Since the brutal attack on Shawn Whatley by Telfair state prison guards, on January 12, 2011 Socialist Alternative/CWI launched a solidarity campaign to defend and highlight the case of Shawn Whatley and Georgia prison strike activists. But the life of Shawn Whatley still hangs in the balance along with countless others.

For two weeks now working people and youth in Wisconsin have been waging a heroic battle to defend union rights, jobs and public services. Tens of thousand have responded in mass demonstrations, daily rallies and an on-going occupation of the Capitol building. We haven't seen anything like this in the US in decades. If Governor Walker can get his way it will not only mean the effective destruction of public sector unions in Wisconsin it would mark an open season on all unions and working people across the US. But a victory would give enormous boost of confidence to everyone looking to fight back against the cuts, layoffs and the corporate agenda.

Saturday, February 26 saw the largest demonstrations yet in Madison, Wisconsin. The fight against Gov. Walker’s bill to effectively eliminate collective bargaining for public sector workers saw over 70,000 public and private sector workers, their families and supporters flooding the streets around the state capitol building.

A major battle has erupted in the State of Wisconsin. Over 30,000 descended on the state capitol in Madison. Thousands of students walked out of class. Teachers called in sick. Why? Because they are outraged at Wisconsin’s Republican Governor Scott Walker’s plan to strip state and other public sector workers of collective bargaining rights. This is nothing short of an attempt to effectively break the public sector unions.

The Governor thought he could walk all over the working people of Wisconsin. Instead, Scott Walker ignited a movement that clearly has the potential power and momentum to bring his corporate-sponsored administration to its knees. The key question is how can we unite around a mass action strategy capable of seeing this struggle through to victory?

Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker's plan to strip state workers of collective bargaining rights is nothing short of an attempt to effectively break the public sector unions. Working people and their unions are not the cause of the economic crisis and fiscal woes of the state. The bankers, Wall Street speculators and corporate politicians are to blame, so stop scapegoating unions. Make the super-rich pay for their own crisis!

A war is being waged on public sector workers. Every day in the media, a new call is made for attacks on “greedy unions,” with the “haves” being portrayed as public sector workers and with the “have nots” being everyone else. From the tabloids to The Economist, from Fox News to the movie screen, the corporate media screams, “make the public sector pay!”

Yesterday, 27 November, saw a massive demonstration in Dublin – of over 100,000 people, according to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions – as workers and young people took to the streets in opposition to the continued onslaught on living standards. Below we publish an article from the website of the Socialist Party (CWI in Ireland). More reports/analysis to follow.

If you lived in a bubble and just read the mainstream media, you might think the only obstacles to solving our economic woes are the “special interest” unions that are resistant to accepting cutbacks.

“How long’ve you been out?” This is a question commonly asked by one construction worker to another. It used to be “Where are you working?”, then “Are you working?” Now it seems safe to assume that if you depend on construction to live, you’re struggling.

The mobilization of the French working class has now reached a crucial stage. Strikes and mass demonstrations today, according to the CGT trade union confederation, again brought a staggering 3.5 million people onto the streets. Starting from a fierce opposition to the pensions reform, the movement has taken a much wider, deeper, and more radical character. This fierce movement of the French workers, as well as the youth, has become an opportunity to demonstrate their massive anger against the general state of affairs, and their rejection of the present right-wing Sarkozy government.

France is increasingly becoming the center of attention, not only for the European ruling classes, but also for many workers and youth around Europe. The battle around the pension reforms increasingly represents a crystallization of the conflict between the forces of capitalism with their reactionary agenda of austerity, and the rising fight back of the working class.

Working people in Washington State should vote YES on Ballot Initiative-1098 to create an income tax on the wealthiest 1% of the population to raise approximately $2 billion/year for education and health care.

A representative of Socialist Alternative debated a representative of the Tea Party movement at the May 8, 2010 Northwest Socialism Conference in Seattle. Watch the video here!

All across Europe workers and young people face the austerity axe. And all across Europe there is a fight to defend jobs and services against governments who are determined to do the bidding of big business and the banks. Hannah Sell, Socialist Party (CWI in England & Wales) deputy general secretary, looks at the role of the general strike in these battles.