A poem by Alan Gibbons
Alan Gibbons, poet and novelist, penned this poem in response to Theresa May’s vile racist speech at the Conservative conference. We are proud to republish it for National Poetry Day There was an Irish immigrant Who dug the canals And built the bridges, Who carved the tunnels And made the roads And only consumed […]
500 march in Wellington, Shropshire to defend the NHS
Pete Gillard reports 500 people braved torrential rain on Saturday to march through Wellington, Shropshire in defence of the NHS. Local health bosses have long wanted to close one of Shropshire’s two A&Es and an acute hospital in an area that covers over three times the size of Greater London. At a secret meeting a […]
A turning point in Polish politics: the #czarnyprotest and Monday’s women’s strike
Large protests have taken place in Poland against a proposed ban on abortion in all cases. On Monday (3 October) Polish women are taking part in a nationwide strike to defend their basic reproductive rights. Mark Bergfeld, who researches Polish immigrant workers as part of his PhD, spoke to Aleksandra Wolke who is a feminist […]
Review – Sex and the Weimar Republic
Colin Wilson reviews Sex and the Weimar Republic: German Homosexual Emancipation and the Rise of the Nazis by Laurie Marhoefer. This book offers a glimpse of a different kind of LGBT politics. Today we’ve made advances, but in the context of neoliberalism. In the Weimar Republic – Germany from 1918 to 1933 – there also existed a […]
The Ritzy Strike’s Back
Picturehouse, and their owners Cineworld, must’ve thought they’d dodged a bullet when their staff pay dispute was settled two years ago… but the workers were just reloading. On Saturday (24 September) workers at the Ritzy in Brixton returned to strike action, demanding the London Living Wage, company sick pay for all, company maternity, paternity and adoption […]
Welcome to Revolutionary Reflections – a new site for the publication of longer pieces
We are pleased to announce that from October we will be launching a new section of the website called Revolutionary Reflections. The site will be dedicated to longer more in-depth articles, and we are putting a call out for people to send us contributions. An outlet for revolutionary ideas Revolutionary Reflections aims primarily to develop […]
Policing the Planet – charting changes to policing under neoliberalism
Sølvi Qorda reviews Policing the Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter, edited by Jordan T. Camp and Christina Heatherton Police killings have reached a shameful apex this week, the highest number in one week in an already-murderous year. How can we begin to comprehend a world where Americans will apparently express […]
Review: Lean Out
Kate Bradley reviews Dawn Foster’s Lean Out (Repeater Books, 2016), a book that challenges the liberal feminism promoted by Sheryl Sandberg’s business advice book, Lean In. Lean Out was a book that needed to be written. Liberal feminism is little better than no feminism at all, and now, instead of having to explain why every time […]
Tim Farron – no friend to refugees
Seb Cooke discusses why Tim Farron, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, is no friend to refugees Tim Farron gave a speech at the Lib Dem conference on Tuesday where he told a story about the time he was handing out water to refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos. In his story, as he […]
“Squeezing a quart into a pint pot”: the current situation in Calais
After the destruction of people’s homes there was temporary reduction in the numbers of refugees living in Calais, but many are now returning. The only people who are profiting from this stalemate are the people traffickers.
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.
Eleanor Marx – Unrestrained by convention, unafraid to live her contradictions
The recent biography of Eleanor Marx shows she didn’t just interpret the world but acted to change it, says Charlie Burton. ‘Tussy is me’, Karl Marx once said of his youngest daughter, Eleanor. For not only did Tussy (the nickname given to her in infancy) inherit her father’s looks, she also inherited his thrust for […]
Reviving the rank and file
Why aren’t we following the example set by the junior doctors? Rachel Eborall looks at the arguments we need to make to revive the rank and file movement and put militant action back on the agenda The fact that the working class is paying for a crisis they did not cause is clear for all to see. According to […]
My life of freedom on a zero-hours contract – a reply to Deborah Orr
Guardian columnist Deborah Orr recently portrayed zero-hours contracts as giving a life of ‘freedom’ to ‘be your own boss’. Taking a welcome break from teaching her yoga classes and upholstering retro -hipster furniture, a zero-hour employee and member of Unite Hotel Workers Branch describes the reality of exploitation and insecurity. In response to a statement by Len […]
The rise of Red Pill philosophy and neo‑misogyny
Ciaran Colleran analyses the emergence of right wing ‘men’s rights’ groups ‘Men’s Right’s Activism’ and Red Pill Philosophy first revealed itself to the public in 2014 when Elliot Rodgers, who was associated with the movement, went on a murderous rampage, killing six people. In his online tirades against women he repeatedly referred to the jargon […]
The Labour Party experience – interviews with new Labour activists
Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership has attracted new activists to party politics, as well as those who were members of other parties, further to the left of Labour.
