‘I was, I am, I will be’ – 100 years after the death of Rosa Luxemburg
The deaths of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht have haunted the imagination of the left for a century.
On productivity, living standards and the British economic model – thoughts and reflections
In the wake of the Budget Statement, Joe Sabatini ponders Britain’s productivity puzzle.
#GE2017: How radical are Labour’s economic policies?
The limitations of the manifesto are those we would expect to find facing any reformist government operating in the capitalist system today.
revolutionary reflections | Critical Theory in the Age of Trump Part 1: Organised Pessimism
The election of Trump has raised the stakes in terms of how the left should respond to the growing crises of economics, politics, ecology and geopolitics. Joe Sabatini explores the work of the Frankfurt School in this context. Photo courtesy of iamyouasheisme.wordpres.com Footnotes to this piece are included in the PDF. 20170330_Critical Theory Part 1 Methodological introduction […]
Austria: The rise of respectable fascism?
Joe Sabatini reflects on the social, demographic and ideological issues behind the Austrian Presidential Election, and considers strategies to oppose the far right. On 22 May the Austrian electorate came within a percentage point of electing Europe’s first fascist head of state since the 1930s. On 1 July, the results of the second round of […]
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 […]
Save the Lukács Archive
The Hungarian government is threatening to close the Georg Lukács Archive. Anyone with an interest in the role that intellectuals have played in left-wing politics should be appalled at such a possibility, write Joe Sabatini. Sign the petition to keep it open here.
COP21 – climate and capitalism
Joe Sabatini dissects the neoliberal mindset behind the Paris talks in December and what the COP21 Agreement means for saving the planet.
Eyewitness: Carlisle floods mean learning what it is like to be on the front line of climate change
Joe Sabatini reports from Carlisle, where floods devastated the town. He discusses what it means to be on the front line of climate change. Climate change has just slapped into Cumbria. For the third time in 10 years the county has suffered from a major flood, leaving thousands devastated – many hit for the second time. […]
HM2015: Where is Britain going?
Joe Sabatini summarises three sessions about Britain at Historical Materialism conference. He concludes that there are opportunities for revolutionaries in the rest of Britain to follow those in Scotland, and shape debates about how we fight for reforms. This article is a report based on three sessions at this year’s Historical Materialism conference that covered the […]
The big lie: Some thoughts on ideology and the Tory victory
Joe Sabatini on ideology, fetishism, and 5 more years of Cameron. On Thursday 7 May, The English Tory Party won a shock victory that was utterly unpredicted and yet so predictable. Everything about the result feels like a consolidation of a power grab that took place in 2010, making 2015 the sequel. With the corpse […]
Germany 1918-23: A forgotten history of revolution
Joe Sabatini reviews a collection of articles about how the German Communist Party organised in the early 1920s – only a few years after revolution had swept through Germany – and translates two of the pieces. Best of KPD: Linke Organisierung Damals Und Heute – in English Left Organisation Then and Now – is a […]
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 […]
Review: ‘Salt of the Earth’ 60th Anniversary release
Joe Sabatini re-examines the 1951 film ‘Salt of the Earth’ and argues for its contemporary relevance and importance. “Anything worth learning hurts, these changes come with pain.” 2014 marks the 60th anniversary of the release of the political classic: The Salt of the Earth. Salt dramatises a strike that took place in 1951 against the […]