The war in Ukraine has intensified the antagonism between rival imperialisms, with neither side willing to back down. NATO's decision to integrate Sweden and Finland, and Russia's recent annexations of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaphorizhia, are leading both into a more generalised, possibly nuclear war. Meanwhile, closer to home, wages continue to fall in real terms against inflation, and many will soon have to choose between whether to eat or keep the heat and lights on this winter. The working class have begun to fight back, but the usual suspects are cynically co-opting the rage and fury for their own ends. The working class needs its own internationalist organisations to dismantle the capitalist system and create a new world without war or immiseration. Join us in Glasgow to discuss the future of the class war and what the working class must do to win it!

"After six weeks of bloody protests in Iran, which resulted in the death of more than 200 people, what is going on in the minds of the protesters on the streets of Iran? What is the next step? Will the Islamic Republic be overthrown as the saying goes: "dictators neither listen nor reform, dictators are only overthrown"? If yes, how? And the more important question, what will replace it? This note tries to briefly review the background of imperialist rivalry in the region and the attempts of various imperialist camps to use the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protest movement in line with their own goals."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-11-02/iran-imperialist-rivalries-and-the-protest-movement-of-woman-life-freedom

"The contract passed with a slim margin of 54%, with 46% of workers bitterly rejecting it. Due to the underhanded tactics of union bureaucrats in collaboration with the Weyerhaeuser corporation, one of the largest strikes in over a decade in the Pacific Northwest has been broken, resulting in a miserable sellout contract. Despite a massive propaganda and intimidation campaign by union officials, the company and local media outlets, a large number of workers are beginning to see the controlled opposition (aka the union apparatus) for what it is — just another tool of the companies to thwart effective strike action. In response, workers have already begun to self-organize by forming independent forums from which to voice their opposition."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-11-05/weyerhaeuser-workers-not-finished-yet

"Biden's austerity isn't anything new. In fact, it's been the go-to method for the capitalist class in the US and all over the world for half a century. Faced with diminishing returns of profits from their system, world capitalism has resorted to ever more vicious methods of breaking the backs of workers through forcing us to work longer hours while our wages are cut or devalued through inflation."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-11-06/inflation-cuts-workers-real-wages-with-no-end-in-sight

"Taking any step in pursuing workers’ demands, in the hellish capitalist system of the Islamic Republic, is not without risks, nor without countless obstacles. It is especially so for the Iranian workers today, those who are trying to link the workers’ strikes to the current protest movement. The oil workers with their organising council and the sugarcane workers of Haft Tappeh have taken the courageous initial steps. The statements below show how the oil workers are struggling to overcome these obstacles."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-11-10/oil-workers-in-iran-continue-to-resist-despite-repressions

"Months of soaring inflation and stalling wages are the latest effects of the crisis inherent to the capitalist system. The ruling class’ attacks on our living and working conditions are just one more attempt to make us pay for it. As winter approaches, the havoc wreaked by the failures of the system shows no signs of letting up."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-11-17/capitalist-crisis-survival-of-the-richest

"The capitalist crisis is intensifying and with it come the inevitable attacks on the working class. Cost of living and fuel protests have broken out in more than 90 countries already and the UK is no exception here. Nearly 2 million workers (one in sixteen) are expected to be balloted for strike action in the coming months. The struggle for wages to keep up with inflation is on. Even before the pandemic, which killed more than 200,000 in the UK, finally eased up, and the Covid-19 restrictions were lifted in February 2022, the first signs of the coming resistance were making their appearance."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-11-19/class-struggle-is-back-on-the-agenda

"The most recent wave of protests and strikes in Iran are the continuation of more than a decade of struggles. Though the working class in Iran faces many obstacles, as the events take on an international dimension, they could potentially begin a spark that ignites a wider working class movement beyond just Iran."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-11-22/workers-in-iran-show-the-way

"The blue and yellow flags may now be tattered and torn, and the war in Ukraine may now make only fleeting headlines on UK news networks, but the violence rages on, as does Western support for Ukraine. Given the nature of the Kremlin regime which murders Russian journalists and dissidents, and given the brutality of the invasion, it is an easy sell. It is however a mistake to just see this war in isolation. Behind the Russian-Ukrainian confrontation lies a much bigger conflict – that for imperialist control of the planet."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-11-24/war-in-ukraine-the-other-attack-on-the-working-class

"We share here a translation of an article from MovAut (short for Movimento Autogestionário – Movement for Self-Management, in English) in Brazil about the results of the recent presidential election, which, we think, throws some much needed light upon an issue that has been subject to so much distortion, from the left as well as the right-wing of capital, both of whom have thrown their whole ideological and political apparatus behind supporting their preferred candidate to represent the capitalist system in Brazil."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-11-25/on-the-brazilian-elections

"For many years now the grassroots or base unions (sindacati di base) have called a strike at this time of year appealing to workers from all sectors of production to mobilise, and as usual, we will once again take part. However, we cannot ignore the fact that this seasonal mobilisation has become something of a ritual."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-11-26/on-the-2-december-strike-in-italy-especially-in-times-of-war-normal-strikes-are

