The nation-wide protests of students and education workers against budget cuts to schools on March 4 was the most significant day of resistance to the economic downturn since the crisis erupted in 2008. It is an important harbinger of bigger struggles to come.

Years have passed since the beginning of the mass movements against neoliberal capitalism in Bolivia that opened the way for the electoral victory of Evo Morales´s MAS and the reforms that they have introduced since coming to power. Now Bolivia stands on the edge of a massive change, with increasing bureaucratization of the MAS government threatening the gains of the revolutionary upsurge.

A new movement of students and education workers has erupted in response to the vicious budget cuts raining down on public education in state after state. The media coverage of March 4th actions across the country – and particularly in California, the epicenter of the new movement – was extensive. But this was by no means a spontaneous outburst of resistance. The protests were organized by student and public sector union activists who are on the front lines of this growing movement.

Socialist Alternative is in political solidarity with the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI). With sections in over 35 countries around the world, the CWI is a global socialist organization working to unite the working class and poor in a fight against global capitalism and for democratic socialism.

One thousand people demonstrated on Friday 19 February, in the Palestinian village Bil`in, in the occupied West Bank, marking 5 years of persistent struggle and weekly demonstrations by the village against the Israeli Separation Fence, which annexes 50% of their land (about 2 square kilometres) for the benefit of the adjacent large ultra-orthodox settlement, Modi`in-`ilit.

Washington St. - If students, teachers, and staff are firmly united, organized, and mobilized to win public support, these cuts can be defeated. Students, faculty, and staff throughout the University of California system when confronted with a devastating 32% increase in tuition organized rallies, marches, strikes and occupations of campus administration buildings. Their movement scored an important initial victory by forcing Republican Governor Schwarzenegger to publicly commit to finding funds for the University system. According to a top level aid to the Governor, the decisive factor in compelling the Governor to find the money was the protests by UC students and staff!

The Youth Fight for Jobs campaign in Britain caught the attention of Socialist Alternative and Justice newspaper. With over a million young people now out of work, the campaign has organized dynamic, high-profile actions to demand jobs and affordable education. Bryan Koulouris from Justice interviewed Ben Robinson and Sarah Sachs-Eldridge, two leaders of Youth Fight for Jobs (YF4J).

Socialist Alternative recently updated our "What We Stand For" program, found on page 2 of our newspaper Justice. This puts forward a series of fighting demands and slogans which point the way toward mass struggle and the need for a clear alternative to capitalism.

I was raised in a staunchly Democratic household, with the belief that the Democrats were champions of the working class and poor across America. I was told that if it weren’t for the Republicans interfering with things, my family would be better off.

In the last months, a new sympathising section of the CWI has been formed in Quebec. Mouvement pour un Parti Socialiste (MPS) has also launched a website and begun to produce a paper, Le Socialiste.

The passing of the Tax the Rich resolution in mid-October by members at the Illinois state convention of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) shows that workers are waking up to the reality of the class war being waged by big business a lot faster than our union leaders.

The following Committee for a Workers International statement was adopted by the CWI International Executive Committee at its recent meeting in Belgium, December 2-9, 2009. This meeting brought together over 70 representatives from Europe and Russia, Asia, Central Asia, Latin and North America and Africa.

On December 10, Barack Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize, just days after announcing a huge troop surge to the criminal and imperialist war being waged upon the people of Afghanistan. In protest, the Olympian branch of Socialist Alternative joined branches all over the country by staging a rally and march.

Held during a time of severe economic crisis and a growing questioning of the capitalist system, activists gathered to discuss a variety of current and past political topics.

The climate demonstration in Copenhagen on December 12, with over 100,000 participants, was the biggest climate protest ever. It had a strong anti-capitalist character, with our socialist CWI contingent chanting, "Save the planet - smash the system - what we need is socialism." This is a report from Swedish socialist activists at the demonstration.