3 comments
Celtic Tiger faces extinction
After Iceland, it is the Irish economy that has seen the most dramatic collapse in Europe at this point in the global downturn. This collapse has left the public finances in chaos, seen the …
12 March 2009 · 3 comments
Stop the BNP in Leigh this Friday evening
BNP leader Nick Griffin is planning on speaking at a BNP Rally/Public Meeting at the Pure Night Club, Bridgewater Street, Leigh this Friday (13th March) at 7.30pm. Steve Hall, a former Leigh…
12 March 2009 · 3 comments
A public stoning in Germany
Hermann Dierkes is a respected politician with an honorable record of campaigning for social and political justice in the German Rhineland city of Duisburg. He represented his party Die Link…
11 March 2009
Stereotypes and real people
F red Leplat compares and contrasts the plays “England Very Nice People” and “Pitmen Painters” Two plays are currently on at the National Theatre which could not be more different from each …
11 March 2009
Why governments turned to intervention: Capitalism's crisis and our response, part 2
3) Governmental responses - Governments around the world floundered when confronted with the scale of the crisis. None of them had remotely predicted it. Nor did the bankers or the speculato…
10 March 2009 · 1 comment
A powerful fighter for migrants and the oppressed
Steve Cohen, who fought so powerfully for migrants and the oppressed these past four decades, died at around 5am on Sunday morning (8th March, 2009). Steve had worked with many of us over th…
10 March 2009 · 1 comment
Jewish activist on trial over “bloody hands” protest for Palestine
Pro-Palestinian campaigners with hands dyed blood red will gather at the City of London Magistrates Court on March 12th in support of a Jewish activist arrested for protesting at a celebrati…
9 March 2009
Four crises combine severely: Capitalism's crisis and our response, part 1
This week we serialise this article by Alan Thornett on the nature of the capitalist crisis and the working class response to it. It will appear in the upcoming issue of Socialist Resistance…
9 March 2009 · 1 comment
PSC celebrates Viva Palestina convoy success
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign has added its voice to those saluting the courage and tenacity of the participants in the Viva Palestina Convoy which has broken the blockade of Gaza at the…
9 March 2009 · 1 comment
Ken Loach on the legacy of the miners' strike, with Nigel Lawson
In this BBC interview , film director Ken Loach replies to Nigel Lawson on the lies about the miners' strike. Lawson was energy secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer under Thatcher, and …
7 March 2009
Support Jose Stalin Bermudez; Union rep sacked for defending workers
SOAS Unison has led the way in fighting for the London Living Wage to be paid to privatised cleaners and other staff. Now SOAS has sacked Jose Stalin Bermudez, the Unison branch chair, in a …
6 March 2009 ·
The Economic Crisis and its Effects
The current economic crisis has broken the temporary solutions which have ruled the world economy since the mid-1980s. Profits had been created through production but, in contradiction, were…
5 March 2009 ·
Support Prisme workers' occupation in Dundee
Twelve workers at Prisme , a packaging company with a unit on Tannadice Street in Dundee are currently occupying their workplace after being made redundant with a day's notice. They have bee…
4 March 2009
You have to be green to be red, you have to be red to be green
Well-known South African activist Trevor Ngwane addressed a fascinated public meeting in central London on March 1, explaining the launching of the Socialist Green Coalition. He introduced t…
3 March 2009
Protest Goes Global
The period of weeks from the end of 2008 to February 2009 has seen the fall of the Icelandic and Latvian governments at the hands of daily mass protests, a one-day general strike and million…
2 March 2009
National demo & EDM oppose Post Office privatisation
Over 160 MPs that have signed the Early Day Motion (EDM) on Post Office privatisation. Mandelson seems to be feeling the heat. This is a crucial struggle that Mandelson and the most reaction…
2 March 2009
Welsh Student Action Forces University to Divest its Holdings in Major Arms Companies
A THREE-DAY sit-in by students protesting against their university’s investment in major arms companies has ended. Cardiff Students Against War yesterday finished its occupation of the Shand…
28 February 2009 · · 4 comments
Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union Group plans second conference
The huge social and economic changes that are needed to dramatically reduce carbon emissions are of vital interest to trade unionists, as are the methods by which they can be achieved. This …
27 February 2009 · 1 comment
No Oscars for Scumbag Millionaires
'SCUMBAG MILLIONAIRES' was a bullseye of a headline in The Sun. It touched a wave of raw anger at the bankers' greedy short-term bonus culture which has, in large measure, caused the global …
26 February 2009 · · 5 comments
Obama - How Long the Honeymoon?
