GM Tamás, a prominent Hungarian dissident and now professor of philosophy in Budapest, spoke to Chris Harman about developments in Eastern Europe since the fall of Stalinism. This is the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Stalinist regime in… Continue Reading
The Pakistan military claimed at the beginning of June that it had achieved success in its all-out assault on Taliban insurgents after driving more than two million people from the Swat Valley and other areas of the north west of… Continue Reading
The first 100 days of the Obama administration have made clear that the tremendous expectations driving last year’s dramatic election are already coming into conflict with the realities of US capitalism in crisis. The desire for change on the part… Continue Reading
We do not know whether the green shoots of recovery some observers claim to have seen in the late spring will wither in the summer heat. But they are unlikely to blossom this year or, for that matter, next. Stock… Continue Reading
The results of elections to the European Parliament have delivered a devastating shock to New Labour. Its share of the vote was the lowest since something approaching universal suffrage was conceded in 1918, and it trailed behind the right populists… Continue Reading
The best thing to appear in recent issues of New Left Review is the article “Obama At Manassas”, which was in issue 56 (March-April). In it Mike Davis gives an analysis of the outcome of the US presidential election. This… Continue Reading
Richard Seymour, The Liberal Defence of Murder (Verso, 2008), £16.99 As I write this review, Gaza lies in ruins after the Israeli government’s most recent exercise in collective punishment. This latest atrocity has excited massive opposition in Britain (not least… Continue Reading
Ethan Pollock, Stalin and the Soviet Science Wars (Princeton, 2009), £17.95 The post-war period was a time of rapid reconstruction and modernisation in the Soviet Union, and science and technology were expected to play a huge part in the process.… Continue Reading
Antonio Negri, Goodbye Mr Socialism: Radical Politics in the 21st Century (Serpent’s Tail, 2008), £8_._99 This collection of interviews with Antonio Negri provides some insights into one of the most important thinkers on the anti-capitalist left. Negri is the co_author,… Continue Reading
Conor Kostick, The Social Structure of the First Crusade (Brill, 2008), £93.99 In 1095 Pope Urban II called on the faithful to retake the Holy Land for Christianity. This unleashed a crusading movement which saw hundreds of thousands of Europeans… Continue Reading