Europe

Far right surge in Swiss election

On 18 October Swiss voters elected new representatives for the two chambers of the Swiss parliament. Though there has to be a second round of elections for the smaller chamber of parliament, the Council of States, the results are clear. As was generally predicted the right wing nationalist Swiss People’s Party (SVP) won the most votes, increasing its share of votes to 29.4%. The SVP now has 65 representatives in the National Council. Of the major left parties, the Social Democratic Party was unable to win territory and stagnated, increasing the share of its vote by 0.1% but losing two...

United Europe and the Marxist tradition

Working-class socialists will advise workers how to vote in the UK’s European Union (EU) in/out referendum by addressing the actual question on the ballot paper and by evaluating the known, quantifiable consequences of the options. Judged on the basis of workers’ interests, it is clear that however...

2. Marxists in the nineteenth century

Marx and Engels developed their original synthesis of socialism as working class self-liberation through combining elements of English political economy, Germany philosophy and French socialism. Marx and Engels inherited the common sense demand for a federal united Europe from other socialist...

3. The debate on a united Europe around the First World War

The threat of world war did not recede into the new century. On the contrary, it became clear by the second decade of the twentieth century that Europe was fast heading towards a terrible armed conflict. In these circumstances, the demand for European unity took on a growing urgency.

The next round...

4. The Comintern and the Fourth International

The nascent Russian workers’ state survived beleaguered the civil war and resulting economic collapse, but saw capitalism stabilise and the immediate possibilities of workers’ revolution recede across Europe. Lenin and Trotsky sought to reorient the Communist Parties through their joint work in the...

5. Third Camp Trotskyism on European unity

Just before Trotsky’s death, a dreadful schism took place within the Fourth International. A debate sparked by the Hitler-Stalin pact within the American SWP resulting in a split within Trotskyism, between the ‘orthodox’ strand of Cannon and Mandel on the one hand and the heterodox, Third Camp...

Dutch anti-racists ask for help

Ninety demonstrators were arrested in Gouda, in the Netherlands, on 15 November, when they peacefully protested against a “Black Pete” show. The Netherlands celebrates a Sinterklaas (Santa Claus) day on 5 December, and since the middle of the 19th century the figure dressed up as Santa Claus is often accompanied by another, “Black Pete”, who is “blacked up” to represent a Santa Claus’s servant or slave. Campaigners have leafleted and protested, saying that “White people painting their faces black and behaving according to colonial stereotypes of ‘niggers’ is condemned and seen as racism almost...

Europe

Download PDF Articles: Renault workers say Europe without frontiers yes, Europe without jobs no! (Colin Foster) The Left and Europe The revolt of the German miners There is only one socialist answer on Europe, workers unite! (Annie o' Keffe)

Silencing the wage slaves

Section on working class politics in Europe Download PDF Articles: Europe: The workers against mainstream politics (Hugh Jenkins) Blair plans a coup against party democracy The alternative Europe (Ken Coates MEP) What real reformists think of Blair (Anne Mack) Debate: Should we call for a workers' government?

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