IV376 - March 2006

According to Tariq Ali, "For socialists the task is clear: the Muslim communities must be defended against being made scapegoats, against repression, against the very widespread representation that terrorism is proper to Islam. All that must be energetically fought. But at the same time we must not close our eyes to the social conservatism which reigns in these communities, nor hide it. We have to try to win this people to our own ideas."

How should Marxists approach the question of so-called ’natural’ disasters? How can these diverse events be analysed, and how can socialists approach the issue of practical solidarity and aid?

Since the beginning of this year Thailand has witnessed a growing mass movement demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. As we approach the elections that Thaksin has called for April 2nd in an attempt to shore up his position, this movement shows no sign of weakening.

Over the last six months, visits to internationalviewpoint.org have grown rapidly. We urgently need our readers to donate €2000 to fund more powerful computers to serve the growing demand.

With the threats to bomb Iran, the victory of Hamas in Palestine and the ’low intensity’ civil war in Iraq, the Middle East is going through new turbulence and transformation.

A week after it was decreed, the state of emergency in the Philippines was lifted. Nonetheless, democratic freedoms remain threatened.

Mass feminist demonstrations in Italy have returned to the streets and piazzas thirty years after their earlier wave - taking on Berlusconi and Benedict to defend abortion rights and fight social regression.

A 20% plus increase in the prices of petroleum products, announced by the government in August 2005 after several weeks of intense media softening up of public opinion, has generated anger and popular mobilisations in Nigeria. These attacks haven led to resistance from the social movements and more particularly the trade unions.

In a groundbreaking development on the Québec political scene, more than 1,000 activists turned out on the weekend of 4-5 February 2006 in Montréal to found Québec Solidaire, a left-wing political party backing a multi-ethnic, inclusive, sovereign Québec, feminism, ecology, participatory democracy, support for aboriginal struggles, social justice and a global-justice internationalist perspective.

Tariq Ali’s new short (100 pages) polemical book against New Labour is a must for every socialist.