Covid-19
24 May 2021 · Covid-19
End the system of private patents!
Thanks to a huge scientific effort based on international collaboration and historic amounts of public money, humanity has been able to develop several effective vaccines against Covid-19 in…
5 January 2021 · · Britain, Covid-19, Education, trade unions · 3 comments
Education workers teach Tories and Starmer the bleeding obvious
Last week the National Education Union (NEU) represented about 450 000 teaching assistants, learning mentors, premises staff, office workers and teachers in schools and colleges in England a…
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…
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…
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 . …
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 …
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…
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…
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 …
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…
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…
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…
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 …
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…
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…
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…