Following the 6 May election earthquake in Greece, which saw a hammering of the pro-austerity parties and a huge rejection of the ‘Troika’ (IMF, ECB and EU), the main parties failed to form a coalition government. Attempts by the Greek president to oversee a ‘national unity’ government or to form a “government of technocrats” also failed. Crucial new elections will be held no later than 17 June.

On 18 – 19 April the Dail will discuss the Medical Treatment (Termination of Pregnancy in Case of Risk to Life of Pregnant Woman) Bill 2012. This is the first time that a positive proposal to legalise abortion in Ireland has been initiated and in that sense it is a truly historic step forward. Of course it is long overdue and we fully recognise that it is merely a very tiny first step, but it is important nonetheless.

On 31 May Irish voters are asked to vote on the European fiscal treaty. This video explains what the treaty is about.

Ordinarily May Day should have offered opportunity for workers to pose their demands and agitation before the government. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In most cases, the workers, smartly and colourfully dressed in various trade union attires, usually struggle to impress the government representatives as if there would be an award for the best performance of the march. However, in Osun state a good number of workers did not even wait to participate in the march past as they had walked out on the governor in protest at his failure to make a commitment on the full implementation of the minimum wage.

Following the massive struggle over pensions in 2010 many French workers, youth and other layers turned their attention to preventing Sarkozy’s re-election. But this election did not just see a personal vote against the arrogant, rude, “bling-bling” Sarkozy. It was also a rejection of the attacks he had presided over and a reaction to the mounting impact of the economic crisis on working people.

The parliamentary election results in Greece were a political earthquake, a crushing repudiation of the pro-austerity parties and the ‘Troika’ (International Monetary Fund, European Union and European Central Bank). This follows years of austerity measures that have led to a collapse in living standards, 51% youth unemployment and mass poverty.

Statement of Gauche Révolutionnaire, CWI France, on the second round of the French presidential elections.

May Day (International Workers’ Day) is an opportunity for celebrating the militant internationalist traditions of the working class movement, converging with the explosive struggles of today. 1st May this year is as a key date in the calendar of living struggles and movements. The CWI believes that these struggles - from Greece to Chile, Nigeria to Tunisia - not only represent the inevitable explosive response to the current crisis. They also signal the emergence of a social force capable of reducing to rubble the plans of the international ruling class to pauperise workers and young people. The organised working class, mobilised in the fight for a genuinely socialist alternative, can transform society.

Argentina’s Peronist President, Cristina Fernández Kirchner, announcement that 51% of YPF shares would be taken by the state has been greeted with mass support in Argentina and seen as a blow struck against the Repsol multi-national.

The Venezuelan Bolivarian Revolution has once again reached a crossroads in the forthcoming Presidential elections. For the first time in a long time there is a real electoral threat by the right wing. The growth of the right wing, organised and ‘united’ under a loose electoral formation, united by one common objective - to defeat Chavez - reflects the failures and weaknesses of the ‘Bolivarian Revolution’. The biggest weakness since Chavez came to power has been the failure to overthrow capitalism and introduce a genuine democratic socialist alternative.

Saturday 31 March was the deadline set by the Irish government for 1.86 million households in the south of Ireland to register for their new household tax. The €100 tax is an interim charge before the introduction of a new property and water taxes in 2013 and 2014. People were told that if they did not register and pay it by the time of the deadline they would face penalties and threat of court appearances and substantial fines of up to €2,500 and €100 for every day that this is not paid.

Will the Left Party present itself as an anti-capitalist opposition or as a ‘moderate’ party managing capitalism?

It has taken less than 100 days for the Spanish government of Mariano Rajoy to go from being Europe’s arrogant newcomer, with his much-touted ’overall majority’, to being in the epicentre of the European crisis.Yesterday, it suffered the latest and most severe blow to it’s image of “stability” when well over 10 million workers joined a massive general strike against its policies.

In the periphery of the Eurozone – Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Ireland – the dominant process is one of mass unemployment, especially among young people, growing poverty, and vicious attacks on vital social services like education and health care. The policies of austerity are the result of the crisis of world and European capitalism and the determination of the capitalists across the world to make workers pay for the crisis. These drastic cutbacks by the pro-capitalist governments, whether elected like the Popular Party in Spain or imposed by the banks and the speculators like the “technocrat” governments of Italy and Greece, only further depress these economies.

This statement on world and European perspectives is being proposed by the CWI's International Secretariat to a meeting of the International Executive Committee of the CWI in January. Following discussion and amendments at the meeting, the final version of the document will be published on socialistworld.net at the end of January