President Barack Obama – one month in, it’s still hard to ponder that reality without some tingle of wonderment – took the stage February 24 for the annual presidential address to Congress a…
24 February 2009
Ecosocialist loses job for opposing Israeli terror
Leading American ecosocialist Professor Joel Kovel has been sacked from his post at Bard College, NY, for his anti Zionist views. Joel, an advisory editor of Socialist Resistance and author …
22 February 2009
Follow SocRes on twitter or socres on identi.ca
If you want updates from Socialist Resistance in your micro-blog, just follow us on twitter (where we are SocRes ) or identi.ca (where we are socres ). You'll be the first to know when we po…
22 February 2009
Sterling lecture on Politics in the Era of Globalisation
The 1st Rowland Sheret Memorial Lecture will be held on Saturday March 7th 19:30, at the Tolbooth Theatre, Stirling. Roland was a longstanding supporter of the Fourth International in Scotla…
20 February 2009
Join the Zero Carbon Caravan
Come with us on a journey to save the planet. A Zero Carbon journey to show that we can live differently, travelling from all over the world to arrive in Copenhagen for the UN climate talks …
18 February 2009 ·
Workers at BMW's MINI plant confront union convenors
In the videos below , angry agency car workers at BMW’s plant in Cowley lambast the plant’s union conveners after being given one hours notice of redundancy by management last Friday (writes…
18 February 2009
Viva Palestina benefits from Respect Party Platform donation
The Respect Party Platform, a group of Respect members, has decided to donate its funds to the Viva Palestina peace convoy to Gaza. In 2006 and 2007 the Platform was the driving force behind…
18 February 2009
Hugo Blanco on ‘ecosocialism’ and indigenous struggles
At the recent Ecosocialist International Network meeting in Brazil, there was considerable discussion about whether the word “ecosocialism” should be used in Latin America. Concerned that tr…
18 February 2009
Support the NUJ strike at Johnston Press
NUJ members have voted 97.3 per cent in favour of a strike against 18 job losses at the Johnston Press-owned Post and Evening Post (and across Yorkshire and beyond). It will see two 4-day st…
17 February 2009
Protest to keep the NHS in public hands
This week Valentine Day protests against privatisation of the NHS were organised by Keep Our NHS Public (KONP). 12 groups of KONP across the country took part. For example: In Birmingham the…
17 February 2009
Convoy arrests are designed to intimidate and frighten
Nappies, toys and children’s clothes are not weapons of mass destruction. The decision of the Lancashire police and the Home Secretary to arrest nine people on the M65 is a disgrace. Six men…
17 February 2009
March 28: Mobilise for TUC demonstration at the G20
On 28th March thousands will march through London as part of a global campaign to challenge the G20, ahead of their 2nd April summit on the global financial crisis. Even before the banking c…
16 February 2009 · · 3 comments
Waving off the Viva Palestina convoy was a powerful experience
110 vehicles plus a few more to keep them company on the first leg to Ramsgate took over an hour to leave the park (writes Terry Conway). The fire engine donated by the Fire Brigades Union l…
15 February 2009 · 1 comment
Support Yahya al Faifi: trade unionist facing deportation back to tyranny in Saudi Arabia
Yahya al Faifi, a very brave and self-sacrificing trade unionist – and a deeply committed socialist – is facing deportation back to a tyranny in Saudi Arabia that regularly tortures and “dis…
13 February 2009
Defend José Stalin Bermúdez! His offence? Helping cleaners fight poverty pay
SOAS Unison branch chair José Stalin Bermúdez has been suspended from his post and is awaiting a hearing that could see him sacked from his employment with the college. Stalin's colleagues a…
12 February 2009 · 2 comments
My Life Under White Supremacy and in Exile
Leonard Nikani's autobiography, My Life Under White Supremacy and in Exile has been published by Resistance books. These memoirs give a graphic portrayal of a black man growing up in racist …
12 February 2009
Friday: Demand Sri Lanka admits Red Cross to war zones
