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Food prices have gone up worldwide by 75% since 2005. Since Gordon
Brown became prime minister (not that long ago) milk prices have gone
up by 17%, eggs by 28% and bread by 34% in this country. Other items
have shown even sharper increases. There's no sign of any letup. In the same way as we seem to have seen
the end of cheap oil, this could be the last of cheap food.
Present-day economic
conditions demand that the working class fight back. The interests of the
ruling class and the working class are irreconcilable. The bourgeois are
screaming, "more cuts, more cuts" and the workers shout back
"Enough is enough". The stage has been set for a "Hot
Spring" in Europe.
“While many are worrying about filling their gas tanks, many
others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs,” says Robert Zoellick, head of the World Bank. We are
confronted with actual starvation. He warns that the present food crisis will
give us “seven lost years.” It means “lost learning potential for
children...stunted intellectual and physical growth.” His colleague at the IMF,
Dominique Strauss Kahn, concurs. He foresees that “hundreds of thousands of
people will be starving.”
The present impasse in Zimbabwe is a direct result of the
so-called Structural Adjustment Plans so dear to imperialism, imposed on the
Zimbabwean people in collaboration with Mugabe after he came to power. Now they
have turned against him, but he is a creature of their own making.
On Monday the 21st of April 2008 a leftist former
Bishop, Fernando Lugo, won the elections to the Paraguayan presidency. Lugo,
dubbed by many as the “Red Bishop” or the “Bishop of the poor” ousted the 61
year ruling party - the Colorado Party. The Colorado Party’s reign in power was
bourgeois democratic in its latter years and took the form of the military
dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner prior to 1989, the year when he was deposed.
Two giant firms employing two of the most brilliant teams of workers on
the planet could be helping to make the world a better place. Instead
they are producing killing machines. That’s capitalism for you.
Instead of co-operating, they are squabbling over market share. As Karl
Marx said, “It’s one thing to share out profits and quite another to
share out losses.” Could this be the start of a trade war?
After the cement industry, now Chavez has nationalised SIDOR
with its 15,000 workforce. This has come about thanks to the pressure of the
SIDOR workers who were able to contact Chavez directly. The decision is a
correct one. It must now be followed by a general nationalisation of the
commanding heights of the Venezuelan economy and finally complete the
revolution.
In a bizarre but brilliant turn of editorial line, BBC’s
Newsnight has launched an apparently socialist documentary series on China. At
least, that was how it appeared on the basis of Paul Mason’s excellent report
on Wednesday 26th March, to be followed up the following week.
Imagine you have a known terrorist in your custody. He holds
the information that could be used to disarm a bomb. With this information you
can save the lives of thousands, perhaps millions of innocent people. But he
will not give you the information. What do you do?
Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets to
mark the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, and to stand against the
ongoing occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. These demonstrations come as the
US is piling the pressure on its NATO allies to commit more troops, and send
more into combat on the front line.
It is almost impossible to believe the rank stupidity and/or duplicity
of the people masquerading as Labour Ministers. This is a press release
from UNISON in response to the latest claptrap from Kim Howells, in
which he makes allegations that put at risk the lives of trade unionists
in Columbia. Please use this information in your own unions and demand
the retraction of Howells' allegations.
A London High Court judge on Tuesday suspended a court order
which froze 12 billion dollars (7.6 billion euros) of assets owned by Venezuela
state oil firm PDVSA in a dispute with US energy giant ExxonMobil.
Hands Off
Venezuela activists present in London expressed their joy at the ruling. "This
was part of a campaign of intimidation and threats by imperialism against the
Venezuelan revolution".
After the PSUV founding congress, the Venezuelan revolution
is back on the agenda. This is even more important than ever considering the
current world economic turmoil and the uncertainty surrounding Cuba's future
since Castro announced he was not standing for president. In Norwich the Hands Off Venezuela campaign has enjoyed success on campus, now for the first time the campaign has branched into the city. At the recent Stop the War march HoV, along with other solidarity campaigns, offered a revolutionary alternative to a capacity meeting.
Five years ago the USA, Britain and various wretched bribed
‘allies’ invaded Saddam’s Iraq. Saddam Hussein was a monster – but imperialism
knew that when it backed him in his aggressive war against Iran and supplied
the chemicals for him to gas Iraqi Kurds. The invasion was justified by the lie
that Saddam had ‘weapons of mass destruction.’ He didn’t.
