Naming of parts 2020
Poem by Brian Parkin, based on an original by Harry Reed. Illustration by Mark Winter.
revolutionary reflections | Marxism and childhood
Estelle Cooch traces the contradictory history of childhood under capitalism. How do we defend childhood and fight for a world where play and creativity are not limited to children?
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.
What’s left of Lenin?
150 years after the birth of V.I. Lenin, Leninism offers us urgent and fundamental lessons about what it means to practise politics in capitalist society.
Refugees and Covid-19
The Covid-19 pandemic has made life even harder for refugees and people on the move, explains Mitch Mitchell of Refugee Lifeboat.
The Unconquerable Inscription
To mark Lenin’s 150th birthday, The Artful Doodler has made a short film of Bertolt Brecht’s poem ‘The Unconquerable Inscription’ (1934).
Remember the dead – fight like hell for the living!
Turn International Workers’ Memorial Day on Tuesday 28 April into a powerful cry of grief and rage. The government hasn’t called a day of national mourning – we must make our own.
Obituary: Sonja Grossner, 1942-2020
Sheila Mosley and members of Leicester rs21 remember Sonja Grossner (1942-2020).
National unity kills under coronavirus
The UK government and the media are actively promoting a narrative of national unity against an external enemy, making parallels with wartime. Ian Allinson argues that when measures to protect the public have been too little, too late.
Returning to the ‘new normal’ after COVID-19
In the face of the unsavoury ‘recoveries’ currently on offer, we need an alternative to confront climate catastrophe and the economic system that has made the consequences of this pandemic so devastating.
Postal workers in the COVID-19 crisis
Postal workers have been let down again by the suspension of strike action, and by the inadequate protection from coronavirus. The example of workers who have walked out on safety grounds should be generalised.
Women, Work and ‘Directly Confronting Capitalist Power’
Sue Ferguson discusses socialist-feminism, capitalist childhoods and social struggles today. While conducted weeks previously, this interview goes online amidst a pandemic, exposing and aggravating a crisis of social reproduction.
revolutionary reflections | reformasi dikorupsi: Indonesia under Jokowi
Indonesia’s increasingly authoritarian populist president Jokowi begins his second term confronted by a new generation radicalised by militarism, agrarian dispossession, environmental destruction and corruption.
Review: Anti-Nazi Germans
As Boris Johnson and others attempt to invoke the ‘spirit of the Blitz’ in response to COVID-19, Ian Birchall celebrates a recent publication that disrupts the national myths of WWII.
Review: On Fire by Naomi Klein
Katherine Hearst reviews On Fire, a wide-ranging examination of the climate crisis that argues for a comprehensive ‘Green New Deal’.
DNR: everyone deserves dignity
Everyone is entitled to dignity at the end of their life, and to die as they would wish. The way the UK government is managing the coronavirus pandemic is failing to respect that.
Covid-19: The ‘China’ narratives and Chinese workers
The workers who built China’s emergency hospitals are missing from the dominant narratives about China and the Covid-19 pandemic, writes Hsiao-Hung Pai.
Time to leave Labour
The social crises thrown up by the coronavirus pandemic make internal battles in the Labour Party increasingly irrelevant.
Now is no time to turn back the clock
Keir Starmer’s victory in the Labour leadership election cannot mean a return to ‘business as usual’ for activists inside or outside the Labour Party.
The police won’t keep us safe – our neighbours will
In a scramble to appear to have a strong handle on the coronavirus crisis, the government introduced sweeping new police powers to enforce the lockdown. Hanna Gál writes on why these measures will not keep us safe.
The Scottish general strike of 1820
Pete Cannell recounts the first general strike in the history of capitalism.
Social reproduction in crisis
The coronavirus crisis brings into sharp light capital’s reliance on social reproductive labour, Kate Bradley argues.
Review: Can’t Pay Won’t Pay
The 30th anniversary of the Trafalgar Square riot is a good time to reflect on Simon Hannah’s engaging account of the movement that scuppered Thatcher’s poll tax, writes Andrew Stone
Interview: Dealing with the mess
Junior Doctor Stacey Williams speaks about the prospects for organising to defend lives and the NHS through the coronavirus crisis.
Education in Palestine
Education is a key battlefield in the Palestinian struggle in the wake of Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’. #ExistResistReturn
Other people are not the problem
Whilst the government continues to condemn millions by asset stripping the healthcare service and backing landlords and bosses, we must remember that we are all united by their contempt for us.
revolutionary reflections | The Anti-Poll Tax Federation: Organisation and spontaneity
The anti-poll tax movement was arguably the most successful social movement in Great Britain since the 1970s. In advance of the 30th anniversary of the poll tax riot (31 March 1990), Andrew Stone explores how political organisations and grassroots initiative interacted.
The Scottish government needs to defy Johnson’s Tories and act independently to save lives
A Scottish rs21 member argues that the Scottish government must break with Westminster in order to tackle the Covid-19 crisis appropriately.
Safer sex – lessons from the AIDS crisis
Colin Wilson remembers the community responses to the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.