Unions: the poison of partnerships
Brian Parkin challenges the idea that there should be ‘partnership’ between workers and their bosses In her first flush of leadership madness, Theresa May promised that from now on, the Tories would be ‘the workers party'(!) And as evidence of this conversion to the cause of the proletariat, she proposed forthcoming guidelines to advise […]
Winston Churchill: the man, the myth, the murderer
Despite his reputation as “the man who beat Hitler”, Churchill’s own record was one of murderous racism and colonial violence
Building an anti-war movement
Pete Cannell reflects on the debates surrounding Syria and suggests how we move forward.
Delegates put argument for scrapping Trident at Unite conference
A delegate reports from the Unite Policy Conference 2016 on Trident, Corbyn and the Trade Union Act Len McCluskey’s opening speech This year’s Unite policy conference takes place against a backdrop of unprecedented political crisis. Following the Brexit vote, the establishment are directly intervening in the Labour leadership crisis. In his opening speech, Len McCluskey […]
Chilcot was vindication for everyone who opposed the Iraq War
Seb Cooke discusses how the movement that opposed the Iraq War in 2003 has been vindicated in the findings of yesterday’s Chilcot report If you’re on the left in Britain and anywhere in your late-twenties or thirties, chances are you came into politics via the Iraq War. On the 15th February each year, people of […]
Video: Jail Tony Blair
The much anticipated, and much delayed, Chilcot Inquiry is due to be published today. Jasveer Singh on why why rebuilding Iraq must start with jailing Tony Blair.
The democratic wager: why the Left must support the Syrian Revolution
Nick Evans Reviews Jules Alford and Andy Wilson (eds.) Khiyana. Daesh, the Left and the Unmaking of the Syrian Revolution. Essays by Muhhamad Idrees Ahmad, Javaad Alipoor, Leila Al-Shami, Mark Boothroyd, Joseph Daher and Shiar Neyo, Sam Charles Hamad, Bodour Hassan, Michael Karadjis, Louis Proyect, Eyal Zisser. London: Unkant, 2016. 278 pp. £9.99. The title of this book means “betrayal”: […]
Revisiting Frantz Fanon: memories and moments of a militant philosopher
A new book by Leo Zeilig focuses on one of Africa and the modern era’s most celebrated revolutionaries, whose views remain influential long after his death. Many people spoke well that day. Delegates had come from across the African continent to independent Ghana for the All-African Peoples’ Conference in 1958. Most spoke of the continuing […]
Finance, capitalism and imperial power – a review of Tony’s Norfield’s ‘The City’
Want to reform finance but maintain capitalism? Then you may have a problem. Tom Haines-Doran reviews ‘The City’ by Tony Norfield, recently published by Verso.
Ireland’s greatest revolutionary
For the centenary of the Easter Rising of 1916 we republish Shaun Harkin‘s account of the life of Irish Marxist and revolutionary James Connolly. James Connolly was executed by a British firing squad on May 12, 1916, in Dublin City along with other leaders of what became known as the Irish Easter Rising. At his […]
Voices against Trident – video from CND demonstration in London
On Saturday tens of thousands of people protested in central London to oppose the renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system.
We can defend jobs without supporting nuclear weapons
We reprint this article from last September in solidarity with everyone marching today for a missile free future In the wake of recent statements by Len McCluskey, an Aerospace Unite rep argues that unions should support those arguing for a future beyond nuclear weapons. The destruction of the world is not a job creation scheme Len […]
International statement: We fight dictatorships, imperialist aggression and Daesh. We reject the politics of “national security”, racism and austerity. It’s time to mobilise!
Over recent months, people across the Middle East have been hit by an intensification of conflict in Syria and Iraq. That escalation has been sponsored both by global imperialist powers – chiefly the USA, Russia and European countries – and regional imperialist actors including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Iran. These conflicts are the product […]
“Important Speech on why we should go to war, just released”
Michael Rosen reports on an “Important Speech on why we should go to war, just released”. “We can drop bombs through the eye of a needle. We can’t always find the needle. But we drop the bombs anyway. And they land very accurately. On..er…whatever’s there. Which is good, isn’t it? “There will be civilian casualties. That’s […]
Thousands protest against Cameron’s War, solidarity needed with Assad’s victims
Nick Evans reports from last night’s protest in London against the bombing of Syria Today, the House of Commons will be asked again to vote on bombing Syria. The UK is already bombing Iraq, and Syrians are already being bombed by the Assad regime, by Russia, by the US, by France. The UK has also […]
Don’t Bomb Syria
Cameron intends to take Britain to war – again – with the support of Labour MPs who would rather back him than Jeremy Corbyn. A recent rs21 leaflet argued against war, racism and repression following the killings in Paris. Huge numbers oppose the war. Every socialist should be piling pressure on MPs to vote against […]
Unite shifts left over Trident, opposes war on Syria and launches its industrial strategy
The Unite sector conferences were organised over three days this week. They give reps an opportunity to debate industrial issues relating to each sector with a view to developing industrial strategy for the next 2 years. This year the conferences took place against the backdrop of the Tories’ anti Trade Union Bill, the recent victory […]
What challenges does Cameron’s war drive face?
