Europe

France: Macron Bets On His Presidency as Millions Rise Up
A historic two weeks of mobilizations against Macron’s pension reform, with several sectors going into open-ended strikes, and including a spectacular show of solidarity on International Women’s Day. Yet despite the massive turnout, the government pushed through the reform Thursday night, using an antidemocratic maneuver to bypass the National Assembly. Which direction will the movement take? Will it fizzle out in a failed top-down union strategy, or will it generalize the struggle to all sectors from the bottom up?
Antoine Ramboz
March 17, 2023French Socialists on the Potential and Strategy of Working-Class Struggle
Juan Chingo and Romaric Godin discuss the working-class struggle in France, its potential, and its weaknesses, as well as the strategic problems that it faces.
Révolution Permanente
March 13, 2023Ukraine: One Year of a Reactionary War
Beyond the sloganeering from some about “freedom and democracy,” and from others about the struggle against “Ukrainian Nazism,” this war is decidedly not one of the workers and popular classes. After a year of debate in characterizing the war, French international analyst Philippe Alcoy articulates an anti-imperialist and class-independent position.
Philippe Alcoy
February 28, 2023Biden Reasserts U.S. Dominance in NATO and Provokes Russia in Eastern European Visit
Speaking in Warsaw after his visit to Kyiv, U.S. President Joe Biden promised that the West "will not tire" in its support for Ukraine. His visit demonstrated the United States’ commitment to reasserting American leadership within NATO by further provoking Russia.
Santiago Montag
February 24, 2023Berlin Police Shoot a 14-Year-Old Suspected Shoplifter
Last Saturday at Berlin’s central train station gunshots rang out from a drug store. A team of police fired at a 14-year-old girl who was suspected of shoplifting.
Kevin Rudden
February 24, 2023Workers in France Escalate Fight against Macron’s Pension Reforms
Protests continue in France against President Macron’s pension reforms. To win, the working class will need to develop its own organizational bodies to coordinate further actions across workplaces, as well as on the street and in communities.
Feargal McGovern
February 22, 2023Berlin’s Repeat Elections: Racist Campaign Pushes the City to the Right
Last Sunday, the conservative party won the most votes in Berlin’s local elections. It remains unclear who will be the city’s next mayor.
Nathaniel Flakin
February 19, 2023Occupation in Rennes, France: The Socialist Party Calls the Police to Repress Mobilized Youth
On February 8, students in Rennes, France, occupied their City Hall to protest President Macron’s neoliberal pension reforms. The next day, the occupation was forcibly evacuated by the police, who were called in by representatives of the Socialist Party. The NUPES alliance “condemned the occupation” in a statement without mentioning the repression.
Erell Bleuen
February 15, 2023Great Britain: “The Current Strikes Represent a Moment of Awakening, a New Working Class Is Being Born”
On February 1, the United Kingdom was rocked by the largest strike in decades, part of a much longer strike wave that has brought workers into the streets for months. Labor specialist Professor Satnam Virdee explains the significance of these strikes and the prospects of a working class comeback.
Josefina L. Martínez
February 10, 2023Historic Protests in France: Where to for the French Working Class?
After two of the largest days of protest in over a decade, with unprecedented union support and student turnout, the workers and youth of France must push unions to take up a militant strategy to defeat not only this latest pension reform but also Macron and his government.
Antoine Ramboz
February 6, 2023