There will be a Vigil and Protest in front of the Sri Lankan High Commission in London on Friday 13 February from 3-6 pm. We are demanding that the ICRC and the United Nations and the intern…
12 February 2009
Italian communists support East Lindsey workers
The recent wave of protests against the Total-Jacobs-IREM contract in East Lindsey are yet another proof of the underlying falsity of one of the many promises of deregulation in Europe: that…
9 February 2009
Four centuries of Bethnal Green's "True Born Englishmen"
England People Very Nice by Richard Bean at the National Theatre, London. Tickets £10-20. Running till the end of April. Reviewed by Piers Mostyn This three hour play about the history of Be…
5 February 2009
New t-shirt supports Aid to Palestine convoy
A ‘Viva Palestina’ T-shirt is on sale in support of the Aid to Palestine convoy. Its 100 vehicles leave London on Saturday 14 February for Gaza. The convoy is popular internationalism of mat…
5 February 2009
Respect: Tower Hamlets must support Gaza's Palestinians
This motion is to be put to the Tower Hamlets Council meeting on Monday 9 February by Respect councillors Abjol Miah and Harun Miah. This council deplores: a) the three week assault on Gaza …
5 February 2009 · 1 comment
COSATU dockworkers refuse to unload Israeli ship
Setting a historic precedent for the growing BDS movement against Israel, the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU), a member of COSATU, has decided NOT to offload an Isr…
4 February 2009
SR greets France's new anti-capitalist party
The new anti-capitalist party (NPA) is being launched in France this month. A translation of these greetings will distributed to attendees at the congress. The militants of Socialist Resista…
3 February 2009
Italian unions understand British workers’ unhappiness
We were impressed by this press release from Italy's biggest union federation, on Dave Osler's website. It's a translation of this article , not the original statement . “What’s going on in …
3 February 2009 · · 3 comments
Charles Darwin: Reluctant Revolutionary
By Ian Angus . In 1846, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote The German Ideology , the first mature statement of what became known as historical materialism. This passage was on the second p…
2 February 2009 · 7 comments
For international solidarity between workers: SR on the construction workers strikes
That protests have broken out in the construction industry is no surprise. The dispute with the Italian engineering contractor IREM at the Lindsey oil refinery at Immingham is the flashpoint…
30 January 2009
STOP SRI LANKA'S GENOCIDE OF TAMILS : URGENT PROTEST MARCH
SATURDAY, 31st JANUARY 2009: Central London Begins 1:00 PM at MILLBANK (Nearest station Vauxhall or Pimlico) Let us alert the International Community of the GENOCIDE unfolding against Tamils…
29 January 2009
Socialist Resistance Winter issue out now
image no longer in the archive image no longer in the archive Articles in the new Socialist Resistance include; Sean Thompson on the Green New Deal Andy Kilmister asks Can Keynsianism solve …
27 January 2009
Towards Ecosocialism In South Africa
Towards the end of 2007 South Africa was hit by a cycle of damaging power cuts from which it is still to recover. Eskom, the partly privatised, national energy utility, revealed that it had …
20 January 2009 · 1 comment
Belem Ecosocialist Declaration: A Call for Signatures
“The world is suffering from a fever due to climate change, and the disease is the capitalist development model.” — Evo Morales, president of Bolivia, September 2007 Humanity’s Choice Humani…
9 January 2009
End of the road for the car industry?
Alan Thornett wrote this article for the new edition of The Respect Paper . While governments across the world are pumping money into the banks, other sectors face a bleak future. Car produc…
8 January 2009 · 1 comment
Resistance says "Break Links With Apartheid Israel!"
Zionist Israel Slaughters Over 760 Palestinians: Unions must build direct solidarity. A statement by Socialist Resistance’s steering committee. Since Israel withdrew its troops and settlers …
4 January 2009
Union activist sacked: reinstate Adrian Swain!
Goerge Binette writes On 18 December - one day before the autumn school term closed - a member of an interim executive board, which effectively runs St Paul’s Way Community School in Tower H…