World

  • Venezuela: Socialist campaign gathers momentum as vote nears

    At a mass rally of PSUV activists in the Poliedro Stadium on November 18, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called for “Operation Round Up” to gather the maximum number of votes for candidates of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) in the November 23 elections for state governors and municipal mayors.

  • Venezuela: The revolution has a party

    What makes the current situation in Venezuelan an era of social revolution is not the fiery rhetoric of its leaders, particularly of its central leader, President Hugo Chavez.

  • Israel attacks Gaza as food runs out

    While the world was distracted by the US elections, Israel broke its four-month-old ceasefire with the Hamas-run Gaza government on November 4, entering the territory and killing six people and capturing six others.

  • Climate change: Maldives seek new homeland

    According to a November 11 article in the British Guardian, the Maldives government is investigating the possibility of purchasing land in order to move its citizens to escape the disappearance of the Indian Ocean archipelago due to climate change.

  • Malaysia: Socialists building global struggles

    “Socialism 2008 — Malaysia”, a conference hosted by the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) in Kajang, Selangor, over November 7-9, brought together more than 500 activists from around Malaysia, as well as from Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Australia, Britain, Sweden and Taiwan.

  • Italian students fight back: 'We are the solution'

    On October 23, an estimated 30,000 university students took over Rome’s streets. Marching to the chant of “Berlusconi is a piece of shit”, students passed the train station, receiving cheers from young Kurdish immigrants.

  • China and the global economic crisis

    As the US, Japan and Europe slide into recession, the leaders of many smaller countries are desperately hoping that continued strong growth in the Chinese economy, which has contributed about 15% of world economic growth in recent years, might save them from this meltdown.

  • South Africa's ANC: things fall apart

    At some point in the not-too-distant future, we might just look back at 2008 as the year in which things really started to fall apart for the African National Congress (ANC).

  • Venezuela: Right-wing seeks to undermine elections

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has warned that the right-wing opposition in his country is planning destabilisation actions during the November 23 elections for state governors and mayors, according to the November 12 Ultimas Noticias.

  • The struggle against Prop 8: interview with US activist

    Protests against Proposition 8, the California referendum that robs same-sex partners of marriage rights granted in a state Supreme Court decision earlier this year, began the day after the November 4 vote and continued through the rest of the week.

  • Obama, Rudd must end the Afghan war

    The November 7 Sydney Morning Herald reported that an advisor to US president-elect Barack Obama, Jeffrey Bader, had stated that the “first priority” of the Obama administration would be to seek a greater contribution from Australia to “winning the war in Afghanistan”.

  • Bolivia: Compromise and advance

    The ominous clouds that seemed to indicate the worst of storms, and which tend to hypnotise analysts inside and outside of Bolivia, dissipated following a political agreement that has set January 25 as the date for a referendum on the draft for a new constitution.