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La Tribune des Travailleurs (Workers’ Tribune, POID, France). Issue No.410 (11 October 2023) – Editorial Hour after hour, the media revise upwards the number of civilian victims – particularly young people and children – who have lost their lives since 7 October, on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides. Sadly, this toll is set to rise in the coming days if, as announced, the Gaza Strip is crushed under a carpet of bombs, faced with a ground military intervention and its population starved as a result of the merciless blockade imposed by Netanyahu. To which should be added the thousands of children killed by the Israeli army over the last few decades. No democrat, no humanist can remain impassive when faced with the death of a single innocent child, whether Jewish or Arab. But invoking this legitimate and shared emotion is not enough to open the path to a solution. By responding to the Hamas attack with a deluge of metal and fire against 2 million Palestinians trapped in an [...]

It is with emotion that the POID  deplores the hundreds of civilian victims, especially the young people and children whose lives have been brutally snatched away in Israel and the Gaza Strip. On 7 October, a milestone was reached. “We are at war!” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu immediately declared. Do we need recall that the war did not begin on 7 October 2023? It has been devastating the region for 75 years. For 75 years, the Palestinian people have been expelled from their land, driven from their villages and had their homes destroyed. For 75 years, they have been denied the Right to Return and have faced a settlements process that is devouring more and more Palestinian land. Subjected to a veritable apartheid regime of discrimination, oppression and humiliation, they have nevertheless continued to resist and fight back. Today, representatives on all sides are calling on the UN to pave the way for a “just and lasting peace”. Can we forget that from 1947 to the [...]

Out with Macron, his pension reform and his war economy”! On 14 April, the “Constitutional Council”1 approved Macron’s counterreform of retirement pensions. In the wake of this approval, Macron hastened its enactment, despite the vast majority of the country’s rejection of this counter-reform. This is how « democracy » works under the Fifth Republic, a monarchy without a crown, where all powers are concentrated in the hands of the president. This Fifth Republic, under Macron, is drifting more and more towards becoming a repressive and autocratic regime, ready to do whatever it takes to impose whatever the capitalists demand. Sooner or later, real democracy will have to be established. It will be established by the people themselves, who will kick the Fifth Republic out and appoint their representatives to a Constituent Assembly, to decide what a genuinely democratic and social republic should be. The counter-reform has been enacted. This does not mean that the [...]

The congress of the leading Italian trade union confederation was held from 15 to 18 March. Monica Grilli, a CGIL activist, spoke to us. In his introductory report, Secretary General Landini – reelected at the end of the congress – made some obviously justified criticisms of the policies of Meloni’s extreme right-wing government, its refusal to finance schools and hospitals, to raise wages and pensions, its worsening of the Fornero law (which « softens » the terms of dismissal – ed. note), etc. But Landini also said that he wanted to « hear » what the government had to say to the Congress. And, quite unusually, Meloni had been invited to address the Congress directly. The leitmotif of her speech was to draw the confederation into national unity with her government: « We all work according to our differences, with the same objective, which is the good of our nation ». But what did Landini say? That it was necessary to « combine the competitiveness of [...]

By Berthony Dupont, editor of Haiti Liberté (29 March) US imperialism has never disarmed or despaired in its attempts to impose, if not renew, its neo-colonial domination over Haiti. The entire history of our relations has been marked by harrowing situations, created to counter our independence and emancipation. From coups d’état to bloody coups de force, through twisted and violent moves to liquidate the Haitian people’s right to self-determination and to repress their national liberation struggle, American imperialism has done and tried everything. It is a fact that Western imperialist domination, which succeeded colonisation and slavery, has only accelerated and aggravated our misfortunes. Dominant capitalism has shaped the Haitian economy according to its own hegemonic aspirations and needs. The Haitian political class, the authentic heir to this mentality, is only a renewable instrument at the service of the guardian powers. Let us recall that when the United States [...]

On this March 16, Macron resorted to a coup and forced through his project of destructive pension reform. On March 16, the Fifth Republic displayed every facet of its anti-democratic make-up. Thus, a law that no one passed could be imposed and could destroy the pension rights of millions of workers. Thus, in defiance of the position of the people – in utter majority – the institutions of the Fifth Republic would make it possible to impose this destruction of workers’ rights. Thus, the Fifth Republic makes it possible to unleash repression against strikers and demonstrators who are just standing up for their rights. Some in the « leftist » parties criticize this vote for failing to conform with the Constitution. On the contrary, it is in conformity with this antiworking class and anti-democratic Constitution that authorises all blows against workers and youth. On Thursday evening, thousands of workers and youth gathered on the Place de la Concorde in Paris. The militants [...]