IV378 - May 2006

In March 2006 millions marched all over the United States for immigrant rights. As the U.S. Congress and Senate hold their wretched deliberations on “immigration reform,” the communities affected have shown they will not be passive objects, but active subjects, in this debate.

The people of Atenco have not been the only ones victim to vicious attack from the Mexican state recently. On April 20, 800 state and federal police launched an assault on 500 striking workers who had been occupying a steel mill in Lázaro Cárdenas. Two were killed, five seriously injured and 40 wounded. A video released to the press shows Michoacán police taking aim at the strikers.

The election results achieved by Respect in the English local elections on May 4th - with the election of 16 local councillors - were qualitatively better than anything achieved for many years by any party of the left.

Interview with Celia Hart, phsyicist, writer and member of the Cuban Communist, who describes herself politically as a ’freelance Trotskyist’.

In spite of widespread apprehension beforehand in the global justice movement, the Athens forum did not show that the process of the European Social Forum (ESF) was running out of steam. The ESF, which took place from the 3rd to the 7th of May, was a success both for the Greek organizers and for the European global justice movement.

The recent election defeat of Berlusconi was not any kind of lasting defeat for the Italian right, which waged an agressive and mobilising campaign. By contrast the centre-left "Union" waged a very defensive campaign and has resulted in a weak and divided government. It is far from being a tremendous victory for the left or the workers movement.

Labour did catastrophically in the May 6th local elections and seems on a spiral of decline. Meanwhile all three major parties are converging on the neoliberal centre-right, and more space is being opened up to their left and to their right.

Since April 6, Nepal has been paralysed by a general strike called by the political parties and backed by Maoist guerrillas. Hundreds of thousands are out on the streets - several have been shot dead and more than 200 wounded. The government has now offered to hold talks with the Maoists, who apart from controlling most of the Nepalese countryside, clearly played a major role in the mass urban movement that forced King Gyanendra to give in.

After two months of a mass campaign against the CPE (First Employment Contract), the French government finally caved in and withdrew the measure. Why did it fail this time?

The RMT, a key British transport union, organised a conference in January to discuss the lack of political representation for workers in England and Wales.