On 5 June, 14 tonnes of machine-gun parts were due to be loaded onto an Israeli cargo ship at the port of Fos-sur-Mer in southern France, bound for Haifa, Israel. The day before, however, the CGT general union of dockworkers and port handling personnel of the Gulf of Fos issued a press release announcing its categorical refusal to load the 19 pallets of military equipment.

After only 11 months, the Dutch government of prime-minister Dick Schoof has collapsed as notorious rightwing demagogue Geert Wilders decided to pull the plug on it. At a time when the ruling class needs a strong government that ramps up military spending and makes cuts to everything else, this brings more instability and uncertainty to Dutch politics.

The decision of the Third Misdemeanour Court of Thessaloniki to convict seven trade unionists from the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) and the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) for their actions on 6 April 2022 against the NATO war machine is, to say the least, unacceptable.

“We are not like other parties. We are not respectable politicians. We do not stand for class collaboration and horse-trading. We stand for class struggle and to fight fire with fire.”

While Polish presidents do not hold nearly as much power as their French or American counterparts, the recent Polish election attracted enormous attention both in the country and abroad. Now, as the dust settles, one can clearly identify the real loser of this election. As the fall of the złoty and the Warsaw stock market shows: the establishment is rattled.

The war in Ukraine continues well into its third year. But since the election of Donald Trump, the dynamics have changed dramatically.

On Friday, 30 May, the Czech Chamber of Deputies approved an amendment to Section 403 of Czechia’s criminal code that could make the “promotion of communism” punishable by up to five years in prison. This scandalous attack on democratic rights cannot go unanswered. The labour movement must organise to defend free speech!

After six months of political crisis, electoral charades, and mass disillusionment with the establishment that followed the cancellation of December’s election results, Romanians finally elected a new president on 18 May. Nicușor Dan, the pro-EU liberal candidate and mayor of Bucharest, was elected with 56.6 percent of the vote in the second round, defeating the anti-establishment, nationalist candidate George Simion.

In February, Erik Helgeson, the national deputy chair and spokesperson of the Swedish Dockworkers’ Union, was fired. The reason? The union voted to block the handling of military equipment destined for Israel.

On 26 March, the Estonian parliament – the Riigikogu – voted through a new addition to the constitution. The amendment revokes the right to vote in local elections for non-EU citizens, as well as stateless people residing in Estonia from the next election. This means the loss of voting rights for over 15 percent of the population!

The Red Line demonstration in The Hague on 18 May attracted more than 100,000 participants and was the largest demonstration in the Netherlands since the trade union demonstration on Museumplein in October 2004, more than 20 years ago. It is clear that the mood in the Netherlands is shifting.

The British establishment have ramped up their witch hunt against Kneecap. Band member Mo Chara was charged with a terror offence for arousing “reasonable suspicion that he is a supporter of a proscribed organisation, namely Hezbollah.”

The Finnish organisation of the Revolutionary Communist International (RCI) held its first conference amidst an enthusiastic, militant atmosphere on the weekend of 17-18 May. Around 30 comrades gathered in Helsinki from all corners of the country to discuss the explosive world situation and the perspectives for the future Finnish revolution.

The students leading the ongoing protests across Serbia recently announced that they are demanding early parliamentary elections, in which the students will propose their own list of candidates. All opposition media outlets loudly reported this statement, and the masses expressed their support out of trust in the students. Some activists have gone as far as to say that anyone who is in favour of bringing down the regime of Aleksandar Vučić will support this demand.

Chega was the big winner on election night in Portugal. Although the results are inconclusive and there is no prospect of a stable government, some conclusions can already be drawn.