2020
21 December 2020 · · Culture, Reviews, Uncategorized · 2 comments
“I will show your illustrious Lordship what a woman can do”
The Art and Life of Artemisia Gentileschi (1593- 1654) Dave Kellaway reviews the current National Gallery exhibition (until 24 th January) Caravaggio (left), Gentileschi (right) The pictures…
19 December 2020 · · Britain, Ecosocialism · 1 comment
Air pollution – Britain’s invisible killer
In a land-mark ruling, the inner south London coroner Philip Barlow, has ruled that the death of nine year old Ella Kissi-Debrah from Lewisham from an asthma attack in February 2013 was part…
17 December 2020 · · USA, Women
On supporting reproductive justice and women’s bodily autonomy
During Amy Coney-Barrett’s confirmation proceedings for the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), several distressing exchanges occurred, writes Susan Pashkoff . One that stands out o…
17 December 2020 · Labour Party · 2 comments
Reverend Jeremy’s Christmas message
At Christmas, Christians are invited to imagine a world transformed by the arrival of the infant Jesus into a realm of peace, benevolence and universal kindness. It’s fair to say that for ma…
16 December 2020 · Britain, Education, Scotland, trade unions · 1 comment
Safety fears over Covid in schools
Safety fears over Covid in schools: Scottish teachers vote for industrial action as Labour London Councils call for early school closures Scottish teachers in three areas have voted overwhel…
14 December 2020 · Uncategorized
SR and Anti-Capitalist Resistance
Socialist Resistance is enthusiastically participating in a process of convergence with Mutiny and individual comrades from a variety of other political backgrounds in England & Wales. The o…
13 December 2020 · · Britain, Women
Social Care: Zeros and Sums
We face a crisis in social care intensified by COVID-19, but, Ian Parker argues, protest movements and radical organisations are coming together to mobilise for change. The struggle for soci…
7 December 2020 · · Britain, EU, Labour Party · 2 comments
Labour must oppose any Brexit deal
Whilst after years of Brexit and the end-game of the end-game taking place we still don’t know if there will be a deal with the European Union (EU), writes Alan Thornett . What we do know if…
6 December 2020 · · Britain, Ecosocialism, Tories · 1 comment
Johnson’s 10-point eco-plan
Johnson’s much vaunted 10-point eco-plan is totally inadequate as a green recovery from the Covid-19 crisis – or build-back greener as he likes to put it, writes Alan Thornett . His claim th…
4 December 2020 · · Obituaries, Scotland
Jim McVicar, 1958-2020
Sad passing of a true Scottish militant Socialist Resistance and Fourth International supporters in Britain were deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Jim McVicar on Thursday 3 rd Decemb…
4 December 2020 · Reviews
Socialisms: A critical debate
Catherine Samary reviews's Ian Parker's - Socialisms Revolutions betrayed, mislaid and unmade Published by Resistance Books and the IIRE Ian Parker is an activist and academic based in Manch…
30 November 2020 · Reviews · 1 comment
I’m not being racialist...but
Paul Embery’s new book Despised: Why the Modern Left Loathes the Working Class is reviewed by Andy Stowe . Coffee has never passed this reviewer’s lips, never mind skinny latte macchiato wan…
29 November 2020 · Reviews · 1 comment
Socialism will never work, it’s human nature innit?
Dave Kellaway engages with the writings of Rutger Bregman, bestselling author of Utopia for Realists (Bloomsbury 2017) and Humankind – A Hopeful History (Bloomsbury 2020) How many times, whe…
28 November 2020 · · Scotland, Women, trade unions
Bringing more women to socialism
“Imaginings of a feminist, anti-capitalist future can only happen when women are incorporated into the movement in good faith and not as tokens.” I first drafted the article republished belo…
27 November 2020 · Ecosocialism
Ecosocialism: the strategic debate
Those of us who inhabit planet Earth in the 21 st century face a huge problem. Our own species, homo sapiens (modern humans), are trashing the planet at an ever increasing and more destructi…
27 November 2020 · · Uncategorized · 1 comment
From the Ground Up – the climate movement gets in shape for COP26
The surprising success of the online mobilisation, “From the Ground Up”, from 12-16 November, poses new challenges and new responsibilities for the climate movement, writes Iain Bruce . This…
17 November 2020 · Reviews
Eighteen and Mountbatten
Thirteen dead and not forgotten We got eighteen and Mountbatten Our newly appointed Royal correspondent Andy Stowe offers his judgement on the first episode of series four of The Crown which…
17 November 2020 · Biodiversity, Ecosocialism · 4 comments
Making Rewilding Part of a Socialist Future
A. Lee asks if ‘Rewilding’ is just a way for capitalism to sell us stuff. If you look in any popular bookstore these days, you’ll find books on rewilding.... There are books about rewilding …
13 November 2020 · · Climate Change, Covid-19 · 1 comment
Covid-19: a frightening future looms
Covid-19 provides a frightening glimpse of an uncertain future, writes Alan Thornett. It is not just out of control, but on a global rampage. There have now been 52 million cases and 1,300,0…
10 November 2020 · · Labour Party, Wales
Wales and the pandemic: a view from the frontline
The politics of dealing with the pandemic has played out in a distinctive way in Wales. Health in the United Kingdom state is devolved along with a number of other services. The UK Tory gove…
6 November 2020 · · USA · 3 comments
