Stop the Arms Trade – Stop Arming Israel
Next week thousands of members of the military from around the world will gather in London’s Docklands for an arms fair. Illegal weapons and torture equipment have been sold at the event in the past – and governments which abuse human rights are buying. Steve Eason brings us this photo report from the first of […]
Anti-globalisation or anti-imperialism? A left case for global de-linking
When the right comes out against free trade, the left must persist in its critique of the global capitalist economy.
Review: The Reproach of Hunger
Mike Downham reviews leading expert on humanitarian aid and development David Rieff’s book The Reproach of Hunger, which addresses the burning question of why have we failed to address the crisis of hunger in the twenty-first century. Food banks erupted across the UK following the 2007-2008 financial crisis, their number surging in late 2010 when […]
Kefaya – sounds of a new world
Lois C reviews a musical project that captures the energy and excitement of the latest wave of global resistance. For most readers of this review the word “kefaya” might conjure up images of a pre-Arab Spring Egypt still in the grips of Mubarak’s dictatorship. Kefaya, the Arabic word “enough”, became the rallying call for a grassroots […]
Review: China Miéville’s October
Charlie Burton reviews China Miéville’s retelling of the story of the tumultuous months 100 years ago leading up to the October revolution. October is published by Verso and available now. In July 1914, deputies of the largely ineffective parliamentary body, the Russian Duma, voted in favour of war credits and confirmed Russia’s entry into the arena […]
Social histories of 1917
Estelle Cooch, a history teacher in South London, reflects on an unusual series of history lectures that have drawn a new generation into exploring the Russian Revolution. This article was first published in the summer 2017 edition of the rs21 magazine. ‘The percentage of freaks among people in general is very considerable, but it is […]
No caricatures: the new far right party in Brazil
Miguel Borba de Sá looks at the prospects for far right politics in Brazil. Miguel is an International Relations lecturer and radical socialist militant from the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL) based in Rio de Janeiro. He is a member of the Institute for Alternative Policies for the Southern Cone and the Jubilee South Americas network. […]
Petrocide: Hydrocarbons, Conflict and Climate Chaos
What lies at the deadly intersection of further imperialist carbon wars and the inexorable threat of catastrophic climate change?
Being honest about Venezuela
Mike Gonzalez writes on the crisis in Venezuela and the implosion of the Bolivarian project. This article was first published by Jacobin Magazine. Venezuela descends deeper into a political and economic crisis every day. The death toll rises relentlessly, and the vicious street battles show no signs of abating. On June 27, looters trashed the city of Maracay; […]
Moving How? An interview with an al-Hirak activist (part two)
This is the second half of an interview with a left-wing activist in the The Popular Movement (al-Hirak al-Sh’abi; The Movement, or al-Hirak). In the first half, we talked about the genesis of al-Hirak, its demands and social composition. Here, we talk about separatism, about religion and political parties, and the Moroccan state. This interview was originally […]
The real cost of the Tory-DUP deal
Seb Cooke comments on the deal struck between the Tory party and the Democratic Unionists. The UK government’s attitude to Northern Ireland, which is revealing itself as the Tory-DUP deal takes shape, should concern us all. On Tuesday of this week, Secretary of State Damien Green was asked whether he thinks the DUP deal – […]
Moving How? An interview with an al-Hirak activist (part one)
Here we present the first part of an interview with an activist in the Rif region of Morocco about the protest movement which has grown dramatically in the last few months. This interview was originally published on avalancheofdust. With 32 activists given ‘shameful’ sentences in al-Hoceima last Tuesday, with only more arrested and more tried since, […]
How Rifian are the Rifian Protests?
Joe Hayns reports from Rabat on the protests that started in the Rif and are now spreading across Morocco. This piece was originally published on his blog. If you enjoy reading it, then please consider donating here to help to fund his continued documentation of the current situation in Morocco. ‘Are they Moroccans, or what?’ […]
From Parti Communiste to France Insoumise: the rebirth of the French left
In the run-up to the French legislative elections Olivier Tonneau discusses the rise of France Insoumise. Jean-Luc Mélenchon may have fallen 600,000 votes short of making it to the second round of the French presidential election but he has certainly asserted his dominance over the French left. Many feathers were ruffled in the process: Mélenchon […]
The General Strike of 2017 and the Brazilian political crisis
By Mariana Tamari and Miguel Borba de Sá, militants of the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL) and post-graduate students in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.1 The General Strike that stopped Brazil on Friday April 28 was the first of its kind for 20 years. According to the Workers Central Trade Union (CUT) 40 million people from […]
Fighting for justice in the Rif!
