As part of their austerity programme, the Tories and Lib Dems have made a barrage of cuts to benefits and the welfare state. Sam Ashton looks at the real effects of the Coalition’s new attacks on benefits and explains why and how they must be resisted.

For the first time since Merriam-Webster began tracking the most looked-up words on their website back in 2003, they have settled on two words instead of one word for the top word searches in 2012: socialism and capitalism. This, just days after a new Gallup survey showed an increase positive views of the word "socialism" among both Republicans and Democrats. Both of these notable developments fall almost exactly a year after a Pew Research Center poll showed that a plurality of young adults aged 18 to 29 favor socialism over capitalism.

It is now some six weeks since protestant demonstrations began after Belfast City Council decided to fly the Union flag over Belfast City Hall only on specific days, rather than on every day of the year. Last night and again today loyalists clashed with catholics near the Short Strand, a catholic area in East Belfast that has been subjected to many sectarian attacks over the years.

As with the sites of production of other commodities, the sites of media production are simultaneously sites of struggle. Journalists and other media workers can and must struggle against the domination of capital over their professions and over humankind.

Cyprus is a small rarity in the Mediterranean sea. It's a country where the Communist Party (Workers' Progressive Party, AKEL) has strong roots in the labour movement and society as a whole and holds the Presidency of the Republic, as well as being the first party in parliament.

On Monday evening, January 14^th, about 90 trade unionists from Halesowen and across the West Midlands filled the lounge bar of the Old Hill Cricket Club in Park Road, Haden Hill, Halesowen. They had come from Dudley, Shrewsbury, Coventry, Warwickshire, Sandwell and the NEC of UCU. Members of UCU, NUT, ATL, NUS and Unison were present. Why had they come together on a cold wet January evening? To give support to the now four UCU members of the Maths department at Halesowen College who have been sacked.

On Fri. 11th January, 76,000 members of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO) plan a wildcat protest against the imposition of their employment contract. The Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF) is planning for similar action for their 60,000 members the following Wednesday, the 16th of January. Teachers are on the front line in defending the democratic rights of workers to free collective bargaining and it is vitally important that everything be done to support their actions and spread the struggle.

Taking advantage of Chavez’s ill health, the Venezuelan oligarchy and imperialism have renewed their campaign of destabilisation against the Bolivarian Revolution. They risk unleashing the wrath of the workers and the poor.

We would like to invite you to come and take part in the second annual Marxist Weekend School held in Newcastle for a packed weekend of discussion and debate on what relevance the theory and programme of the Marxists has in this epoch of world revolution.

The tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut has prompted a public outcry and heartfelt mourning across the country. The gunman killed 26, including 20 young children, before turning the gun on himself. The media will surely be flooded with every minute detail of the killer’s life in the coming weeks, and the issue of gun control will once again come to the fore. But what will not be seriously discussed is the root cause of shootings like this, and why they have become so commonplace. It seems that only shootings with a high death toll get national coverage at all, as dozens of smaller incidents have just become “business as usual.”

Up to 10,000 university and school students marched in London on Wednesday, November 21st, to voice their frustration with the continuing attacks brought upon them by the capitalist crisis. The anger seen in the 2010 demonstrations was clearly still present amongst those that participated in the march, yet this anger is now not just directed at the government but also against the so-called leadership of the National Union of Students (NUS).

On the weekend of November 3rd the UCLU Marxist Society, in collaboration with "Socialist Appeal" and the website "In Defence of Marxism" held a day school celebrating the 95th anniversary of the Russian Revolution.

This November marks 95 since the Russian Revolution of 1917. To celebrate this the UCLU Marxists, in collaboration with "Socialist Appeal" and the website "In Defence of Marxism" (www.marxist.com), are hosting a special day school on the events of 1917, the Stalinist degeneration, and the question of socialism today.