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.

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 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.

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.”

We have received the following report from a Spanish comrade living in Edinburgh, Julia S. Vidania, on her recent visit to her home city of Madrid. She gives a vivid account of the almost revolutionary tension in the city as the European austerity programme and the crisis of capitalism erodes the veneer of stability in society, exposing the deep fault-lines of the class struggle. We strongly recommend this well written account which is full of detail and insights.

The crisis of capitalism reveals the plans that the parties of the bourgeoisie, just as the old social democracy, have reserved for the workers and humblest strata in society. In the current situation the Spanish state finds itself in, the only alternative offered to us by the capitalists and their political representatives consists of paying the usurious debts of big business and bankers at a cost of the real wealth that the workers create.

The suffering of the people of Pakistan is largely unknown in the West. A veil of silence has been carefully drawn over the number of people killed every day by American drones and Taliban murders. But recently a small corner of the curtain was raised as the result of a particularly appalling event.

The presidential election due on October 7 represents a decisive moment in the history of Venezuela. The outcome of this election will have a major impact throughout the continent and internationally. It goes without saying that the Hands Off Venezuela campaign is actively supporting the Bolivarian candidate Hugo Chavez and fighting against any attempt of the oligarchy and imperialism to sabotage the elections. The IMT stands firmly for the re-election of Hugo Chávez. Why have we taken this position?

The three-party coalition government of Greece – New Democracy, Pasok, Democratic Left - has reached an agreement on the next round of spending cuts of €11.5billion that is to be presented to parliament. But the Greek workers are not prepared to accept this without a fight. On Wednesday between 150,000 and 200,000 marched through Athens, 30,000 in Salonika and many more in other parts of Greece, with big rallies in many cities.

Today we begin the serialisation of a diary of the Syrian revolution by a young Syrian activist. This revolution is an extremely complex and contradictory one, and to follow its developments it is necessary to trace its stages of development in detail in order to understand it, and extract the progressive tendencies from the reactionary, pro-imperialist ones. Hopefully readers will find this extremely interesting diary useful in that regard. Please also see this article on the same topic from In Defence of Marxism