Urgent action to stem a 'tidal wave' of violence was today demanded by transport union RMT as it launched a campaign to establish an industry-wide code of protection for workers in the rail, bus and ferry sectors. 

Cross-company zero-tolerance campaigns, an end to unnecessary lone-working, more uniformed staff and better legal protection for transport workers are at the heart of the campaign launched by the union today. 

After surveying its own front-line members, RMT says that official assault figures represent only the tip of the iceberg, that police fail to attend as many as 40 per cent of reported incidents, and that more than a third of incidents go unreported. 

The Financial Times has hailed the effective takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by the US government as “what could become the world’s biggest ever financial bail-out.” Treasury secretary Henry Paulson has promised he will pump in ‘unlimited liquidity.’ Don’t you wish the government would grant you unlimited liquidity? When it comes to the food and fuel bills of the poor and the working class, the British and American governments find that the cupboard is bare. But now it’s not bare. Predictably markets all over the world have breathed a sigh of relief. Fannie and Freddie have effectively been nationalised – and big business thoroughly approves!

The State and Revolution

Jorge Martin talks on Lenin's The State and Revolution, which he completed just before the October revolution in order to arm the Bolsheviks ideologically for the tasks of state power. Lenin explains the historic necessity for the emergence of the state as a tool of class rule, and that the state grows as economic differentiation in society grows, requiring the supression of the oppressed majority by the priviledged minority. In dealing with anarchist and reformist conceptions of the state, Marxism explains that the working class cannot lay hands on the ready-made state machinery and that the worker's state is historically unique, being in the possession of the majority of society, the working class.

Listen here

To download the audio file click with your right mouse button and select "Save Link As" or "Save Target As".

What is Capitalism? What is Socialism?

Listen to Alan Woods speak at a recent meeting of the Socialist Appeal. "...what capitalism shows us is the enormous potential that exists in our hands. In the first decade of the 21st century you can say for the first time in history all the fundamental problems that we face can be solved now, today. For example for the first time in history it is possible to say their is no need for anyone to starve in this world. There is plenty of possibility to produce food for everybody. As a matter of fact if you check the records for the last 30 or 40 years in Europe and the United States they have been destroying food in huge quantities in order to keep the prices artificially high for the capitalist farmers."

Listen to part 1 and part 2