A review of Socialism or Extinction. The Meaning of Revolution in a Time of Ecological Crisis, Martin Empson (Bookmarks, 2022), £10 In 1915, during the First World War, Polish revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg saw two possible futures: socialism or barbarism. In… Continue Reading
What are the prospects for left politics as 2023 begins?1 To say that the coming year will be one of crisis is simply to state the obvious, a point now accepted across the political spectrum and echoing through end of… Continue Reading
A review of The Imperial Mode of Living: Everyday Life and the Ecological Crisis of Capitalism, Ulrich Brand and Marcus Wissen (Verso, 2021), £16.99 Over the past decade, Marxists have published many valuable works on capitalism and ecology.1 Yet, there… Continue Reading
The role of trade unions and organised labour in preventing catastrophic climate change is a burgeoning field of research.1 Many academic contributions investigate climate policy issues but leave aside discussion of workers’ action.2 In contrast, this article focuses on past… Continue Reading
As I write this, a global revolt is shaking ruling classes from Hong Kong to Colombia, via Chile, Haiti, Catalonia, Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq. Protest movements in the United Kingdom are not on the scale of those in other countries.… 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
A review of Peter Linebaugh, Red Round Globe Hot Burning (University of California Press, 2019), £27 Peter Linebaugh’s book comes with a long subtitle, a pithy summary of its contents: A Tale at the Crossroads of Commons and Closure, of… 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
This article was written at the time of the first UK school student climate strikes. In February and March 2019, UK school students, in huge numbers, took their place in a global movement. The strikes were inspired by the actions… Continue Reading
Scientific evidence of the deepening environmental crisis is growing.1 Climate change is happening faster than scientific models had predicted. At the same time, despite rhetoric at the COP21 climate conference in Paris at the end of December 2015, we are… Continue Reading