The government wants to bomb Syria. We need to understand the problems Cameron faces making that happen so as to oppose the push to war, argues Colin Wilson. Cameron wants to bomb Syria, but he faces problems doing so. The major problem in parliamentary terms is a report about British bombing of Syria produced by […]
HM 2015: How the West Came to Rule
Marxist scholars have long debated the origins of capitalism. Bill Crane reports on a fruitful debate at this year’s Historical Materialism conference about the recent book ‘How the West Came to Rule’. The question of how capitalism emerged and became the basis of the international system has generated a number of incredibly fruitful debates among […]
After Paris: no to imperialist wars, no to Islamophobia, no to attacks on refugees
We are horrified by the attacks in Paris: we join in mourning the dead, and send our condolences to the loved ones of those who have died. These attacks are part of the war raging across the Middle East, including the deaths of 40 people killed in Beirut and 17 killed in Baghdad on Friday […]
Migration FAQ: why now?
Nick Evans answers some common questions around the migration crisis Why now? More people around the world were forcibly displaced in 2014 than ever before in recorded history. Of those 59.5 million people, 19.5 million were classed by the UN as refugees. The overwhelming majority of those refugees were hosted in developing regions, but unprecedented numbers have […]
Understanding Ankara: why many see blood on the hands of the Turkish state
The bombing in Ankara was the deadliest in modern Turkish history. In a country where the state regularly uses violence against protesters, and with an election approaching, much of the left argue that the government bears much of the blame. Phil Buyum Jackson explains the background to the attack and describes events since the bombing. 106 people were […]
Migration in the age of Imperialism’s four horsemen: part 3
For over three decades neoliberalism has run rampant at the expense of the working class and poorest of the world. But such a dismal interpretation of the world just will not do. The point is to change it. This requires us honestly to recognise the scale of the crisis while identifying those symptoms of resistance […]
Migration in the age of Imperialism’s four horsemen: part 2
The intensification of capitalist competition has created global markets and in the process has led to an imperialist period of capitalist development that has seen war, the uprooting of whole populations and environmental degradation push the fabric of societies and our planets intricate network of ecosystems to the point of crisis. This is the second […]
Migration in the age of Imperialism’s four horsemen: Part 1
For the past year a growing refugee crisis on Europe’s borders has allowed the political right to capitalise on xenophobic and paranoid fears spread by racist politicians and media. Even those who have rejected the more outrageous expressions have often accepted the classification of those seeking resettlement along the lines of the ‘deserving’ refugees and […]
We can defend jobs without supporting nuclear weapons
We reprint this article from last September in solidarity with everyone marching today for a missile free future In the wake of recent statements by Len McCluskey, a Unite rep, argues that unions should support those arguing for a future beyond nuclear weapons. The destruction of the world is not a job creation scheme Len McCluskey’s […]
Taking a longer view
Pete Cannell is an active member of Edinburgh Stop the War Coalition. He responds here to Mark Boothroyd’s article on the Syrian Revolution and the anti-war movement. It was good to read Mark Boothroyd’s article on the Syrian Revolution and the anti-war movement. My hope is that it will trigger a debate on how the movement […]
The Syrian Revolution and the crisis of the anti-war movement
Suddenly, everyone is talking about Syria. Saturday’s demonstration will be in solidarity with all refugees, but a Syrian refugee is one of the key organisers. Campaigners from the Syria Solidarity Movement UK and Stop the War Coalition are among those involved in the planning, along with many other organisations. Everyone should welcome this commitment to […]
As Middle East goes nuclear, climate change goes critical. Part 3: Imperialism and climate
In the final part of Brian Parkin’s article, he shows that imperialist wars, arrested development and impending climate catastrophe are all linked through industrial capitalism’s continuing dependence on oil. He argues we need to replace capitalism before it causes any more irreparable damage to our societies and our world. (See parts 1 and 2. See […]