AUDIO: The Fire Last Time – 1968
Marxist historian Neil Davidson talks on 1968 and the broader period of uprisings and reprisals of which it became the most visible example
Leaders, leaders, leaders and leaders
Unite the Union activist Ian Allinson discusses the different connotations of the word ‘leader’.
50 years from May ‘68, students in France are mobilising again
France is again in the midst of a wave of intense social action, with universities disrupted for months and mass arrests in Mayday protests.
‘It was like a rocket: a fantastic display’: Reflections on May ’68
In a speech to Manchester rs21, Colin Barker reflects on the “madness of May ‘68”, when, for a brief moment, everything seemed possible.
Accuser of capitalism: speech from the dock
A hundred years ago today, John Maclean, hero of “Red Clydeside”, assailed the imperialist slaughter of World War One as he stood trial for sedition
revolutionary reflections | The Roberts-Arundel strike
A never-before-seen pamphlet dating from 1968 tells the fascinating true story of the Stockport Roberts-Arundel textile strike.
It Moves!
Barnaby Raine finds much to admire in Against Miserabilism, a new edition of writings by the late socialist author David Widgery
Marx and historical materialism
Abstract concepts are vital, but we also need to think through how we apply them in practice.
If not Corbyn, then what?
Barnaby Raine offers a viewpoint on left-wing Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Social Reproduction Theory: going beyond Marx’s Capital
Colin Barker of Manchester rs21 spoke on ‘Social Reproduction Theory: Remapping Class, Recentering Oppression’ at the recent Historical Materialism conference in London.
Images of Russia from liberation to oppression
Steve Eason reviews Red Star Over Russia and Not Everyone will be Taken into the Future by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, both at Tate Modern.
Business warms to Corbyn: getting our bearings in a new political world
The Tories face disaster – so much so that sections of the ruling class are warming to the idea of a Corbyn government.
How memories of Soviet repression turn Eastern Europe against the left
Hanna Gal offers some personal thoughts on anti-communist political culture in Eastern Europe and how to bridge the divide between Eastern European workers and Western Marxists.
Reflections on ‘The Fall’
Colin Revolting gives his thoughts on The Fall, an extraordinary play about a protest movement in South African in 2015-16 which has had an enormous impact in the West.
Workers and the Soviet state: lessons from the 1920s
The centenary of the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia provides an opportunity to open up debates on the nature of revolutions and post-revolutionary politics.
How class struggle can bridge the Brexit divide
Seb Cooke argues that only a sense of shared struggle can unite different sections of working class which were divided over last year’s referendum vote.
A statement on the centenary of the October Revolution
rs21 celebrates the Revolution as a high-water mark in human history.
Six Red Months in Russia: Louise Bryant’s view of the revolution
Louise Bryant’s Six Red Months in Russia, with its nuanced and enlightening discussion of women’s lives, is a vital eyewitness account of the Russian Revolution.
Moving the centre: The Marxist squatters and the populist mayor
Joe Hayns interviews the organisers of a ‘House of the People’ who are facing similar questions in Naples.
Reviewing BBC Radio 4’s coverage of the Russian revolution
Martin Crook analyses the presentation of the Russian revolution by the BBC, questioning the accuracy of a review that blames the revolution for the sins of Stalinism.
After 1917: Civil war and ‘modernising counter-revolution’
The Russian Revolution not only provides the most far reaching example of a socialist revolution in history, it also changes our understanding of counter-revolution.
Video: Mike Haynes – dreams, utopias and messy realities of Russia in 1917
Watch Mike Haynes’ humorous and enlightening talk for Leicester rs21 on the dreams, utopias and messy realities of the Russian revolution.
‘Quite an experience’, Blade Runner, Marxism and Postmodernity
With the theatre release of Blade Runner 2049, Red Wedge Magazine have given rs21 permission to republish an interview with Matthew Flisfeder author of Postmodern Theory and Blade Runner (2017). The original interview was carried out in September, and focuses solely on the ‘original’ film and its context. A review of the Blade Runner 2049 […]
Review: ‘The Impossible Revolution’ in Syria
Lebanese writer Joey Ayoub reviews Yassin Al-Haj Saleh’s The Impossible Revolution: Making Sense of the Syrian Tragedy. Barely a year after the start of the Syrian revolution, in May of 2012, the intellectual and dissident Yassin Al-Haj Saleh was hiding somewhere in Damascus and writing an essay entitled ‘the rise of militant nihilism’. He had […]
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 […]
Choosing or refusing to take sides in an era of right-wing populism
In the decade following the banking crash, the protracted crisis in neoliberal governance is taking a number of striking forms. Neil Davidson sets out the case for ‘rejecting the lesser evil’ option when faced with a choice between the radical right and the neoliberal centre.
The contradictions of Corbynism
Support to mainstream parties of the left must be made tactically alongside work to organise a mass revolutionary party.
Gracchus Babeuf revisited
Historian Doug Enaa Greene reviews The Spectre of Babeuf by Ian Birchall. Often unfairly dismissed by socialists, Gracchus Babeuf represents a break from utopianism towards direct, practical action and all the challenges that implies, and he has much to teach revolutionaries today. Spectre of Babeuf is published by Haymarket Books and is available now.
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.
Harmonies and dissonances: Russia in revolution
In a piece originally published in the rs21 magazine, Mike Haynes illuminates the contested histories of the Russian revolution The bookshelves creak. But does it matter? No-one who remembers the Russia Revolution is still alive. You would have to be at least in your 40s to even have much of a memory of what the USSR was. […]