socialism
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My Dilemma By William Bowles
I hope you see my dilemma? For on the one hand JC does speak the truth to power but on the other he does it within the straight-jacket of corporate, party politics precisely where the power he challenges, resides. How are these two mutually exclusive positions to coexist? The truth is, they can’t. One will… Continue reading
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Corbyn’s Dilemma By William Bowles
Can Jeremy Corbin build a new alliance of disenfranchised youth, the poor, progressive trade unions and organised, conscious middle classes to halt austerity and reverse the Tory onslaught on civilisation? Continue reading
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A Sense of Urgency By S. Artesian
If Marx’s Capital was itself not an elaboration of, and not itself elaborated by The Class Struggle In France 1848-1850 and the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte then Marx’s critique of capital would have no practical significance. If value were not simultaneously the origin and goal of capital and its obstacle, then there would be… Continue reading
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Forty Years Later, From Dictatorship to Neoliberalism. Portugal as a Model for a New Socialism? By Leila Dregger
Interconnected communities and regions – and no longer (only) the working class – are the revolutionary subjects for a new socialism. Amongst them the collective intelligence develops with which they are able to encounter the challenges and resist opposition. The country could thereby again become the Mecca of the world’s revolutionary youth. This spark will… Continue reading
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Video: New Working Class Leadership and the Prospects for Socialist Politics in South Africa
The dramatic upsurge of popular grass-roots protest in South Africa’s townships and rural areas in recent years has been well-termed as marking a virtual “rebellion of the poor” in that country. The working-class itself has also been assertive there, prompting the ANC-led state’s orchestration of an horrific massacre of dissident mine-workers at Marikana in 2012. Continue reading
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Manifesto instalment out now: States of imagination
In the latest instalment in the Kilburn Manifesto Janet Newman and John Clarke discuss the state under neoliberalism, exploring both what it currently is, and how it might be reimagined. Continue reading
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Video: Why is Inflation So High in Venezuela?
Gregory Wilpert: Attempting to build socialism surrounded by a global capitalist economy and being reliant on oil revenues, Venezuela is struggling to find a solution to capital flight and exchange rate problems (inc. transcript). Continue reading
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The people are rejecting free market capitalism By Ellie Mae O’Hagan
The British public support nationalisation and price controls. They are losing their faith in free market capitalism, and political parties will do well to capture the radical mood of the public. Continue reading
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'Left reformism' and socialist strategy By Ed Rooksby
There has been a significant revival of interest among the radical left in “big picture” questions of socialist strategy that, as Mark L. Thomas has pointed out, represents a return to “important debates of the left largely absent over the last three decades”. Continue reading
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Contested Reproduction and the Contradictions of Socialism By Michael A. Lebowitz
Why did ‘real socialism’ and, in particular the Soviet Union, fall? Let me note a few explanations that have been offered. With respect to the Soviet Union, one very interesting explanation that has been suggested is that it’s all the fault of Mikhail Gorbachev. And not simply the errors of Gorbachev but the treachery. Those… Continue reading
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Video: The Impact of Robots: Abundance and the Need for Radical Structural Reform
Marx anticipated the problem as capitalism’s systemic crisis, the growth in the ‘organic composition of capital’ (machines) in an inverse relation to ‘living labor’ (jobs). The way out, in the shorter run, is a social wage combined with shorter hours, and in the longer run, socialism on the path to a classless society. McAfee here… Continue reading
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Witness to the revolution: Bolivarianismo and popular power in Venezuela By Rowan Lubbock
For those of us living in a land of economic austerity and political atrophy, seeing a country demonstrate that there is an alternative remains an indispensible component of our long-term struggle to rejuvenate our society. Continue reading
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Which way for Left Unity? The case for the Left Party Platform
In only a few months, more than 9,000 people have signed up to an appeal by film director Ken Loach to set up a new party, and 90 local groups have been established in towns and cities across the country. But Loach – wanting, rightly, to be more a figurehead than a “leader” – did… Continue reading
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Book Review: One Eye on the Red Horizon – The Condition of Communism By Joseph G. Ramsey
It’s a sweeping and forceful work, one that boldly and unapologetically attempts to recast the political field of contemporary capitalism (at least as it is experienced in the Euro-American sphere) while taking aim at a host of widely held beliefs – prevalent on both the Right and the Left – that stand in the way… Continue reading
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The Communal State: Communal Councils, Communes, and Workplace Democracy By Dario Azzellini
The particular character of what Hugo Chávez called the Bolivarian process lies in the understanding that social transformation can be constructed from two directions, “from above” and “from below.” Bolivarianism—or Chavismo—includes among its participants both traditional organizations and new autonomous groups; it encompasses both state-centric and anti-systemic currents. Continue reading
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Mandela's Democracy by Andrew Nash
The new South Africa—inaugurated by the election victory of Mandela’s ANC in April 1994—is, to a greater extent than is often realized, what Nelson Mandela has made it. To some extent, the limits of social change in South Africa were established by the global context. But the tribal model of democracy which I have outlined… Continue reading
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Freedom and socialism By Kyle Matzpen
By both its detractors and some of its supposed supporters, the name of socialism has been dragged through the mud. The word “socialism” is conjured up as a demon, a great dictatorial beast, bent on destroying all liberties and homogenising all differences. It is understood that under any system called socialism, the individual is reduced… Continue reading
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Speaking with Karl Marx
In a little villa at Haverstock Hill, the northwest portion of London, lives Karl Marx, the cornerstone of modern socialism. He was exiled from his native country–Germany–in 1844, for propagating revolutionary theories. In 1848, he returned, but in a few months was again exiled. He then took up his abode in Paris, but his political… Continue reading
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Video: Michael Lebowitz: 'Spectres and struggles': a new vision for socialism in the 21st century
A spectre is haunting the working class of Europe (both east and west) and the working class of developed capitalism in general. That spectre is the spectre of communism. For the working class, that frightful hobgoblin is a society of little freedom, a society of workers without power (in the workplace or community) and a… Continue reading
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"Part of the Transition to Socialism": Venezuela's Labour Law Comes into Effect By RYAN MALLETT-OUTTRIM
Venezuela’s new Labour Law for Workers (Lottt) came into effect this week, guaranteeing shorter working hours, longer maternity leave and pensions for all Venezuelans. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 