Housing charity workers strike for a week to defend their services
Unite members at the housing charity St Mungo’s Broadway will be taking seven full days of strike action beginning at 8am Friday morning. Unite Convenor Adam Lambert explains why. We are taking action due to attacks on terms on conditions that have been imposed by new management. This is possibly set to be the biggest […]
Parliament votes to recognise Palestine: what is going on?
We can use these shifts at the top to strengthen our actions on the ground in support of genuine Palestinian liberation.
Is Leninism dead?
Phil Gasper member of the editorial board of the International Socialist Review and is editor of The Communist Manifesto: A Road Map to History’s Most Important Political Document continues a discussion on Leninism, responding to a recent article from Ian Birchall. What, if anything, do revolutionary socialists today have to learn from the experience and […]
First NHS pay strike for decades gets a great response from the public
by Sophie Williams (Midwives’ picket line at North Manchester General Hospital – photo by Sam O’Brien) Yesterday saw the first national NHS pay strike for 32 years, and the first strike in the 133 year history of the Royal College of Midwives. Picket lines were upbeat and received a lot of support from passers-by. In Harrow, […]
Why a university finally stood up to misogyny
Last week the men’s rugby club at LSE was closed down for a year after producing a sexist and homophobic leaflet. Lois JC considers why the university finally took action, after years doing nothing to oppose the club’s racism and bigotry. As a former student of the London School of Economics (LSE) I was, unfortunately, […]
Why Labour should be worried about Clacton
Anindya Bhattacharyya analyses UKIP’s success in Thursday’s two by-elections. One of the peculiarities of mainstream political chatter is its tendency to seize on the unexpected and discount long-term predictable trends. The response to Thursday’s by-elections is a case in point: UKIP’s Douglas Carswell was expected to win in Clacton, so no surprises there, but the Heywood […]
Two public sector strikes suspended: proposed council deal offers little
The local government and tube strikes set for next Tuesday have been called off, though the new deal on offer to council workers is little better than the previous one. Two key public sector strikes planned for Tuesday 14 October have been cancelled by the unions involved. The local government workers’ strike by over 1.5 […]
America: Two Cheers for Marriage Equality
Colin Wilson is celebrating big gains for same-sex marriage in the US – but increased LGBT equality in the context of neo-liberal America is raising issues around race and class. This week has seen a striking victory for American campaigners for LGBT equality. On Monday the Supreme Court decided not to hear appeals from five states […]
Making the Palestinians the scapegoats for Nazi crimes
In part five of his series on Zionism, imperialism and the Palestinians Neil Rogall looks at the lead up to the Nakba and how the west used the establishment of the state of Israel to absolve themselves of Nazi crimes. Read part 1 of this series, The Origins of Zionism, here. The defeat of the 1936-39 […]
Public sector strikes: a guide to who’s on strike when and why
Next week will see groups of workers from across the public sector taking industrial action in defence of pay and services. The week will culminate with trade union demonstrations in London and Glasgow on Saturday. Amy Gilligan rounds up who’s taking action when. UPDATE, 10 October Two of the strikes were called off yesterday. An RMT statement […]
GMB members strike at TSSA
Adam DC reports Management at the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) have written to of the union’s organisers indicating they do not have an assured role in their new organisation. 30 staff out of a total workforce of 50 in total are being told they will have to go through an assessment in order to […]
Review: Constructing Worlds: Photography and Architecture in the Modern Age
Olivia Arigho Stiles reviews a new exhibition at the Barbican. The Barbican’s new exhibition explores the relationship between photography and architecture in the epoch of modernity. The exhibition is testament to the enduring power of the city (for here it is urban architecture which predominates) in the artistic imagination, exposing the aching desolation of the […]
Adam Hanieh on the Gulf states, neoliberalism and liberation in the Middle East
Adam Hanieh is a senior lecturer at and School of Oriental and African Studies and author of Lineages of Revolt: Issues of Contemporary Capitalism in the Middle East. He spoke to Bill Crane about his book and on the trajectories of the Arab revolutions since 2011. You talk in your book about how the IMF and the World Bank see […]
Hong Kong protests two weeks on
As another week begins in Hong Kong, people are still blockading the streets in several areas of the city. There are talks about talks, but the protesters say they are not giving up their positions without something much more substantial than what the government is offering. Sue Sparks reports. Two weeks into the protest one of […]
People’s theatre and fun palaces: the life of Joan Littlewood
Radical left wing theatre director Joan Littlewood changed the face of modern British theatre. Marking the centenary of her birth there will be celebrations across Britain in honour of her achievements and ambitions including over 120 Fun Palaces are popping up across the country this weekend. Colin Revolting from the Revolting Peasants theatre company looks […]
Bassem Chit, 1979–2014
