Swaziland: Small country, big struggle -- global day of action for democracy
[The Swaziland Democracy Campaign (SDC), formed by trade unions, political par
Venezuela: Land reform, food sovereignty and agroecology
By Alan Broughton
Australia: Swing to Greens a shift to left as neither major capitalist party wins a mandate
By Peter Boyle
August 24, 2010 -- Green Left Weekly -- By denying both the ruling Australian Labor Party (ALP) and the opposition Liberal Party-National Party coalition an outright majority, in primary votes and in federal House of Representatives (lower house) and Senate (upper house), Australian electors on August 21 voted “neither of the above” for the traditional parties of government. The result after election night was a hung parliament, with several rural independent MPs and one Greens MP to decide which party will form the next government.
This followed an election campaign in which the major parties conducted an ugly race to the right, most notoriously by scapegoating the few thousand desperate refugees who attempt to get to Australia on boats.
Pakistan: The flood disaster and the way out
By the Labour Party Pakistan (Karachi) and the National Trade Union Federation
South Africa: COSATU's Zwelinzima Vavi's Ruth First Memorial Lecture
Britain: What now for the Green Party?
By Peter Shield
August 17, 2010 -- The Green Party of England and Wales has made some major breakthroughs over the couple of years, the election of Caroline Lucas to the British parliament was one of the few bright points on an otherwise dismal election night on May 6, 2010. At a local level the Green Party now has just over 120 councillors and the two members of the European Parliament (MEPs). The problem however is that the election showed up how patchy and locally concentrated its support base actually is. With the Autumn party conference approaching what are challenges facing the Green Party.
Afghans mark Independence Day with anti-occupation protests
By Derrick O'Keefe
Rabble.ca -- August 19, 2010 marks 91 years since Afghanistan gained its freedom from the British empire, following three bloody wars of independence. US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has issued a video statement to mark the occasion. It's worth watching or reading the text in full, if only to appreciate the new empire's irony-laden platitudes.
This August 19th, on behalf of President Obama and the American people, I want to congratulate the people of Afghanistan on 91 years of independence.
James P. Cannon: An introduction
[This the introduction to Building the Revolutionary Party: An Introduction to James P. Cannon (Resistance Books: Chippendale, 1997). Dave Holmes is now a leader of the Socialist Alliance in Melbourne. This and other writings are also available at Dave Holmes' blog, Arguing for Socialism.]
By Dave Holmes
James P. Cannon was a pioneer of the Communist Party of the United States and one of its central leaders in the 1920s. Breaking with the Stalinised CP in 1928 he founded the US Trotskyist movement and played the decisive role in building it for over three decades.
Britain: Build opposition to the `slash and burn' coalition
By Alan Thornett
August 18, 2010 -- Socialist Resistance -- Britain’s first coalition government since the war has completed its first parliamentary session. "Coalition", however, is something of a sick misnomer. What we have is a right-wing Thatcherite, small-state, slash-and-burn Tory government, propped up by the cringing Liberal Democrats (Lib Dems), with a cuts and privatisation agenda which goes well beyond anything Thatcher herself was able to envisage.
Prime Minister David Cameron has emerged as the most ideologically driven Conservative Party (Tory) leader of modern times.