En Passant

The best way I reckon to respond to Thatcher’s death would be to bury her legacy – the current British government – with a general strike, something major unions have been discussing.

The development of strikes and civil disobedience as a tactic inside Syria’s revolution points the way forward. As we have seen in Egypt and Tunisia, organised workers and strikes have a crucial role to play in toppling hated dictators.

Egyptian workers have formed a mass trade union group and are setting the date for a general strike.

There is a great feeling that the working class is at the centre of things, people are taking notice of it. That was really very, very inspiring.

What is your impression of the situation at the moment, and where the movement is headed?

It’s very, very exciting; there were very excited people at the demonstration the other day, thousands of people running along the boulevard chanting “general strike.” I haven’t seen this for 20 years.

We may be witnessing sections of the European working class re-learning the lessons of class struggle, assuming not all of them become disillusioned.

There is something truly inspiring about seeing thousands of mostly black South Africans blockading roads and hurling rocks at police in Soweto, Johannesburg, again, writes Ben Hillier in Socialist Alternative. In the same district that saw the historic June 1976 uprising, which was the beginning of the end for apartheid, dissent and rebellion is once [...]

Morales’ words and actions are a clear example of the logic of reformism; the logic of attempting to reform a capitalist state. He is constrained by the needs of a capitalist economy, and as such, has moved against the working class.

A funny thing happened on the way to the Parthenon. Neoliberalism rose from the grave. Not that it was ever really dead. It has just been resting, waiting for its Keynesian cousin to exhaust itself. During the global financial crisis state spending replaced private spending in many countries. What that spending hasn’t done is address stagnant profit rates. There [...]

Class struggle is just so old hat, isn’t it? Well, as 2 million striking Greek workers show, maybe not. The stakes are high. The Socialist Party Pasok won the Greek elections last year on a program of defending working class living standards and social services against attacks from the Conservative government. Socialist Prime Minister Papandreou [...]

Deepen and spread the Iranian revolution. Strike now for economic and political freedom. Nationalise industry under workers’ democratic control.