Europe Follow

One of the European countries that receives high numbers of asylum seekers is Italy. It is now common for unscrupulous boat owners to throw their human cargo overboard with horrific consequences.

By the end of the First World War workers’ councils — soviets to use the Russian term — were taking root across Europe.

Manet painted this picture in Paris in 1882, only a decade after the working class had been battered in the repression which followed the Paris Commune. It was a time when the expansion of capitalism in western Europe meant rapid industrialisation and mechanisation.

In 1919 British prime minister Lloyd George warned the world’s statesmen at the Paris peace conference, "The whole of the existing order is being called into question by the masses from one end of Europe to the other."

When Dominique de Villepin was appointed prime minister of France following the vote against the European Union (EU) constitution in the referendum in May, he promised his first 100 days in office would give confidence back to the French.

Latin America is in the vanguard of the fight against neo-liberalism. The Brazilian Party of Socialism and Liberty (P-Sol) has put itself at the heart of the creation of a new, global radical left. Recently it organised an international seminar in Rio de Janeiro that brought together socialists from across Latin America, North America and Europe.

Around 250 workers blocked a road on the Shropshire border in the West Midlands last week in protest at their pay and conditions. Their action has given a glimpse of the way young people from Eastern Europe are brought in to harvest the crops which then appear in Britain’s supermarkets.

The British government has for three years repeatedly blocked a European Union regulation that would make it illegal for Gate Gourmet to bring in super-exploited agency workers to undercut permanent staff.

From across Britain and from Europe they came in their hundreds and then their thousands to the Marxism 2005 event.

Imagine a different G8. Flying in to Lagos, the centre of the United States of Benin, are the leaders of Great Zimbabwe, Katanga and Aksum. They will be joined by other leaders of Asia and South America to decide their latest proposals for lifting the debt burden from impoverished states in Europe.

Greece was heading for a general strike on Friday of this week in a further sign of the Europe-wide rebellion against neo-liberalism. Over 50,000 bank workers have been on strike for over two weeks.

After last week’s argument about the British rebate and the Common Agricultural Policy at the European Union (EU) summit, Tony Blair has set himself up as the champion of "New Europe".