Bolivia is awash with rumors about an impending right-wing coup against the elected government of president Evo Morales. These rumors took on more importance as the Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez invited Evo Morales, Daniel Ortega, president of Nicaragua, and Carlos Lage, vice-president of Cuba, to Caracas for a summit to discuss how to defend the Bolivian government in the event of a coup.

World rice prices rose 141% since January. Wheat rose 77% last year, one variety rising 25% in a single day. The effects of these dramatic increases are being felt world-wide with violent protests breaking out in Haiti, Egypt, Cameroon and Indonesia. It is the first time a wave of food riots has swept across the globe in 30 years. World Food Program’s Josette Sheeran says, “This is a silent tsunami.”

The rejection of the Lisbon Treaty (the renamed EU Constitution) by voters in Ireland last Thursday was a major shock for the political and business establishment in Ireland. The Socialist Party (CWI in Ireland) played a major role in the campaign for a "No" vote.

Around the world, strikes, demonstrations and protests have erupted as millions upon millions of workers, peasants and poor face the horror of rapidly rising food prices.

In a dazzling pre-Olympic balancing act, the Chinese regime has announced talks with the ‘evil’ Dalai Lama side

The Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) sends warm socialist greetings to workers and youth across the world on May Day, International Workers’ Day, 2008. Socialist Alternative is the US section of the CWI.

Thousands of paramilitary police and soldiers have been deployed in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, after the most serious protests against Chinese rule for nearly 20 years. More than 80 people have been killed and hundreds injured according to exile Tibetan groups, while official Chinese and Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) sources put the fatalities so far at 16, including three Tibetan youths who "died by jumping from a roof". The protests began more than one week ago and culminated in serious rioting in the Tibetan capital on Friday, 14 March, with more than 300 houses and shops burned according to official sources. This week, on Sunday and Monday, protests spread to Tibetan regions of the neighbouring provinces of Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu, and even a sitdown action by around a hundred Tibetan students in a park in the Haidian district of the Chinese capital, Beijing.

The formal resignation of Fidel Castro as President of Cuba opens up a new chapter in the history of Cuba and its revolution.

After 46 days on strike, the miners of Budryk have won a victory.

On December 27, 2007, Kenyans voted in general elections to elect a new government. But, as mostly happens in Africa, Kenyans got short changed. The announcement of incumbent President Kibaki as the winner under shady circumstances led to widespread protests and violence. As we write, at least 500 people are reportedly killed, with an estimated 150,000 people displaced from their homes.

One month after the defeat of his proposed constitutional changes in a referendum, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez announced that he has decided to abandon his agenda for “21st Century socialism” “for now” and adopt a new political course aimed at placating the middle classes, the private sector, and the right-wing opposition. However, the result of the referendum was more a rejection of the slow pace of the changes as well as government corruption.

The Pakistan People's Party central executive committee and federal council meeting in the house of deceased leader Benazir Bhutto in Sindh province on 30 December brought no surprises for all those who know something about the PPP and Pakistani politics.

The constitutional referendum called by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela on December 2 has unfortunately and tragically resulted in a defeat. For the first time in nine years Chavez has lost an election. This defeat for Chavez will embolden and strengthen the right-wing and is a warning of the threat that exists from the counter revolution.

The Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI), the international organization that Socialist Alternative is in political solidarity with, now has a Spanish-speaking website up and running. Visit it at www.mundosocialista.net.