There is a lot of talk about normalising the statelet in the North of Ireland. But what has been ?normal? here for the past century has been precisely civil unrest, sectarian violence and armed resistance to British rule. The way out of this impasse is to be found in directing discontent towards the road of class struggle.

Right across the British Isles public services are under attack. The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) have called two days of strikes against cuts in redundancy pay. The British Government has put a cap on redundancy and hope to save over £500 million. The union fears it is the beginning of both massive redundancies in the public service and also creeping privatisation of those same public services.

This article was written just before the official announcement of the PCS strike ballot result on February 25, which confirmed massive support for action on 8-9th March. We are publishing it together with links to a series of short reports and interviews from the picket lines these past two days. Up to a quarter of a million jobs, possibly more, could be destroyed if government plans are allowed to go ahead. That explains the militant mood that has developed.

At the Hague congress of the First International Bakunin was finally expelled, provoking the wrath of the anarchists and like-minded people, some of which walked out of the organisation, like the Blanquists. At the same time, the opportunists such as the English trade union leaders lined up with the ultra-left in demanding greater autonomy for the local sections, all of course complaining about the authoritarianism of Marx and the General Council.

A series of short reports by Engels on the activities of the International in Europe. An interesting point is the fact that the sections that supported the General Council, in several places were targeted for arrest and police repression.

Yesterday in Copenhagen, to celebrate International Working Women?s Day the Danish Marxists organised a public meeting to launch their new book on the women?s question, with a good turnout and many people showing an interest in the ideas of Marxism on this key question.

Further to our article on the movement of the workers in Burma, we republish this report from the daily Irrawaddy.

One hundred years ago today, 99 women from 17 different countries attended the Socialist Women's Conference held in Copenhagen in the House of the People. In this first part, we look at the origins of Women's Day, the origin of women's oppression in class society, how capitalism lays the material foundations upon which the question of women's emancipation can be tackled as part of the struggle of the working class for the emancipation of the whole of humanity from class oppression.

Marsinah (1969-1993) was an Indonesian worker who was kidnapped by the army and brutally murdered on May 8^th 1993 because of her involvement in the strike action at her workplace. She led a strike with 500 of her fellow workers, knowing full well that under the dictatorship of Soeharto her life was in danger. Marsinah has since become a symbol and inspiration for the workers? struggle in Indonesia. Let us celebrate International Working Women?s Day and remember Marsinah by rolling up our sleeves to fight for socialism, the only way out of the misery of capitalism.

We also publish an excerpt from a monologue written by Ratna Sarumpaet (translated to English by Robyn Fallick). This monologue was written in her memory in 1997 and it has since become a tradition to perform the monologue at every May Day celebration. ?Marsinah Accuses? has also been performed in many other countries.