Why the Democrats have won one battle against Trump but can't win the war
While Biden looks like he will pull out a squeaker of a win, the main goals of his campaign failed miserably, writes Susan Pashkoff . Biden unsuccessfully attempted to demonstrate that Trump…
5 November 2020 · · Britain, Labour Party, antisemitism
Solidarity with Jeremy Corbyn
The suspension of Jeremy Corbyn from the Labour Party comes as no surprise to those who have been watching developments over the past few years, writes Roger Benjamin . This was always the a…
4 November 2020 · · Austria, France, Fundamentalism, Turkey · 1 comment
Jihadi murderers are enemies of the working class
In little under two weeks reactionary, neo-fascist, religiously sectarian jihadists have launched murderous attacks against two French churches beheading female worshippers. They have decapi…
30 October 2020 · · Covid-19, Ecosocialism
Covid-19: the tip of a deadly iceberg
The most important issue in terms of the Covid-19 pandemic is the one least discussed, writes Alan Thornett This is the ecological dimension: i.e. disastrous and destructive relationship bet…
30 October 2020 · · Britain, Labour Party · 6 comments
Starmer suspends Corbyn - some initial thoughts
One stand out reaction to the news is that we were all blindsided. We really did not expect the Spanish Inquisition, writes Dave Kellaway . The right, the mainstream media, the left media an…
29 October 2020 · Labour Party · 9 comments
Solidarity with Jeremy Corbyn - Fight the witch-hunt
Socialist Resistance stands in solidarity with Jeremy Corbyn and is totally opposed to his suspension from the Labour Party. This is a politically motivated move by Keir Starmer to crush the…
23 October 2020 · · Reviews · 1 comment
Prophet Prolonged....?
Dave Kellaway reviews Dan La Botz’s book, Trotsky in Tijuana , published by BookLocker.com, Florida 2020 Trotsky invites his young follower, Ramon Mercader, into his study to discuss an arti…
21 October 2020 · · Britain, Education · 2 comments
Tory censorship of school curriculum
The Department for Education has issued ‘guidance’ for school heads and teachers on what can be taught in Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RHSE) classes (‘Schools in England told not…
20 October 2020 · · antisemitism
Double standards on antisemitism
In an unexpected development, the right’s favoured candidate in the election for chair of Young Labour, Eluned Anderson, has withdrawn after criticism of a 2019 Facebook comment in which she…
17 October 2020 · · Britain
Part 2: Rethinking social care: how does this relate to the policies of the unions?
Part 1 outlined a new model of social care: a National Care, Support and Independent Living Service, locally co-produced. Part 2 looks at recent union visions for the future of social care. …
15 October 2020 · Ecosocialism · 12 comments
Ecosocialism: the strategic debate
Those of us who inhabit planet Earth in the 21 st century face a huge problem. Our own species, homo sapiens (modern humans), are trashing the planet at an ever increasing and more destructi…
13 October 2020 · · Biodiversity, Reviews
Saving life on earth
I have just watched the new film " A Life On Our Planet " with my family and found it incredibly moving, writes Rob Marsden .David Attenborough was a childhood hero of mine - I was nine year…
13 October 2020 · · Britain, Economics
The Current Economic Situation in Britain
The latest economic data for the UK clearly demonstrates the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy, writes Susan Pashkoff . Collapse in GDP growth in the UK was at 20.4% in the 2…
12 October 2020 · · Britain, Scotland, trade unions
Rail workers strike against Serco
The RMT railworkers and transport union declared its second 48 hour strike against the Serco Caledonian Sleeper rail company over safety conditions on the train service. The next strike star…
12 October 2020 · · Uncategorized
Intersecting crises
The global world economy is currently in crisis as a result of a shock in the real economy caused by the coronavirus pandemic writes Susan Pashkoff. There is also an ecological crisis that r…
9 October 2020 · · Climate Change · 4 comments
King of a dead planet
David Attenborough has formed an alliance with the heir to the British throne, the Duke of Cambridge, to campaign for zero carbon by 2030, writes Alan Davies . Failure to reach zero carbon w…
8 October 2020 · · Climate Change, Scotland
Climate action in Scotland stepped up
Extinction Rebellion Scotland (XRS) have launched three weeks of action to highlight opposition to the climate and ecological crisis across the country. Other campaigns are stepping up activ…
6 October 2020 · Britain, Scotland, Uncategorized, trade unions
Trade unionists rally for Richie Venton and extend action
Trade unionists across Britain and Ireland are rallying to support Richie Venton following his sacking at IKEA Glasgow. Mike Picken reports from Glasgow. A veteran trade union and socialist …
5 October 2020 · · Britain, Covid-19, Ecosocialism · 1 comment
Covid-19 resurgence – a glimpse of the apocalypse
Covid-19 is not just out of control, it is rampaging across the world. Sensational headlines are focusing on Trump; hardly surprising given his attitude to the virus, writes Alan Thornett . …
3 October 2020 · Uncategorized
End the hostile environment – defend asylum seekers and refugees
Fred Leplat and Mike Picken analyse the latest Tory plans to make the Hostile Environment even more cruel and call for support for the weekend of action on 10-11 October by Migrants Organise…
1 October 2020 · Reviews
How much would you pay for a jar of honey?
