Grenfell Tower – the smoke & the mirrors
There is an ever-growing stream of media commentary on the Grenfell fire, increasing daily as the public enquiry unfolds. There are some elements in the media with the goal of obscuring or excusing the plain facts as part of a pre-emptive defence manoeuvre to protect those most implicated in what caused the fire and the 72 deaths. That they feel the need to use such distortions to defend the Grenfell landlords and those who ordered and oversaw the Grenfell refurbishment that fitted the lethal cladding only increases the suggestion of a general doubt on all sides about their innocence.
Only the World's Workers Can Save Us from a Capitalist Cataclysm
Editorial for Revolutionary Perspectives 18 (Series 4).
Afghanistan: The USA and its Allies Retreat
Save the Planet - Destroy Capitalism!
In July hundreds of lives were lost in heat domes over western Canada and the US, and floods in Germany and China. Wildfires raged out of control from California to Greece, Turkey and Siberia. These disasters are clearly the result of global warming disrupting weather patterns. If emissions of greenhouse gases continue on the present path, these events will seem like a vicar’s tea party in comparison to what is to come. Millions upon millions will die.
Police Powers Bill: Preparing for Class War
西班牙革命及内战简史(1936-1939)
Staycation impossible: Supply-chain crunch, labour shortage and speed-ups in the camper van manufacturing industry
Iran: On Oil and Troubled Water
"Let the Bodies Pile Up in their Thousands"
End of Lockdown, No End to Workers Paying for It
Interview on the global ‘chip crisis’
The global supply-chain crisis affects all kind of sectors – there are currently neither wet-wipes, rice crispies nor blood transfusion tubes available at the hospital where some of us work, due to supply-side problems. The major shortage, though, relates to microchips. We translated this article written by comrades from Wildcat. It will surprise many of us to read how labour intensive nano-chip production actually is…
South African Riots: The Social Crisis Erupts
1971-2021: 50 Years Since the USA Reneged on Bretton Woods
For the CWO, and indeed the entire political tendency to which we belong, it is axiomatic that we are living through capitalism’s third global economic crisis. For over a century the economic system (mode of production) which was once progressive for humanity, in that it created the material possibility of a prosperous world community without national borders or class divisions, has represented a barrier to human progress when it is not a direct threat to human existence itself.
NHS pay dispute from below – Online newsletter no.2
After the Cuban Protests: Discussion with Proletarios Cabreados
We are publishing here our translation of a further document on the Cuban protests in July, entitled Análisis de la actual crisis y revuelta en Cuba desde la perspectiva comunista radical, by a group in Ecuador which goes under the name of Proletarios Cabreados (Pissed off Proletarians). You can find them at proletariosrevolucionarios.blogspot.com
Iranian Oil Workers Strike Update
52 days have gone by since the start of the strike, which began when thousands of Iranian oil workers downed tools on 19 June and walked off oilfields across Iran. The Council for Organising Protests by Oil Contract Workers has issued 11 statements so far. In our previous article we published parts of their first 6 statements (see leftcom.org) as well as giving a short explanation of their full context.
Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies: The Madness of a Highly Speculative Capitalism
Capitalism finds itself in a tricky situation. Since the end of the post-war boom in the 70s, despite the restructuring of production, and the attacks on the daily working conditions of millions upon millions of proletarians, it has become more difficult than ever to find profitable reinvestments for capital. This crisis of valorisation of capital is only one of the many symptoms of the more profound crisis of capitalism: the law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. This fall in the rate of profit is accompanied by attempts of the capitalists to postpone the crisis, to look elsewhere for short-term methods of making profit, or to save their own skins by any means necessary.
Iranian Oil and Petrochemical Workers' Strikes Go On
Since Saturday, 19 June, thousands of workers at oil and gas projects and petrochemical plants have been on strike across the country in several provinces. They are coordinating their action under the title of Strike Campaign 1400, which refers to the current year in the Iranian calendar. The number of industrial centres that have participated in this strike is reported to have reached more than 100 units in 10 provinces and the number of workers on strike has passed 105,000. Significantly, there has been very little news coverage of these massive strikes, both in the domestic and foreign media but the strikes are still going on as we write.