New fault lines in the Middle East: ISIS in a regional context
As the calls for more direct intervention in Iraq grow and the US drops their first bombs, Andy Cunningham looks at what the rise of the Islamic State means for the wider Middle East. Following discussions with other comrades, this article was revised by the author on 14/8/14 to remove a factual error and to […]
Fight for your right to read
Alan Gibbons, author, organiser of the Campaign for the Book and lifelong socialist discusses the attacks that the library service is facing in Britain. He is based in Liverpool where proposals to cut eleven of the city’s nineteen libraries have recently been announced. It is the fiftieth anniversary of the public library service. This should […]
Muslim Brotherhood Supporters Remain Under Sentence of Death in Egypt
The new regime in Egypt has been handing out mass death sentences to Muslim Brotherhood supporters. General al-Sisi has exploited hostility to the Brotherhood to crack down on mass street protests more generally and to excuse his betrayal of the people of Gaza. More needs to be done to defend the Brotherhood supporters, writes Peter […]
Why does Michael Gove hate Blackadder?
Today marks the 100th anniversary of Britain declaring war on Germany in the the First World War. Cameron, Gove and others want us to remember it as “just war”. But Matthew Cookson argues that cultural representations of the war are an explicit condemnation of our rulers’ justifications for it, and often an implicit critique of […]
A bluffer’s guide to boycotting Israel
A handy one-stop-shop for all the arguments you’ll need to argue for the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israeli apartheid
Netanyahu: Wanted for War Crimes
Israel has been bombing Gaza for three weeks now. Over a thousand Palestinians are dead, including many children.
World War One: The main enemy was at home
Karl Liebknecht’s burning words of opposition to the imperialist slaughter of World War One.
Isolate Israel to end this horror
We are seeing a huge wave of protest around the world, in many cases involving direct action to an extent we have not seen before.
Hitting Hamas hard
Estelle Cooch takes a brief look at the origins of Israel’s latest assault on Gaza and argues there is more to it than humanitarian crisis Amidst the flood of Israeli propaganda that has polluted the papers and news channels this week, few comments have been more revealing than that by the chief spokesperson for the Israeli military, […]
Sisi has silently launched a murderous crackdown in Egypt, activists warn
Reports are appearing on Arabic social media sites that Sisi’s regime in Egypt is ramping up repression against anti-coup protests. At least 11 demonstrators, including teenagers, were murdered by regime forces on Thursday and Friday last week. The dead include Ahmed Hussein, killed on Friday in Shubra el-Kheima, Egypt’s fourth largest city, and an 18 year […]
Retribution in Iraq
by Jack Farmer If you like a laugh, it’s always worth looking up what Tony Blair has to say about events in the Middle East. In his latest intervention he insisted that the current crisis in Iraq had nothing to do with the US-British led invasion of 2003: “We have to liberate ourselves from the notion […]
Protest against Spain’s anti-abortion bill: 7pm, Friday 27 June, London SW1X 8SB
Abortion rights are under attack in the Spanish state. The right wing government wants to make abortion illegal in all but very restricted circumstances. This is the most fundamental attack on women’s rights in a European country for decades. It must be stopped. The bill will be heard in parliament on Friday 27 June. The Women’s Assembly from the […]
Six pointers for antifascists after the 21 June attacks in Tottenham
See also: Antifascist vigil attracts 200 in show of unity and defiance On Saturday night a free music festival in Tottenham, north London, was violently attacked by a racist gang targeting audience members in general and, judging from media reports, Jews in particular. North London Antifascists has details, including video and evidence pointing to […]
Resistance in Rio
In the run up to the World Cup, strikes and protests swept across Brazil. Ali S, based in Brazil, looks at the background and character of the protests. This is an article from the Summer 2014 rs21 magazine During the explosion of protests in Brazil in June 2013, protesters held placards stating anything they wanted, […]
The May of the masses: the Tiananmen Square movement 25 years on
4 June marks the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Charlie Hore looks back at the inspirational movement that went before, and repression that followed. Twenty-five years ago, a mass protest movement exploded across China’s cities, posing potentially the biggest challenge to China’s rulers since 1949. The Tiananmen Square movement, as it came to […]
Busting immigration myths
Immigration has dominated the discussion in the run up to the European elections on Thursday. Politicians and the media are happy to spread anti-migrant myths, Bunny La Roche seeks out the facts MYTH: Migrants hold down wages FACT There is little evidence that mass migration has significantly driven down wages. Three studies undertaken between 2009-2011 […]
BDS is about justice, not antisemitism
Israel creates myths in order to perpetuate the occupation. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement can help bring about the end of the apartheid regime.
