Marx says that revolutions are the locomotive of world history. But perhaps it is quite otherwise. Perhaps revolutions are an attempt by the passengers on this train—namely, the human race—to activate the emergency brake. Walter Benjamin, 1940, Notes for “On… Continue Reading
Zuerst auf Englisch erschienen in International Socialism 165—http://isj.org.uk/socialism-in-a-time-of-pandemics/. Aus dem Englischen von David Albrich. Es ist verlockend, Pandemien als unvorhersehbare, unheilvolle Eingriffe der Natur in die menschliche Gesellschaft zu betrachten.1 Der Ausbruch der Coronavirus-Erkrankung (Coronavirus Disease 2019, kurz COVID-19) ist… Continue Reading
It is tempting to see pandemics as unpredictable, cataclysmic incursions of nature into human society.1 Yet the outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) is anything but a “natural” phenomenon. Epidemics and pandemics happen in a social, political and economic context,… Continue Reading
The Seattle protests 20 years ago opened a new cycle of anti-capitalist struggle. Despite the influence of the autonomist politics summed up by John Holloway’s famous slogan—“Change the world without taking power”, the dominant currents have looked towards the state… Continue Reading
The year just passed marks the beginning of a new global cycle of revolt. The signs were there by spring.1 By April the Algerian and Sudanese militaries felt obliged to remove the leaders of each country, respectively Abdelaziz Bouteflika and… Continue Reading
In 1994, Boris Johnson returned to London after five years as the Daily Telegraph’s correspondent in Brussels. In his time there, he had earned a reputation for barefaced lying, making up stories, misquoting sources and generally rubbishing the European Union… Continue Reading
According to legend, in the balmy days before the First World War the Times once carried the headline: “Fog on Channel, Continent Isolated.” Now the fog that pervades the Brexit process leaves Britain isolated. This issue of International Socialism appears… Continue Reading
The 17th century Catholic thinker Blaise Pascal suggested that we imagine believing in God as a wager: Let us weigh up the gain and loss involved in calling heads that God exists. Let us assess the two cases: if you… Continue Reading
Through a fog of parliamentary manoeuvres, the British state is shambling towards a no-deal Brexit, crashing out of the European Union without any transitional arrangements agreed on. Maybe this will be averted thanks to Theresa May’s last-minute approach to Jeremy… Continue Reading
The British political elite, grappling with the process of leaving the European Union, face two fundamental contradictions. The first arises from the balance of power between the remaining EU-27 and Britain. Since British capitalism is so heavily dependent on access… Continue Reading