The announcement today by the Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, that a referendum will be held on the independence of Catalunya of Sunday 1 October responds to a longstanding demand by a large majority of the country. It comes after years of mass mobilisations in recent years, with demonstrations of up to 2 million people, and countless other actions.

Currently, around 80% of the the Catalan population are in favour of a referendum being held. Some of them would prefer it to be organised in agreement with the Spanish government in Madrid.

With this aim, over the last three months, a very broad campaign, the National Pact for the Referendum, collected half a million signatures in favour of the Catalan and Spanish governments coming to an agreement on a referendum. This campaign included the pro independence parties, but also “the commons”. This new left political space in Catalunya combines social ...

The election of Donald Trump marked a sharp shift to the right in ruling-class politics in the advanced capitalist societies. We have an open racist and sexist occupying the White House, proclaiming economic nationalism and ‘America First’ and advised by reactionaries the like of Stephen Bannon, who argues that the West is at war with the Islamic world. Trump’s executive order banning entry to the citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries – even if it has been stayed in the courts – is a signal for a new Islamophobic offensive.

Of course, Trump’s election is not the only sign of a rightward shift. In Britain the Conservatives under Theresa May have sought to put a racist and xenophobic seal on the vote to leave the European Union. And worse threatens. In France Marine Le Pen of the Nazi Front National is heading the polls for the presidential elections ...

- Stop Victimization of students, Scrap new campus plan

Students in Seoul National University (SNU), South Korea, have been occupying SNU’s main building for over 100 days since October 10, 2016, against a plan to build a campus extension in the city of Siheung.

SNU is a national university regarded as the most elite institution of higher education in Korea. Although a public university, SNU has been run more and more on the principle of profitability ever since its transition to a corporate entity in 2011. Such degradation on the part of an institution considered to be South Korea’s ‘top university’ is in fact representative of the (neoliberal) state of Korean higher education in general.

All of this has been fueled by South Korean president Park Geun-hye’s relentless push for neoliberal restructuring of higher education, but now Park is on the verge of impeachment as the result of a popular ...

An interview with Ron Margulies (DSIP, Turkey) for the magazine of the IS Tendency's fraternal organisation in Germany.

by Tilman von Berlepsch

After the attempted coup d'état of the Turkish military, Erdoğan has declared a state of emergency. What powers does he have and how does he use them?

Most crucially, the state of emergency gives the government the power to rule by decree. This means that the government can issue decrees, without consulting parliament, and these decrees carry the force of law. In a state of emergency the judicial process is also simplified, making it easier to detain and arrest people, and more difficult for people to defend themselves against this.

The state of emergency was initially declared for a period of three months and then extended for another three, with Erdoğan saying that a whole year might be necessary. This is a complete abolition of basic democracy, and it ...