Women account for 70 % of the 1.2 billion people living below the poverty line in the world today. Women suffer oppression because of their gender in every country in the world. But for the poor, daily institutional sexism amounts to horrific drudgery and living conditions. Poor women and girls have little access to education – when education has to be paid for boys come first: there are twice as many women as men among the world’s 900 million people who cannot read or write. Women are paid less and work longer: women work 67% of the world’s working hours, and produce 50% of the world’s food, yet they earn only 10% of the world’s income and own less than 1% of the world’s property. »»»»
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In July 2006, several weeks after the Czech parliamentary elections, it was publicly announced that a plan exists to build US military bases in the Czech Republic and Poland. The plan involves building a radar station in the west of the Czech Republic and a base for interceptor missiles in north east Poland. Both bases are designed to be part of an American shield system against intercontinental ballistic missiles. »»»»
The last revolution in Germany took place in 1919. In Switzerland there has never been a revolution. The social democratic parties of Europe have continuously moved away from a revolutionary perspective since the First World War. If you call for an armed revolution by the working class, in respectable circles you get nothing but a tired smile as some old social democrats pat you on the shoulder and explain they said the same thing back in 1968. But is the concept of a revolution ready for the long-term parking lot of history? »»»»
On 24 April, 5.000 school students in Berlin didn’t go to class – they went out onto the street to protest against the catastrophic state of the education system.
Schools in the German capital have overfilled classrooms, a lack of teachers and facilities that are falling apart. After school is over, students face an even worse situation: not even half of the people who want an apprenticeship can get one, and the looming introduction of university fees is blocking the road to the university for many young people. »»»»
at the REVOLUTION UK National Conference
Welcome to the conference! If you’re reading this, you might not even realize that you are an Independent. As part of REVOLUTION, you signed up for an “independent socialist youth organization” – so isn’t everyone here an Independent? Not quite.
About three fourths of the active membership of Revo, and the entire leadership, are part of another organization called Workers Power (WP) / the League for the Fifth International (LFI). This is rarely mentioned – just search for a link to the LFI at www.worldrevolution.org.uk! – but the LFI determines Revo’s politics and structures. »»»»
At the beginning of June, the heads of state and government of the eight most powerful countries will meet up for a summit in Heiligendamm in Northeastern Germany. Even though these are supposedly the eight most powerful people in the world, they have to meet in a remote luxury hotel to be shielded from protests. Almost 100 million euros will be squandered in order to keep demonstrators away from the summit. The “Group of 8”, G8 for short, is hated, because their summits are a symbol for misery in the world. »»»»
Protest against the persecution of the left-wing youth organization SEGI in the Basque Country
“Terrorism” is hard to define. Wikipedia tells us that it generally refers to violence for political aims. But when the US army bombs a Bagdad neighborhood, that is declared to be “the fight against terror”. When young people in Euskal Herria (the Basque Country) fight for democratic and social rights with mass demonstrations and public campaigns, they can be imprisoned for this “terrorist activity”. »»»»
World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland
January is traditionally considered the month when, after Christmas, the money has been spent and the mist of splendor and love has evaporated. Nonetheless, every January the richest and most powerful people on the planet meet up in the Swiss ski resort Davos to discuss how the profits of corporations can be secured in the year ahead. For this reason, every year in January Davos becomes a fortress hermetically sealed by the police and the Swiss army, so these valuable people can meet up without interference by the bothersome public. »»»»
On December 10, the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet died. He seized power in 1973 when his army organized a bloody coup d’état against the democratically elected, left reformist president Salvador Allende of the „People’s Unity“ (Unidad Popular). Thousands of people died or were tortured under Pinochet’s rule, while millions of others suffered from wage cuts, drastic increases in unemployment, the breakdown of social systems like health care and education, and the spread of disease and malnutrition in the country. That’s just an introduction to „Chile’s savior from communism“, as he is called by the conservative and fascist right. »»»»
Protest against the state persecution of a Czech left-wing youth organization
On October 16, 2006 The Czech Interior Ministry decided to dissolve the left-wing Communist Youth Union (Komunistický svaz mládeže, KSM), which is connected to the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM, reformist parliamentary party with 12-20% electoral support). The so-called “reason” for the dissolution of this youth organization was one passage in their program which calls for “changing the private ownership of the means of production into social ownership of these means in the period after the social revolution”. This formulation was declared unconstitutional by the Interior Ministry. »»»»
It is time for unity on the basis of political honesty
No Translations
Open letter of iRevo to the RIC and the LFI-IS
The statement is based on the discussions at the iRevo conference in Berlin on October 7, 2006 in Berlin. The conference charged one comrade with formulating the agreed points in a document. However, on October 14, before this document was finalized, the LFI faction declared we were expelled from Revo. Thus hey answered the question we posed at the end of our letter – “is your absolute control of REVOLUTION more important than the unity of our organization?” – with a loud “Yes!” »»»»