Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century
 
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The Good Lord Bird: John Brown’s militant abolitionism

Bill Crane looks at the life of militant US abolitionist John Brown and his portrayal in a recent TV adaptation of James McBride’s novel The Good Lord Bird.

Image shows a woman holding up a placard reading Power to the People Not the Police with a backdrop of other women in the crowd.

We Will Not Be Divided – Statement from Sisters Uncut

Sisters Uncut’s statement against police and state violence and the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill 2021, originally published on 23 March 2021. rs21 signed the statement alongside groups including Black Lives Matter UK, Jewish Solidarity Action and Docs Not Cops. 

An image showing a snowy street in Govanhill, Glasgow.

Govanhill: ghettoisation and exploitation in modern Glasgow

Slum housing, hyper-exploitation and racist demagoguery are alive and kicking in the Scotland of 2021 – along with the basis for internationalist solidarity and resistance.

Bristol police officers moving to suppress an occupation in 2011.

A criminal record: 10 times Bristol police abused local people

Bristol’s police force – presented by the media as the victims of a ‘mob’ – are among the most violent, racist and abusive parts of Britain’s police state.

An image of a cop chasing a silhouetted figure, while a police van burns in the background. Keywords; Bristol riot protesters protest peaceful violent police cops

In defence of the mob

After protesters in Bristol dared to fight back police violence, respectable opinion is rushing to condemn ‘rioters’. But is it really true that riots ‘don’t achieve anything’?

2020 in photos: reviewing a year of turbulence

Photo gallery: 2020 was a year of political tumult, despite the constraints placed by the pandemic on popular protest.

The Trumpian afterlife

The incoming Biden administration may repeal a few of Trump’s ugliest policies, but the revitalised far right is not going away.

Keywords: fascism far right wing nationalism Brexit

Video: Confronting the British state

Three activists speak on the Scottish independence movement, the Tory Party’s right-wing populist strategy, and the political role of migrant solidarity.

Jeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer. Keywords: antisemitism anti-semitism Labour Party racist racism

The antisemitism of Sir Keir Starmer

The Labour leadership treats British Jews as pawns in its factional war against the left. Meanwhile, its so-called ‘Zero Tolerance’ approach contributes nothing to any serious attempt to tackle antisemitism.

‘When you have a hammer’: state repression and the pandemic

Facing a fraying of its ideological hegemony, the government increasingly relies on state repression. But this intensified violence could yet backfire.

Worshipers in Kashgar, Xinjiang. Keywords: Xinjiang China Muslims Uighers Uyghers oppression

Why is the Chinese state repressing the Uyghurs in Xinjiang?

The repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang by the Chinese state brings together a long history of national oppression, and a new ambition of capitalist expansion.

Mussolini inspecting troops, 1945 Keywords: fascism Trump US USA far right far-right antifa

Review | Fascism: History and Theory

Luigi Hay reviews a timely analysis of the origins of fascist organisation, which looks critically at different strategies adopted by the left to fight fascism.

A squad of riot police march past the National Gallery in London.

What does abolition mean in modern Britain?

The Black Lives Matter movement has sown seeds of hope worldwide for the abolition of police. But policing in the UK goes far beyond the bodies of armed men in uniform.

Protestors sit down outside a police station at the Battle for Brick Lane in 1978

Unfixing South Asian identity: beyond the politics of allyship

The most effective anti-racist strategy will draw together all those affected or repulsed by racism in a common struggle to overcome it.

Two Black protesters on a motorbike, one of them raises a fist, in front of a burning car in a dark city street.

revolutionary reflections | Capitalism, racialisation and resistance

Arjun Mahadevan argues that to build effective anti-racist struggles we need to acknowledge that racism was central to the development of capitalism.

Barbed wire above a metal fence

Resist Tory immigration plans

Zareen Taj and Mitch Mitchell look at the effects of the Tories’ proposed new immigration system following Brexit.

We must act now

As the initially censored Public Health England report makes clear, Covid-19 has exposed the lethal structures of systemic racism in our society. Artwork and text by Katherine Hearst.

Report: Covid 19 and the racism of the state

On Friday, 26 June, rs21 East London held an online meeting to explore the relationship between state racism and the healthcare system during the COVID-19 crisis. Rose Whitehorn writes about some of the key issues discussed. 

Aretha Franklin (seated on the left) and Jerry Wexler (standing on the right, leaning over)

The Fairplay Committee

Mitch Mitchell recounts the legacy of the Fairplay Committee, a group aiming to improve the conditions of black workers in the music industry.

Anti-racists reclaim Glasgow

Over the past fortnight Glasgow has become a flash point in the fight against the far right, demonstrating the inherent link between British Unionism and white supremacy.

Fighting back better: abolitionist trans struggle and the GRA

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

Whose side are you on?

The Black Lives Matter protests have come up against police and the far right in the streets. Starmer’s Labour Party has taken the side of the cops.

A tale of two towns

Colin Revolting looks at events in Deptford and Eltham after the 2011 shooting of Mark Duggan

The villains of Parliament Square

A who’s-who of the murderous colonialists set in stone in Parliament Square Gardens.

Over 150 UK towns join BLM protests

From the toppling of a statue to the slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol, to the protest demanding justice for Sheku Bayoh in Kirkcaldy, people took to the streets to say: ‘The UK is not innocent.’

Kwasi Agyemang-Prempeh

Video: Black Lives Matter

Black activists in Britain talk about the response to the murder of George Floyd, underlying racism and economic factors, links with the pandemic and how we build anti-racist solidarity.

Ten Days That Shook the World

In the ten days since George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, an anti-racist uprising has spread across the United States. Across the world, people are taking action in solidarity and mobilising against state racism.

Paris: A historic day against police violence and state racism

50,000 people took to the streets in Paris on Tuesday 2 June, only two days after 10,000 undocumented migrants had protested against the immigration system.

‘Justice for Belly! Justice for George!’

Mass protests have returned to British streets, calling for justice for George Floyd and Belly Mujinga, and an end to systemic racism and police violence.

What a way to make a living | A personal assistant in social care

Hanna Gál interviews Meriam Mabrouk on working as a personal assistant in social care.