There is much talk in the media about diplomatic pressure being put on the Israeli government by their allies in Washington to avert an escalation of the war in Gaza into a regional conflict. And yet, the whole situation has been moving precisely in the direction of a much wider conflagration, involving several fronts: from the West Bank; to the northern border with Lebanon; to the Houthis in Yemen; and bombings in Syria, Iraq and Pakistan, also involving Iran. The latest US/UK bombing of the Houthis highlights this risk.

For six months last year, all eyes were on Hollywood—not for the movies they were making, but for what they weren’t making. Hollywood was locked in a labour struggle that brought the $134 billion film and television industry to a dead stop. The WGA strike ended on Sept. 27, the SAG-AFTRA strike on Dec. 5. Now that the dust has settled, we can see what was won, what was lost, and most importantly, how. 

1.5 million people marched in Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Rosario, Santiago del Estero, Mendoza, Neuquen, and all the big cities of Argentina to reject the new president Javier Milei’s Necessity and Urgency Decree (DNU) and Omnibus Bill, which represent an all-out ultraliberal assault on workers’ rights and conditions.

The Iowa caucus has kicked off another presidential election. Once again, we are told by the billionaire media that it will be a “historic election” that will shape the future of the country and the world. Insofar as the campaign is already accelerating the instability of  bourgeois rule in the world’s most powerful country, they have a point.

South Africa’s landmark genocide case against Israel has attracted the support of millions of people worldwide, who are desperate to see an end to the horrors in Gaza. Israel’s international reputation has received a blow from which it may never recover. But a blow is also being prepared for the whole edifice of international law, which is impotent to stop these atrocities.

Last night, US and British airstrikes rained down dozens of sophisticated bombs over the heads of some of the world’s poorest people. We say: hands off Yemen! Down with the imperialist murderers!

Israel describes its ethnic cleansing in Gaza as a “war against Hamas”, and calls any support for Palestine “terrorist sympathy”. At the same time, Israel has done everything possible to strengthen Hamas’ grip on Gaza, as a counterbalance to the socialist and secular currents of the Palestinian freedom struggle. So who is really fuelling terrorism?

The complete failure of the much-hyped Ukrainian counter-offensive has opened a chorus of mutual recriminations within Ukraine and between Kyiv and its imperialist puppet masters. Funding for the proxy war against Russia is drying up in Washington, Brussels and Berlin, and so western imperialism is now pushing Zelensky into a course of action which he is resisting as it spells his political (and perhaps physical) death: peace talks with Putin.

Protests and demonstrations in solidarity with the Palestinian people, who are being butchered by the Israeli military, have been dubbed an antisemitic incitement to violence against Jews. This is part of a conscious campaign to criminalise and silence the legitimate democratic right to express support for an oppressed people. In particular, the use of the term “Intifada”, including by communists of the IMT, has been condemned by the western establishment. But what is the attitude of communists towards antisemitism, and what was the real nature of the First Intifada?

20 December, came the first mass protests against Milei’s government, with left parties, social organisations, and militant sectors of the trade unions marching on the anniversary of the ‘Argentinazo’, the revolutionary social explosion of 2001.