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Created on Wednesday, 22 May 2013 09:46

Written by Manchester FRFI

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Around 50 people took part in a day of protest in Manchester on 18 May organised by Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and against UEFA's decision to hold the 2013 Under-21 Euro football tournament in Israel. Members and supporters of the Revolutionary Communist Group (RCG) were joined by Manchester Palestine Solidarity Campaign, CPGB-ML and members of the public for a rolling picket of shops that are sponsoring the Euros and therefore giving a green light to Israeli apartheid, occupation and colonisation. The protests were provocative and received the support of hundreds of passers by.

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Created on Sunday, 19 May 2013 13:03

Written by Newcastle FRFI

FRFI supporters in Newcastle have been attempting for weeks to participate in the mobilisation against the EDL on 25 May, but have been met with violent and sectarian hostility from the organisers of Newcastle Unites. The figurehead of Newcastle Unites, Labour councillor Dipu Ahad, has now threatened to set the police on FRFI and other anti-fascists.

On 15 May Unite Against Fascism (UAF) North East sent a message inviting FRFI North East to support the demonstration. We replied confirming that we would attend and support the demonstration, and would encourage others to do so. Within an hour of accepting the invitation, Newcastle Unites emailed us:

Dear FRFI,

UAF has forwarded us your recent email in which you say you will be attending Newcastle Unites demonstration against the EDL on the 25th May.  It is really quite astounding that after your recent actions in exposing our meeting venue and placing our members at risk (an act for which you have shown no contrition) you consider that we would allow you on this demonstration.  The organising group of Newcastle Unites discussed your behaviour at last night's meeting and agreed unanimously not to allow you to attend either the demonstration or the public meeting.  If you choose to ignore our decision and do turn up you will not be welcome and we shall take all necessary steps to ensure that you play no part of these activities.

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Created on Wednesday, 15 May 2013 15:35

Written by Newcastle FRFI

On the 24^th April, the Rana Plaza complex in Dhaka, Bangladesh collapsed, killing hundreds of garment workers. Two weeks later, bodies were still being found amongst the rubble, bringing the death toll to over 1,050 and rising every day. The workers had been toiling in sweatshops to produce clothing for companies such as Primark and Matalan and Mango.

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Created on Wednesday, 15 May 2013 09:51

Written by Newcastle FRFI

On 10 May, FRFI published a report of a sexist attack by SWP and TUC officials on FRFI supporters who attempted to attend a meeting of Newcastle Unites against the EDL on 7 May (SWP and Newcastle TUC: sexist thugs defend Labour, 7 May 2013).

On 13 May, Newcastle Unites responded – not on the issue of its violence towards us, but instead claiming that we had endangered their organisation by naming the venue in which they were secretly meeting. Let us be clear: this is hogwash. The TUC centre has been used for all sorts of left-wing, anti-racist and anti-fascist meetings. The TUC itself has taken a public stand against the EDL. There has been no EDL attack on the premises. Meetings of Tyneside Community Action against Racism (TCAR) have been publicly advertised at the same venue and have not been attacked.

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Created on Wednesday, 17 April 2013 14:53

Written by Trevor Rayne

Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 232 April/May 2013

In March 2013 China’s National People’s Congress, the legislature, confirmed Xi Jinping as the country’s new President and Li Keqiang as its new Premier. Both officials talked of the need to reduce the gap between the incomes of the urban and rural populations and between China’s different regions, of combating corruption and keeping the Party close to the masses. There is one central question that the new leaders face: does the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have the will and the ability to recognise that it must return to socialism if China is not to be engulfed in the chaos that the capitalist path will bring? Wang Qishan, a senior CCP leader, has been recommending that Party members read Alexis de Tocqueville’s The Ancien Regime and the French Revolution which examines the causes of the downfall of the French monarchy. TREVOR RAYNE reports.

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Created on Thursday, 18 April 2013 10:23

Written by Juanjo Rivas

Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 232 April/May 2013

After the announcement of the EU bailout to Cyprus, the Spanish government hastened to claim that the situation in Spain is in no way comparable and will be unaffected by European Union intervention in the island. The cabinet of Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy has avoided asking for a second bailout by means of radical cuts in social services and benefits, leading to record levels of poverty, unemployment and social exclusion. This doctrine of ‘austerocracy’ manifests itself in Spain through a twisted combination of rampant corruption and megalomaniac projects on the one hand and, on the other, conditions of misery for the vast majority. From Madrid, JUANJO RIVAS reports.

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Created on Wednesday, 17 April 2013 15:35

Written by Michael MacGregor

Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 232 April/May 2013

Presenting the Bank of Greece’s annual report at the end of February, its chair George Provopoulos declared that ‘we ought to intensify efforts, to quicken our pace to cover the final stretch... Extreme and unreasonable demands from social groups do not contribute towards this goal.’ ‘Unreasonable’ demands are those which seek to defend the living standards of the working class. Humanitarian organisations attest to the explosion of child poverty in Greece, meaning malnutrition and hunger for the children living with the 31% of families below the official poverty line. But it is the bankers’ report that gets to the heart of the matter – the capitalists’ pockets.

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Created on Thursday, 18 April 2013 11:18

Written by Charles Chinweizu

Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 232 April/May 2013

Britain’s announcement in December 2011 of its intention to secure ‘British interests’ in the oil-rich and strategically important Horn of Africa, intensified the scramble by the imperialists and local powers to secure their own regional interests. Now another conference is to be held in London on 7 May 2013.

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