Andy Stowe read (most of - before giving up in disgust) the sensational political diary of the year so that you don’t have to. We know so little about what happened in previous centuries and…
28 September 2020 · · Britain, Scotland, Tories
Tories enshrine impunity for British security forces in law
British security forces will gain explicit legal cover to commit crimes at home and abroad under new laws proposed by the UK’s right-wing Tory government with little – if any – resistance fr…
25 September 2020 · · Britain, Scotland, Uncategorized, students
Stop blaming students – meet public health and testing needs!
As at 24 September over 1,000 university students across Scotland were in self-isolation after hundreds tested positive for Covid in the days before. In response to this escalation, the Univ…
24 September 2020 · Italy
Italian elections: democracy reduced, government given breathing space
As expected the constitutional referendum to reduce the number of MPs in both houses by a third passed by 70 per cent to 30 per cent. This means an Italian MP will represent up to 150,000 vo…
23 September 2020 · · Britain, Covid-19, Scotland, Tories · 1 comment
Left must oppose ‘live with virus’ doctrine
As this is written, the Tory UK government is putting in place in England further local lockdowns and restrictions on gatherings, calling for people to work from home again if possible, and …
23 September 2020 · Britain, Scotland, antiracism
Third Glasgow Asylum death puts pressure for public inquiry
On 21 September it was reported that all seven Glasgow MPs in the Westminster Parliament, members of the Scottish National Party (SNP), have written formally to Scotland’s senior legal offic…
22 September 2020 · · Britain, Labour Party · 2 comments
Starmer says if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em
In his first conference speech as Labour leader Keir Starmer mentioned “Britain” seven times, “family” nine times, “opportunity” eight and “country” twenty-six writes Andy Stowe . Some cynic…
21 September 2020 · Labour Party, Palestine
British Palestinians speak out
Socialist Resistance has always stood in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle. We have opposed the silencing of Palestinian voices inside the Labour Party, which has been a hidden conseq…
21 September 2020 · Britain · 1 comment
SR welcomes Anti-Capitalist Resistance
The weekend school of Anti-Capitalist Resistance on the 12 & 13 September marked a positive step towards establishing ACR as a revolutionary Marxist organisation in England and Wales. Over 7…
17 September 2020 · Britain, EU
Oppose Johnson's little-Englander Brexit
The controversial UK Internal Market Bill passed it second reading with a majority of 77 in the Westminster Parliament on 14 September.[1]. There had been a chorus of disapproval in mainstre…
17 September 2020 · Britain, Scotland, trade unions
Step up fight for Richie Venton’s reinstatement
Trade union activists are stepping up the battle for reinstatement of leading worker representative Richie Venton from IKEA. Mike Picken reports from Glasgow. Richie is a well known longstan…
14 September 2020 · · USA
Trump’s debt to the Ku Klux Klan
Donald Trump’s political roots, and those of the heavily armed neo-fascist militias taking to the streets to support him, are in the slave-owning Confederacy and the failure of the post-Civi…
12 September 2020 · · Economics, Women · 1 comment
Globally, the pandemic hits women
In his article, “C’est la lutte finale“, Mike Davis argues: “The current pandemic on a global scale exposes and widens the existential divides within and between societies, and reminds us th…
9 September 2020 · · Reviews
The wretched poor of Paris
Viewed in late 2020 the opening scene of Ladj Ly’s film Les Misérables looks like it was shot in an alternative reality writes Andy Stowe . Hundreds of football fans are crowded together in …
8 September 2020 · · antisemitism · 1 comment
Witchhunters employ new tactics
Despite the replacement of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader, the antisemitism witchhunt continues, and is even intensifying, writes Ariel Pardess . At the same time, pro-Israel propagand…
3 September 2020 · Scotland, Uncategorized, trade unions
<strong>Resist Attacks on Scottish IKEA Workers</strong>
IKEA in Scotland have launched a savage attack on their workers’ rights and conditions in recent days. This has included sacking union representative, Richie Venton. Richie is a well known t…
2 September 2020 · · Culture, USA · 1 comment
Ecosocialism: the elephant in the DSA room?
Allan Todd reviews Bigger than Bernie How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism by Meagan Day and Micah Uetricht, Verso If I were the sort of reader who routinely jotted do…
31 August 2020 · Britain, Racism, Uncategorized · 7 comments
United Against Tory Brexit
It doesn’t matter how socialists voted in the 2019 referendum, argues Phil Hearse. What matters now is unity against the nationalist-racist Brexit of the Tories. So as far as the Left is con…
31 August 2020 · · Italy
Why Salvini could become Prime Minister of Italy
Dave Kellaway reviews David Broder’s, First they took Rome: How the Populist Right Conquered Italy , Verso Books 2020 “ There’s no left anymore’’ - Nicola, retired lorry driver; “ there is j…
19 August 2020 · · Britain, Uncategorized, antiracism · 1 comment
Left unites to defend migrants
The day started with news that a yet unidentified sixteen year old Sudanese boy drowned in the English Channel trying to make his way into England writes Andy Stowe . That evening over one h…
19 August 2020 · Fourth international, Political Theory
Analysing global capitalism
Socialist Resistance and Mutiny are both part of a process of forming a wider organisation which has the provisional name of Anti-Capitalist Resistance. Over the past six months, Mutiny has …
17 August 2020 · Belarus, Uncategorized · 2 comments
Lukashenko out! Solidarity with the people of Belarus
Alexander Lukashenko, the corrupt dictator of Belarus a man apparently intent on making the country his family’s dynastic inheritance, tried to consolidate his weakening grip on power by hel…
16 August 2020 · · Britain, Education · 2 comments
Of car crashes and performance!
