In November 2008, after Barack Obama had won in the presidential election in the US, Slavoj Žižek wrote one of his very best pieces: “The reason Obama’s victory generated such enthusiasm is not only that, against all odds, it really… Continue Reading
A review of John Riddell (ed), Toward the United Front: Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International 1922 (Brill, 2012), €199.00 Why, 90 years on, study the detailed proceedings of the Communist International (often known as the Comintern)?1… Continue Reading
A review of Gillian Tett, Fool’s Gold: How Unrestrained Greed Corrupted A Dream, Shattered Global Markets and Unleashed a Catastrophe (Abacus, 2009), £8.99; Paul Krugman, The Return of Depression Economics (Penguin, 2008), £9.99; and Joseph Stiglitz, Freefall: Free Markets and… Continue Reading
I am very conscious of the great honour of being invited to participate in this seminar as someone who did not belong to the same international current as Daniel Bensaïd and only got to know him in the last decade… Continue Reading
Twenty-five years ago Bookmarks published a collection of essays under the title Revolutionary Rehearsals. The book has since been republished by Haymarket Press of Chicago. In its pages Ian Birchall wrote about France in May 1968, Mike Gonzalez about the… Continue Reading
Editor’s note: Nigel Harris, who succeeded Michael Kidron as editor of International Socialism during the 1960s, made a welcome return to our pages in issue 132. Then he was reviewing Ian Birchall’s biography of Tony Cliff. Here he seeks to… Continue Reading
The history of the Bund, or Algemeyner Yiddisher Arbeter Bund in Rusland un Poyln (General Jewish Labour Union in Russia and Poland), is one riven with contradictions. It brought together tens of thousands of Jewish workers during its 52 years… Continue Reading
The Arab revolutions have been a great inspiration for the struggle against capitalism and imperialism across the world. They have inspired and fed into a global mood of alienation and anger against the system as expressed in strikes, occupations and… Continue Reading
Dave Zirin is one of the most celebrated Marxists writing about sport today. He spoke to Gareth Edwards about the contradictory nature of the Olympic Games With the Olympics rapidly approaching, what does history tell us London can expect over… Continue Reading
The case of nine men convicted of appalling sexual exploitation of young women in Rochdale in north west England has unleashed a renewed tide of racism and Islamophobia.1 The media coverage of the case asserted that the most shocking aspect… Continue Reading