Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century
 
Revolutionary
Socialism in the
21st Century
BY THEME:
Revolutionary strategy Education, healthcare, housing, transport Borders, migration and race Anti-fascism and the far right Imperialism and international politics Climate and environment Feminism and LGBTQ liberation Work, unions and strikes Electoral Politics in Britain Culture
An image comparing £30 worth of food with a meagre basket of food provided by a Tory-linked private firm to children entitled to free school meals.

Let them starve – food and class in Tory Britain

The Tories and their cronies will let working-class children starve. We don’t just need food for all – we need to take over the food system.

A "Give More" donations box.

‘As cold as charity’: repression and the ‘speculator state’

The government’s right-wing reform of public services continues apace – and NGOs and charities are being used as cover.

Image shows the text 'We will not be victims: no going back' on a background of a Jackson Pollock painting

Agitating with Art: the Artivists at Work story so far

Artwork – not just ‘great art’ but cartoons and doodles – can add life and vibrancy to political messaging, and give people a mirror in which to recognise their own hopes and frustrations.

Picture: A screenshot of the Universal Credit application page on the gov.uk website. (Keywords: UC applications poverty welfare benefits)

A Universal Credit inquiry | Part 1

Millions of people out of work due to Covid are experiencing the cruelty of the Tories’ reformed welfare system for the first time.

Photo of Swanscombe marshes. Keywords: gentrification urban cities green spaces wildlife habitat Britain RSPB

The Great British wildlife wipe-out

Wildlife habitat and green spaces are essential in allowing us to lead fulfilling lives, but both are under threat from constant profit-led development.

Keywords: Pfizer BioNTech vaccine Big Pharma

Big Pharma: saints or sinners?

Free-market ideologues claim that ‘Big Pharma’ has saved the day with its Covid vaccines. But pharma companies don’t drive innovation – they simply hoard its benefits.

Image of a school with coronavirus images superimposed

NEU: preparing for the fight of our lives

Supporting teachers to refuse unsafe work is the NEU’s immediate and overwhelming priority, but we also need to learn the lessons from last June and ballot for strike action.

Covid vaccine bottles. Photo: Daniel Schludi / Unsplash

Behind the spin: how effective are the vaccines?

Looking at the science behind the Covid vaccines provides real grounds for optimism – but we can’t pin all our hopes on a single silver bullet.

Why schools must prepare to run remotely until half term

The government’s mass testing plan will not make schools Covid-secure. Schools cannot fully reopen safely until case numbers have been brought down.

2020 in photos: reviewing a year of turbulence

Photo gallery: 2020 was a year of political tumult, despite the constraints placed by the pandemic on popular protest.

Shaheen Bagh protesters. Keywords: India Modi fascism farmer farmers protest protests

India’s farmers’ protests: the British left must show solidarity

Protests by farmers against neoliberal land-grab reforms are the latest outbreak of dissent against Modi’s fascist government.

lockdown mental health government Tories

A psychologist’s view: Tory blame games hurt our mental health

The government’s blame games and their failed Covid strategy have helped to turn the pandemic into a full-blown mental health crisis.

Lighting a spark: How to Blow Up a Pipeline

How to Blow Up a Pipeline gives a balanced assessment of the conditions which make strategic direct action necessary in a warming world.

Norway priests church strike

‘Rewards in heaven won’t pay the bills’: priests strike in Norway

‘Rewards in heaven won’t pay the bills’: Norwegian priests are on strike over the Christmas period over a threatened pay cut at the Church or Norway.

Bookshop interior. Keywords: bookshops trade union organising activism living wage

Retail tales of festive frenzy

For many bookshop workers, Christmas is a season of stress and exploitation – but it could also be the perfect time to put pressure on management.

Michaela Cole promo shot for I May Destroy You

Cultural commodities that got us through 2020

From Netflix binges to a new theory of ‘alternative hedonism’, here are the shows, films, music, and books that kept us going in 2020.

Scotland: education workers move towards strike action

Workers at all levels of Scotland’s education system are preparing to fight for workplace safety and job security.

Ende Geleande march in November 2019.

Revolutionary Reflections | Moving towards an ecological Leninism

The urgency of the climate crisis has led some on the left to turn towards ‘ecological Leninism’ – but we need greater clarity on what this means.

Bolsonaro stumbles in Brazilian mid-term elections

A year of community organising against the pandemic propelled Brazilian socialist activists to several major breakthroughs in last month’s elections.

The Trumpian afterlife

The incoming Biden administration may repeal a few of Trump’s ugliest policies, but the revitalised far right is not going away.

RMT members and supporters pose with banners at a picket in Longsite depot, Manchester.

Video: Rail workers strike over pay freeze

Rail maintenance workers went on strike against a pay freeze. rs21 interviewed RMT members and officials Conor Price, Clayton Clive, Michelle Rodgers and Daren Ireland at the Manchester Longsight picket line.

Keywords: fascism far right wing nationalism Brexit

Video: Confronting the British state

Three activists speak on the Scottish independence movement, the Tory Party’s right-wing populist strategy, and the political role of migrant solidarity.

‘We have a right to stop’: interview with a socialist nurse

Whereas the first wave of Covid-19 was an occasion for government-sponsored jingoism, the second wave is seeing health workers abandoned and left to manage the unmanageable.

Banner reads: Comprehensive Security Law: Surveil and Punish. Keywords: France authoritarianism security law

France’s authoritarian turn: Islamophobia and the security state

Macron has backtracked after hundreds of thousands of people protested against the Comprehensive Security Law that would ban filming police officers.

Anti-austerity protesters in Lisbon in March 2011. Keywords: unemployed workers organising unemployment

Unemployment and class power: the example of Portugal

Worker organising in Britain will have to change to take account of rising mass unemployment. We can learn from how workers in Southern Europe faced the wave of austerity after the last economic crisis.

An image of Ian Birchall, by Colin Fancy. Keywords: Ian Birchall Algeria France Marxism socialism IS International Socialists

Unearthing hidden histories: an interview with Ian Birchall

An interview with socialist historian Ian Birchall. Ian’s work has has involved researching and reevaluating lesser-known revolutionaries and activists from the Global South.

Jeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer. Keywords: antisemitism anti-semitism Labour Party racist racism

The antisemitism of Sir Keir Starmer

The Labour leadership treats British Jews as pawns in its factional war against the left. Meanwhile, its so-called ‘Zero Tolerance’ approach contributes nothing to any serious attempt to tackle antisemitism.

The exception as the rule: Toronto’s social reproduction organising

In Toronto, community organisers are battling Covid in the shadow of colonial racial capitalism.

Tactics of resistance: occupations and sit-ins

In part one of a series looking at differing tactics for winning battles in the workplace, Bob Carter explains workplace occupations and how to make them successful.

A worker walks along the Brooklyn bridge with the Manhattan skyline on the horizon.

Assessing the 2020 US elections

Aaron Amaral and Phil Gasper offer analysis and perspectives coming out of the 2020 U.S. elections. This piece was originally published by Tempest Magazine.