Car crashes usually are a matter of seconds in duration except when they involve politics, writes Jon Duveen . The School and College Examinations 2020 car crash has evolved over almost 5 mo…
14 August 2020 · · Britain, Economics · 3 comments
Only the labour movement can stop Johnson’s no-deal Brexit
Sorry folks, but we need to talk again about Brexit, writes Jamie Gough . To recap: last October Johnson signed a Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration with the EU. After the Tory v…
14 August 2020 · · Climate Change, Ecosocialism, Reviews
Cometh the [midnight] hour, cometh the book!
Allan Todd reviews Derek Wall’s 2020 Climate Strike: The Practical Politics of the Climate Crisis published by Merlin Press. This book had me from its very first page, with this well-chosen …
10 August 2020 · Uncategorized
Oppressed on Many Fronts: Women's labour, disablism and the working class
This is an edited version of Susan Pashkoff’s contribution to the ACR meeting on the Working class and Oppressions. Susan’s introduction was followed by one from Nina Fortune. Both women spe…
9 August 2020 · · antiracism, antisemitism
On “antisemitism”
One specious argument that those of us active in Palestine solidarity hear time after time is the hoary line that “Jews are not really Semites, so why say that they are the victims of antise…
8 August 2020 · Economics
Mandel and Capitalist Breakdown
Using insights from Belgian Marxist thinker Ernest Mandel, economist George Kerevan argues capitalism will suffer profound breakdown this century. It is now 25 years since the death of Ernes…
8 August 2020 · · Ireland
A triumph of ideology: John Hume and the defeat of Irish Republicanism
The flurry of commemoration by the great and the good following the death of John Hume can be summarised as follows: Hume was the leader of the Irish Civil Rights Movement, he advocated non …
5 August 2020 · Uncategorized
Anti-Capitalist Resistance
Socialist Resistance welcomes the initiative with Mutiny towards the possible creation of a new revolutionary anti-capitalist organisation. We have found ourselves to be increasingly in agre…
28 July 2020 · · Britain, Tories, Uncategorized · 3 comments
Obesity is a class issue
Using my eight-minute walk to the station to reflect on the Tories’ anti- obesity strategy I passed a chip shop, a branch of an omnipresent national sandwich chain offering all sorts of “ sw…
26 July 2020 · · Britain, Economics, Ecosocialism, Labour Party, Uncategorized · 1 comment
Relaunch Labour’s Green New Deal
According to the World Health Organisation, the Covid-19 pandemic is still accelerating globally; infections have doubled in the past six weeks, writes Alan Thornett . This is another sharp …
25 July 2020 · · USA · 2 comments
Far-Left Fascism: The Non-Existent Disorder ...
As I watched the coronavirus pandemic spread globally and the resulting global economic crisis my only thoughts were that Trump would run his re-election campaign based on divide and rule an…
16 July 2020 · · Britain, Labour Party, trade unions · 2 comments
Tower Hamlets strike reveals Labour fault lines
Sometimes an individual rises to the top of a large organisation because they are the only person so equally disdained by all the personal cliques and ideological factions that they emerge a…
8 July 2020 · Reviews · 3 comments
Lost
We republish here a review of Ian Parker’s Mapping the English Left through Film: Twenty Five Uneasy Pieces which appeared in Worker’s Millstone , organ of the Tendency for the Redevelopment…
7 July 2020 · · Biodiversity, China, Ecosocialism
Support China’s ban on its wildlife trade
An important debate has emerged, on the left, in response to China’s proposed ban on the wildlife trade in its so-called wet markets – following the role this trade is suspected to have play…
4 July 2020 · · Reviews · 1 comment
Corrupt socialists? Heaven forfend!
