News from around the world

September is the time of the “rentrée” in France - the “coming back” when political life starts up again after the summer break. Though, this year more than most, the shock waves of the May 29th referendum have meant that the summer was not so quiet.

The Marxist historian Pierre Broué died on July 26th after a long battle with cancer. What marked him out was that he wrote history, the history of the workers’ movement and of revolutions, as a Marxist educated in the Trotskyist tradition.

Close to 4,400 mechanics, cleaners, and maintenance workers at the giant US air carrier Northwest Airlines (NWA) walked off the job August 20. The strike, called by the independent Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA), is the first major airline strike since Northwest pilots struck in 1998.

The Scottish Socialist Party is under attack. Four SSP Members of Parliament and their staff have been issued with a month long ban without wages for defending the right to protest against the meeting of the G8 leaders.

The 22nd camp organised by youth organisations in solidarity with the Fourth International took place in Barbaste in south-west France in the last week of July. This initiative brought together over 400 young activists from all over Europe as well as a delegation from the Philippines, and representatives from South Korea, Ivory Coast and North Africa.

Socialist Resistance, monthly newspaper produced by British supporters of the Fourth International along with other socialists has published the following editorial in response to the 7 July bombings in London.

29 people were arrested in Edinburgh on July 6 as protesters took to the streets of Edinburgh after central police command had cynically stopped their transport arriving to take them to Gleneagles. Among those arrested were several key organisers from G8 Alternatives who were snatched from the march by squads of police.

After months of planning and activity and coming under the most extreme pressure from the state and media, the anti-capitalist movement in Scotland have won a magnificent victory.

George Galloway on behalf of Respect, and European Left Party leader Fausto Bertinotti made these statements on the day of the bombings.

The first Mediterranean Social Forum (FSMed) was held in Barcelona on June 16-18 2005, attracting between 4,500 and 5,000 participants (delegates, volunteers, interpreters, journalists and so on), with a very significant presence of representatives from organizations from the southern, eastern and northern shores of the Mediterranean.