Around the world, strikes, demonstrations and protests have erupted as millions upon millions of workers, peasants and poor face the horror of rapidly rising food prices.

In a dazzling pre-Olympic balancing act, the Chinese regime has announced talks with the ‘evil’ Dalai Lama side

The Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) sends warm socialist greetings to workers and youth across the world on May Day, International Workers’ Day, 2008. Socialist Alternative is the US section of the CWI.

Thousands of paramilitary police and soldiers have been deployed in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, after the most serious protests against Chinese rule for nearly 20 years. More than 80 people have been killed and hundreds injured according to exile Tibetan groups, while official Chinese and Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) sources put the fatalities so far at 16, including three Tibetan youths who "died by jumping from a roof". The protests began more than one week ago and culminated in serious rioting in the Tibetan capital on Friday, 14 March, with more than 300 houses and shops burned according to official sources. This week, on Sunday and Monday, protests spread to Tibetan regions of the neighbouring provinces of Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu, and even a sitdown action by around a hundred Tibetan students in a park in the Haidian district of the Chinese capital, Beijing.

The formal resignation of Fidel Castro as President of Cuba opens up a new chapter in the history of Cuba and its revolution.

After 46 days on strike, the miners of Budryk have won a victory.

On December 27, 2007, Kenyans voted in general elections to elect a new government. But, as mostly happens in Africa, Kenyans got short changed. The announcement of incumbent President Kibaki as the winner under shady circumstances led to widespread protests and violence. As we write, at least 500 people are reportedly killed, with an estimated 150,000 people displaced from their homes.

One month after the defeat of his proposed constitutional changes in a referendum, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez announced that he has decided to abandon his agenda for “21st Century socialism” “for now” and adopt a new political course aimed at placating the middle classes, the private sector, and the right-wing opposition. However, the result of the referendum was more a rejection of the slow pace of the changes as well as government corruption.

The Pakistan People's Party central executive committee and federal council meeting in the house of deceased leader Benazir Bhutto in Sindh province on 30 December brought no surprises for all those who know something about the PPP and Pakistani politics.

The constitutional referendum called by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela on December 2 has unfortunately and tragically resulted in a defeat. For the first time in nine years Chavez has lost an election. This defeat for Chavez will embolden and strengthen the right-wing and is a warning of the threat that exists from the counter revolution.

The Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI), the international organization that Socialist Alternative is in political solidarity with, now has a Spanish-speaking website up and running. Visit it at www.mundosocialista.net.

"I've been angry for many, many years about our administration and so have lots of youth. I'm really frustrated, for one, because I can't vote for President or legislators, but I can make a stand for what I believe in." - Amy Englesberg, 17 year-old high school senior (Bellingham Herald)

Bloody fighting between Turkish troops and separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) guerrillas on the Turkey-Iraq border has enormously ratcheted up tensions between the two countries. As socialists, we oppose the planned invasion of the Kurdish region of Iraq by Turkey and call for the withdrawal of all imperialist troops from Iraq. The rights of the Kurdish people must be respected, including their right to self-defense when faced with brutal repression.

For socialists and Marxists, Latin America is the most advanced continent politically in the world today. It is also an anticipation of what will happen in the rest of the world tomorrow. From the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego, the working class, the urban poor, and poor peasants are in revolt against landlordism, capitalism, and imperialism.