Andy Stowe reviews the French political drama Baron Noir Did you know that some people sign up to the thirty-day free trial on Amazon Prime, watch everything they want to, then cancel the su…
3 July 2020 · Belgium, Fourth international, France, Germany, Reviews · 2 comments
“Martin Monath: A Jewish Resistance Fighter Among Nazi Soldiers”
“Martin Monath: A Jewish Resistance Fighter Among Nazi Soldiers” – by Nathaniel Flakin, Pluto Press 2019 Reviewed by Philip Ward Most people in the revolutionary socialist movement who have …
2 July 2020 · Labour Party · 7 comments
Labour is still where socialists should be
Labour under Starmer’s leadership remains a place where the class struggle is happening, and it is mistake for socialists in England to leave it argues Andy Stowe. Is it only three years ago…
28 June 2020 · Mental Health, Uncategorized · 1 comment
Asylum and mental health in the COVID-19 lockdown
Ian Parker has the latest special issue of Asylum: Radical Mental Health Magazine . This pandemic, a function of ecological destruction under capitalism, intensifies every existing form of o…
27 June 2020 · Britain, Scotland, antiracism · 1 comment
Glasgow killing raises major questions about treatment of asylum seekers
In a major event in Scotland, one person was killed by armed police in a Glasgow hotel used to accommodate asylum seekers, reports Mike Picken . The call ‘not to politicise’ the incident fro…
26 June 2020 · Labour Party, Uncategorized, antisemitism · 6 comments
If They Come In the Morning
The Labour Party’s antisemitism witchhunt has just claimed its highest profile victim, with the sacking of Rebecca Long-Bailey from Starmer’s shadow cabinet for the crime of tweeting a link …
25 June 2020 · · Britain, NHS, students
Nursing Students in revolt over Tory Minister’s statement
Tens of thousands of newly graduated nursing students in England have expressed dismay over a statement by Helen Whately, the Tory minister for Care, writing in what is still the middle of a…
24 June 2020 · · Britain, Covid-19 · 2 comments
Walk at a steady pace towards machine guns urges Johnson as 65,000 die
Forget Churchill writes Andy Stowe . The wartime leader Boris Johnson most resembles is General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett, the blustering incompetent First World War commander in t…
23 June 2020 · Disabled Peoples' Movement, Reviews
What I got from "More than a Left Foot" and why you should buy it
Sandra Webster of the Scottish Socialist Party comments on More Than a Left Foot by Bob Williams-Findlay. I learned so much and must thoroughly recommend this book. It is a book about where …
22 June 2020 · BlackLivesMatter, Scotland, antiracism · 2 comments
Glasgow Anti-Racists defiant against Far-Right attacks
Over 1,000 people attended a defiant demonstration and rally in Glasgow’s George Square [1] on World Refugee Day Saturday 20 th June to protest against a far right attack on refugee right ca…
21 June 2020 · Disabled Peoples' Movement, Reviews, students
More than a Left Foot
More than a Left Foot by Bob Williams-Findlay Resistance Books , 2020, reviewed by Dave Kellaway Bob Findlay’s final sentence in his book hopes that “it has provided an insight into an array…
17 June 2020 · Africa, Belgium, Racism
Belgium’s colonial crimes in the Congo: a duty to remember
This text by Eric Toussaint is an introduction to the book Promenade au Congo - petit guide anti-colonial de Belgique, published in 2010. Eric Toussaint is a member of the Committee for the …
15 June 2020 · · BlackLivesMatter, USA, antiracism · 2 comments
Make Black Lives Matter
In the middle of a pandemic, with the global economy crashing and a US Presidential election in the offing, George Floyd’s murder by police sparked protests across the globe, writes Susan Pa…
14 June 2020 · Reviews
'Searching for Socialism' - a review
Searching for Socialism, The Project of the Labour New Left from Benn to Corbyn , by Colin Leys and Leo Panitch, London: Verso Books, 2020. A review by Tony Richardson. I was particularly in…
13 June 2020 · Black struggles, Fourth international, antiracism
Our Solidarity with the Worldwide Anti-Racist Revolt
The scope and magnitude of what have become worldwide protests and an emerging mass upsurge against racism and police brutality following the murder of Black worker George Floyd by police in…
12 June 2020 · · Britain, Covid-19 · 1 comment
Sympathy won’t win us better conditions
Anxiety and change: those are the two things that have defined care work in England in recent weeks, writes Alison Treacher . Where I work, we have been battling with staff shortages, opaque…
11 June 2020 · Covid-19, Fourth international
The Covid 19 crisis threatens the lives of millions, accelerates geopolitical transformation and kindles the flame of social upheaval
Pandemic, economic depression, visibility of the structural inequality and oppressions generated by neoliberalism, geopolitical confrontation for hegemony in the world-system, and a close-up…
9 June 2020 · Britain, Covid-19, USA, Uncategorized · 1 comment
Global protests offer hope in time of fear
Why has the murder of George Floyd been the catalyst for an international radical wave of youth protests asks Andy Stowe ? Killings of black people by racist cops in the United States have b…
8 June 2020 · · Covid-19, Ecosocialism · 5 comments
Covid-19 changes everything
Covid-19 is a huge and many-sided issue, writes Alan Thornett. There is the disastrous governmental response leading to thousands of deaths, there is the approaching mass unemployment pandem…
8 June 2020 · Black struggles, USA
History Marched Past my Door Last Night Carrying the Future on her Shoulders
A march came by my house in Brooklyn a few nights ago, a river of thousands of young people of all races, wearing masks because of the pandemic, walking together, shouting out the name of Ge…
5 June 2020 · · Brazil, Chile, Covid-19, Ecuador, Latin America
For lessons in protest during the pandemic, look to Latin America
Socially-distanced street protests, moves to impeach a president – Latin America has begun to lead the way, not only in the gravity of the Coronavirus crisis, but in the scale and character …
3 June 2020 · Racism, USA
We Can’t Breathe: Rebellion against Racist Police Violence
Solidarity National Commitee The uprisings and demonstrations in Minneapolis and other cities including in front of the White House that followed the brutal May 25th killing of George Floyd,…
3 June 2020 · · Our History, Reviews · 1 comment
The Living Flame
The Living Flame – the revolutionary passion of Rosa Luxemburg Haymarket books 2019 Dave Kellaway reviews Paul Le Blanc’s book Paul Le Blanc’s book is a very readable starter for anybody who…
2 June 2020 · · Britain, Covid-19
Johnson shielded by Brexit populism
It almost defies belief that if an election were held next week the result would still be a Tory victory writes Andy Stowe . A YouGov poll conducted over the last weekend of May suggests Joh…
26 May 2020 · · Britain, Covid-19, Tories · 1 comment
The Johnson Cummings élite death cult
Lawyers sometimes refer to a client’s convoluted and implausible account of their actions as “the utter bollocks defence” writes Andy Stowe . Explaining a thirty-mile drive with your partner…
23 May 2020 · · Brazil, Covid-19
Gripezinha – the little flu: neofascist Bolsonaro in the face of the pandemic
One of the most disturbing phenomena of recent years is the spectacular rise, worldwide, of far right-wing, authoritarian and reactionary governments, in some cases with neo-fascist traits: …
22 May 2020 · · Britain, Covid-19 · 4 comments
We are not all in the same boat
Dave Kellaway analyses the fall-out of the pandemic in Britain and discusses what action programme for the crisis. This was written before the Tories' had to drop forcing schools to open on …
20 May 2020 · · Covid-19, Women
Women's labour and C-19
Sometimes a significant crisis enables us to see things that often remain hidden or ignored in our everyday lives, writes Susan Pashkoff . Not that women needed to be reminded as they have l…
19 May 2020 · · Britain, Education · 3 comments
Should parents and staff trust the Tories about return to school?
