Review | Mute Compulsion: A Marxist Theory of the Economic Power of Capital
‘The mute compulsion of economic relations sets the seal on the domination of the capitalist over the worker.’
Review | Future on Fire: mass movements in the climate crisis
What movement do we need? Taisie Tsikas reviews David Camfield’s new book on climate tactics.
Review | The Communist Road to Capitalism and The Left in China
Charlie Hore reviews two important books on struggle from below in China.
Review | A Revolutionary for Our Time: the Walter Rodney Story
Rachel Iboraii reviews Leo Zeilig book on Walter Rodney, finding a compelling account of the life of the great Marxist and pan-Africanist.
Abolition Revolution: a vital step into the future
We need to get rid of police and prisons entirely.
Review | Derailed: How to Fix Britain’s Broken Railways
Why is train travel a disaster? How can we fix it?
People Make Television: cultural production, socialism and the state
Tom Schofield on the People Make Television exhibition at Raven Row, London.
Review | Shake the City – Experiments in Space and Time, Music and Crisis
Kate Bradley reviews Shake the City by Alexander Billet, a well-written and thought-provoking book on the role of music in making political change.
‘Adult Human Female’ and the contradictions of left-wing transphobia
rs21 member Úna O’Shea debunks a film that claims to provide a ‘materialist’ basis for gender essentialism.
Understanding China after Mao
Charlie Hore reviews China after Mao, finding a work with large omissions which fails to explain why China has changed so much since the 1970s.
The scale of Britain’s housing crisis
Danny Schultz reviews a recent work exploring the scale of exploitative landlordism in Britain, finding an indictment of British capitalism and an urgent call for renter organising.
Towards a truly radical Scottish independence movement
Jim Ritchie reviews Scotland After Britain, a new book on the Scottish independence movement.
The Overstory – eco-fiction and capitalism
In the first article of their new Substack Capture the Flag, Caliban’s Revenge considers eco-fiction award winner The Overstory. Whilst it is an impassioned plea for environmental consciousness, they find a novel trapped by individualistic and problematic understandings of capitalist society. This summer has been, I’m sure you’ve noticed, terrifying. The earth is broiling and the […]
Hating capitalism more than The Communist Manifesto
The Communist Manifesto is one of the cornerstones of Marxism. Neil Rogall celebrates a compelling new account of its importance today by author and activist China Miéville. I first read the Communist Manifesto sometime in 1968, when I was still at school and involved in a School Students Union in Leeds. It was the first […]
‘Play for Today’: groundbreaking and still relevant
Simon Donohoe reflects on the groundbreaking TV series ‘Play for Today’, re-released this year.
London in revolt – revisiting the English Civil War
Andrew Stone looks at a new history of the origins of the English Civil Wars, finding an engaging account of the class character of the process which ultimately saw Charles I executed. London may not have the same revolutionary reputation of Paris or St Petersburg, but in this new account of the outbreak of the […]
The Marx family visits the Commune
Leslie Cunningham reviews a new piece of political fiction, imagining Karl and Jenny Marx visiting the Paris Commune. Marx in Paris provides a great introduction to both the Commune and its political significance for socialists today. This short work (100 pages) purports to be a “found document”, a blue notebook discovered in a trunk containing […]
Music of the streets, music of rebellion
The 1920s saw the emergence of new kinds of music around the world, sometimes with links to anti-colonial movements.
The deviant law student
In a piece originally published in Socialist Lawyer, Kate Bradley reviews the Critical Legal Pocketbook, and finds it a useful corrective to capitalist legal education, perfect for socialists who study and work in law. There are many reasons why socialists may be attracted to the legal profession. Though it is an embattled terrain dominated by […]
Review | Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire
Caroline Elkins’ compelling new book makes the barbarity of the British empire in the twentieth century absolutely clear.
Municipal politics and the revolutionary left
Danny Schultz reviews Paint Your Town Red, by Matthew Brown and Rhian E Jones, finding an interesting discussion of the possibilities of radical local politics.
Moving past the graveyard of Green New Deals
Gus Woody reviews ‘A People’s Green New Deal’ by Max Ajl
Reimagining the relationship between care and power
Abu Leila reviews Abolition. Feminism. Now. in the context of radical politics in Britain.
Capitalism, debt and feminism
Kate Bradley reviews A Feminist Reading of Debt, finding an insightful account of the relationship between debt, gender, and capitalism, as well as examples of how to fight back against debt.
Revolutionary Reads – What books got us through 2021?
We asked rs21 members what they’ve been reading in 2021, whether new works of revolutionary theory, fiction, or old classics. These were some of the examples our members had. James B – Psychoanalysis and Revolution (2021) Pyschoanalysis and Revolution argues for the relevancy of psychoanalysis as a tool for those of us involved in liberatory […]
Review | Anti-Gender Politics in the Populist Moment
We need a feminism integrated with struggles for economic justice and against racism, homophobia and transphobia.
Review | Let the record show
‘Let The Record Show’ is a pathbreaking history of ACT UP founded to fight the AIDS/HIV crisis in New York in the late 1980s.