Reclaiming the future
Sølvi Qorda argues the “millennial” generation needs to shoot up a flare and embrace the idea of human liberation if we are not to abandon the future to fear. My most enduring memory of the student movement was of the power and the creativity that it brought. At Millbank, on Day X, in the university […]
Why I’m not celebrating the fall of Keith Vaz
Colin Wilson argues that the manner of Keith Vaz’s fall from grace is nothing for the left to rejoice in. I never thought I would feel the slightest sympathy for Keith Vaz. The parliamentary watchdog twice found he had received money without declaring it; he was sacked over his relationship with the wealthy Hinduja brothers; […]
A flawed revolutionary icon – a review of The Politics of Che Guevara
Mike Gonzalez reviews Samuel Farber’s recent book, The politics of Che Guevara, published by Haymarket Books. For two generations of activists, Ernesto Che Guevara has symbolized a kind of selfless heroism. His relative youth at his death in 1967 (he was 38) conserved his air of rebelliousness and the image of a man interested only in the […]
Motivation: a poem by Caliban’s Revenge
Caliban’s Revenge reflects on the state of teaching today MOTIVATION They told me to be “CUSTOMER CENTERED” So I left work and went to the American style mall and got a second job in Argos. I worked there for a week Nobody noticed Until I had a teaching observation and got “unsatisfactory”. They said no, we […]
Revolutionaries and the Labour Party: “fostering struggle from below is key”
Roddy Usher argues revolutionaries should concentrate on forging links between a new generation of Labour activists and real, concrete, struggles.
The Labour Party: changing faces, shifting bases
Jon Anderson charts the historic shifts in the demographics of the Labour party, from the PLP to its activist and electoral bases, and the changing relationships between them.
Olimpíadas pra Quem? – Olympics for whom?
Ignatius J. O’Reilly writes from Rio about how the Olympics were experienced by the people of Brasil and the protests that resulted There is an irony to the use of OlimpÃadas, the alternative term for the ‘Jogos OlÃmpicos’ (Olympic Games), as they are called in Português. With the simple omission of a pen stroke, one […]
Review: Red Rosa
Caliban’s Revenge reviews Red Rosa, a graphic biography of German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg by Kate Evans. The uses and abuses of Rosa Luxemburg as a revolutionary icon are many, and they tend to focus excessively on the tragedy of her death or on her intellectual relationship with Lenin. Old Stalinists display great alabaster busts that […]
Deliveroo and the anatomy of the ‘gig’ economy
The victory of couriers in the recent Deliveroo strike tells us a lot about organising alongside new technology, both how it can be used to discipline workers, but also how they can resist that supervision. Charlie Jarsve reports: Yesterday the IWGB announced a victory. For six days Torrington Place had been filled with couriers and supporters from […]
Review – Edward Upward: Art and Life
Andrew Stone reviews a recent biography of the left-wing writer Edward Upward, Edward Upward: Art and Life by Peter Stansky Edward Upward was one of the less-feted members of the ‘Auden Circle’, a generation of politically engaged writers of the left during the 1930s. Of its leading members, Auden was to move decisively to the […]
The high stakes of the Deliveroo Strike
12 August saw Deliveroo couriers, on day two of their strike, protesting outside management’s offices. Joe Hayns asks what’s at stake. Thronging a street in central London – shouting together at a management that’s gone from smug to terrified in 72 hours – were around 150 Deliveroo couriers. During a sit-down discussion the most recent offer […]
Selling Brazil – review of Dave Zirin’s “Brazil’s Dance with the Devil”
Ruth Lorimer reviews Brazil’s Dance with the Devil: The World Cup, The Olympics and the Fight for Democracy by Dave Zirin, published by Haymarket Books.
Tories trouble families
Caliban asks how did the Tories’ Troubled Families project aimed at addressing what they saw as the cause of the 2011 riots get on? Five years since the riots this week. Interesting fact- you remember the government blaming the riots on “broken families” and launching a scheme to “turn them around”? You remember them announcing […]