By Phil Hall After the failure of the revolution in 1905 in Russia many of the revolutionaries despaired. Some of them committed suicide, while others slunk off to Great Britain which gave them refuge. This was a moment of Thermidor,… Read More ›
Socialism
If You are such a Badass, Join a Trade Union
By Phil Hall By Phil Hall When you look at the mountain of self-help books you should laugh. This is the correct response to most of them. Each one usually contains only one or two interesting ideas. Typically, these ideas… Read More ›
Lance the Boil in the Collective Unconscious of the USA
Make a Film about the life of Angela Davis By Phil Hall It’s fascinating to see how films or books or musicians who really epitomised the zeitgeist and hit the spot sometimes plunge out of sight. What a good film… Read More ›
Return the gold to Venezuela
by Francisco Dominguez On July 2nd 2020 British Judge Nigel Teare, with regard to a Central Bank of Venezuela litigation for 31 tons of gold entrusted to the Bank of England to be returned to the Venezuelan state, issued a… Read More ›
Letters from Paul Robeson
Selected by Dominic Tweedie from: Paul Robeson Speaks: Writings, Speeches, Interviews, 1918-1974 Paul Robeson was a superstar in the USA in the 1930’s and 40’s despite the fact that he was African American. In 1915 he was twice an All… Read More ›
Black Lives Matter a lot in Cuba… since 1959
by Francisco Dominguez When in 1868, Cuban slave-owner Manuel de Céspedes embarked on a 10-year nationalist uprising against Spain, the colonial master, he did not imagine he would be building not only the political bases of an independent Cuba but… Read More ›
We need a Great Constitutional Assembly for Great Britain
A Freedom Charter for Great Britain? If we held a constitutional assembly, all the progressive forces in British society could finally agree on a common vision for the future and, having thrashed out this vision, unite around it. This is… Read More ›
2015 AND ALL THAT
How we regained faith in politics By Paul Halas Jeremy Corbyn was a phenomenon. This relatively obscure politician emerged from the backbenches to lead the party five years ago, and almost tripled the Labour Party membership. Labour became the biggest… Read More ›
MAKING SOCIETY FIT FOR CHILDREN
Challenging the Neoliberal Onslaught By Richard House I recently interviewed tireless childhood campaigner Sue Palmer for the Morning Star on her campaigning work for children’s well-being.1 Sue founded and runs the excellent Upstart! organisation in Scotland,2 is the author of… Read More ›
Tread Softly Starmer, You Tread on Our Dreams
LISTEN TO THE LEFT STARMER, OR GO! Masks off! Keir Starmer got elected as Labour leader under false pretenses. At the next Labour leadership election he will be sent into oblivion. Keir Starmer, like Tom Watson, got into his position… Read More ›
Road of Dreams
Socialism? What are we talking about? By Dominic Tweedie The communists mean to show the way – as a vanguard – through revolution, to a classless, stateless condition called communism. The agent of revolution is not a communist party. Since… Read More ›
Down with Lockdown!
What do you do when the cure does you more harm than the disease? You stop taking it. Controversially, James Tweedie puts forward an argument for lock-down to be lifted. By James Tweedie, Plymouth, England, Friday May 15 th 2020… Read More ›
Don’t Tear Up your Labour Membership Card
WHAT IS TO BE DONE? By Phil Hall The British Disease is passive aggression. It is class hatred not class warfare. Class warfare is healthy, it leads to revolution and change. Class hatred, on the other hand, results in ordinary… Read More ›
“YOUR BOYS TOOK ONE HELL OF A BEATING!”
The demoralisation of grassroots Labour. By Paul Halas The Stroud Labour CLP meeting to nominate its preferred leadership candidate back in January was packed, yet the atmosphere was sober and subdued. Members were permitted a two minute slot to talk… Read More ›
Humanity’s Rosy Fingered Dawn: 2020
By Phil Hall Covid-19 arrives, We sit at home for a long while. The cities empty, the air clears and bird song seems louder. Translucent jellyfish float up the canal and goats clop through a Welsh hill town. We all… Read More ›
Why Did the Working Class Vote Tory?
by James Tweedie, Plymouth, May 6th 2020 The one-word answer is: “Brexit.” The Labour Party backed the losing side in the 2016 UK referendum on leaving the EU, despite then-leader Jeremy Corbyn’s 40 years of opposition to British membership of… Read More ›
Mon Oncle
By Paul Halas On my very infrequent visits to Paris, passing Drancy Station on the RER suburban line between Orly Airport and Paris is always a poignant experience. My Uncle Ladis – Ladislaw – spent some time there during World… Read More ›
How to defeat Covid-19
By Phil Hall In China the barefoot doctors believed in prevention rather than cure. So how can we make societies like ours more resilient to pandemic infections like Covid-19? Well, we could advocate for a more humane society. That would… Read More ›