No one can doubt the Conservative Party’s commitment to children living in poverty and overcrowded homes with inadequate diets writes Andy Stowe . The Child Poverty Action Group says 4.1 mil…
15 May 2020 · Labour Party, Palestine, Uncategorized
British Palestinians' letter to Labour's leadership candidates
My brothers, sister and I sent the letter below to the three Labour Party leadership candidates because we were increasingly horrified by their capitulation to the extreme Zionist lobby’s ou…
12 May 2020 · · Britain, Labour Party · 1 comment
Don’t despair, organise!
It’s not been an easy time for anyone on the left in Britain, writes Veronica Fagan. The pandemic and the appalling way the #ToxicTories have responded to it are obviously dominating most of…
11 May 2020 · Obituaries
An Appreciation of Neil Davidson (1957-2020)
Socialist Resistance and supporters of the Fourth International were deeply saddened by the recent death of Scottish marxist writer and activist Neil Davidson from a brain tumour. In his wor…
8 May 2020 · Fourth international · 1 comment
Support the Fourth International presence online!
The Fourth International brings together revolutionary Marxist organisations present in about forty countries. The writings and analyses of our member organisations are disseminated in diffe…
7 May 2020 · Reviews · 3 comments
Review of “Holocaust to Resistance: My Journey” by Suzanne Berliner Weiss
Introduction I have recently read several accounts by Jewish Holocaust survivors of their experiences during World War II and their subsequent efforts to come to terms with them. Alongside t…
3 May 2020 · · Britain · 6 comments
The patriotic myth of VE Day
Spare a thought for all those British patriots who’d been prudent enough to buy their Victory in Europe (VE) day paraphernalia well ahead of time writes Andy Stowe . Their commemorative tabl…
1 May 2020 · Reviews · 1 comment
Believe it or not!
I Want to Believe: Posadism, UFOs and Apocalyptic Communism by A. M. Gittlitz published by Pluto, reviewed by Ian Parker In 1962, just as the Fourth International was preparing its reunifica…
29 April 2020 · Economics
Self-extinction of neoliberalism? Don’t bet on it.
For the second time since the turn of the century, governments in North America and Europe are intervening massively with public funds and in conjunction with central banks to bail out entir…
28 April 2020 · Cuba · 1 comment
Lift the blockade against Cuba to strengthen the fight against Covid 19
With access to education (public and free from kindergarten to university), health is one of the great conquests of the Cuban Revolution, which, despite the difficulties, mistakes and setbac…
25 April 2020 · USA
Dangerous times in the USA
This has been a rather impressive week even for Donald Trump. Whenever you think that he has reached the nadir of his Presidency, he always manages to continue the downward trend; it is like…
24 April 2020 · · Britain, Migration, Racism
A Short History of Resistance to Immigration Detention and Deportations
In 2019, ‘enforced returns’ from the UK fell to 7,361, 22% lower than the previous year and the lowest number since records began in 2004, writes Bill MacKeith, Oxford Against Immigration De…
23 April 2020 · Britain, Covid-19 · 2 comments
Johnson ramps up the death toll – he should resign
In Britain the Covid-19 pandemic remains out of control, with hospital deaths topping 16,000 and with, scandalously, an unknown number of deaths in care homes and in the community that have …
22 April 2020 · · Biodiversity, Climate Change, Covid-19, Ecosocialism · 1 comment
International Earth Day and Covid-19
Today, April 22, is International Earth Day , writes Alan Thornett . It was established 50 years ago following a massive oil spill off the coast of California as an opportunity to reflect on…
22 April 2020 · Reviews
Disaster Communism
Ian Parker reads Slavoj Žižek’s PANDEMIC!: COVID-19 Shakes the World very fast. A few days ago a little old lady at the greengrocers edged to the side of the vegetable display to let me pass…
21 April 2020 · Covid-19 · 1 comment
Let’s build the transition to ecosocialism now!
This statement was issued by the Executive Bureau of the Fourth International on 16 April 2020. 1. We are in a crisis full of dangers, a crisis of capitalist civilization, the most serious s…
18 April 2020 · Britain, Covid-19 · 3 comments
COVID- 19 and the undoing of Brexit
Did you know that the Brexit Department has closed asks Andy Stowe ? A visit to the British government’s website says starkly: “Department for Exiting the European Union has closed.” It refe…
15 April 2020 · · USA
Thanks, Bernie!
