The Syrian revolution is portrayed as degenerating into anarchy and sectarianism at the mercy of outside powers. But as Simon Assaf reveals in this series of interviews, revolutionaries are taking part in committees determined to take control of their own lives in the midst of the fighting

Syrians jealously guard the independence of their movement, and the local councils and revolutionary committees that emerged out of the popular uprising.

Margaret Thatcher died on the morning of April 8 and tributes to her have poured in from ruling class politicians the world over.

‘We have lost a great leader, a great prime minister and a great Briton.’ said David Cameron.

‘The world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend’, said Barack Obama.

The TUI held their annual conference in Galway last week. Around 400 delegates amassed in the Clayton Hotel and before a word had even been spoken it was clear that this would be a conference to remember.

TUI is the first union in the country to give its verdict on Croke Park 2 and the message going back is loud and clear – Enough is Enough.

THE SITUATION on the Korean peninsula has taken a belligerent new turn--and as usual, the mainstream media have presented a story that could have come straight out of the U.S. State Department news releases. The simple message is: "North Korea has (once again) taken the region to the brink of war."

The latest installment in this melodrama begins in December of last year with North Korea's successful launch of a three-stage rocket. That rocket deploys a satellite, but it proves that North Korea has the capacity to fire others that could power a long-range ballistic missile.

In Tunisia you cannot escape the revolution. On arrival at my hotel in Tunis the bell boy took the opportunity to update me on “el thawra” (the revolution) as we travelled in the lift. “There is progress,” he said “but it is going to take time.”

My morning walk along the Avenue Bourgibathat that cuts through the capital was interrupted by a protest from a group of women.

They were attempting to invade the ministry for women and the family. It quickly became an impromptu public meeting.

THE NYPD has murdered another young Black man, and now the cops are trying to smear his name to justify their actions. But activists and members of the community where the victim lived have seen how police murder with impunity--and they're speaking out.

After two plainclothes officers shot and killed 16-year-old Kimani "Kiki" Gray late on Saturday night, anger rippled through the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn and the broader New York activist community. A vigil two nights later grabbed headlines when a crowd of young people from East Flatbush angrily confronted police.

Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez Frias has died in hospital after a long fight with cancer. Mike Gonzalez looks back at Chavez’s life and ideas—and the Venezuela he leaves behind

If revolution is the moment when the masses take to the stage of history, then Hugo Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution began on 11 April 2002.

A right wing coup kidnapped him and proclaimed a new government. It lasted barely 48 hours.

Tens of thousands of Chavez supporters surrounded the presidential palace demanding his return.

As Union leaders continue to appease the government, former Deputy President of the Civil and Public Services Union, Conor McKinney, outlines two key developments that have helped to undermine the organised labour movement since the 1980’s.

How often have we heard the refrain, 'the Unions have let us down again'? It has been a constant complaint in every workplace, in every meeting and at every protest since the crisis began.

BRADLEY MANNING spent his 1,000th day in prison on February 23.

Manning is the U.S. soldier who blew the whistle on torture and murder in Iraq and Afghanistan and who, as a result, has been hailed by U.S. politicians and media, not as a hero who took a stand against atrocity, but as a traitor who aided the enemy.

Held since May 29, 2010, Manning spent 10 months in solitary confinement in conditions described by the UN Rapporteur on Torture as "cruel, inhuman and degrading." This included being made to stand at attention naked for roll call.

The call for ‘Real Democracy Now’ was the key demand, and ‘They don’t represent us!’ the most popular slogan, of the great Indignados movement which occupied the squares of Spain’s cities in the summer of 2011 and transformed Spanish cities.

And expressed in various forms the question of democracy and the quest for ‘real’ democracy has been central to many of the mass movements of the last few years, most notably the Occupy movement in the US and elsewhere.