The German Communist Party and the crisis of 1923
Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebnecht, murdered by the Social Democrat government.
By Graham Milner
The German Communist Party (KPD) was founded in the very heat of revolutionary struggle. One of the party's major problems from the beginning was that it was formed as a separate organisation too late to influence significantly the course of the German Revolution of 1918-19. If there had been in existence at this time a mass revolutionary party along the lines of Lenin's Bolshevik party, then there could well have been a radical reconstruction of German society into a republic of workers' councils. Instead of such an outcome, the stunted bourgeois-democratic regime of Weimar came into being, in which most of the existing state machine, including the army, judiciary and civil service, was preserved intact.[1]
Los seres humanos como centro de nuestro socialismo
[English at http://links.org.au/node/2042.]
Por Federico Fuentes, traducido por Janet Duckworth
Resena sobre libro, La alternativa socialista: el verdadero desarrollo humano, de Michael Lebowitz
Green Left Weekly/Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- La llegada de la crisis económica mundial a mediados de 2008, simbolizada por el colapso de algunas de las empresas más icónicas de Wall Street, condujo a un incremento vertiginoso de las ventas de El Capital, la obra maestra de Carlos Marx, porque mucha gente buscó una explicación de los acontecimientos apocalípticos que se estaban desarrollando.
What the Dickens? — a tale of two Scrooges
By Christopher Phelps
Venezuela: Food sovereignty project launched
Food Sovereignty Venezuela -- Jose, a campesina leader from one of Venezuela's most prominent campesina organisations, the Ezequiel Zamora National Campesino Front (FNCEZ) tells of his work with campesinos in Portegeusa State. He describes life and land ownership possibilities before and after the revolution and the some of the surprises that are revealed in his ongoing quest of helping the poor reclaim their land. Special thanks to the great translations of Venezuelan activist Yasmin Tovar and the stunning background music of Ali Primera, renowned Venezuelan singer of revolutionary tales.
By Lisa Macdonald
Women and revolutionary transformation in Venezuela
Yoly Fernandez (left) during her 2009 Australian tour, organised by the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network.
By Coral Wynter
Yoly Fernandez lives in a barrio in the city of Valencia in Venezuela. She has been involved in community politics all her life and is a member of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), headed by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez. Fernandez works in Mission MERCAL, the government agency that sells subsidised food to the population. I interviewed her in May 2010.
* * *
How has the life of women improved over the last 10 years of the Chavez government?
Our lives have improved enormously, mainly in the area of humane values; not so much at the level of work or even at the political level. I say humane because now the role of women is valued, not as an object but as a subject, as mother, wife, daughter and sister.
Raul Castro: `Socialism is the only guarantee Cuba will continue to be free and independent'
Delegates at Cuba's National Assembly consider the Draft Guidelines for the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution. Photo by Calixto N. Llanes.
Below is a translation of Cuba's President Raul Castro's speech, on December 18, 2010, at the close of Cuba's National Assembly session, where the Draft Guidelines for the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution document was debated.
[For more analysis and discussion on the economic reforms in Cuba, click HERE.]
* * *
Comrades all,
US warplanes take off from Diego Garcia.
[Read the Mauritian socialists' open letter to Greenpeace -- `Don't help cover up colonialism's crimes on Diego Garcia' HERE, warning the organisation that it is being manipulated by the US and British governments. This has now been confirmed by Wikileaks.]
By Clency Lebrasse
December 17, 2010 -- Rabble.ca -- Six months ago, I wrote a piece for rabble.ca describing the appalling treatment of the people of the Chagos Islands [which includes Diego Garcia] in the Indian Ocean by the British government.
South Korea: `Just the first round' by `irregular workers' at Hyundai Motors
Hyundai Motors workers' sit-in at Hyundai's plant in Ulsan.
reports on strikes and factory occupations at Hyundai Motor Company in South Korea, which is building solidarity among regular and irregular workers, and among workers internationally.
December 16, 2010 -- Socialist Worker (US) -- "Even a worm will squirm when it is being stepped on" is an old Korean idiom that basically means that even the most powerless creature reacts against an aggressor. However, when such a worm is transformed into a fearful dragon, it will do a lot more than just squirm, to the point that you had better think twice about stepping on it.
That's what happened at one of South Korea's most profitable companies, Hyundai Motors, when the company's irregular workers mobilised with strikes and factory occupations during the middle of November, after decades of being "stepped on". Before we start with that fateful day of November 15, we need to take a look at how it progressed.
Dlaczego żądanie zakazu noszenia burki sprzyja rasistom
[2010-12-17 -- Lewica.pl/Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Poniższe
wystąpienie zostało wygłoszone na pełnym ludzi zebraniu w centrum
Sydney 24 listopada 2010r. Pip Hinman była jedną z dwóch mieszkańców,
którzy zorganizowali zebranie na wzór rady miasta w odpowiedzi na
niepokój w lokalnej społeczności spowodowany projektem ustawy
prawicowego parlamentarzysty z Partii Chrześcijańsko-Demokratycznej
Freda Nile'a o zakazie zakrywania twarzy i napisami na sklepie w Newtown
"Powiedz burkom nie". Zebrani wysłuchali muzułmańskiego działacza
studenckiego, lidera związku zawodowego oraz chrześcijańskiego pastora,
którzy byli przeciwni wprowadzeniu zakazu. Wysłuchali oni także jego
zwolenników. Rezolucja sprzeciwiająca się zakazowi przeszła większością
dwóch trzecich głosów. Kliknij: http://links.org.au/node/2012 aby
przeczytać więcej o zebraniu i dyskusji. Zobacz także: Australia –
debata o zakazie noszenia burki: czy jeśli nie mogę nosić burki, to nie
The United Left Alliance in Ireland: Is this the left unity we were hoping for?
Richard Boyd Barrett from the People Before Profit Alliance and Joe Higgins MEP from the Socialist Party, during the launch of the new United