"China is currently experiencing the most significant wave of unrest since the labour strikes of the early 2010s, if not since Tiananmen Square. A number of factors are at play here. The 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in October already elicited symbolic protest in the form of banner drops which were then circulated online. These expressed widely felt frustrations with the rule of Xi Jinping and the Zero-Covid strategy that China has adopted to fight the virus. However, it was only a sign of things to come as anger and discontent soon spread onto the streets."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-11-28/protests-in-china-not-just-about-covid

"After more than 75 days of protests, the regime's barbaric repression has resulted in over 450 deaths and more than ten thousands arrests. Yet the working class in Iran continues to fight back. The regime's alleged disbandment of the “morality police” seems to have had little effect, as sectors of the oil workers have already begun to strike and many workers are now preparing for a general strike. The two statements translated below were issued in support of three days of action and strikes commencing on 5 December."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-12-06/iran-towards-a-general-strike

"All in all, NWBCW Montreal has thus far been a modest success. It comes with the grave recognition that no outside force will fight for our class – it is up to us to fight in whatever capacity available against the misery and militarism imposed on us by the capitalist class. With this in mind, we are already planning another public meeting on the history of mutinies and strikes by the working class against imperialist war and are orienting NWBCW towards interventions in strikes and other struggles as has been Klasbatalo’s focus during the strikes of the Covid pandemic."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-12-07/report-on-nwbcw-montreal

"For a brief moment, the Ontario education workers’ struggle imposed itself on the public consciousness. News reporters addressed it with a serious tone, young Trotskyists took to Twitter giving empty slogans, union representatives extended Halloween and put on their costumes as labour leaders, Doug Ford came to tears pleading: “please, and I’m begging you, don’t go on strike!”, and Trudeau spoke of his love of collective bargaining to a stunned audience of postal and port workers! But now that the strike has been defeated and Karen Watson kept her pledge (not the 11.5% raise, but that the union is “not on a path to strike”), it is necessary for our class to reflect on its struggle and the role the unions played in sabotaging it."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-12-14/ontario-education-strike-no-union-wants-to-walk-the-picket-line

"To summarise and reiterate our point of view, the behaviour of the "rank and file" unions, which put their ambitions for leadership in the field of "alternative" trade unionism before all else, end up breaking up even that small combative segment of the class which manages to act together, contributing to the fragmentation of struggles and the impossibility of political growth, despite their "internationalist" camouflage against the war. Empty slogans against the war and the war economy are just words in the wind, if they are not accompanied by outlining the revolutionary alternative to capitalism, which is the root cause of wars, and of the sacrifices to which the proletarians are called to make via cuts to healthcare, education, pensions, not to mention environmental disasters."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-12-17/notes-on-the-union-demonstration-of-3-december-in-rome

"In their latest attempt to scare the participants of anti-government protests into submission, the Iranian authorities have resorted to public executions. Mohsen Shekari, accused of injuring a member of the Basij militia, and Majidreza Rahnavard, accused of fatally stabbing two Basij militia volunteers, were both charged with “moharebeh”, or "waging war against God", and hanged. The statements translated below come from the Council for Organising Protests by Oil Contract Workers and the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Workers’ Syndicate, both of which have called for a united working class response."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-12-22/iran-workers-respond-to-the-executions

"In reality, a strike by rail workers was not “averted,” but instead declared illegal. And the Tentative Agreement was not “adopted” by Congress; rather, the state is forcing an already-rejected contract on workers against their will. We denounce, unequivocally, the state, rail companies, and unions for their attacks against rail workers and the working class at large."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-12-23/statement-on-the-us-rail-workers-struggle

"Due to the capitalist crisis, living conditions are getting worse and worse in Turkey, just like in the rest of the world. With the increasing cost of living, it has become impossible to pay the rent, provide adequate nutrition or socialise. This situation also adversely affects working conditions. Many people have to leave their homes before sunrise and return home after sunset, living without even seeing the sun. At the same time, we hear of children dying of hunger, and people committing suicide because of their debts. In this rather grim picture, it is the struggles of the working class that gives us hope."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-12-27/turkey-nation-or-class

"The document which follows was translated from the Italian pages of our website written by our comrades of Battaglia Comunista. The story is the same the world over. The global capitalist system is in crisis in every sphere you care to mention and, for many, either climate change or war compels them to flee the intolerable conditions in which they find themselves in order to survive. The same powers who are most responsible for their misery (either by growing wealthy as they pollute the planet or by fomenting wars to grab more of its resources) are the very ones who are throwing up the barriers to migration."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-12-29/migrants-and-italy-the-show-must-go-on

In 2022 we published 110 articles on the English section of our website. Here’s a rundown of the 5 most read ones.

1. No War but the Class War - A Call for Action
2. War in Ukraine: Imperialist Rivalry in a Global Economic Crisis
3. Ukraine and Taiwan: Flashpoints in an Uncertain Imperialist World
4. Kazakhstan: The Working Class Attempts to Find its Voice?
5. Internationalism and the War in Ukraine