Since Bernie Sanders suspended his presidential campaign, there has been a steady stream of articles assessing it, writes Joanna Misnik . They range from more mainstream progressive politica…
10 April 2020 · Covid-19, Fourth international · 1 comment
Faced with the Covid-19 pandemic, our lives are more worth than their profits
In Europe, and especially in the European Union – i.e. the world’s second largest economic bloc, it is being proven day after day that the public policies pursued over the last twenty years …
8 April 2020 · · Labour Party · 3 comments
How should the left respond to Starmer's election?
Keir Starmer’s election as Labour leader is a serious defeat for the left, writes Veronica Fagan , and is further compounded by the results of the deputy leadership election, the NEC electio…
6 April 2020 · · Covid-19 · 4 comments
Covid-19: the ecological dimension
The Covid-19 pandemic continues to spread rapidly around the world and remains out of control – other than in those countries, led by China, that had (crucially) moved early and decisively t…
4 April 2020 · Reviews · 1 comment
Understanding the Holocaust
Review essay of Critique of Modern Barbarism: Essays on fascism, anti-Semitism and the use of History (author: Enzo Traverso ) by Emeritus Professor Henry Maitles, University of the West of …
1 April 2020 · · Covid-19 · 2 comments
Self-isolation, Corbynism and class consciousness
The British Conservative Party have had considerable success in their decades long project of smashing up working class organisations and atomising working-class communities, writes Andy Sto…
28 March 2020 · Britain, Covid-19
The Pandemic Coronavirus COVID-19 and Disabled People
Addressing the three-fold issues facing disabled people of all ages In recent weeks Disabled people of all ages have voiced their anger and frustration at the apparent disregard of their nee…
26 March 2020 · Uncategorized
Covid-19 crisis: issues facing workers
The entire world and its political-economic system has been turned upside down by the Covid-19 coronavirus crisis. Beliefs and ideologies preached as unchallenged gospel for decades are bein…
25 March 2020 · · Covid-19 · 3 comments
Made in Downing Street
We are facing a catastrophic situation, writes Alan Thornett. Society is in freefall in a number of countries, including this one, with the virus out of control. Britain, we are told, is jus…
25 March 2020 · Covid-19
Covid-19 pandemic: let’s protect our lives not their profits!
Statement by Fourth International Bureau The coronavirus pandemic is a dramatic public health problem and the human suffering caused will be enormous. Already, in Western Europe, health syst…
18 March 2020 · · Covid-19, Uncategorized · 1 comment
Pay the workers! Suspend rent and bill payments!
The Tories have known all along that something like this pandemic was coming writes Andy Stowe and coronavirus is starkly posing questions about austerity, profiteering, the control of produ…
17 March 2020 · Britain, Covid-19
Covid 19 – Johnson’s plan puts profits before people
As the Covid-19 virus spreads, the lack of urgency in dealing with the pandemic by Boris Johnson – and Donald Trump – screams out. Countries in Asia such as Taiwan and South Korea have gaine…
12 March 2020 · International, USA
Coronavirus, Trump and the world economy
How will the covid-19 outbreak affect the world economy? Donald Trump was flying back from India on Air Force One when the stock markets began to go down two weeks ago. He stayed awake, furi…
11 March 2020 · Britain, Culture · 1 comment
Culture Wars and Class Wars
Recent articles on left-wing websites have deprecated the notion of ‘culture wars’, saying that the Left should avoid them and concentrate instead on class war. The basic idea being put forw…
9 March 2020 · Culture, Reviews
More than a cultist
Andrew Coates reviews Memoirs of a Critical Communist. Towards a History of the Fourth International , by Livio Maitan. Livio Maitan (1923–2004) was a leading figure in the international Tro…
8 March 2020 · · Black struggles, Britain, Trade Unions, Women · 1 comment
Fifty years of feminist organising in Britain – challenges for the future
It’s just over 50 years ago since the first women’s liberation conference in Britain took place at Ruskin on 27 February 1970 so International Women’s Day 2020 seems an appropriate time to l…
7 March 2020 · International · 3 comments
The Virus – Apocalypse Now?
Pentecostal Christians – and probably many others – believe that at the ‘end of days’, which precedes the second coming of Christ, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse will ride out. The four…
6 March 2020 · Reviews
Dark Waters – a corporate cover-up
Dark Waters directed by Todd Haynes, 2020 reviewed by Dave Kellaway This film tells the true story of a corporate lawyer, Ron Bobitt, who started out defending big chemical companies like Du…
5 March 2020 · · Uncategorized
Coronavirus: how should the left and labour movement respond?
