Links | International Journal of Socialist Renewal

Cuba: El sindicato Australian Workers Union se arrodilla ante Washington

[English at http://links.org.au/node/2122.]

Por Tim Anderson

En este mes de enero, el Sindicato de Trabajadores Australianos (AWU—Australian Workers Union) escribió una carta insultante al nuevo embajador cubano en Australia, Pedro Monzón. El documento del sindicato revela la dominación ideológica que Estados Unidos mantiene sobre las partes más débiles y dóciles del movimiento sindical australiano.

El embajador Monzón, llegado a Australia a finales de 2010, invitó a varios dirigentes sindicales para un intercambio. Paul Howes, como Secretario Nacional del AWU, le replicó de manera innecesariamente ofensiva: ‘Estaría encantado de aceptar su oferta de encuentro, pero, desafortunadamente, sólo podrá llevarse a cabo cuando el gobierno cubano cese la represión de los sindicatos independientes y libere los numerosos dirigentes sindicales actualmente encarcelados en su país.’ En la carta se menciona a cinco encarcelados.

Sudan: Northern regime tightens grip as protests flare

Heavily armed police patrolled Khartoum's main streets on January 30, as demonstrations broke out throughout the city demanding the government resign.

By Kerryn Williams

February 10, 2011 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal/Green Left Weekly -- “The situation in Egypt is different than the situation of Sudan”, government spokesperson Rabie A. Atti insisted to reporters following January 30 anti-government protests. “We don’t have one small group that controls everything. Wealth is distributed equally. We’ve given power to the states.”

(Updated Feb. 11) Strike wave across Egypt: `The working class has entered the arena with full force'

February 10, 2011 -- Democracy Now! -- Reporting from Cairo, Democracy Now! senior producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous says thousands of workers, including doctors and lawyers, have joined the protests in Tahrir Square. The demonstrators continue to flood the streets despite government threats and just one day before what is expected to the largest day of protests to date. Click here to read the transcript. * * *

[For background to Egypt's working-class movement see also "Egypt: Historian Joel Beinin on the role of the labour movement" and "Egypt: Workers hold key to uprising".]

Tunisia: Interview with Fahem Boukadous, member of the Communist Workers Party of Tunisia

Fahem Boukadous.

Fahem Boukadous, member of the Communist Workers Party of Tunisia, interviewed by Alma Allende, translated from the original Spanish by John Catalinotto

February 7, 2011 -- Tlaxcala -- Fahem Boukadous is a journalist who was in prison when the people of Tunisia forced the dictator Ben Ali to flee the country. A member of the Communist Workers Party (often also referred to as the Workers Communist Party) of Tunisia (PCOT), he does all he can every day so that the great opportunity opened by the revolution will not be lost.

Egypt: The danger to the revolution comes from Washington

Protesters stand in front of grafitti calling on the US government to stay out of Egypt's affairs, February 2, 2011. Photo by Matthew Cassel.

By Ali Abunimah

February 6, 2011 -- The Electronic Intifada -- The greatest danger to the Egyptian revolution and the prospects for a free and independent Egypt emanates not from the baltagiyya -- the mercenaries and thugs the regime sent to beat, stone, stab, shoot and kill protesters in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities in early February -- but from Washington.

Ireland: More left support for the United Left Alliance

This Irish Times reports on February 13, 2011, that a former Labour Party member of parliament, Declan Bree, has joined the United Left Alliance (ULA). Another Irish left organisation has also backed the newly formed ULA. The ULA presently consists of three political parties: the Socialist Party, the People Before Profit Alliance and the Workers and Unemployed Action Group. Socialist Democracy, the party aligned with the Fourth International has released the following statement.

* * *

Statement from Ireland’s Socialist Democracy on the February 25 general election.

Egypt: Historian Joel Beinin on the role of the labour movement; Democracy Now! interview

February 10, 2011 -- Democracy Now! -- Egypt’s pro-democracy uprising is surging after striking workers joined in the protests nationwide. Thousands of Egyptian workers walked off the job February 9 demanding better wages and benefits. Strikes were reported in Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor and the Suez Canal. We speak to Stanford University Professor Joel Beinin, who, as the former director of Middle East Studies at the American University in Cairo, has closely studied the Egyptian labour movement for years. “This is huge, because there has been for the last 10 years an enormous wave of labour protests in Egypt”, Beinin says. “In the last few days what you’ve seen is tens of thousands of workers linking their economic demands to the political demand that the Mubarak regime step aside.” Click HERE for the program transcript. Intervew continues HERE.

* * *

Thailand: Royalist right, ultra-nationalists want war with Cambodia

Made with Slideshow Embed Tool. Anti-war rally at Victory Monument, Bangkok, on February 7,2011. The more or less spontaneous protest was held between 5pm and 7pm.

By Giles Ji Ungpakorn

Uprising in Egypt -- Democracy Now! Two-hour special (Feb. 5, 2011); Al Jazeera's 'Egypt Burning'

On Saturday, February 5, 2011, Democracy Now! aired a two-hour "Uprising in Egypt".

China, Vietnam and the islands dispute: What is behind the rise of Chinese nationalism?

By Michael Karadjis

Statement of the Revolutionary Socialists of Egypt: `Glory to the martyrs! Victory to the revolution!'

Hossam el-Hamalawy explains the origins of the Revolutionary Socialists, and its associated Center of For Socialist Studies:

Los lazos del gobierno srilanqués con Israel exponen su duplicidad