In May 2015, prominent al-Jazeera journalist Ahmed Mansur sat down with Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, leader of the Syrian armed faction, the Nusra Front, for a lengthy discussion of the group’s worldview and military strategy. His face hidden from the camera,… Continue Reading
In traditional military parlance, the cadre referred to the nucleus of officers around which a unit of soldiers could be built.1 Like many military terms, it would be adopted by revolutionaries in the inter-war period: cadres were the core of… Continue Reading
On 3 December 2024, South Korea’s right-wing president, Yoon Suk Yeol, attempted an “auto-coup”, declaring martial law in a live televised address. He claimed that shadowy forces were acting against the state, attempting to impeach members of his cabinet and… Continue Reading
In 2021, the new government of chancellor Olaf Scholz took over from the conservatives and pre-emptively celebrated itself as a “progress coalition” that is “setting the course for a decade of social, ecological, economic, digital, and social renewal”.1 The coalition… Continue Reading
The July issue of Science & Society (volume 88, number 3) contains an interesting and timely symposium on “Imperialism, Anti-imperialism and the Global Class Struggle”. It was provoked by a couple of earlier pieces by William Robinson, who contributed an… Continue Reading
A review of China: Rise, Repression and Resistance by Adrian Budd (Bookmarks, 2024), £10 What is the history, politics and nature of the Chinese regime? Adrian Budd’s book, China: Rise, Repression and Resistance provides an excellent and in-depth answer. Regularly,… Continue Reading
A review of The Zone of Interest (2023, Jonathan Glazer) Steven Spielberg said that Jonathan Glazer’s film The Zone of Interest, based on Martin Amis’s book of the same name, was the best film about the Holocaust since his own… Continue Reading
Denis Godard’s article in International Socialism 184 aims to assess the situation in France today and sketch out the tasks of the left.1 It also presents the history of the Popular Front in France in the 1930s, intending to draw… Continue Reading
A review of Empire of Normality by Robert Chapman (Pluto Press, 2023), £14.99 Over recent years, neurodiversity has become a major social phenomenon in the societies of the Global North.1 A rapid growth in the number of those seeking or… Continue Reading
The “special relationship”, declared prime minister Keir Starmer in his first official visit to White House in July 2024, was “stronger now than ever”.1The meeting in Washington was a triumph for him. It was the reward for shadowing dutifully the… Continue Reading