Miriyam Aouragh pays tribute to a Lebanese socialist whose principles, knowledge and humour touched the lives of many. Bassem Chit is no more, and with that the radical left, and the Arab left in particular, has lost a great comrade, friend and teacher. It is hard to imagine how his comrades and family in Lebanon are […]
Thousands attend Hong Kong solidarity protest in London
Charlie Hore reports from the protest outside the Chinese embassy on Wednesday 1 October. The organisers hoped for three to four hundred people, I was told, but at its height, there were up to 3,000 people outside the Chinese embassy in London on Wednesday night, showing their solidarity with the struggle in Hong Kong. The demonstration […]
10 things you need to know about the protests in Hong Kong
The pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong continue. Demonstrators have set a deadline of midnight tonight for Hong Kong’s Chief Executive to resign. German revolutionary magazine Marx21 interviewed Sophia Chan from Left21, Hong Kong about the background to and prospects for the mass protests taking place. The interview in available in German here. 1. When did the protests start and why? What […]
Who killed Blair Peach? Call for new inquest into antifascist protester’s death
Defend the Right to Protest and the NUT teachers’ union have teamed up to launch a pamphlet about Blair Peach, the antifascist protester killed by police in 1979. Anindya Bhattacharyya reviews it in the latest issue of rs21 magazine. One of my earliest memories of TV news was watching footage of Anti Nazi League protesters demonstrating […]
Egypt: from revolution to repression
Anne Alexander, from the MENA Solidarity Network, is the co-author, with Mostafa Bassiouny, of the forthcoming book Bread, Freedom, Social Justice. She spoke to Amy Gilligan about workers’ movements and revolution in Egypt. Originally published in the Autumn 2014 issue of the rs21 magazine. The book begins with a detailed look at the workers’ movement […]
Review: How can we save the NHS?
Sophie Williams, a health activist in London reviews Mark Broothroyd’s pamphlet How Can we Save the NHS? recently published by the International Socialist Network Recent weeks have seen a large vote for strike action by NHS England workers against real-term pay cuts. Although this is the first national NHS industrial action to be taken over […]
Mass protests grow on the streets of Hong Kong
Sue Sparks reports on the protests growing on the streets of Hong Kong. The mass protests on the streets of Hong Kong over the past few days have been inspiring. The protests started with university students holding class boycotts and then public lectures in central Hong Kong. These led to an occupation of Civic Square, […]
The bombs won’t work: they’ll make things worse.
Hanif Leylabi writes on why we should oppose the latest British military adventure in Iraq
How can we defeat UKIP? 5 points to consider
Anti-racists are protesting outside the UKIP conference in Doncaster later today. Here are five suggestions on how best to take on the far right party. 1. UKIP is a hard right reactionary party that stokes up bigotry and preys on people’s insecurity. But it is not a fascist organisation like the BNP. Under Griffin the […]
Behind Capital: A Review of Alex Callinicos’ “Deciphering Capital”
Joe Sabatini assesses an important new work of Marxist theory. Deciphering Capital is a long awaited work, which Alex Callinicos has been developing over a number of years. Although stimulated by the resurgence in Marxist political economy since 2008, the book essentially goes back to his PhD in the 1970s. Principally, Deciphering Capital could be described […]
Terrorism with British characteristics
The government and mainstream media are up in arms about returning Islamic State fighters. But what of the British mercenaries fighting in the region? Peter Hill examines a double standard with troubling implications. The government has recently enacted new anti-terror measures aimed specifically, it claims, at returning Islamic State fighters from Syria and Iraq. The […]
Scottish independence: Why didn’t the working-class Yes vote win the day?
Class was central to the Scottish independence referendum, writes Matt Myers. The low-waged, unemployed and young were more likely to vote Yes – so why did enough working class people vote No that the vote was lost? In the aftermath of the referendum one thing remains clear: the vote was neither about dry constitutionality, nor nationalism per se, […]
Worldwide protests against climate change
Olivia Arigho Stiles reports on the People’s Climate March. Around 30,000 people marched from Temple to the Houses of Parliament in London yesterday on the People’s Climate March. Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and actor Emma Thompson addressed the assembled crowds. Thompson asserted the need for boycotts as a mechanism of protest against polluting businesses. The […]
Dear Love of Comrades: The politics of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners
The film Pride tells the story of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners. It’s an extraordinary and inspiring achievement for a mainstream movie. For almost a year in 1984-5, over 100,000 miners were on all-out strike. The strike was the major political issue of the day, and Thatcher’s final defeat of the miners one of […]
Stop global warming: change the world
Bettina Trabant reviews a book which puts the fight against capitalism at the heart of the struggle to stop climate change. Stop Global Warming: change the world Jonathan Neale, Bookmarks (2008) ISBN 9781905192373 Unlike most books about environmental issues, which seek to locate the problem within individual human consumption, this book is quite clear about […]