Weekly Worker 897 Thursday January 19 2012
Europe's mutual suicide pact
Austerity plans pursued by European governments are proving to be self-defeating, writes Eddie Ford
Looks like the phoney peace is over. As has been expected since the end of last year, France was stripped on January 13 of its precious triple-A credit status - held since 1975 - by the Standard and Poor’s rating agency. For president Nicolas Sarkozy this is clearly a huge political setback, if not a personal humiliation - given that he had spent most of 2011 saying he would fight “tooth and nail” to defend the country’s pristine credit rating and rushed through two big packages of budget cuts later in the year on that very basis. Pain without the gain. [read more]
LettersArchaic; Closer to Dave; Cuckoo controls; Still capitalist; Cheap; Worrying; Nothing to fear; Altered farm;
Sex, symbolism and neanderthals
Not only did the neanderthals interbreed with our ancestors. These close cousins help shed light on what it is to be human, argues Camilla Power of the Radical Anthropology Group
No room for anti-Semites
Tony Greenstein looks ahead to this weekend's AGM of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Politics, not voluntarism
The left is trying to wish a mass fightback into existence. Peter Manson reports on the Unite the Resistance 'emergency conference'
Islamists courted by imperialists
The Muslim Brotherhood has shown itself to be the biggest political force. Meanwhile the left is under attack. Yassamine Mather gives her impressions following a recent visit to Egypt
Oil struggle aborted
Despite the ending of the protests, workers in Nigeria have demonstrated their potential power, writes Nick Rogers
Tory glee and political fantasy
David Douglass reviews Phyllida Lloyd (director) 'The iron lady' 2011, general release
Impediments to consciousness
In the second of three articles, Paul B Smith discusses the negative impact of imperialism, Stalinism and social democracy
Climax of tartan nationalism
The Scottish independence referendum is a choice between Westminster and Berlin, argues James Turley - yet the left offers no alternative to nationalist illusions
Defence Fund
Robbie Rix is pleased to introduce another supplement - but more cash is needed if supplements are to feature regularly
Weekly Worker 897 is available for download as a pdf file.
More videos from Communist University are available on our vimeo web channel.
Defence Fund
Robbie Rix is pleased to introduce another supplement - but more cash is needed if supplements are to feature regularly
I promised a couple of issues back that the Weekly Worker will be bigger and better in 2012. So, having said goodbye to 2011 and hello to 2012 with a 16-pager (with a marvellous full-colour front cover), in this, only the second issue of the new year, I am delighted that we are carrying a four-page supplement, a work of groundbreaking scholarship that doubtless will be of the greatest interest to every fighter for communism.
It would appear that our neanderthal cousins managed to make a revolution. But it was a partial, incomplete and reversible revolution. There was, as a result, no cultural take-off. Explaining why the neanderthals did not succeed in making their revolution permanent raises interesting questions. Questions that surely necessitate cutting-edge answers.
Anyway, having supplied a bigger (and hopefully ever better) paper, it is up to our readers to carry out their side of the bargain - making sure we reach our new monthly fighting fund target of £1,500. I’m glad to report that our internet readership now seems to be consistently hovering just above 20,000 (we had 20,892 online readers last week). That is, roughly speaking, a 100% increase over the last 12 months. But, once again, too few of our e-readers are putting their hands in their pocket to ensure we meet our financial target.
An exception this week is MM, who donated £50 using our PayPal facility. Thanks, comrade! By the way, responding to a critical one-liner in last week’s letters pages, MM added an explanation for his generosity: “Consider it part of the Jim Creegan defence fund!” I’m sure our excellent correspondent in the United States will be suitably pleased.
There was another £10 donation made via the website from comrade CS and the receipts from our standing orders came to £195 over the last week. Our total for January’s fighting fund now stands at £665 - but that is quite a bit down on where we ought to be at this stage. We need £835 in 12 days. I know that cheques are a bit old hat nowadays, but I can tell you that I could really do with receiving a few - none at all in the post over the last seven days.
Don’t forget, if you want more supplements, and more colour pages, then you know what to do: help us reach that target every month.
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