The following statement was produced by a conference of the anticapitalist left in Paris on 16 and 17 October 2010:

English version

Capitalist Europe, the Europe ruled by the European Central Bank, the Maastricht and Lisbon treaties, the Europe of “free and fair competition”, the tool of the offensive of the multinational corporations and their states against workers and peoples, is now in crisis.

All the European governments have widely used public subsidies to save financial system and banks after the subprime crisis in 2007 and 2008. These policies have increased budgetary deficits. All the European governments have imposed their will on Greece and now they use the deficit to impose stringency and austerity to ordinary people. The profits of the banks are higher than ever. But it’s up to workers to pay the bill! The reason for the deficits is very well known and obvious: the scale of subsidies given by states ...

On 5 May 2010, the rightwing government of Lee Myung Bak detained six activists (Jo Il-jin, Kim Deuk-yeong, Kim Hyeong-hwan, Kim Ji-tae, Kim Mun-ju, Shin Myeong-hui) who were in street selling a registered press publication Left21.

Left21 is a revolutionary anti-capitalist paper, fully registered and published fortnightly. Since it began publication in March 2009, supporters of Left21 have organised regular street sales in various areas of Seoul in order to introduce revolutionary and left arguments and ideas to wider audiences. The detentions are an attack on the freedom of press and democracy by the Lee Myung Bak government.

After the police found there had been no violation in selling a legal publication, the public prosecutor's office charged the six Left21 supporters (hereafter, the left21-six) in violation of the public gathering and assembly act. They argued that selling a paper with criticisms of the government was a kind of protest, ...

The autumn 2010 issue of International Socialism is out now.

In the new issue:

• Analysis of the politics of austerity
• Panos Garganas interviewed on the struggle in Greece
• Articles on Israel, Hamas and the Gaza blockade, and on the boycott of Israel
• Christakis Georgiou and Jane Hardy look at aspects of the EU and the crisis
• Jairus Banaji on the ironies of Indian Maoism
• John Molyneux on Michelangelo
• Neil Davidson reconsiders deflected permanent revolution

To read online go to www.isj.org.uk

To order copies, phone +44 (0) 20 7819 1177 or email: isj@swp.org.uk