Greece: New elections due as pro-austerity coalition talks fail By Nikos Anastasiades, Xekinima (CWI in Greece ) and Niall Mulholland, CWI    May 16, 2012 Following the 6 May election earthquake in Greece, which saw a hammering of the pro-austerity parties and a huge rejection of the ‘Troika’ (IMF, ECB and EU), the main parties failed to form a coalition government. Attempts by the Greek president to oversee a ‘national unity’ government or to form a “government of technocrats” also failed. Crucial new elections will be held no later than 17 June.

Election Leaflet: Vote for Kshama Sawant By Socialist Alternative    May 16, 2012 As a teacher of economics at Seattle Central Community College and a member of the American Federation of Teachers Local 1789, Sawant has seen firsthand the devastating effects of the cuts to public education. As an organizer with Socialist Alternative she has been an activist in the Occupy Wall Street movement and an advocate for social justice for workers, women, LGBT people, and immigrants.

CWI in Ireland Proposes Historic Abortion Rights Bill By Clare Daly, TD (member of the Irish parliament), Socialist Party (CWI Ireland)    May 13, 2012 On 18 – 19 April the Dail will discuss the Medical Treatment (Termination of Pregnancy in Case of Risk to Life of Pregnant Woman) Bill 2012. This is the first time that a positive proposal to legalise abortion in Ireland has been initiated and in that sense it is a truly historic step forward. Of course it is long overdue and we fully recognise that it is merely a very tiny first step, but it is important nonetheless.

Video: Vote No to Austerity in Irish referendum By Socialist Party (CWI Ireland)    May 12, 2012 On 31 May Irish voters are asked to vote on the European fiscal treaty. This video explains what the treaty is about.

May Day in Nigeria By Peluola Adewale, DSM (CWI Nigeria)    May 11, 2012 Ordinarily May Day should have offered opportunity for workers to pose their demands and agitation before the government. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In most cases, the workers, smartly and colourfully dressed in various trade union attires, usually struggle to impress the government representatives as if there would be an award for the best performance of the march. However, in Osun state a good number of workers did not even wait to participate in the march past as they had walked out on the governor in protest at his failure to make a commitment on the full implementation of the minimum wage.

In Calculated Move, Obama Supports Gay Marriage – Step up the Struggle for Equality By Ramy Khalil    May 10, 2012 Yesterday, in a historic victory for the gay and lesbian rights movement, President Obama came out in favor of same-sex marriage rights. While this change in rhetoric is a positive step forward, we must step up our calls for real policy changes to end the continuing violence and legalized persecution facing LGBTQ people.

France: Weekend that shocked Europe By Robert Bechert, CWI    May 9, 2012 Following the massive struggle over pensions in 2010 many French workers, youth and other layers turned their attention to preventing Sarkozy’s re-election. But this election did not just see a personal vote against the arrogant, rude, “bling-bling” Sarkozy. It was also a rejection of the attacks he had presided over and a reaction to the mounting impact of the economic crisis on working people.

Same-Sex Marriage Battles Heat Up in 2012 By Ramy Khalil and Kate Devlin    Mar 16, 2012 The legalization of same-sex marriage is shaping up to be a major battleground in the 2012 elections. Due to the activism and greater visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people, support for LGBTQ rights has been surging. So now this year both corporate parties, Republicans and Democrats, are exploiting this wedge issue from different angles for their own electoral gain and also to divert working-class anger away from unpopular economic policies.

Greece: Political earthquake sees pro-austerity parties’ support collapse By socialistworld.net    May 9, 2012 The parliamentary election results in Greece were a political earthquake, a crushing repudiation of the pro-austerity parties and the ‘Troika’ (International Monetary Fund, European Union and European Central Bank). This follows years of austerity measures that have led to a collapse in living standards, 51% youth unemployment and mass poverty.

France: Down with Sarkozy and austerity policies! By socialistworld.net    May 2, 2012 Statement of Gauche Révolutionnaire, CWI France, on the second round of the French presidential elections.

May Day 2012: Celebrate Working Class History and Fight for New Victories! By Committee for a Workers International    May 1, 2012 May Day (International Workers’ Day) is an opportunity for celebrating the militant internationalist traditions of the working class movement, converging with the explosive struggles of today. 1st May this year is as a key date in the calendar of living struggles and movements. The CWI believes that these struggles - from Greece to Chile, Nigeria to Tunisia - not only represent the inevitable explosive response to the current crisis. They also signal the emergence of a social force capable of reducing to rubble the plans of the international ruling class to pauperise workers and young people. The organised working class, mobilised in the fight for a genuinely socialist alternative, can transform society.

Where is the U.S. Economy Going? By Tony Wilsdon    Apr 30, 2012 With long-term real sustained growth ruled out in the next while, this recovery will be unable to bring back the confidence and stability that existed before 2008. Instead, it can prepare the way for new shocks and changes, resulting in a further breaking of illusions in capitalism and the political system as more workers and young people see their hopes and dreams shattered as the present shaft of light at the end of the tunnel is extinguished. While this will be very painful for workers and the poor, it will create even more favorable conditions for the growth of socialist ideas.

The Struggle for Immigrants' Rights By Anh Tran    Apr 30, 2012 Immigrants’ rights movements have won significant reforms over past decades. But the movement today must build a united movement for full legal rights among wider layers of the working class and other social movements, or else it will have to continue to rely on the two major parties to negotiate and renegotiate the terms of immigrants’ indentured servitude. This strategy is needed today more than ever due to the deep crisis of the economy and the capitalist system, which drives both parties to exploit immigrants for cheap labor.

