The French far right pushed back – for now
Ian Birchall assesses the results of the second round of France’s parliamentary elections, celebrating a defeat for the far right and assessing the problems and opportunities ahead.
The Popular Front then and now – France and the elections
Ian Birchall looks back at the history of the original Popular Front and outlines what’s at stake in France’s general election.
A breakthrough for the French left?
The second round of France’s parliamentary elections saw the president lose his majority, a new left alliance becoming the second largest force, but also a worrying increase in far-right representation. Ian Birchall explains the background and looks at what may come next.
Prospects for the left after the French election
The results of the first round of the French presidential election make for grim reading. Ian Birchall looks at some of the lessons of the election, and the future prospects for the left.
Review | Léo Frankel, life of a Communard
Ian Birchall reviews a new French biography of Paris Commune member Léo Frankel.
Cultural Marxism? A review of The Dialectics of Art
Ian Birchall reviews The Dialectics of Art, a new work by John Molyneux.
Review: Anti-Nazi Germans
As Boris Johnson and others attempt to invoke the ‘spirit of the Blitz’ in response to COVID-19, Ian Birchall celebrates a recent publication that disrupts the national myths of WWII.
The total Marx and the total theory of literature
A lost gem of Marxist aesthetic theory, out of print for over forty years.
There’s nothing so weird as a revolution
Ian Birchall reviews China Miéville’s October, a new history of the Russian Revolution. It seems an odd pairing: the Russian Revolution and China Miéville, whose reputation is based on fantasy fiction which he himself describes as “weird”. But one only needs to read a few pages to realise that this is not a forced marriage […]
Peter Sedgwick and the British Left
Peter Sedgwick (1934-83) was a lifelong socialist activist and writer. Apart from his work to bring Victor Serge to the English speaking world, and his critical writings on psychiatry, Sedgwick produced a series of political pieces covering the 1950s to the 1980s (many of which are being rediscovered and published). In this piece Ian Birchall demonstrates Peter Sedgwick’s independent approach to handling changing political […]
The story of a Bolshevik worker-intellectual: a review of Barbara Allen’s ‘Alexander Shlyapnikov’
Ian Birchall reviews Barbara C Allen’s Alexander Shlyapnikov 1885-1937: Life of an Old Bolshevik, published by Haymarket Books.
The Somme: Remember…and explain
Ian Birchall reviews Neil Faulkner’s new pamphlet, Have You Forgotten Yet? The Truth about the Somme I happened to be on Waterloo Station on 1st July. When I saw dozens of young soldiers assembling, I wondered for a moment if our rulers had launched a military coup to reverse the referendum. Later I learned that it was […]
Bel Druce 1940-2015
We republish Ian Birchall’s obituary for his very close friend, and rs21 member Bel Druce, who died at the end of August. It was originally published on Ian’s personal website Grim and Dim. My dear friend Bel Druce died in August 2015. I had known her only in the last five years of her life; […]
Alfred Rosmer: A lifelong revolutionary
In the first of a series exploring the lives of some of history’s understated revolutionaries, Ian Birchall introduces French syndicalist and communist Alfred Rosmer The name Alfred Rosmer is little known today. Yet his life story sums up both the greatness and the tragic failure of the years after the Russian Revolution of 1917. The […]
Lenin: Yes! Leninism: No?
A discussion article by Ian Birchall, historian and author of Tony Cliff: a Marxist for his time It is currently a commonplace on the left and not-so-left to announce that Leninism is dead. Indeed, one might wonder why it is necessary to keep repeating the point. Nobody is writing articles to explain that alchemy or social […]
Tony Benn (1925–2014)
Ian Birchall looks back at the life of a genuine socialist who fought to the end: Tony Benn, who died today.
Ian Birchall replies to his critics
Ian Birchall has written a comprehensive reply to the criticisms of his article “What does it mean to be a Leninist?” that appear in the current issue of Socialist Review.
What does it mean to be a Leninist?
Ian Birchall surveys the history of Leninism and critically assesses the SWP’s current approach to questions of democracy and struggle.