Middle East

The landslide victory of right-winger Ariel Sharon in the Israeli elections opens a new and convulsive period in the history of the Middle East. Barak's administration has been a complete disaster from every point of view. Under the pressure of US imperialism he attempted to reach a "compromise" with Arafat and the PLO leadership. As we predicted from the start, the Oslo agreement broke down. The problem is an insoluble one on a capitalist basis. Far from improving, the situation went from bad to worse. The farce of "peace" has ended. The Oslo agreement, already a stinking corpse, has now been officially buried.

We are reproduced some correspondence we had with a group of revolutionary Palestinian youth in January of this year. We have decided to publish it now in view of the recent events, because it clearly explains our position on individual terrorism and the tactics of the Intifada. The events of the last few days merely serve to underline the counterproductive nature of individual terrorism, which have, as the letter of Fred Weston explains, always led the Palestinians to defeat.

A special report from Turkey which analyses the situation of the political prisoners in Turkish jails, the recent hunger strikes and prison raids by the security forces. The article examines the tactics taken by the prisoners from a working class perspective.

This is a letter from the Palestinian Socialist Students on the question of Arafat and the Arab leaders.

We republish here these two articles by Yacov Ben Efrat, from the Challenge Magazine which give a very interesting analysis of the current uprising in the Occupied Territories and amongst the Arabs in Israel

We republish here these two articles by Yacov Ben Efrat, from the Challenge Magazine which give a very interesting analysis of the current uprising in the Occupied Territories and amongst the Arabs in Israel.

It is URGENT we step up the solidarity campaign with the Palestinian Socialist Students. The Israeli army have targeted this organisation among the Palestinians, obviously because of its left and socialist orientation. As you know this is a Student Union organisation. It is called the USSC, Union of Secondary Student Committees. It has a Socialist orientation, and takes a militant stance.

In the aftermath of the events unfolding in the Palestinian territories after 28th september we launched a Palestinian Socialist Students Solidarity Campaign. We now know that three of these Palestinian students are among those that have been killed. Below you will a letter we have received from palestine about these three victims.

Letters we have received from Students in Palestine, giving a flavour of what is happening inside the West Bank.