Obituary: Jean Dorothy Parkin, 1921-2018
Brian Parkin looks back at the life of his mother, Jean Dorothy Parkin, who passed away on 14th November.
Stealth – the new nuclear threat
Brian Parkin explains how, 38 years since the Greenham Common peace camps, American nuclear weapons are scheduled to return to Britain by stealth, in the shape of the nuclear-certified F35A strike fighter aircraft.
Here We Go! Forty years on from the outbreak of the Great Strike
Forty years ago today British miners began industrial action in what became the longest and most bitter strike of the twentieth century. Here Brian Parkin, a former Research Officer for the National Union of Mineworkers, gives a brief introduction to this pivotal strike.
Israel’s air war on Gaza
Brian Parkin explains how Israel has built the fourth biggest air force in the world, and how it is able to drop the deadliest bombs and missiles on a defenceless civilian population.
Alchemy and imperial delusion: the ideological spell of nuclear power. Part 1
Brian Parkin explores why nuclear power remains so important for Britain’s rulers, in the first part of a two-part article.
Tyrone O’Sullivan: the gentle giant of the last deep coal mine in South Wales
On the afternoon of 27 May Tyrone O’Sullivan of Tower Colliery died peacefully at home, in his garden, aged 77. Here Brian Parkin pays tribute to a friend and comrade, who through a combination of fire and gentle persuasion, led a community of mining families into a fight to save the last deep coal mine in South Wales.
Obituary: Mike Cooley, architect and bee
Brian Parkin pays tribue to Mike Cooley, a modest and inspiring trade union leader with a lifelong vision of a liberated technology, redirected to serving human need.
Naming of parts 2020
Poem by Brian Parkin, based on an original by Harry Reed. Illustration by Mark Winter.
British Steel: workers’ rights disregarded
The return of a Tory MP from Redcar, whose steel plant closed in 2017, is a symptom of a feeling of abandonment in many former industrial communities. Brian Parkin looks at the prospect for resistance in what remains of the British steel industry
revolutionary reflections | Portugal’s revolution portrayed
Raquel Varela’s new history of the Portuguese revolution is essential reading for revolutionary socialists, argues Brian Parkin.
revolutionary reflections | Endgames of US petro-imperialism?
Brian Parkin explains some of the contradictions of the energy markets and the process of US imperial decline in an era of climate catastrophe
Review: The Order of the Day
The unfolding catastrophe of the 1930s is illuminated in new ways in a disconcerting new book by Éric Vuillard, writes Brian Parkin.
Review: Capitalism and Theory
A collection of the writings of Mike Kidron casts light on the heterodox Marxist economist and the revolutionary socialist organisation he once belonged to, writes Brian Parkin.
Robber baron Ineos takes over Forties fields
Brian Parkin comments on the extension of chemical giant Ineos’ control over the Scottish energy economy and calls for radical, democratic and green working class resistance.
Critical Mess: Tories approve Hinkley Point C nuclear disaster
Brian Parkin unravels the web of stupidity, dogma, secrecy and privatisation failure that has resulted in Theresa May consenting to the Hinkley Point C nuclear station.
North Sea oil and gas strikes and the industry crisis
As offshore workers on oil rigs operated the Wood Group continue their 48 hour strike, Brian Parkin puts the strike in the context of the wider crisis facing the oil industry.
Climate crisis, jobs crisis, crisis of democracy
Pete Cannell and Brian Parkin discuss how the oil price crisis is leading to tens of thousands of jobs losses in Scotland, and what we could do about it.
Pop-ups through history – the NASD
Brian Parkin looks at the history of the dockworkers’ NASD union and its rivalry with the TGWU – and considers the lessons for revolutionaries today.
Militarism and anti-militarism
In the midst of an arms industry boom, we need to link anti-imperialism to anti-militarism.
Alchemy and imperial delusion: the ideological spell of nuclear power. Part 2
The uncounted costs of nuclear power
Sunak fiddles while Rhodes burns
Pete Cannell and Brian Parkin take a critical look at Sunak’s recent oil and gas announcement. This piece was originally published on the SCOT.E3 blog. On Monday Rishi Sunak flew to Aberdeenshire by private jet to announce that at least one hundred new North Sea drilling licences will be granted in the autumn. A policy described […]
Chernobyl 1986 – when nuclear power came of age
A lethal combination of technical arrogance, corporate and state deceit and human fallibility that will forever lie at the heart of nuclear power.
A fuel’s paradise: capitalism, energy crises and the markets
Fossil fuel companies and national governments are driving the climate catastrophe that threatens us all.
The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists revisited
Construction workers have been among the hardest-hit by Covid-19, with profit-hungry bosses keeping sites open throughout the pandemic.
Post-war to post-industrial Scotland
Successive British governments have restructured the Scottish economy in damaging ways. Now we need a radical plan for a de-carbonised and independent Scotland.
Review: Who the hell is… Karl Marx?
Manus McGrogan’s new introduction to Marx and Marxism combines theory with a vision of a world free of exploitation and oppression.
Not an atom of truth
It is a dangerous fantasy to think that nuclear energy can be part of a ‘green’ recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic or any form of solution to the climate catastrophe.
Overdue! A just transition for Scotland
As convergent crises confront the North Sea oil and gas industry with its rapid demise, the need for a just transition for Scottish workers is more urgent than ever.