The US air strikes on Somalia on Tuesday 9th January represent an escalation by the US imperialist warmongers of their interference in the affairs of Eastern Africa. They had recently supported, if not instigated, the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia in December, which drove the Islamist forces from Mogadishu: now they have decided to lend more practical support with air attacks on positions of the United Islamic Courts (UICs). Read more...

With the new Ethiopian government still trying to establish its authority over the whole of the country and discussing plans for a “return to democracy”, Andy Simmons examines the lessons to be drawn from the revolutionary overthrow of the Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974 and the dictatorship that followed it. Read more...