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 ...

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, ...

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 ...

1. Europe is facing what has been called its “greatest refugee crisis since the Second World War”. Global levels of displacement due to war and persecution have reached horrific proportions. Some 13.9 million were displaced in 2014 alone. The numbers entering Europe in July were three times higher than a year earlier.

The largest source of refugees making the desperate journey to Europe is Syria. Here the civil war that started with the Assad regime’s attempt to crush the uprising that began in 2011 has been exacerbated by the rise of Islamic State. However, this can only be understood in the context of the disastrous invasion and occupation of Iraq, led by the US and Britain. This Western-led offensive, the devastation it caused and the attempt of the occupiers to use sectarian forces to stabilise the country paved the way for the sharpening of conflict across the region.

Afghanistan, another ...