Biggest picket lines yet as junior doctors’ strike action escalates
Junior doctors’ continued their strike action today against the imposition of a new, damaging contract and in defence of the NHS, with a full walkout between 8am and 5pm. Despite continued attacks from Tory ministers, many picket lines today were much bigger than those on previous strike days. Here are a selection of reports, photos […]
Chernobyl 1986: when nuclear power came of age
30 years ago, at 1.23 am on the morning of 26 April 1986 the number 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear generating site near Pripyat in Ukraine went on SCRAM alert. Within 3 seconds all of the reactors safety systems had failed and with control rods jamming the reactor core, the temperature rose by 10 […]
Steel: bidders and alternatives
In part three of an analysis of the current UK steel crisis, Brian Parkin looks at the latest options touted by the Tories and, regrettably, seriously considered by the steel unions. Whilst conceding that much momentum for resistance has been lost, he argues that the transparently dubious intentions of the private bidders and the incompetence […]
The struggle for reproductive justice
On 16 April the Feminist Fightback collective led an action which prevented an anti-choice procession from reaching a local abortion clinic. Here the collective reports on the background to the action, tactics and the wider struggle. Now is a critical time in the struggle for reproductive justice. The movement to extend the abortion law that […]
Interview: Sex work in France
What attitude should we take to sex work? One approach is that of the “Nordic model” which criminalises those who buy sex, very largely men, rather than those who sell it, most of whom are women. Sex workers, however, object that the rhetoric behind such laws about improving the social position of women doesn’t match […]
Can we afford to laugh at ourselves in Broken Britain? A review of The Suicide
In the bleak years of Stalinist Russia Nikolai Erdman wrote a grim satire about a man planning to take his own life. In the bleak years of neoliberal Britain Suhayla El-Bushra has updated the play. Colin Revolting asks whether it survives the resurrection. Unemployed and now struck off benefits, Sam (Javone Prince) is stuck in […]
More radical than reality: A letter to a comrade of an earlier era
Jonas Liston writes about becoming a young revolutionary in the 21st century. Dear comrade, You asked me to talk you through how my generation of militants was radicalised, through what routes we came into struggle and why we found ourselves amongst that minuscule section of society that believed in what were, supposed to be, […]
‘Your lunacy fits in nicely with my own’ (from ‘Sea Song’)
Starting out as drummer and singer for Soft Machine, Robert Wyatt has been making music for over 5 decades. Neil Rogall reviews ‘Different Every Time’, a new biography of him by Marcus O’Dair Robert Wyatt, now in his 70s is surely one of the most intriguing, distinctive and sometimes infuriating musicians born out of 1960s Britain. His […]
EU referendum: for an internationalist leave position
Recently rs21 members met to discuss and debate our attitudes towards the EU referendum and related issues, in particular migrant solidarity. Migrant solidarity work is central to rs21. Initiatives like London2Calais have illustrated the possibility of combining organising practical solidarity with migrants with a strong anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist politics, as well as reaching out to new […]
16 April People’s Assembly protest in London – report
By Kate Bradley, Ashmeet Teemhsa and Colin Revolting. Around 150,000 people marched in yesterday’s demonstration in Central London, according to organisers, to stand for health, education, housing and jobs, against continuing Tory-led cuts to the funding of welfare and public services. The protest was called by the People’s Assembly, and rallied people under the slogan ‘Cameron Must […]
Steel: round one to vulture capital?
