Dear friends, I very much appreciate John Rose’s thoughtful review of my book Leon Trotsky (“Half socialist? Leon Trotsky and the Soviet Union”, in International Socialism 149) including his positive comments and the gratifying endorsement: “Buy this book!” Yet his… Continue Reading
Across the world, the culture of testing and monitoring the performance of children in school at every level is becoming ubiquitous and deeply entrenched. Pasi Sahlberg has famously identified such standardised testing as the third pillar of the Global Education… Continue Reading
1906 Muslim League founded 1940 Muslim League adopts principle of a separate nation for India’s Muslims 1947 India partitioned creating East and West Pakistan. Around one million die in communal violence, millions more are displaced 1948 Pakistan army invades Balochistan.… Continue Reading
For a timeline of key events related to this article go to http://isj.org.uk/pakistan-timeline-of-key-events The popular image of Pakistan is of a failing state with nuclear weapons. Neither the government nor the army can prevent the Taliban’s terrorist outrages, not least… Continue Reading
A review of Judith Orr, Marxism and Women’s Liberation (Bookmarks, 2015), £9.99 The gains won by the women’s liberation movement during the 1960s and 1970s, such as the right to divorce and increased reproductive rights, are real material gains. Women… Continue Reading
We don’t know a great deal about William Shakespeare’s life. The records are scant and, in the absence of personal testimony, we know nothing of his intimate feelings or thoughts. We do know some things, however. His father was a… Continue Reading
The emergence of new left wing political parties in Europe in response to the crisis and government austerity policies has been discussed already in the pages of this journal.1 Specifically we have looked at the nature of the Podemos project… Continue Reading
The problem with political anniversaries is that they often focus on specific dates in the past without any recognition that they are part of a longer process. Easter Monday 1916 is an iconic date in Irish history that all and… Continue Reading
Debates in Germany in recent years around the wearing of the hijab, Islamic religious instruction in schools, circumcision and claims of a “Salafist” threat continue to demonstrate the importance for Marxists to be clear on the question of religious freedom.1… Continue Reading
Ever since Marx and Engels proclaimed in The Communist Manifesto that the workers have no country, it has been an elementary and defining premise of Marxist politics that we are internationalists.1 There has never been a more clear proof that… Continue Reading