Memoirs of a revolution: Portugal 1974
On the 25th April 1974, against every expectation, a revolution broke out in Portugal. On the 40th Anniversary, Brian Parkin recalls what it was like for a young British engineering worker, arriving in the midst of a city in the process of revolution, where momentarily everything seemed possible. Lisbon. An imperial city. A city as […]
Baltic Pride – not parliament – has the potential for LGBT liberation in Estonia
Civil partnerships for LGBT couples could be recognised in Estonian law from July. But William Cleary argues that the Baltic Pride festival, which will be held in Estonia’s capital in June, will be more significant for LGBT liberation. Estonian legislators are preparing a civil partnerships bill for the parliament, the Riigikogu. The bill is in […]
Debate: What should socialists say about the EU?
As UKIP’s popularity continues to rise, we asked Nick Evans and Hanif to discuss what arguments socialists should be making in the run up to the European elections this month. Continue the discussion in the comments section. If you’d like to write a longer piece on the debate, please email us at rs21.submissions@gmail.com Nick: NO […]
UK a tax haven for Big Pharma
Sophie Williams, a medical student at Imperial College London, discusses how low tax rates in the UK make buying out AstraZeneca an attractive deal for US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer US-based pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has begun a bid to buy-out the UK-registered AstraZeneca. Both companies are the in top-ten most profitable pharmaceutical industries, generating a combined […]
Indian elections: fears for the future
Voting continues in the Indian general elections, with Modi likely to come out on top. Patrick Ward, a writer for Project-India.com reports from India on the largest elections that the world has ever seen. Everyone has an opinion on the general elections currently underway in India. From the wealthy inhabitants of the luxurious, gleaming […]
The evolution of the Scottish independence question
Historian and socialist activist Neil Davidson’s responds to questions about his article ‘Yes: a non-nationalist argument for Scottish independence’ about how his position on Scottish independence has developed.
Post-16 fightback
NUT member Despina M discusses the attacks on post-16 education and fightback against them The post-16 sector has been at the sharp end of government cuts, but has also seen some of the most impressive fightbacks. Whereas – in theory – funding for five to sixteen year olds has been ‘protected’, the Tory coalition has […]
Fighting homophobia: “the best day of my teaching career”
An NUT rep in Manchester explains how he organised a day that celebrated diversity, and tackled homophobia, in his school with truly astounding results. Stonewall completed two reports in 2007 and 2012 about the level of homophobia within schools. The reports give ample evidence that homophobia is an acute problem within both primary and secondary […]
University staff should reject a 2% rise
Amy Gilligan is a researcher and UCU member at Cambridge. This article originally appeared at the Labour blog Left Futures. (pic: UCU strike at Manchester Metropolitan University.) UCU and EIS members in higher education are currently voting in a ballot whether to accept the employer’s “full and final offer” in the pay claim. I’ve voted to […]
UKIP and the deadly truth about construction jobs and safety
by Anindya Bhattacharyya and Brian Parkin “EU policy at work. British workers are hit by unlimited cheap labour. Take back control of our country. Vote UKIP 22 May.” A picture of a white, presumably British, construction worker begging for small change. But the real picture in construction is pretty much the opposite of this UKIP election […]
Who was Blair Peach?
Today marks the 35th anniversary of the killing of Blair Peach by the police. David Renton looks back at Blair Peach’s life as a poet, trade unionist and committed antifascist. Blair Peach was a 33 year old teacher killed on a demonstration on 23 April 1979 at Southall against the National Front. He is one […]
Inoculation against bosses’ lies
Ian Allinson discusses how his workplace gained confidence through exposing their bosses’ lies In 2003 I went on strike for the first time. We wanted improved sick pay, increased pay and equal pay. There had been no strikes at my workplace for maybe 20 years. Some of us had supported other people’s strikes. None of […]
Panic on the streets of Birmingham?
Andrew N, Birmingham NUT executive member (personal capacity), argues that the left needs to stand against Islamophobes and reject media scapegoating Photo: Paul Clarke If you were to believe the headlines in certain Tory papers recently, you would think that schools in Birmingham were being seized by Muslim radicals on a daily basis.”Gove declares war […]