Fighting Leadership Needed to Rebuild the Labor Movement By Alan Jones    Apr 30, 2012 While we are allegedly in a “recovery,” mass layoffs and corporate bankruptcies are occurring in sector after sector of the workforce, including the postal service, American Airlines, Archer Daniels Midland, Kodak, and Procter & Gamble. Unemployment remains at a staggering 24 million when part-timers who want full-time work are included.

Obama's War in Afghanistan is a Disaster By Patrick Darby    Apr 27, 2012 The war in Afghanistan was launched after 9/11 under the stated goal of ending Al Qaeda’s terrorism. Ten years later, it is clear that the real U.S. motive behind continuing the war is to expand U.S. imperialism into the energy- and resource-rich region. The U.S. government hopes not to leave until it constructs a reliable pro-U.S. government, police, and military in Afghanistan. It has, however, utterly failed to do so.

The Politics of Oil and Gas - For a Green Jobs Program! By Jess Spear    Apr 27, 2012 The Obama administration recently approved a plan to drill for oil in the Arctic and has announced plans to allow energy companies to conduct seismic studies off the East Coast to detect oil and natural gas. Meanwhile, oil production has undergone a “revolution” in the U.S. in recent years because of new technology. Some experts say that domestic oil production could rise to 10 million barrels a day in the next decade (NY Times, 3/22/12), although the U.S. consumes roughly 18 million barrels a day. So, despite an improving trend, there is little chance of energy independence if we continue to run society with oil.

Socialist Candidate Challenges Corporate Politics By Kshama Sawant    Apr 27, 2012 I am running against the Democratic Speaker of the House, Frank Chopp, for the state House of Representatives in the 43rd District in Seattle to build a stronger movement that fights for the needs of regular working people and the poor. The Democratic and Republican Parties represent the interests of the 1%, and I believe it is essential that we, the 99%, have our own representation.

Why I Fight: The Foreclosure Crisis in Minnesota By Chris Gray    Apr 27, 2012 It’s been five years since the housing bubble burst, sending millions of working-class homeowners into foreclosure and economic devastation. While banks got bailed out, the hard-won assets and savings of working-class communities were wiped out. But now, with the encouragement and confidence of the Occupy movement behind them, homeowners are beginning to fight back in a serious way.

A Cry for Freedom - The Struggle Against Racism and Capitalism By Eljeer Hawkins, Harlem, New York    Apr 27, 2012 Troy Davis, Trayvon Martin, Anna Brown, Kenneth Chamberlain, Sr., Reika Boyd, and countless others have joined the long and gut-wrenching list of victims of police violence, vigilante justice, and state-sponsored lynching. These events confirm for working people and the poor, particularly people of color, that the declaration of a “post-racial” America after Obama’s election was a fallacy.

Labor Leaders Endorse the President, Is Obama Really on the Side of the 99%? By Greg Beiter, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 587 (personal capacity)    Apr 25, 2012 The Democrats and Obama have either stood aside in attacks on us or taken part. We as union activists can’t ignore that they’re accomplices. Doing so only weakens unions, politically and organizationally disarming ourselves by not properly educating working people on the real role of the Democratic Party.

Lessons from Occupy Homes By Ty Moore    Apr 25, 2012 A large majority of the public – 77%, according to a December Pew Poll – agrees with the basic premise of Occupy Wall Street that big corporations and the 1% have too much power. But across the country, most Occupy events remain small and Occupy groups have failed to sink roots into working-class communities most impacted by Wall Street’s class war policies. One of the exceptions to this trend is Occupy Homes Minnesota, a growing community campaign against foreclosures that is increasingly looked to as a national model. In a few short months, the campaign met with impressive success.

Lessons for Today: When a Socialist and Labor Leader Won a Million Votes By Emily McArthur    Apr 25, 2012 “In the gleam of every bayonet and the flash of every rifle, the class struggle was revealed.” So wrote Eugene Debs about his confrontation with violent police oppression while defending the right of workers to unionize for fair pay as a fighting union leader. This past year has seen many people – young and old, employed and unemployed – radicalized at the hands of “non-lethal” instruments of oppression: the sting of pepper spray and the flash of rubber bullets.

Venezuela: Where are Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution heading? By Johan Rivas, Socialismo Revolucionario (CWI in Venezuela)    Apr 23, 2012 The Venezuelan Bolivarian Revolution has once again reached a crossroads in the forthcoming Presidential elections. For the first time in a long time there is a real electoral threat by the right wing. The growth of the right wing, organised and ‘united’ under a loose electoral formation, united by one common objective - to defeat Chavez - reflects the failures and weaknesses of the ‘Bolivarian Revolution’. The biggest weakness since Chavez came to power has been the failure to overthrow capitalism and introduce a genuine democratic socialist alternative.

Argentina: Kirchner nationalizes YPF petrol and provokes the wrath of imperialism By Tony Saunois, CWI    Apr 23, 2012 Argentina’s Peronist President, Cristina Fernández Kirchner, announcement that 51% of YPF shares would be taken by the state has been greeted with mass support in Argentina and seen as a blow struck against the Repsol multi-national.

Fight Corporate Politics! Donate your tax return to the struggle for a better world. By SocialistAlternative.org    Apr 21, 2012 The world won't change itself. We have to actively fight for it. Please consider donating a portion or all of your tax return to Socialist Alternative today. Every donation helps!

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