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Storms and teacups

Both the media and bourgeois politicians want us to concentrate on personal strengths and weaknesses. But that is not the main issue, argues James Turley
The British election season is heating up, in more ways than one.
Firstly, and most prominently displayed in the last week, the dirty tricks are getting dirtier. Gordon Brown has become the [...]

Hopi week of action

Reports from England, Wales, and Ireland by Ben Lewis, Dani Thomas, and Anne Mc Shane
London
Friday February 22 saw a successful gig in Stoke Newington, north London, organised by Hands Off the People of Iran. Boredom Riots, Egg Timer and Technosapien entertained a merry crowd and helped us raise over £110 for Workers Fund Iran.
The next [...]

Debating solidarity

Chris Strafford reports Manchester Hopi action
On Saturday February 13 Hands Off the People of Iran’s week of action was kicked off at Manchester University with a day school, followed by a fundraising event. Around 35 people attended for some or all of the day.
The first session was opened by Steven Monaghan from the Anarchist Federation [...]

Establishment impotence fuels climate denial

Capitalism and sustainability do not mix, says James Turley
And it was all looking so rosy for the official green movement. After the low point that followed America’s failure to ratify the Kyoto protocol, and the election in 2000 of president George W Bush, who openly flirted with global warming denial, the tide slowly seemed to [...]

Convention Against Fees and Cuts report

Laurie McCauley reports on last Saturday’s surprisingly positive conference of leftwing student activists
Over 100 student activists gathered on Saturday February 6 for the Convention Against Cuts and Fees. Hosted by University College London Students for Free Education and given the green light by both the Socialist Workers Party’s and Alliance for Workers’ Liberty’s student fronts, [...]

Left in Die Linke loses its Bonaparte

The resignation of Oskar Lafontaine is a serious blow to the German left party. Tina Becker reports
Since Die Linke shook the German political scene by achieving a tremendous 11.9% in the national election of September 2009 (leading to the election of 76 of its members to parliament), it has been followed keenly by the German [...]

Oil-slick divisions

International Marxist Tendency has suffered a damaging split. Not a new phenomenon, notes James Turley
At the 2007 Barcelona world school of the International Marxist Tendency – a not insubstantial, relatively speaking, Trotskyist ‘international’ led primarily by its British section – spirits were as high as the grandiose title of such an event, held in a [...]

Left platform lines up with Moussavi

Moussavi: no friend of socialists
The Reesites no longer peddle the line that Iran is a democratic country. But despite Lindsey German’s resignation from the SWP, their support for the ‘green movement’, including the butcher Moussavi, shows that the comrades still have not learned what principled international solidarity is, says Tina Becker
On February 3 Campaign Iran [...]

Why we should not call for jailing of Tony Blair

To effectively oppose imperialist wars we must avoid the trap of legalism, argues Ben Lewis
“How many more smoking guns do we need before Tony Blair is behindbars?” asks the Stop the War Coalition website. The visceral hatred for Blair and what he represents could not be more apparent.
This is perfectly understandable. Many activists in the [...]

Honesty and narcissism

James Turley looks at Tony Blair’s performance before the Chilcot enquiry and the futile search for a smoking gun. Britain’s alliance with the United States is the real culprit
January 29 saw, to much media fanfare, former prime minister Tony Blair face the Chilcot inquiry into the 2003 invasion of Iraq and Britain’s part in it. [...]