This issue of International Socialism overlaps with two of New Left Review (II/90 and 91). They include an ambitious two-part study of Marx in the 1840s by Gopal Balakrishnan. He tries to reframe the old argument about whether there is… Continue Reading
Merilyn Moos, Beaten but not Defeated: Siegfried Moos, A German anti-Nazi who settled in Britain (Chronos Books, 2014), £17.99 Siegi Moos arrived in Britain in 1934 after walking across Germany to avoid capture by the Gestapo—and almost certain death—and… Continue Reading
Gajendra Singh, The Testimonies of Indian Soldiers and the Two World Wars (Bloomsbury, 2014), £27.99 The 100th anniversary of the First World War has brought into scope the “hidden” role of Britain’s Indian colonial soldiers. The recruitment of Indian… Continue Reading
Mike Gonzalez, Hugo Chávez, Socialist for the Twenty-first Century (Pluto, 2014), £11.50 In 2004 I remember sitting in one of the minibuses that take the more well-heeled residents of Porto Alegre in Brazil from the centre to the suburbs,… Continue Reading
Paula Bartley, Ellen Wilkinson: From Red Suffragist to Government Minister (Pluto, 2014), £11.50, and Matt Perry, “Red Ellen” Wilkinson: Her Ideas, Movements and World (Manchester University Press, 2014), £75 Ellen Wilkinson led an extraordinary life. The daughter of an under-employed… Continue Reading
Colin Barker, Laurence Cox, John Krinsky and Alf Gunvald Nilsen (eds), Marxism and Social Movements (Brill, 2013/Haymarket, 2014) £111/£25.99 Marxism and Social Movements is an incredibly useful and important book. At its theoretical heart it asks two seemingly simple… Continue Reading
Claudio Pavone, A Civil War: A History of the Italian Resistance (Verso, 2014), £20 A Civil War is a detailed survey of the ideas and motivations of the partisans and their fascist enemies in Italy between 1943 and 1945.… Continue Reading
Simon Joyce’s piece “Why are there so few strikes?” in International Socialism 145 is very welcome. It asks an essential question, and Joyce clearly achieves his aim of opening a discussion.1 For revolutionary Marxists this is not an academic issue.… Continue Reading
Simon Joyce has written a welcome article that seeks to address why Britain’s strike record is at a historically low level.1 Simon’s argument is that the “confidence theory” of strike action, associated with the International Socialist tradition, is insufficient to… Continue Reading
On the eve of Jamaica’s celebrations marking 50 years of political independence, the Jamaica Gleaner released the results of a poll finding that an estimated 60 percent of Jamaicans believed that they would be better off if they had remained… Continue Reading