Socialism From Below

The International Socialist Tendency (IST) is a current of revolutionary socialist organisations, based in different countries, which share a political outlook and seek to help each other by exchanging experience and practical support.

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Solidarity with Cizre, freedom for the Kurdish people!

Saturday 12th September 2015

The Turkish government’s decision to re-start the war against the Kurdish people this summer has led to clashes between the army and the PKK, with dozens of soldiers, police officers and Kurdish fighters dead.

This has, as usual, been accompanied by a wave of racist demonstrations organised by the fascists all around Turkey and massive state repression and violence against civilians in the Kurdish regions.

The situation in the small Kurdish town of Cizre is tense; martial law has been declared there and at least 14 civilians have been killed by the security forces.

The humanitarian crisis is growing and the dead body of a small child has been kept in a freezer for several days as a result of the curfew.

The HDP members who are ministers in the interim government of Turkey and several HDP MPs have tried to reach the town, accompanied by thousands of supporters, but have ...

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Rebellion against Fortress Europe!

Sunday 6th September 2015

Austria is at the center of an impressive rebellion against the “Fortress Europe” that forced the governments of Hungary, Austria and Germany to open its borders. But activists must remain vigilant. While the rulers pretend to be shocked and helpful they plan to raise EU’s external borders even higher and set up mass camps outside the European Union (EU).

It is a rebellion of refugees themselves who could not be held back after all the horror they have experienced. They were not to be stopped at the Greek-Macedonian border, not by the Hungarian police and not by the Austrian border guards. Thousands resisted being bundled into detention camps and began marching towards Austria and Germany by foot. Thousands who seek shelter from war and poverty are still setting off on a journey across the ‘mass grave’ in the Mediterranean. Their determination has made governments falter.

And it is a ...

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No to AKP-US intervention, victory to the Syrian revolution!

Sunday 6th September 2015

Joining the imperialist coalition against ISIS, the Turkish state has begun to bomb Syria following its compromise with the US to open up the Incirlik airbase in return for bombing the PKK in Kandil.

As part of this agreement of joint action between the Ak Party and the US, by giving air support to some groups in the region they are working towards forming an “ISIS-free zone” in northern Syria.

We, socialists of Turkey and Syria, reject all political and military intervention of foreign powers to Syria; whether it is claimed against ISIS, Assad or the PKK.

For over a century the US leadership of western imperialism has turned the Middle East into a blood bath. The US and its allies aren’t the friends of the people of Syria, the Arab Spring uprising or the Kurds fighting for national rights. They are the friends of reactionary regimes in the region, ...

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In support of the popular movement in Lebanon, against state repression

Sunday 6th September 2015

Beirut has been the scene of growing demonstrations over the past few weeks in reaction to the government’s disastrous management of waste disposal and treatment; this market-based privatised approach has catastrophic environmental consequences, hitting first and foremost the most impoverished regions of the country. The closure of the open-air landfill site in Na’ameh following local mobilisations means that tons of rubbish are left on the streets of the country’s major cities. The regime proposed to open another landfill site in the impoverished region of Akkar, another attempt by the ruling classes to make the most vulnerable layers of society bear the brunt of their failures.

In truth, the waste management affair is the latest scandal of a regime in a state of perpetual crisis. Neoliberal policies, mass privatisations and real estate speculation mean that the majority of the Lebanese population lives in precarious socioeconomic conditions. The omnipresent religious ...

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