Brian Parkin of Leeds rs21 provides an update on the crisis in the UK steel industry. The announced closure by Tata of over 80% of the UK steel industry at the end of March threw the Tory government into deep crisis. As news of the steel melt-down broke the Tory Business Secretary Sajid Javid was […]
Join the French resistance! Resist the right and take on the Tories
Today thousands of people will be marching in London for Health, Homes, Jobs and Education in a demonstration called by the People’s Assembly Against Austerity. If you’re on the demo look out for the rs21 stall and pick up a copy of our leaflet, which can also be downloaded here. The Panama papers show us […]
French movement escalates to resist new labour law: report from Paris protests
Ian Crosson reports from last weekend’s protests in Paris Imagine thousands of people occupying Trafalgar Square, every night, for days on end, to discuss how to resist austerity and raising radical issues. Imagine this occupation spreads to every town and city in Britain in just a few days. Well , this is what has happened […]
Poles resist the attack on women’s rights
Aleksandra Wolke reports on a protest against the proposal to ban abortions in Poland, the largest Polish-led political protest in the UK in recent years. On Saturday 9 April thousands of people demonstrated across Poland against the proposed ban on abortion. The demonstrations were called by the Reclaim Choice Coalition (Porozumienie Odzyskać Wybór) which recently […]
France rises up in the night
A wave of nightly demonstrations have spread rapidly across France under the slogan “Nuit Debout” (Up All Night). The protests are targeting horrific new employment laws that will destroy social gains won over decades of struggle. We reprint below an article by Olivier Besançenot and François Sabado, members of France’s New Anticapitalist Party (NPA). The translation is by Todd Chretien […]
Remembering the riots of spring 1976 in China
It’s 40 years since workers, students and school-students broke the oppressive regime that had come out of the Cultural Revolution in China and forced a change of direction on their rulers with mass protests in the spring of 1976. Charlie Hore looks back. 1976 was a pivotal year for China. In September Mao Zedong, the […]
The Panama Papers – From revelations to revolt and beyond
Joe Sabatini discusses how the Panama Papers have confirmed what we knew about the ruling class and looks at how they provide an opportunity to re-engage the public discussion over how our economies are being run, by whom and for whom. The leak of 11.5 million documents from Panamanian law firm Mosseck Fonseca is the […]
TV Review: The Aliens
The Aliens is E4’s new drama with direct parallels to the situation for migrants and refugees today says Tazmin Aldis. Aliens creator Fintan Ryan uses the premise of a future where Aliens arrived on Earth nearly 40 years ago and, despite their uncanny resemblance to the human kind, they are ruthlessly discriminated against – banished […]
Steel: from resignation to resistance
Brian Parkin of Leeds rs21 offers a detailed briefing paper on the state of the UK steel industry and a alternative strategy for preserving jobs and production. Seize the time In an illusory globalised economy of post-industrial neoliberal financialisation the Tories never expected to have to face an industrial crisis. Industrial crises were surely the […]
Support remains strong as junior doctors continue strike action
Strike action over the new contract for junior doctors, that health secretary Jeremy Hunt says he will impose, is continuing for a second day in the latest round of action. Support remained strong for the doctors on picket lines yesterday. At Northwick Park Hospital in North London, the cast of the surreal medical comedy Green […]
EU referendum: A crisis of the right, not an opportunity for the left
Rob Owen continues our debate on the EU referendum by arguing the left can abstain from the vote without abstaining from the politics. How to respond to a referendum is a tactical question that requires careful consideration of the political context it takes place in, the questions at stake and whether it presents a chance to […]
Academisation and the Chicago teachers’ strikes
It is really important and positive that the National Union of Teachers (NUT) conference was so determined to strike against the Tories’ plans to force all schools to become academies and break up national pay and conditions for teachers. It is even better that the NUT aims to coordinate with other unions, including the junior […]
Building resistance – a report from the NUT conference, part 2
Andy S from Wandsworth NUT continues the report from a union conference ready to defend education.
Fascists humiliated in Dover
Steve Eason, Kate Bradley and Ashmeet T report from the counter-demonstration against the far-right South East Alliance, who marched through Dover in very small numbers on 2 April ,2016.
Ready to strike – a report from the NUT conference, part 1
The government’s forced academisation plans have caused outrage. Teachers are preparing to fight back. Andy N from Birmingham NUT reports on the recent conference.
Fight Forced Academies
Education is under attack. Jen Wilkinson on why – and how – we have to fight back.
Whose Europe? Theirs or Ours?
Socialists do not have the luxury of choosing the conditions in which we fight; however unfavourable the current balance of forces, our task it to argue for an exit from the un-reformable EU on left terms, write Jen Wilkinson and Paul O’Connell.
Ireland’s greatest revolutionary
For the centenary of the Easter Rising of 1916 we republish Shaun Harkin‘s account of the life of Irish Marxist and revolutionary James Connolly. James Connolly was executed by a British firing squad on May 12, 1916, in Dublin City along with other leaders of what became known as the Irish Easter Rising. At his […]
TV Review: Follow The Money
If you want to know about corporate crime you should Follow the Money, says Tony Aldis. Follow the Money opens on the machinations of a large and established green energy company, Energreen, and their tragic results. From manipulation of the markets to government ministers, we are privy to corporate boardroom politics raw and bloody. Sander […]
Revolutionary socialists and the EU referendum campaign: sorting out the real issues
The EU referendum offers no clear route for socialists; instead, John Walker argues, our focus should be on organising against the attack on migrants and workers which will intensify no matter the outcome.