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.
Read the new bulletin on the UCU strike!
Introducing USS Strike Bulletin, a collaborative online project exploring the bigger questions around neoliberalism in Higher Education.
Hacking the Spectacle: an interview with Darren Cullen
Cullen uses the language of advertising to make art taking aim at militarism and consumerism
How capital is reshaping the battleground of class war
Kim Moody’s new book seeks to rethink our understanding of capitalism today, and how workers can respond.
On productivity, living standards and the British economic model – thoughts and reflections
In the wake of the Budget Statement, Joe Sabatini ponders Britain’s productivity puzzle.
Report: work-in by engineers looks to save jobs at BiFab
Pete Cannell and Willie Black report on the battle in defence of workers’ jobs at Scottish engineering firm BiFab.
Atlas Shrugged: the world’s most boring cult novel
On 10 October 1957 Random House published Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, a book now regarded by many as the ultimate expression of capitalist greed, as well as perhaps the worst novel ever written.
‘You strike a woman, you strike a rock’
Luke Hodgkin reviews Aliki Saragas’s new film Strike a Rock, which follows the fight for justice of the women widowed by the 2012 Marikana Massacre in South Africa. On 16 August 2012, 34 striking miners were shot dead by the South African security forces, in what has become known as the ‘Marikana massacre’. There has been no […]
Review: Naomi Klein, No is Not Enough
Naomi Klein draws on her past analysis of capitalism in arguing how to defeat the “new shock politics” of Trump, writes Andrew Stone. Donald Trump’s threat of ‘fire and fury’ against North Korea might just have easily described his domestic agenda – an incendiary politics that, while emerging out of the US establishment, still expresses […]
Review: Mariana Mazzucato, ‘The Entrepreneurial State’
Harry J Bentham gives his take on Mariana Mazzucato’s The Entrepreneurial State (2013), a book which has influenced Labour’s proposed economic policies in the lead up to the 2017 General Election.
#GE2017: How radical are Labour’s economic policies?
The limitations of the manifesto are those we would expect to find facing any reformist government operating in the capitalist system today.
The dilemma facing France: neoliberalism or neofascism?
With just over a week until the second round of the French presidential election, antiracist activist Selim Nadi reflects on how France reached this crossroads, and what the French left needs to do next to resist the rise of neofascism. Graffiti reads: ‘neither nation nor bosses, neither Le Pen nor Macron’. Photo credit: cpolitic. François […]
revolutionary reflections | Critical Theory in the Age of Trump Part 1: Organised Pessimism
The election of Trump has raised the stakes in terms of how the left should respond to the growing crises of economics, politics, ecology and geopolitics. Joe Sabatini explores the work of the Frankfurt School in this context. Photo courtesy of iamyouasheisme.wordpres.com Footnotes to this piece are included in the PDF. 20170330_Critical Theory Part 1 Methodological introduction […]
Uneven and Combined Development: Modernity, Modernism, Revolution (4): Continuities and Changes
In part 4 of his series on Uneven and Combined Development Neil Davidson looks at its relevance in the contemporary world.
Racism renewed
Anindya Bhattacharyya traces the roots of the current anti-migrant racism back to the contradiction at the heart of New Labour’s immigration policy. Here he argues that changed circumstances necessitate a radical popular movement against racism. Everyone Who Is Here Is From Here, a one-day organising forum against racism and for migrant justice is taking place this Saturday (5 […]
Policing the Planet – charting changes to policing under neoliberalism
Sølvi Qorda reviews Policing the Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter, edited by Jordan T. Camp and Christina Heatherton Police killings have reached a shameful apex this week, the highest number in one week in an already-murderous year. How can we begin to comprehend a world where Americans will apparently express […]
Critical Mess: Tories approve Hinkley Point C nuclear disaster
Brian Parkin unravels the web of stupidity, dogma, secrecy and privatisation failure that has resulted in Theresa May consenting to the Hinkley Point C nuclear station.
Selling Brazil – review of Dave Zirin’s “Brazil’s Dance with the Devil”
Ruth Lorimer reviews Brazil’s Dance with the Devil: The World Cup, The Olympics and the Fight for Democracy by Dave Zirin, published by Haymarket Books.
Academisation and the Chicago teachers’ strikes
It is really important and positive that the National Union of Teachers (NUT) conference was so determined to strike against the Tories’ plans to force all schools to become academies and break up national pay and conditions for teachers. It is even better that the NUT aims to coordinate with other unions, including the junior […]
Fight Forced Academies
Education is under attack. Jen Wilkinson on why – and how – we have to fight back.
EU debate: A socialist case for leaving the EU
Neil Davidson, in a piece originally published on Bella Caledonia, makes the case from a Scottish perspective about why socialists should support leaving the EU.
TTIP: capitalism on steroids
Mathilde Dahl is an activist in Students Against TTIP. Here she explains what TTIP is, why we should be worried about it, and how we can stop it. A new set of corporate power grabs are in preparation. These deals are negotiated in secrecy, wrapped up as trade agreements and sold to us with the promise of economic […]
Dismantling the NHS is turbo-charged neoliberalism: Review of How to Dismantle the NHS in 10 Easy Steps
NHS activist Gill George reviews Youssef El-Gingihy’s book How to Dismantle the NHS in 10 Easy Steps The NHS is a milestone in history – the most civilised step any country has ever taken The quote above is what Aneurin Bevin told the first NHS patient ever to be treated, back in 1948; and that’s how Youssef […]
Climate change: it’s going to take a revolution
Watch rs21’s video on why the obstacles to solving the problem of climate breakdown are intrinsic to our capitalist system.
South Africa: an “amazing country-wide revolt” is fighting student fee increases
Not enough has changed since the end of apartheid, say South African students, as fee increases threaten to stop many black students from going to university. Protests continue across South African universities against plans to raise tuition fees by up to 11 percent. The protests began last week in Johannesburg, and have spread around the country. […]
South Korean Marxist Economics after Soohaeng Kim
Seongjin Jeong, who is Professor of Economics at Gyeongsang National University, pays tribute to Soohaeng Kim, the “Godfather of Marxist economics” in South Korea. Professor Soohaeng Kim, South Korea’s most well-known Marxist economist, died of a heart attack on 1 August at the age of 72. He is survived by his wife and two sons. […]
The crisis in homecare
By civilised standards people living longer should be something to celebrate. But in the twisted logic of neoliberalism it is regarded instead as a burden – a “demographic time-bomb”. Here, former Edinburgh care worker Marlyn Tweedie explains the reality of the growing crisis in social care. This article was originally published in the Leeds publication […]
The rise of the GERM: how is education messing with our minds?
With the neoliberal assault on education seemingly unending, Andrew Stone, a teacher and NUT rep in south London, considers the role of education today and how we can fight back “Anorexia is increasing among primary-age children. Self-harm was reported as a direct response to the pressure of SATs [national tests taken at ages 6-7 and 10-11] […]
EU debate: “the EU is simply conforming to the neoliberal architecture of its DNA”
Brian Parkin continues the debate on the EU, arguing for a vote to leave the EU. This is an edited version of an article that appeared in the lasted issue of the Leeds publication Northern Star. For many socialists the issue of a forthcoming referendum on the EU poses some dilemmas. On the one hand […]
EU debate: “Leaving the EU won’t get rid of neoliberalism”
Bettina Trabant, originally from Germany, currently living in London, continues the discussion on which side to support in the vote on EU membership. We will be continuing this debate with another article from Brian Parkin tomorrow. Socialists have been debating the upcoming EU referendum ever since the general election in May and can be […]