For almost 9 months ordinary Moroccans have been fighting for justice following the death in October of Mouhcine Fikri crushed in a garbage truck, in the Rif town of al-Hoceima. We publish here a rs21 statement in solidarity with the movement Last night, rs21 members again admired the courage and the power of the Moroccan working class […]
Anti-gay atrocities in Chechnya: let asylum seekers into Britain!
Media reports from Chechnya bring Nazi persecution to mind and are leading to protests against the Russian government. Yet our own government regularly turns away LGBT asylum seekers – attacking that injustice is the best thing we can do to help Chechen gay men, writes Colin Wilson. Protest at the Russian embassy (photo: Steve Eason) […]
A united front against US aggression: difficult but necessary
Rob Owen argues that revolutionaries need to engage with the anti-war movement that exists to build the one we need On Tuesday 4 April two U.S. warships fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Al Shayrat airfield in Syria. The airport was the base from which the Assad regime had carried out the Sarin gas attack […]
Obituary: Martin McGuinness
Pat Stack looks at the struggles which shaped Martin McGuinness and calls out the double-standards of the British Establishment’s response to his death. The death of Martin McGuinness has allowed two fairly standard, and on the face of it contrasting, narratives to emerge. The official one – as espoused with greater or lesser enthusiasm by the likes […]
revolutionary reflections | Perspectives on the crisis
Today the world is gripped with a sense of crisis to a degree that is as a great as in living memory. In this piece Sebastian Cooke provides a perspective on the nature of the crisis and how we should respond politically. A pdf of this piece can be accessed below: Perspectives on the crisis […]
Interview: Women in the Revolution
Estelle Cooch interviews Katy Turton author of Forgotten Lives – the role of Lenin’s sisters in the Russian Revolution The role of women in the February Revolution is relatively well known about, but how involved were women in the events of October? As you would expect, women were participants in the October revolution, but they […]
Fidelity to February: The People’s revolution
In days where revolution can seem more remote than ever, Dan Swain explores the height of the February revolution and reflects on its relevance to revolutionary politics today In 1917 Russia was a vast empire covering much of modern day Poland in the west, Armenia and Azerbaijan in the south, and Kazakhstan and Siberia in […]
Why is Donald Trump the president of the United States?
Amy Gilligan and Dominic Jones crunch the numbers to understand what happened in November’s election in the United States To the surprise of most observers, Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election in the United States. It is clear that an important task at the present time is to oppose his policies and the political […]
Uneven and Combined Development: Modernity, Modernism, Revolution (5): China: Where All Roads Meet
In this last of five pieces on Uneven and Combined Development, Neil Davidson looks at its applicability for China today and concludes on how we think about revolutionary conjunctures in the 21st Century.
Re-reading Reed: Ten Days that Shook the World
Lisa Leak considers John Reed’s classic book on the Russian revolution, Ten Days That Shook the World. The centennial of the October Revolution later this year will be a windfall for booksellers. Possibly no other event in history has been written on so extensively, or from such a vast variety of ideological perspectives: there’ll be […]
Anti-Trump protests “will enrage and frighten our thin-skinned new president”
Sarah Grey, a writer and activist based in Philadelphia, writes on Trump’s inauguration and the protests that have followed As Donald Trump prepared to take the oath of office, the crowd on Washington’s Mall was unusually thin. Protestors sat down at one entrance to the ticketed seating area, blocking Trump supporters’ path. As dignitaries and former […]
How do we push sexism back to the fringe?
Millions of women and men are disgusted by Trump’s casual misogyny, and they make up a not-so-silent majority that can drive a new resistance, writes Elizabeth Schulte. Originally published in the US Socialist Worker It’s the face of bigotry, of sexual assault, of xenophobia and of contempt for women. And it’s also the face of […]
Support the Syrian people – not the USA or Russia
No imperialist power can improve the situation in Syria – only the Syrian revolution itself can secure lasting peace
The counterrevolution crushes Aleppo
The Syrian regime and its Russian ally are in the last barbaric stages of an onslaught against Aleppo. Below we republish Ashley Smith’s analysis from the SocialistWorker.org website in the US. THE COMBINED forces of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Russian air power and Iranian-backed Shia death squads are reconquering Eastern Aleppo, according to reports–and with it, the […]
revolutionary reflections | A Hot Winter in South Korea – an historic opportunity in the face of the impeachment of Park Geun-hye
South Korea is being racked by arguably one of the biggest protest movements in the country’s history which has culminated in today’s impeachment of the president. Jeon Ji-yun from the South Korean anti-capitalist group Solidarity for Another World sets out the background to the crisis and an update on the rapidly changing situation. Introduction to the […]