Articles
Sunday, January 29, 2023
There have been large demonstrations in many European cities against soaring cost of energy and the cost of living crisis. Protesters have linked this to the war in Ukraine and there has been an anti-war, anti-NATO aspect to the demonstrations as well. this contrasts with the UK where criticism of its role in fueling the war remains marginalised and opposition to NATO is now virtually taboo.
Saturday, January 28, 2023
Yemen has for the past few years been in the news mainly because of the war waged on the country by Saudi Arabia, which has resulted in so many deaths and reduced Yemen to one of the poorest countries in the world. Few people talk about the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, which existed in South Yemen from 1970 to 1990, and achieved much in that short time.
Saturday, October 8, 2022
Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan was a deliberate provocation to China, designed to ramp up tensions as prelude to a possible war. This visit was extremely dangerous as the United States heads towards unilaterally ripping up the internationally agreed “One China” principle which recognises that Taiwan is part of China.
Friday, October 7, 2022
The sanctions imposed at the behest of the United States have hit European economies hard, particularly the Greman economy. It is not only gas supplies that are affected, sanctions on Russia will also impact heavily on its key automotive industry. The severe blow to Germany’s economy will weaken its dominance of the EU and strengthen the influence and control of the US in Europe. Ironically China’s car industry may well be the beneficiary of these sanctions on Russia. The war in Ukraine is reshaping the world in more ways than one.
Thursday, October 6, 2022
Liz Truss will be even worse than Johnson – however hard this might be to believe. Truss has already declared war on the trade union movement by proposing to bring in even more restrictive anti-union legislation which would make it virtually impossible to take legal and effective strike action. She has shown a total lack of understanding the threat from the cost of living crisis to working class people. She proposes to slash taxes, but without taxes there can be no hope of improving our collapsing public services, including the National Health Service, nor infrastructure which has been neglected over decades. The crisis facing the British people is, at least in part, a product of the Thatcherism that Truss seeks to emulate. She doesn’t even pretend to have a “levelling up” agenda and has expressed herself content that the rich will benefit far more from tax cuts than the poor.
Wednesday, October 5, 2022
The US is experiencing resistance from the developing world to its aggressive policies on China. The number of countries giving diplomatic recognition to Taiwan has declined form 28 in 2008 to 13 now. The latest to change its affiliation is the Solomon Islands which has recently concluded a range of agreements with China. It is strategically important in the Pacific area and its closer ties with China have led to threats against it from Australia and the USA.
Tuesday, October 4, 2022
The cuts to peoples’ living standards are so dire that workers have been forced to strike for pay increases to ensure their survival. The battles that are happening are immense and unprecedented in recent decades. They represent a new self-confidence in the working class which can provide a basis for building class consciousness. Union membership is growing and inroads are being made into smaller private sector enterprises and with self-employed contractors in the gig economy.
Monday, October 3, 2022
Western media and politicians continue to assert that Russia intendeds to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, but there is no real evidence to support these claims. On the other hand the United States continues to plan to use of nuclear weapons in conflicts and remains the only country ever to have deployed them.