Over the few days there has been a significant escalation of cases of coronavirus cases in Britain with numbers currently at 90 – more than double the figures of 40 two days earlier, writes …
3 March 2020 · · Britain, Labour Party · 5 comments
Starmy times ahead
It seems inevitable that Keir Starmer will be the next Labour leader and Angela Rayner will be his deputy writes Andy Stowe. At any other time, a Labour MP who’d been a successful lawyer who…
29 February 2020 · · Culture, Reviews, Uncategorized
Greed – comedy with a kick
We are living through something of a golden age of class war cinema writes Andy Stowe. Joker offered us an urban rebellion against the rich; Parasite showed them getting their comeuppance fr…
28 February 2020 · · Britain, Climate Change · 2 comments
‘The bell is tolling’ on Heathrow expansion
In the biggest victory ever won by environmental campaigners in Britain the court of appeal yesterday declared that the long disputed third runway at Heathrow is illegal, writes Alan Thornet…
24 February 2020 · · Palestine
Palestine: The “deal of the century” or a new attempt to liquidate the Palestinian question
On January 28 in Washington, a so-called Middle East peace plan was presented by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and in the notable absence of the Pa…
21 February 2020 · · Ecosocialism · 1 comment
The electric cars revolution
The internal combustion engine (ICE) is the biggest consumer of fossil fuel and emitter of CO 2 on the planet, writes Alan Thornett . It has powered road transport for over a century. It is …
17 February 2020 · Reviews · 3 comments
Winter in the Bookshop
Winter in the Bookshop by Sylvia Riley, published by Five Leaves Publications. Reviewed by Julian Atkinson Sylvia Riley is a writer of distinction. Her first story “Trotsky’s Other Son” (con…
12 February 2020 · Climate Change, Uncategorized
Thirteen theses on the imminent ecological catastrophe and the (revolutionary) means of averting it
I. The ecological crisis is already the most important social and political question of the 21st century, and will become even more so in the coming months and years. The future of the plane…
12 February 2020 · Britain, Labour Party, Racism, Tories · 3 comments
Analysing a disastrous result
What happened? Like many others on the left, we got the election result seriously wrong. Most thought a hung Parliament or even a Labour minority government was a real possibility. It was no…
10 February 2020 · Reviews · 1 comment
If I had all this money, I'd be nice, too!
Parasite by Korean director Bong Joon Ho, which has done so well at the Oscars, is at its heart about class war and family. Andy Stowe will try to persuade you to go and see it - while attem…
8 February 2020 · Middle East, Syria, Uncategorized
Syria: 9 years of struggle for democracy
S OCIALIST RESISTANCE - The movement for democracy which erupted in 2011 in Syria, alongside others in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), gave hope that the Syrian people could overthr…
7 February 2020 · Reviews · 1 comment
Fighting Shy
Ian Parker takes a tentative peek at Hamja Ahsan’s Shy Radicals: The Antisystemic Politics of the Militant Introvert (3 rd Edition, 2019, Bookworks). This book is no joke. Or, it is a joke t…
31 January 2020 · Reviews, Uncategorized
Heroism of reason
Livio Maitan, Memoirs of a critical communist. Towards a History of the Fourth International , Preface by Daniel Bensaid, translated by Gregor Benton, edited with and introduction by Penelop…
31 January 2020 · · Reviews, Uncategorized
1917 reviewed
You can tell 1917, directed by Sam Mendes, is an important film as I was able to watch it in my local cinema in a village in Carmarthenshire within a few days of its nationwide release, writ…
30 January 2020 · · Britain, antisemitism · 2 comments
Weaponisation of antisemitism continues
Anyone who naively believed that the resignation of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader would bring an end to the antisemitism witch-hunt will have received a sharp reminder of reality with recen…
29 January 2020 · · Italy
Salvini pushed back but hard right remains strong
Regional elections in two parts of Italy, Emilia Romagna and Calabria were held on Sunday January 26. They were seen as posing a big challenge to the government if Salvini’s Lega (League, fo…
28 January 2020 · · Reviews
Orwell, Anti-colonialist, Anti-fascist …. Blue Labour?
Any writer dead for 70 years who has two popular TV shows which directly reference his work – Big Brother and Room 101 – must be of some importance both to national and international culture…
27 January 2020 · France
The mobilisation is continuing, so is Macron’s isolation
Since 20 January, the movement for the withdrawal of the proposed Macron-Philippe pension counter-reform has entered its second act. Despite the fact that the last few days have seen the end…
12 January 2020 · · Uncategorized · 8 comments
Defend the Corbyn project – elect the strongest continuity leadership team
The election of a majority Tory government on an explicit programme of further attacking the working class – through a brutal Brexit, an even more barbaric immigration regime. Further attack…
11 January 2020 · India
Modi might have finally gone too far
An interview with Achin Vanaik With the ongoing mass protests to Modi’s anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment Act, India is at last seeing a real challenge to right-wing Hindu nationalism. Over …
10 January 2020 · · Britain, Labour Party · 2 comments
Must Labour move right to secure its working-class base?
Phil Hearse argues that the Blairite Right and Lexit Left are drawing all the wrong conclusions from the general election. In the wake of the Tory electoral victory, attempts to draw lessons…
10 January 2020 · · Britain, Scotland
The Lexit road to English patriotism
English patriotism is good, Scottish nationalism is a dead end - according to the Morning Star, writes Andy Stowe . From the Soviet “theory” of socialism in one country to Kim Il Sung’s fant…
9 January 2020 · Iran, USA
Oppose U.S. and Iran War by showing solidarity with uprisings in the MENA region
Statement from the Alliance of Middle Eastern and North African Socialists In the early morning of January 3, at the order of U.S. president Donald Trump and without any authorization from t…
3 January 2020 · Climate Change, International
The climate war is here
The horror of the devastating and apocalyptic fires in NSW and Victoria has not only dampened the New Year party mood, it has fanned anger over the government's obvious failure to respond to…