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
Occupy Wall Street (OWS), and the Occupy movement that rapidly spread across the country in late September 2011, marked a watershed moment in the re-emergence of mass struggle and radical politics in the United States.1 In a matter of weeks,… Continue Reading
In 1981 the joyous celebrations that greeted François Mitterrand’s election as president, on a radical reform programme, were an expression of widespread hope of significant change. Almost exactly 31 years later the mood following François Hollande’s victory over Nicolas Sarkozy… Continue Reading
Crunch-time for the eurozone? Nearly five years after it started, the global economic and financial crisis shows no signs of resolving itself. On the contrary, in Europe it is taking a more virulent form, as the eurozone inches towards some… Continue Reading
The following article was first published in International Socialism 56 in autumn 1992. It is presented here to mark the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development – also known as the Rio Summit or Earth… Continue Reading
A review of Christopher Hitchens, Hitch–22: A Memoir (Atlantic, 2010), £9.99 Given Hitchens’s political inconsistencies, Hitch–22 is better than it ought to be, a fact which is a consequence of his undeniable talent A petty bourgeois individualist, in his last… Continue Reading
Since his death Frantz Fanon has been appropriated for almost every cause. Five years after his death in 1961 he emerged as the preferred theorist of the emergent Black Power movement in the US, influencing Bobby Seale and Huey P… Continue Reading
This article explores the history of housing in Britain over the past 150 years, and the ways in which access to housing has been shaped by collective struggle.1 It traces the rise and the decline of council housing, and the… Continue Reading
In respect of climate change, the hurricane that tore into New York was the game changer. The floods it unleashed forced the authorities to organise a mass airlift evacuation of much of the city’s population, and to begin planning the… Continue Reading
Rupert Murdoch’s enforced appearance before the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport on 19 July 2011 was an unprecedented humiliation. It signified the eclipse, at least temporarily, of his political influence in Britain. And this was… Continue Reading