The Good Lord Bird: John Brown’s militant abolitionism
Bill Crane looks at the life of militant US abolitionist John Brown and his portrayal in a recent TV adaptation of James McBride’s novel The Good Lord Bird.
Review | The Rise of Hindu Authoritarianism by Achin Vanaik
Bill Crane reviews The Rise of Hindu Authoritarianism, written by Achin Vanaik as a critical response to the political developments in India following the election of the Bharatiya Janata Party to power in 2014, as well as the consequences and future travails for the Indian left. The Rise of Hindu Authoritarianism is published by Verso Books […]
Review: The Politics of Everybody
Bill Crane reviews Holly Lewis’ standout book on the relationship between capitalism and oppression. One of the most promising trends on the intellectual left in recent years is the emergence of a strong and sophisticated Marxist-feminist current of academics and activists. The identification of the social reproduction of the working class as the root of […]
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 […]
Occupy Poughkeepsie: “mass politics will never be limited to New York City and the Bay Area”
Five years ago, in autumn 2011, Occupy camps sprung up across the US and internationally. American socialist Bill Crane took part in Occupy Poughkeepsie in New York State. rs21 spoke to Bill about is experiences in the Occupy camp and his thoughts on how Occupy has influenced politics in the US since How did the […]
The Rise of Donald Trump, ‘Anti-Politics’ and the Left
Bill Crane argues that while Trump is a clear threat, this must be understood within the history of American politics. Donald Trump’s race for President of the United States has shocked the mainstream political establishment. Trump, a billionaire real estate mogul most famous as a TV star with his successful long-running reality series The Apprentice, […]
From Slaveholders to Sanders: A Brief History of the US Democratic Party, for British Readers
American socialist Bill Crane provides a brief history of the Democratic Party from its inception to the present, and asks how revolutionaries might relate to the movement behind presidential nominee Bernie Sanders. The US Democratic Party is the oldest surviving modern political party.[1] In its longer than two centuries’ history, it has survived multiple political crises, […]
HM 2015: How the West Came to Rule
Marxist scholars have long debated the origins of capitalism. Bill Crane reports on a fruitful debate at this year’s Historical Materialism conference about the recent book ‘How the West Came to Rule’. The question of how capitalism emerged and became the basis of the international system has generated a number of incredibly fruitful debates among […]
Israel after the Knesset elections: What hasn’t changed
In a result to the 2015 Israeli Knesset elections that has surprised very few, Benjamin Netanyahu, who recently announced there would be no Palestinian state on his watch, will remain Prime Minister of Israel.
The roots of American racism 4: state racism and the new black resistance
In the last of four articles, Bill Crane looks at “colourblind” racism and mass incarceration since the Civil Rights movement – and how they have contributed to the police racism and violence that has sparked the current protest movement. So far this series has described how racism has existed as part of the United States from its […]
The roots of American racism 3: Civil war to civil rights
In the third of four articles, Bill Crane examines the origins of racism in the United States. Here he looks at how the racist segregation of Jim Crow was implemented in the 1890s and then abolished by the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. In the second article in this series on the origins of American racism, we […]
The roots of American racism 2: The Civil War and after sees racism undermined, then reimposed
In the second part of a four-part series, Bill Crane examines the origins of racism in the United States. Here he looks at how in the Civil War of the 1860s and the Reconstruction which followed it racism was fundamentally weakened and then restored. In the US, racism operates in a way that is fundamentally […]
The roots of American racism
Why is America so racist? In the first of four articles, American socialist Bill Crane explains how today’s struggles around Ferguson and police racism have their roots in a history of slavery and dispossession. It’s often difficult for me, as an American socialist, to explain many things about my homeland to comrades and friends in […]
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 […]
Playing the Odds: How fractionals at SOAS organised and won
Today the SOAS Fractionals for Fair Play campaign announced that 95% (on a 63% turnout) had voted to reject a contract offer which fell well short of their demands. They also announced a 25% increase in the fractional population taking out a full UCU membership in July. The UCU branch is now committed to considering industrial action […]
Solidarity with SOAS cleaners
Cleaners at SOAS will strike tomorrow and Wednesday in an ongoing effort to be brought in-house.
The UAW’s defeat in Tennessee
Bill Crane analyses the roots of the UAW’s defe at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga.
Trayvon Martin and Mark Duggan
Bill Crane compares the workings of the justice system for Trayvon Martin in the US and Mark Duggan in the UK – and notes the role of “colourblind” ideology to prop up racism in both cases. As an American who moved to Britain four months ago, I saw similarities between the cases of Trayvon Martin […]