China: Elite rule faces rising social and working-class struggles
[For more discussion on China's economic and political development, click HERE.]
By Kevin Lin
February 11, 2012 -- Green Left Weekly/Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- China’s transition to state-led capitalism over the past three decades has generated numerous social struggles against the state and capital. With China’s ascent in the capitalist world economy, the social struggles inside China not only have a significant domestic impact, but increasingly international ramifications.
As China celebrates the Year of the Dragon, it is an opportune time to critically review the situation for social struggles and their prospects for the future.
State and elite politics
Letter from Zimbabwe: Court dismisses acquittal application by the '6 Egyptians'
Action is support of the charged Zimbabwean activists, Fremantle, Western Australia.
The collapse of 'communism' in the USSR: Its causes and significance
By Doug Lorimer
Doug Lorimer is a member of the National Executive of the DSP. This article is based on a report adopted by the 14th National Conference of the DSP, held in Sydney, January 2-6, 1992.
©Resistance Books 1997; first published 1992, second (revised) edition 1997
Contents
James P. Cannon (1955): The I.W.W.
Transcribed: by Andy Blunden. Text from the Marxist Internet Archive. For more on the IWW, click HERE.
The Bold Design
An Organization of Revolutionists
The Duality of the IWW
Vincent St. John
The long Detour
The Wobblies As They Were
The Turning Point
The Heritage
Michael Lebowitz on John Holloway's 'Change the World without Taking Power'
‘Global sustainability’ wilts in South Africa’s political hot air
By Patrick Bond, Durban
Romania: Mass protests then and now
Protesters shout as a background banner reads "Freedom, Early Elections" during an anti-government rally in Bucharest, January 24, 2012.
By Rupen Savoulian
February 15, 2012 -- Antipodean Athiest, submitted to Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal by the author -- Back in 1989, Romania was gripped by mass protests, led by miners, against the corrupt and authoritarian regime of Nicolae Ceausescu. The protests in Romania were part of the generalised "Velvet Revolution" against the dictatorial, bureaucratised, deformed workers’ states in Eastern Europe.
John Bellamy Foster & Robert W. McChesney: Global stagnation and China
[Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal urges its readers to consider tak
No war, no sanctions, no intervention in Iran!
Statement by the Stop the War Coalition (Sydney, Australia)
February 14, 2012 -- The Stop the War Coalition opposes the use of sanctions or military action against Iran by the United States or Israel. These are clear violations of international law.
We oppose all nuclear proliferation.
We oppose Australian support for intervention against Iran.
Despite the lies of the United States and Israel, Iran does not possess a nuclear weapons’ capacity.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, which regularly monitors Iran’s nuclear installations, has found no evidence that Iran is preparing to construct any nuclear weapons. However Iran, as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, has the legal right to develop nuclear facilities for peaceful purposes.
Even the US has admitted that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon. US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said in January that Iran was not trying to create a nuclear weapon.
Thailand: Free Somyot Pruksakasemsuk!
[More background information is available here.]
By Choo Chon Kai
February 13, 2012 --The Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) expresses its solidarity with labour activist Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, who has been imprisoned without bail since April 30, 2011, and who faces charges under lèse-majesté law. We are deeply concerned over his continuous imprisonment, transferring of prisons and numerous denial of bail requests.
Somyot is known for his tireless work in the workers' movement and the establishment of democratic trade unionism in Thailand. In 2007 he became editor of the Voice of Taksin magazine (now called Red Power), a political publication opposed to the 2006 military coup. Somyot is the chair of Union of Democratic Labour Alliance and the leader of 24th of June for Democracy Group which was formed in the aftermath of the September 2006 military coup.
Syria needs solidarity not Western intervention!
Statement by the Socialist Alliance (Australia)
