Stealth – the new nuclear threat
Brian Parkin explains how, 38 years since the Greenham Common peace camps, American nuclear weapons are scheduled to return to Britain by stealth, in the shape of the nuclear-certified F35A strike fighter aircraft.
Militarism and anti-militarism
In the midst of an arms industry boom, we need to link anti-imperialism to anti-militarism.
Here We Go! Forty years on from the outbreak of the Great Strike
Forty years ago today British miners began industrial action in what became the longest and most bitter strike of the twentieth century. Here Brian Parkin, a former Research Officer for the National Union of Mineworkers, gives a brief introduction to this pivotal strike.
Israel’s air war on Gaza
Brian Parkin explains how Israel has built the fourth biggest air force in the world, and how it is able to drop the deadliest bombs and missiles on a defenceless civilian population.
Alchemy and imperial delusion: the ideological spell of nuclear power. Part 2
The uncounted costs of nuclear power
Alchemy and imperial delusion: the ideological spell of nuclear power. Part 1
Brian Parkin explores why nuclear power remains so important for Britain’s rulers, in the first part of a two-part article.
Tyrone O’Sullivan: the gentle giant of the last deep coal mine in South Wales
On the afternoon of 27 May Tyrone O’Sullivan of Tower Colliery died peacefully at home, in his garden, aged 77. Here Brian Parkin pays tribute to a friend and comrade, who through a combination of fire and gentle persuasion, led a community of mining families into a fight to save the last deep coal mine in South Wales.
Chernobyl 1986 – when nuclear power came of age
A lethal combination of technical arrogance, corporate and state deceit and human fallibility that will forever lie at the heart of nuclear power.
A fuel’s paradise: capitalism, energy crises and the markets
Fossil fuel companies and national governments are driving the climate catastrophe that threatens us all.
The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists revisited
Construction workers have been among the hardest-hit by Covid-19, with profit-hungry bosses keeping sites open throughout the pandemic.
Obituary: Mike Cooley, architect and bee
Brian Parkin pays tribue to Mike Cooley, a modest and inspiring trade union leader with a lifelong vision of a liberated technology, redirected to serving human need.
Post-war to post-industrial Scotland
Successive British governments have restructured the Scottish economy in damaging ways. Now we need a radical plan for a de-carbonised and independent Scotland.
Review: Who the hell is… Karl Marx?
Manus McGrogan’s new introduction to Marx and Marxism combines theory with a vision of a world free of exploitation and oppression.
Not an atom of truth
It is a dangerous fantasy to think that nuclear energy can be part of a ‘green’ recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic or any form of solution to the climate catastrophe.
Naming of parts 2020
Poem by Brian Parkin, based on an original by Harry Reed. Illustration by Mark Winter.
Overdue! A just transition for Scotland
As convergent crises confront the North Sea oil and gas industry with its rapid demise, the need for a just transition for Scottish workers is more urgent than ever.
British Steel: workers’ rights disregarded
The return of a Tory MP from Redcar, whose steel plant closed in 2017, is a symptom of a feeling of abandonment in many former industrial communities. Brian Parkin looks at the prospect for resistance in what remains of the British steel industry
revolutionary reflections | Portugal’s revolution portrayed
Raquel Varela’s new history of the Portuguese revolution is essential reading for revolutionary socialists, argues Brian Parkin.
revolutionary reflections | Endgames of US petro-imperialism?
Brian Parkin explains some of the contradictions of the energy markets and the process of US imperial decline in an era of climate catastrophe
Harland and Wolff: occupying for nationalisation, jobs and the climate
Workers at Belfast’s Harland and Wolff shipyard are fighting to save their jobs and demanding nationalisation as the employer goes into administration.
Review: The Order of the Day
The unfolding catastrophe of the 1930s is illuminated in new ways in a disconcerting new book by Éric Vuillard, writes Brian Parkin.
Scunthorpe steel: murder by market manipulation
The closure of the Scunthorpe steel-works is likely to spell disaster for the community. Following our earlier analysis of the state of the British steel industry, here we consider the social costs of cynical mismanagement.
Review: Capitalism and Theory
A collection of the writings of Mike Kidron casts light on the heterodox Marxist economist and the revolutionary socialist organisation he once belonged to, writes Brian Parkin.
Obituary: Jean Dorothy Parkin, 1921-2018
Brian Parkin looks back at the life of his mother, Jean Dorothy Parkin, who passed away on 14th November.
Carillion: a chronicle of a blacklisting crook foretold
Carillion wasn’t an exception, but all too typical of the spiv business model the dominates UK construction.
Battle for BiFab: Scottish renewables factory in occupation
Through the combination of the defiance of an occupying workforce and a vision of a green industrial strategy, the prospect of democratic resistance is possible.
Diversify or Die: a new pamphlet from rs21
UK manufacturing workers must reject a continued dependency on defence contracts in favour of a re-dedication of industry to environmentally and socially beneficial production.
revolutionary reflections | Climate Change and Migration in the age of Imperialism’s four horsemen
How can we trace the interconnections between war, famine, pestilence and conquest that are being unleashed in a new form as the climate crisis unfolds?
Grangemouth: chronicle of a defeat foretold
The union machine has once more been reduced to crying foul and continues to pursue a fatally discredited partnership model of industrial peace and ‘responsible’ trade unionism.
Review: The Battle of Grangemouth: A Worker’s Story
In late October 2013, workers at the Ineos twin plant at Grangemouth, Stirlingshire, suffered an epic defeat, which in terms of the sacking of site stewards, the scrapping of the pension scheme and the imposition of a three year pay freeze and strike ban, represented one of the worst assaults on one of the best […]