The recent fighting between Georgia and Russia has revealed splits in the Western ruling class over whether or not to turn up the heat on Russia.
The Caucasus region is populated by a patchwork of different nationalities and ethnic groups that have been caught for centuries in wars between rival empires.
This week the Olympic games open in Beijing in China. They will be the highlight of yet another much hyped "summer of sport" we are encouraged to watch and enjoy.
Oil drives the global capitalist economy. It is a vital ingredient in everything from transport through to petrochemicals and agriculture. A handful of massive corporations and producer countries control the global oil and gas industry.
The oil industry has been ruthless in its pursuit of markets. But a combination of state backing and corruption were at the heart of the industry’s dominance.
The high price of oil is driving a new scramble for Africa that will bring more misery to the continent.
High demand for oil is pushing the US Congress to rip up legislation that protects the Alaskan wildlife reserve, which holds between 5.9 billion to 13.2 billion barrels of oil.
Last week we saw how protests, strikes and socialist organisation spread across the US working class during the early years of the 20th century.
Insurrection in the cities of Iraq. Mass resistance across Palestine. Foreign troops bogged down and facing defeat. A crisis for western imperialism in the Middle East.
To read the newspapers you would think that migrant workers were a new phenomenon – and a problematic one at that. What concerns the media though is a certain kind of migration.
