Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century
 
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‘We are all Mahsa’: riots shake Iran

Protests and riots have spread across Iran after a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, was murdered by the morality police

A collage of abusive and derisive headlines from coverage of the Depp v Heard defamation trial

This is no time to stay silent

The Depp v Heard trial has unleashed a torrent of misogyny that feminists cannot ignore.

The union of women and the Paris Commune

An account of the Women’s union of the Paris Commune, extracted from Mark Winter’s forthcoming book ‘Turbulent Women’

Image shows a red-filtered photo of a laundrette, empty except for one woman in the background.

The double shift: talking childcare and gender in the pandemic

As many nations re-enter lockdown, Kate Bradley interviews two rs21 members on their experiences with childcare, work and gender during Covid lockdowns.

Image shows the cover of ABOLITION.FEMINSM.NOW by Angela Y. Davis, Gina Dent, Erica R. Meiners, and Beth E. Richie, plus background images of protestors.

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.

Review | Anti-Gender Politics in the Populist Moment

We need a feminism integrated with struggles for economic justice and against racism, homophobia and transphobia.

Eileen Cook, 1950-2021, pictured here at Athens Social Forum.

Obituary: Eileen Cook, 1950-2021

Eileen Cook, who died on 6 October 2021, was a life-long trade unionist, feminist campaigner, and revolutionary socialist. She is much missed by many, including her comrades in Edinburgh rs21, who remember her in this obituary.

Gender and nationalism: Breivik’s ‘Western values’

Breivik’s political motivations for committing the massacre have been consistently side-lined. But when examined, his far-right politics demonstrate clear affinities with much more mainstream right-wing ideology.

graffiti in Holyrood Park, near the Scottish Parliament showing a heart transgender symbol

No more ‘delays’ to trans rights: reform the GRA now!

Scotland-based rs21 member Leslie Cunningham argues we should all be fighting in the struggle for trans rights, and asks: why the delays to reforming the Gender Recognition Act?

A black and white photograph of Angela Davis (right hand side) speaking to a large, assembled crowd into a microphone.

Reading Women, Race & Class 40 years on

Rose Whitehorn reflects on some of the key themes conveyed in Angela Davis’ Women, Race & Class, and this work’s significance during the resurgences in anti-racist and feminist organising.  

Image of Kill the Bill protesters in Parliament Square

#KillTheBill – where it came from, where it’s going

Th Police Bill is an assault on us all and an attack on us all must be met by resistance from us all. Unity and solidarity must be the clarion call of this movement.

Large crowd at Black Trans Lives Matter demonstration in London

Video: building the fightback against transphobia in Britain

Charlotte Powell and Jules Joanne Gleeson speak about what is needed to win trans liberation and defeat transphobia in Britain.

A crowd of people marching through central london at a Black Trans Lives Matter demonstration

Video: The state of transphobia in Britain

In December, rs21 organised a meeting ‘Transphobia in Britain: Building the Fightback’. Here we present two of the speeches from that meeting, which give an overview of transphobia in Britain, its impact, and prospects for its defeat.

Image shows an internal chamber of the Seimas, the seat of Lithuania's parliament in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Civil partnerships and reproductive rights in Eastern Europe: an interview with Laima Vaige

rs21’s Leslie Cunningham interviews Dr. Laima Vaige, a feminist and LGBTQ activist from Lithuania, on same-sex partnerships in Lithuania, abortion rights in Poland, and LGBTQ people’s experiences across Europe during the Covid crisis.

Sylivia Pankhurst addressing a crowd outside the headquarters of the East London Federation of Suffragettes, Old Ford Road, Bow

Review | Sylvia Pankhurst: Natural Born Rebel

Sylvia Pankhurst’s life was full of tireless activism in the cause of women’s rights, anti-imperialism and the emancipation of the working class

What happened at Clapham Common

An eyewitness account of a powerful event marred by shocking and gratuitous acts of violence by the Metropolitan Police.

Flowers and a sign reading 'end violence against women'

We can’t rely on the police to protect women

In the aftermath of Sarah Everard’s murder, politicians immediately called for heavier policing. But more police will not end violence against women.

A photo of feminists in Chile marking International Women's Day.

IWD 2021: Five feminist fights for the year ahead

Reproductive justice, sexual violence and harassment, justice at work: on International Women’s Day, we look at key feminist fights for the year to come.

An image of a pile of women's magazines

Review | Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again

Kate Bradley reviews a highly readable intervention into recent debates amongst feminists

Image is an aerial view of a pro-choice rally in Poland, showing thousands of people filling a crossroads, in 2020.

Poland’s feminist uprising

Women in Poland are making their own cause for hope by taking the streets. rs21 spoke with several feminist activists in Polish union Inicjatywa Pracownicza about the recent wave of feminist strikes and protests.

Liebig34 displaying queer feminist banners and flags.

Autonomous space in Berlin: Liebig34, eviction, and gentrification

The violent police eviction of Berlin’s iconic Liebig34 space is the latest event in a never-ending battle between the city’s radical-left counterculture, and the forces of state-aided gentrification.

Review: Radical Happiness

Lynne Segal’s most recent work, Radical Happiness, addresses the relationship between political action and personal fulfilment.

Review | Fortunes of Feminism

Leslie Cunningham reviews Fortunes of Feminism by Nancy Fraser, a critical account of changes in feminist thought in the era of neo-liberalism.

‘I was born a baby not a boy’: sex, gender and trans liberation

Shanice McBean argues for a Marxism with trans liberation at its heart through a materialist analysis of gender and sex.

Fighting back better: abolitionist trans struggle and the GRA

To defeat transphobia, we must build radical anti-racist solidarity against state violence

50 years after the Equal Pay Act

Money can’t buy you love – but it does pay the bills. Fifty years after the Equal Pay Act, women are still fighting for equal pay. What lessons we can now learn from the Covid-19 pandemic?

Report from the #FeministPickets

Last week we republished the call from Women’s Strike Assembly for feminists to link up with the current higher education strikes. rs21 members report from the #FeministPickets

Feminists to the pickets!

The Women’s Strike Assembly are calling for feminists to link up with the current higher education strikes and organise feminist pickets on Monday 9 March 2020.

Launch statement: Cambridge Feminist Anti-Fascists

Cambridge Feminist Anti-Fascists is a new group intending to organise against the far right and the broader social issues that fuel it.