Lead story

by Daphne Liddle

PHILIP HAMMOND, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, delivered his first Autumn Budget Statement today and revealed a £68.2 billion gap in the Government’s income that will have to be filled by borrowing over the next year — a debt to be gradually reduced through subsequent years, unless of course the future beings further unexpected problems. But next year Britain’s debt will be 90 per cent of our gross domestic product.

Read the full story here >> More tax cuts for the rich

Students march for free education

MORE THAN 15,000 students, lecturers and college workers marched through London last Saturday (19th November) from Park Lane, past the Houses of Parliament, to Millbank to demand free, quality further and higher education, accessible to all.

Their key demands were:

Read the full story here >> Students march for free education

Resisting the fascist junta in Kiev

by Theo Russell

CAMPAIGNERS for solidarity with those resisting the fascist junta in Ukraine have seen some minor but important victories recently.

Last month Andrei Sokolov, a Russian Left activist and political prisoner, who was kidnapped by unknown assailants in Ukraine and disappeared after leaving a courtroom in April, was released from a secret prison after 8 months.Also last month, Alla Aleksandrovskaya, the 68-year-old head of the now banned Communist Party of Ukraine Kharkov district and ex-people’s deputy, was released from prison and placed under house arrest. She has been in poor health since her arrest on “separatism” charges in June.

Read the full story here >> Resisting the fascist junta in Kiev


Editorial

The edge of the maelstrom

THE ELECTION of Donald Trump has underscored the widening splits within the global capitalist elite. Currently his declared policies are changing from day to day. Like a shuttlecock caught in a maelstrom he is bobbing about all over the place according to the strong undercurrents that are propelling him back and forth.

Initially Trump dismissed climate change as a hoax generated in China. Now he admits that human activity has had some impact on the climate. It is now only the degree of this impact that he questions.

On international trade agreements, Trump has rejected the neo-liberals’ Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) project and the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) in order, he says, to protect American jobs and industry. This is a revival of a division within capitalism that dates back to its origins — the war between the free traders and the protectionists.

Karl Marx pointed out that in the long run neither side in this war is good for the workers; both sides are out to make themselves as rich as possible by exploiting as many workers — at home or abroad — as they can.

Read the full editorial here >> The edge of the maelstrom