Review: Captain Fantastic – beyond convention and conformity
Mark Winter looks back at his favourite film of the year, the counter-cultural Captain Fantastic. From the very first shot of this movie, we enter a world outside the city, beyond convention and conformity. A deer moves timidly through a clearing in the forest. The camera pans to reveal an eye, then another, and then […]
One year, one minute, four photographers
Protest photographs from 2016 actions by Steve Eason, Jim Aindow, John Geoffrey Walker and Sherrl Yanowitz
Support the Syrian people – not the USA or Russia
No imperialist power can improve the situation in Syria – only the Syrian revolution itself can secure lasting peace
revolutionary reflections | The Crisis in German Politics and the Rise of the Radical Right
2016 has been a year in which right – wing and authoritarian agendas have been in the ascendant. With the French and German elections next year we will see if this trend continues. By focusing on the case of Germany, Adam Blanden puts forward an argument for the left to counter-pose the right with a […]
rs21 Readers and Writers recommend 2016, part 2
In the second part of our readers and writers’ reviews of art which has moved them in 2016 we present theatre, film, music and two very different novels. Railing against corporate greed and individualism: Train to Busan Mike Thompson Horror films are at their best when they look at how people deal with being in […]
Building a socialist bookshop
Pete Cannell describes how a socialist bookshop was built up through a period of social and political struggle in Scotland. These struggles may have abated for the time being but in the shape of sfbbooks they leave a permanent resource for the radical left which feeds a continued hunger for ideas and provides inspiration for future battles. […]
H.M. Prison Holloway is closed. What will become of the space?
Samuel Agbamu tells the story of North London’s H.M. Prison Holloway and explains why it is a key site of struggle in the fight against social cleansing, as well as institutionalised sexism and racism. Credit: Aoife Greenham Holloway prison has a long and dark history. Opened in 1852 as a mixed gender prison, it became a […]
rs21 Readers and Writers recommend 2016, part 1
We asked our readers and writers to pick a cultural highlight of the year. Read on for suggestions of books, films, TV, music and even a cook book… Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh Colin Barker When I was a kid, as well as climbing trees, making dens, lighting fires, and playing cowboys, I haunted […]
Obituary: Alan Rae (1950-2016)
Neil Davidson remembers Alan Rae (5 July 1950-12 November 2016) in this obituary in the form of a memoir recalling Alan’s entire life – and not only his time as a political activist, for Alan had an extremely broad ‘hinterland’.
The counterrevolution crushes Aleppo
The Syrian regime and its Russian ally are in the last barbaric stages of an onslaught against Aleppo. Below we republish Ashley Smith’s analysis from the SocialistWorker.org website in the US. THE COMBINED forces of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Russian air power and Iranian-backed Shia death squads are reconquering Eastern Aleppo, according to reports–and with it, the […]
Opening up a debate on black America – Beyoncé’s Lemonade
Monique Alicia Bell considers her favourite album of 2016 – Lemonade from Beyoncé I have been a Beyoncé fan since the days of Destiny’s Child, expressing my teenage moods by blasting ‘Emotions’ on repeat. As I watched women freaking out in excitement over this year’s visual album Lemonade, I decided I had to dedicate one full […]
revolutionary reflections | A Hot Winter in South Korea – an historic opportunity in the face of the impeachment of Park Geun-hye
South Korea is being racked by arguably one of the biggest protest movements in the country’s history which has culminated in today’s impeachment of the president. Jeon Ji-yun from the South Korean anti-capitalist group Solidarity for Another World sets out the background to the crisis and an update on the rapidly changing situation. Introduction to the […]
After fascism, what?
David Renton, author of Fascism: Theory and Practice, discusses whether previous definitions of ‘fascism’ fit with the world we see today. The question of whether Donald’s Trump victory marks a triumph for fascism in the US depends, as always, on which definition of fascism you use. For most of the past fifty years, the principal way […]
#NoDAPL: How the water protectors won at Standing Rock
We republish eyewitness accounts from activists from New York who were at Standing Rock this weekend.
