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Created on Wednesday, 29 May 2013 10:36

Written by Cat Wiener

By 24 May, masked youth had been battling Swedish police and burning cars and buildings for five consecutive nights in the suburbs of Stockholm. The uprising, which started in Husby, an overwhelmingly immigrant area of the city, was triggered by an incident earlier in May, when police fatally shot a 69-year-old man, said to be wielding a knife, and the subsequent refusal to hold a public inquiry into the killing. But underlying the anger and violence, which has seen masked youths torch cars, several police stations and a school, is a racist reality which explodes the popular myth of Sweden as a tolerant society with a model welfare state. Areas like Husby have high unemployment rates and many young people leave school with below-average results.

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Created on Wednesday, 05 June 2013 14:33

Written by Cat Wiener

Sean Rigg: IPCC whitewash exposed

An external review has harshly criticised the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) for its flawed investigation into the death of a black man who died in police custody in 2008. Sean Rigg, who was 40 and suffered from schizophrenia, was arrested as he walked down the road topless and performing martial art manoeuvres. Police restrained him in a prone position with his hands cuffed behind his back for over eight minutes. Still cuffed, he was taken to Brixton police station in south London and left in the van for a further 11 minutes, where he suffered a cardiac arrest. The IPCC found no police misconduct or negligence had contributed to Sean Rigg’s death.

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Created on Wednesday, 05 June 2013 14:23

Written by Jack Edwards

On 3 September the new £188m Library of Birmingham is due to open. Its arrives in the wake of £2.1m worth of cuts to community libraries issued by Birmingham’s Labour council in 2012-13, which have seen opening hours shortened by 9.5% and a 37% cut to paid library staff - with volunteers expected to make up for the shortfall. Yet before its gates have even opened, the Labour city council has made plans to privatise the running of the new library.

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Created on Friday, 10 May 2013 20:17

Written by Newcastle FRFI

FRFI in Newcastle has a record of fighting fascism in unity with other forces, including standing with Newcastle Occupy when it was attacked by drunken EDL thugs in 2011. Yet on 7 May, Socialist Workers’ Party (SWP) District Organiser Yunus Bakhsh launched a vicious, sexist attack on Newcastle FRFI supporters when they attempted to join a planning meeting of Newcastle Unites against the EDL. Focusing his vitriol on a female comrade, Dionne, Bakhsh did what the SWP does more and more often today: defend Labour Party officials no matter how appalling their anti-working class record.

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Created on Thursday, 02 May 2013 09:17

Written by FRFI

Below we reproduce a letter from the Venezuelan ambassador thanking Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! for the actions of its supporters in defending the embassy against a mob of counter-revolutionaries on 20 April (Protest to defend the Venezuelan embassy)

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Created on Thursday, 18 April 2013 10:55

Written by Robert Clough

Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 232 April/May 2013

From 1 April, the ConDem coalition assault on the working class reaches a new pitch. This month sees the introduction of the bedroom tax and massive cuts in council tax benefit. Benefits will be uprated by a miserable 1%, a cut of 2-3% in real terms. The Welfare Reform Act comes into effect, cutting disability benefits by 20% and imposing a ceiling on the benefits any family can receive. The Health and Social Care Act comes into effect, catapulting the NHS into chaos. On top of this a third round of council cuts will slash services for the poorest and put tens of thousands out of a job. Robert Clough reports.

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Created on Thursday, 30 May 2013 14:37

Written by London FRFI

The Counihan-Sanchez family from Kilburn are continuing to resist attempts by Brent Labour council to make them homeless. The Counihan-Sanchez Housing Campaign (CSHC) are supporting the family and continuing to fight all evictions and cuts in Brent. The family of seven were made homeless by Brent after they declared £18 a week income from a plot of land in Ireland. Since April 2012, the family have been in shoddy accommodation in Ealing which costs Brent council £500 per week.

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Created on Thursday, 02 May 2013 09:52

Written by James Petras

We are publishing this article by James Petras on class struggle as the motor force of history because it represents a serious attempt to understand the purpose of today’s ruling class onslaught on the working class internationally. He points to some of the reasons why in the imperialist countries social democratic parties have been instrumental in these attacks, and why trade union-based resistance is proving so inadequate. FRFI

One of the most important and yet most neglected determinants of the outcomes of the economic crisis and resultant deepening of social inequalities and immiseration is the class struggle.  In one of his most pithy metaphors, Karl Marx referred to class struggle as the motor force of history. In this essay we will analyze the central role of class struggle, its impact and reflection in economic decisions and, most especially, the different methods and forms, according to the particular classes engaged in class struggle

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