rs21 magazine summer 2015 launches at People’s Assembly demonstration on Saturday

Issue 4 of rs21 magazine will be out on Saturday, and available to buy from stalls and individuals at the People’s Assembly demonstration against Austerity in Central London.

The election of a majority Tory government in May was not the result that most of us expected when the UK went to the polls. It will mean austerity will continue and deepen. It will mean the lives of millions of people will be much harder. It is important that we have continued to mobilise against them, beginning within days of the election. Over the coming months and years we will need to build sustained movements to oppose the Tories, but also develop an understanding of how they won and be part of debates about how the left should fight back.

In this issue of the rs21 magazine Dan Swain discusses the contested ambitions and leaderships within our movements, making a case for ‘Socialism from below.’ Mark Winter looks at the ideas of Nicolas Poulantzas, which have been influential on the leadership of Syriza in the movements against austerity in Greece.

Our cover image this issue marks the deaths of thousands of migrants crossing the Mediterranean, who have been killed as a result of racist border controls. Kat Burdon‑Manley lays out how the current government’s failures around the Mediterranean migrant crisis links to immigration policy at home. We should continue to stand in solidarity with migrants and campaign for a world without borders.

Over the last year there has been an upsurge in movements against racism. A new generation of activists have come to the forefront of these, but this has seen tensions emerge between the old and the new. Graham Campbell examines the question of Black leadership today, concluding that we need to organise at the point of social production and at the point of social reproduction simultaneously. Elsewhere in the magazine, Lois JC discusses how to fight against the racist Prevent agenda in your workplace. This will become increasingly important as it becomes a statutory requirement for many of those working in the public sector. Jen O’Leary a founding member of the Liberation Campaign, describes the arguments and struggles in the run up to the Irish same-sex marriage referendum and the limitations of this demand.

We kick off a new series, ‘Revolutionary portraits”, with an article by Ian Birchall discussing the life of French communist Alfred Rosmer. The series aims to exploring the lives of some of history’s understated revolutionaries. Get in touch if you have ideas for people who we can feature in future issues. Finally, we continue to discuss the nature and state of organisation in workplaces. This issue, Hazel C and Ian A interview Simon Joyce, trying to get to grips with the reasons why strike levels might be low. As ever, we welcome potential contributions for the magazine and the website, rs21.org.uk.

If you would like to respond to anything you read in the magazine or online, get in touch with us via one of the methods below or comment on the online version of the article