Unions: the poison of partnerships
Brian Parkin challenges the idea that there should be ‘partnership’ between workers and their bosses In her first flush of leadership madness, Theresa May promised that from now on, the Tories would be ‘the workers party'(!) And as evidence of this conversion to the cause of the proletariat, she proposed forthcoming guidelines to advise […]
Challenging racism on the Kent coast
The need for a mass anti-racist movement in Britain needs to be at the very heart of socialist politics today. Here Bunny La Roche and Ben Millard reflect on the experience of anti-racist organising in Kent over the last twelve months. Kent Anti Racism Network (KARN) has been busy over the last year. But it […]
Interview: on the resistible rise of Norbert Hofer
Today (4 December), Austrians go to the polls again to elect their president. Earlier this year, the candidate of the far-right Freedom Party, Norbert Hofer, was narrowly defeated by the former Green candidate Alexander Van der Bellen. However, the Freedom Party successfully challenged the vote in the courts, and there is now a re-run. The […]
Richmond by-election: a “progressive” alliance isn’t an effective tactic against the populist right
The result of the Richmond by-election is being used to argue for collaboration between the Lib Dems and Labour. That analysis doesn’t add up.
revolutionary reflections | For Another Europe (Part 2) The European Social Model (ESM), Social Partnership and the ETUC
With Brexit the EU has never been a more controversial and critical issue for left political strategy. In the second of a two part piece, a Unite activist looks at the incorporation of the leadership of the labour movement within the EU project and draws conclusions for left strategy. Introduction In part 2 we will move […]
“Ni Una Menos” – No Woman Left Behind
Suzie Wylie writing from Argentina discusses the Ni Una Menos movement On 8 October, 16-year-old Lucia Pérez was drugged, brutally raped, tortured and killed by 3 men in the Argentinian seaside city of Mar del Plata. Her heart stopped as a result of the pain she endured during the brutal attack. The men cleaned and dressed […]
Fidel Castro (1926-2016)
Following Fidel Castro’s death, Mike Gonzalez assesses his legacy He was, by any standards, a giant of a man. In his frail late years his presence still resonated across Latin America, even among the generations that did not experience the exhilarating shock of the Cuban revolution of 1959. But that event is the source of […]
Anarchy in the UK? The politics and people that produced punk rock
For the 40th anniversary of the birth of punk, Colin Revolting considers its origins and influences. The student butterfly that flapped its wings in Paris, May 1968 lead to an earthquake which shook factory walls across western Europe in the 1970’s. Out of the dust emerged an ugly snarling rodent called punk rock. The 1970s […]
revolutionary reflections | For Another Europe (Part 1)
With Brexit the EU has never been a more controversial and critical issue for left political strategy. In the first of a two part piece A Unite Rep reviews Guglielmo Carchedi’s classic Marxist analysis of the EU. The second part looking at the incorporation of the labour movement within the EU project will appear in […]
Solidarity with Moroccan protests
Moroccans have taken to the streets following the brutal murder of a fisherman by police. Members of rs21 have watched with awe as, again, the Moroccan people has taken to the streets in organised opposition against state violence and the greed of an unelected regime: against the fact that the Moroccan royal-state controls ‘phosphates and two […]
Video report: Cinema workers strike for Living Wage
Colin Wilson reports from the picket line in Hackney, in east London. Workers at Hackney Picturehouse are on strike from Friday to Sunday after spending years trying to get their managers to address employees’ concerns. Their needs include the London Living Wage, union recognition and proper sick pay. They point out that Cineworld, which owns […]
revolutionary reflections | Towards a Socialist Health Service
The crisis in the NHS has never been greater and resistance is taking new forms as we have seen with the Junior Doctors and Student Nurses. In this piece Mike Downham reflects on his experience as a paediatric doctor in Newcastle in the 1970s to explore what a socialist health service might look like. Dedication […]
Lessons from Fawley: From ‘British jobs’ to migrant solidarity
In 2011 the ‘British jobs for British workers’ slogan sent shivers down the spine of anyone championing the rights of migrants. Brian Parkin assesses a recent watershed dispute at Fawley and discusses how – and why – the tide has turned On Wednesday 27 July at 10.00 am, just four hours before workers at the […]
Acting the part: emotional labour in the workplace
Jaswinder Blackwell-Pal explains how emotional labour at work is on the rise Konstantin Stanislavsky was a Russian actor and director who revolutionised theatre at the start of 20th century. Stanislavsky’s system of actor training, which drew on the actors own emotional memory to create a character, ushered in the psychological based form of acting that remains […]
Durham Teaching Assistants – an inspiring struggle
Durham Teaching Assistants in UNISON are fighting against plans to cut their pay by 23% – plan backed up with a threat from the Labour Council to dismiss all 2700 of them and make them apply for their own jobs on worse contracts. Megan Charlton, secretary of the Durham Teaching Assistants’ Activists Committee, explains what […]
US Election: Why Clinton lost and Trump won
Writing from the US, Bill Crane examines the reasons behind Trump’s victory in the US elections and what the future could hold. “Do not weep, do not laugh, do not condemn, but understand.” – Baruch Spinoza Shock. That’s the only word that came to my mind as I numbly watched the returns come in and […]