Claudio Katz

The World Bank predicts that there will be six million new poor in Latin America due to stagnation of the economies, particularly hitting workers in the formal market and the middle class. The situation is more dramatic in Mexico, the Latin American country most affected by the crisis. - read article...

The seism on Wall Street has surprised the world Establishment. At the summits of power, panic and alarmist declarations dominate. Everyone is absorbing an event which could be the beginning of a change of epoch. The comparison with the fall of the Berlin Wall gives some indication of this historical dimension. - read article...

The call to build socialism of the twenty-first century has re-opened the strategic discussion on the Latin American left. Once again characterizations of socialism and courses of action are being analyzed to advance the socialist objective. - read article...

Claudio Katz looks at the meaning of the new governments in Latin America, especially those in Brazil, Venezuela and Argentia, and asks what they mean for the hopes and struggles of the poor and oppressed. - read article...

The renewal of interest in the study of imperialism has changed the debate on globalisation, previously centred exclusively on the critique of neo-liberalism and on the new features of globalisation. A concept developed by the main Marxist theorists of the 20th century - which enjoyed a wide diffusion in the 1970s - has again attracted the attention of analysts because of the aggravation of the social crisis of the Third World, the multiplication of armed conflicts and the deadly competition among countries. - read article...

At the time writing, the political crisis in Argentina has intensified and no one knows how much time remains in the life of the present government. President Eduardo Duhalde is unable to arrive at a decisive course of action, and with the fall of Economics Minister, Jorge Lenicov Remes, a debate has opened up that embraces the full spectrum of economists who support the ruling class over what will take the place of present administration, in face of the melting away of its political authority. - read article...

The advances made by the left in the Argentine elections of October 14, 2001, along with new successes in the university elections and the achievement of the first united demonstration with a common programme for the crisis, confirms that the left, in the form of a coalition, may be beginning to take shape as an alternative focus in the current crisis. - read article...

The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is a strategic project of the United States which seeks to consolidate its domination of the region through new mechanisms of trade penetration, greater control over investment and refined forms of supervision of financial flows. - read article...

Why is the economic crisis in Argentina so serious? How can the present and continuing depression be explained? The recession in the economy has persisted for three years, twice the traditional length of cyclical contractions. The fall in investment affects all sectors and the gross domestic product has fallen by 4.3 per cent from the beginning of 1998. - read article...

In recent years, the traditional vulnerability of the Latin American economy has sharpened in the face of diverse international crises. The recovery from the ’lost decade’ of the 1980s (the decade which began with the thunderclap of the Mexican debt crisis in 1982) has been of short duration. - read article...

Our articles on the floods in Pakistan have given details of how to send financial aid to the Labour Relief Fund. If it is more convenient for you, you can also send funds through the Europe Solidaire Sans Frontieres account. - read article...

Pakistan is facing worst ever floods of its history. Torrential rains have unleashed flash floods in different parts of the country since last three weeks. Water levies broke leaving the people exposed to flood water. More than 12 million people have suffered due to these floods. More than 650,000 houses have collapsed, mainly in villages. Thousands of acres of crops have been destroyed due to flood water. Houses, live-stock such as cattle’s and goats, household goods, clothes, shoes and other items have been destroyed. Residents of villages are currently without drinkable water, food, shelter and in need of clothes. In particular, the situation is dire for children and women and they are in desperate need of food and clothing. Disease is spreading fast in the areas affected due to lack of drinkable water. In particular, flu, fever, diarrhea, cholera have been noted and are spreading. - read article...

An unexpected, unthinkable, yet - concerning current circumstances - quite expectable and natural thing has occurred yesterday night. Three public social activists that have always expressed a consistent antifascist attitude and shunned civil indifference have been detained. - read article...

We, the participants at the Istanbul ESF, affirming that we have a strong engagement aganist all war and occupation and that we are for a politial resolution of the Kurdish issue, have made the following resolution : - read article...

Under the impulse of the World Bank and international capitalist institutions, the Moroccan regime started a privatization process of the universities and attacks against the right to studiy. The announcement of the “Emergency plan” to the university at beginning of the academic year, i.e. of the brutal aggravation of these attacks, put a spark to the powder. The class-struggle trade unionists of fight, organised within the UNEM, are at the forefront of the mobilization against the “Emergency plan”. - read article...