rs21 Readers and Writers recommend 2016, part 1
We asked our readers and writers to pick a cultural highlight of the year. Read on for suggestions of books, films, TV, music and even a cook book… Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh Colin Barker When I was a kid, as well as climbing trees, making dens, lighting fires, and playing cowboys, I haunted […]
Reclaiming the future
Sølvi Qorda argues the “millennial” generation needs to shoot up a flare and embrace the idea of human liberation if we are not to abandon the future to fear. My most enduring memory of the student movement was of the power and the creativity that it brought. At Millbank, on Day X, in the university […]
Migrant workers: legislating for precarity
Mikhil Karnik, an immigration lawyer in Manchester, explains how changes in immigration law are driving migrant workers towards greater precarity One measure of the distinction made between EU nationals and other immigrants is the disproportionate use of detention in Britain. Despite making up less than half the migrant population, non-EU migrants constitute about 90% of those […]
Long read: The Sanders Campaign – Could the Democratic Party split?
Shawn Whitney, Canadian writer, filmmaker, and socialist, continues our discussion of the US elections. He argues that Marxists should be playing an active role in Sanders’ campaign because of its potential to raise the general level of class-conciousness. Read previous contributions to the debate here. Presidential primary season is drawing to a close in the United […]
Review: Making a Murderer – the stain of blood marks the white exterior.
Seb Cooke reviews the popular Netflix series, which raises questions that are uncomfortable for those in power and a call to arms for those who are not.
South African students win on fees: an “extraordinary moment”, but the movement may go still further
After widespread student protests against rises in tuition fees, South African president Jacob Zuma announced on Friday afternoon that the government is backing down – there will be no rise in fees next year. Voices are now being raised to continue the movement, with demands for free education – free both financially and in terms of ideas. […]
NUT conference 2015 report: why are teachers always complaining?
The current coalition government has seen major public sector strikes including all three teaching unions. As we edge ever closer to the general election Andy Stone, president of Wandsworth NUT, reports in a personal capacity from this years recent NUT conference in Harrogate Education is a battleground for two intersecting conflicts over austerity and neoliberal ideology. While the effects […]
Precarious Work, ‘Compression’ and Class Struggle ‘Leaps’
Kim Moody, author of In Solidarity, continues the discussion begun by Ian A and continued by Kevin Crane about the nature of work and workplace struggle today In his response to Ian A, Kevin Crane raises a number of serious issues concerning the work of socialists in trade unions and the workplace. The heart of his […]
The roots of American racism 3: Civil war to civil rights
In the third of four articles, Bill Crane examines the origins of racism in the United States. Here he looks at how the racist segregation of Jim Crow was implemented in the 1890s and then abolished by the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. In the second article in this series on the origins of American racism, we […]
Why Labour should be worried about Clacton
Anindya Bhattacharyya analyses UKIP’s success in Thursday’s two by-elections. One of the peculiarities of mainstream political chatter is its tendency to seize on the unexpected and discount long-term predictable trends. The response to Thursday’s by-elections is a case in point: UKIP’s Douglas Carswell was expected to win in Clacton, so no surprises there, but the Heywood […]
Trouble in Toryland as the referendum gets rocky
The possibility of Scottish independence has got our rulers in a tizzy, writes Anindya Bhattacharyya. What a weird week it’s been. Monday night saw YouGov’s announcement that its latest Scottish referendum poll had the Yes camp on 51%. This sparked jubilation among independence campaigners. But the reaction of political establishment south of the border was little short […]
Assata Shakur: the world’s most dangerous woman?
Estelle Cooch reports on a lively launch of Assata Shakur’s autobiography at the recently opened Black Cultural Archives in Brixton It may be forty years since Assata Shakur, still the FBI’s most wanted woman, went on the run and sought asylum in Cuba, but the debates and controversy that surrounds her arrest doesn’t look to […]
The upturn/downturn debate: an introduction
Ian A summarises a debate on the development of capitalism since 1968, and how this has impacted the working class and its struggles, in a attempt to address the question of what revolutionaries should do.