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Driving destruction for a political end

Buda’s Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb
By Mike Davis
Verso, 2007
228 pages, $39.95 (hb)

Georgia: Opposition leaders charged with 'espionage'

On November 9, two days after Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Soviet republic of Georgia’s pro-US president, ordered riot police to club and tear-gas anti-government protesters in the capital Tbilisi, Georgian officials issued arrest warrants for two opposition leaders on charges of “espionage”. Hospitals reported that nearly 600 protesters sought medical treatment after the police assault.

Support for the Socialist Alliance's election campaign

Rob Stary: Vote for a party that 'has principle as its guiding light' If people want to explore a true and genuine alternative party that represents the interests of labour, then Socialist Alliance is always going to be a good party that should be

Pakistan: Opposition unites as repression intensifies

While Pakistan’s dictator General Pervez Musharraf has justified his November 3 imposition of emergency rule with the supposed threat of Islamic terrorism, the brunt of the crackdown has been felt by students, trade unionists, the left, the mainstream opposition parties, civil society and the movement of advocates (lawyers) — who have been in the forefront of resistance to the regime since March.

History of the Comintern: Uniting forces for a revolutionary party

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. In the years following the revolution, its leaders initiated the formation of the Communist (Third) International (Comintern), an international grouping of communist parties. In Venezuela, the leadership of the country’s unfolding socialist revolution have issued a call for a new international of Latin American left parties. In this article, part of a series on the early years of the Comintern, John Riddell looks at the role of the International in developing revolutionary workers’ parties.

After Walk Against Warming: where next for the movement?

November 11’s national Walk Against Warming was an important initiative for the climate change movement. It was smaller than the 100,000 people organisers had hoped for, but the fact that tens of thousands joined the biggest political demonstration of the election period confirms the opinion poll findings that climate change is a grave concern for large numbers of people.

Britain: Police chief under pressure over de Menezes cover-up

The Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Ian Blair is under severe pressure to resign after a court found the police force guilty of violating health and safety legislation in the shooting of innocent Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes in July 2005.

Behind the blather

The headline that wasn't (1) "Inflation fears as profit growth rises". You didn't miss this headline on an article in a recent Australian Financial Review — though you may have read the actual article it should have been the headline of. In the

Privatisation disaster looms in NSW

Although it was silent on the issue during the state elections, the NSW Labor government led by Premier Morris Iemma is canvassing plans to privatise large sections of state utilities including the rail network, the electricity grid and Sydney’s ferries. The privatisation scheme is necessary, according to the government, to raise funds in order to reduce the budget deficit and pay for improvements in NSW hospitals and schools, and upgrades to the Sydney highways, as well as produce greater efficiency in public transport.

Venezuela: The struggle for a united socialist party

Local battalions of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) have been meeting every weekend since August, aiming to organise the 5.7 million aspiring members who enrolled between April and June to join the party-in-formation. Spokespeople and heads of commissions elected by the more than 14,000 battalions have gone on to form socialist circumscriptions, grouping 10 battalions in a given local area, to elect delegates to the party’s founding congress.

On the socialist campaign trail

Migrant communities back the Socialist Alliance (1) One notable feature of this election campaign has been the growth in support for the Socialist Alliance from migrant communities and their organisations and activists. The past three years of

On the box

Cuba: An African Odyssey — From Che Guevara's military campaign to avenge Lumumba in the Congo, up to the fall of apartheid in South Africa, 300,000 Cubans fought alongside African revolutionaries. SBS, Friday, November 23, 2.30pm. Heaven On