The need to “seize back control of fishing rights in British waters” was pitched as a symbol of all that was wrong with the European Union by the Leave campaign in the 2016 referendum.1 The right-wing Brexit campaign, including Nigel… 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
I wish to thank Wayne Asher for replying to my response to his original article in this journal1 and to take this opportunity to respond once more and clarify further what I had meant to say. Wayne mentions the polarisation… 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
It is encouraging that Sean Leahy has taken up the challenge of defending the Socialist Workers Party’s line on Brexit after my essay in this journal.1 It means we are now openly debating the defining issue of our age. Sound… 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
Wayne Asher’s article in the previous issue of International Socialism is a welcome intervention in the debate about the revolutionary left’s position on the European Union.1 It avoids some of the more outlandish claims of the Remain camp in not… Continue Reading
Alex Callinicos correctly asserts that “British capitalism is…heavily dependent on access to European markets”.1 Indeed, some 60 percent of British exports find their way into European markets. There is no doubt that Brexit has unleashed the most serious crisis for… 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 fighting party of the advanced class need not fear mistakes. What it should fear is persistence in a mistake, refusal to admit and correct a mistake out of a false sense of shame”.1 Thus Lenin, writing on the eve… Continue Reading