Reclaiming the future – new rs21 magazine out on Saturday

The Spring 2016 issue of the rs21 magazine will be out on Saturday. Order your copy or subscribe here*. Below, Rob Owen gives an overview of the new edition.

• Part of the union? What should socialists argue in the EU referendum? Our hot topic section lays out the different anti-capitalist arguments around how to approach the referendum.
• rs21’s “internationalist exit” position is set out in our main feature alongside Mikhil Karnik, an immigration lawyer, explaining how changes in immigration law are driving migrant workers towards ever greater precarity.
• Sølvi Qorda argues the “millennial” generation needs to shoot up a flare and embrace the idea of human.
• Rachel Eborall explores how we can go about reviving the rank and file in our unions alongside a short piece by Sophie Walton on the dynamics inside the ongoing junior doctors strike.
• The rise of Red Pill philosophy and neo‑misogyny. Ciaran Colleran analyses the emergence of right wing ‘men’s rights’ groups.
• On our back page Pat Stack hits back at the attacks on Labour in Defending anti-zionism

The elections on 5 May were a blow to Corbyn’s opponents in the Labour Party. Despite both Blairites and the media repeatedly predicting a wipe out, the results showed steady progress for Labour. The picture across the country was mixed with the SNP continuing to make gains in Scotland, Labour doing better than predicted in England and Sadiq Khan trouncing the racist campaign of Zac Goldsmith in London. While his leadership has survived this hurdle those opposed to Corbyn taking Labour to the left now include the Labour Mayor of London joining council leaders like Richard Lease in the north committed to working with the Tories in the interests of ‘enterprise’.

The antisemitism row, designed to damage Corbyn and his allies, was created by the right wing blogger Guido Fawkes but seized upon by Blairites who were horrified that the leader of the Labour party is anti-war and pro-Palestinian. The witch hunt that followed was designed to both weaken Corbyn in the run up to the local elections and cow pro-Palestinian voices on the left.  Comments by figures such as Livingstone may well have been intentionally provocative and offensive but were not antisemitic. On our back page Pat Stack takes up the argument that the left needs to confidently defend the right of anti-Zionists to critique the founding myths of the Israeli state while standing against all forms of oppression.

Yet while Corbyn has struggled to pull Labour behind his message Cameron has suffered a series of crises. The most damaging being the Panama Papers that set out the tax evasion of the super-rich for all to see. For Cameron, who had been at pains to maintain a public image of himself as a normal family man, they were particularly damaging. The gradual exposure of his families’ tax affairs highlighted the fact that he is the most privileged prime minster in recent history with a net worth of around 50 million, very much part of the 1% rather than the “hard working middle class.” Divisions over Europe have also seen the Tories divided with leading figures with a less ‘socially liberal’ conservatism coming out in favour of Brexit.

Over the coming months the debate over Europe will increasingly dominate the media with extortions to back either remain or Brexit coming from different wings of the establishment. In this issue we set out the debate on how anti-capitalists should approach the referendum and print a position voted upon at a recent rs21 meeting: in favour of an “internationalist exit vote.” We also carry a piece highlighting the legal situation of migrants in Britain as an alternative insight into one of the policy areas likely to feature heavily in the debate. Regardless of the position readers take on the referendum we hope you will find the debate informative and join us in taking the opportunities for migrant solidarity work that present themselves in the coming months.

Elsewhere in this issue we touch upon two issues that are sites of debate for the “millennial generation” much talked about in the mainstream press. Sølvi Qorda sets out a manifesto for the millennial generation taking in the idea that mass collective action is key to liberating human potential. Ciaran Colleran analyses the emergence of right wing ‘men’s rights’ groups after the abortive attempt by Roosh V to organise a worldwide tour for the self-described ‘neo-masculinist movement’. We also continue our regular features on work and history with pieces analysing the nature of the trade union movement today and looking back at the Easter rising.

*recent subscribers who have not yet received issue six will be sent both issues by post over the weekend.