London’s Evening Standard newspaper recently ran the front page headline ‘Ken Backs Terrorist on the Tube’. Most of the capital’s 7 million inhabitants will have been in no doubt who ‘Ken’ was. Almost uniquely among British politicians, London Mayor Ken… Continue Reading
‘There was a time when one in four of the world’s big ships were built on the Clyde and more than 1 million of the UK’s workers were coal miners. Today the supermarket giant Tesco’s employs just over 250,000 workers—making… Continue Reading
Many supporters of Italy’s Rifondazione Comunista party are shocked and disoriented. Three years ago it put itself at the front of Europe’s anti-capitalist movement. It spearheaded massive mobilisations after paramilitary police had attacked the Genoa demonstration against the G8, and… Continue Reading
In January 2005, following the torture and murder of the Iraqi trade unionist Hadi Saleh, ‘Labour Friends of Iraq’ issued an open letter demanding the Stop the War Coalition condemn the murder (which it already had1), and drop its support… Continue Reading
‘Mission accomplished’ has turned mission bust…the US is facing defeat in Iraq… The longer the US military occupation continues, the already declining US influence in the Middle East will give way to regional extremism and instability—Zbigniew Brzezinski, architect of US… Continue Reading
I have long believed that a very great revolutionary is a great artist, and that he develops ideas, programmes, etc, as Beethoven develops a movement. C L R James Cyril Lionel Robert James (1901-1989) was a towering intellectual of what… Continue Reading
For some years prior to 1956 the British labour movement was in overall decline. The 1945 general election had been the crest of the wave for the development of the left in Britain. The British Labour government, which took office,… Continue Reading
The birth of the New Left in 1956 marked an important turning point in post-war British history.2 For the first time since the Second World War a political space opened within which socialists could hope to make headway building a… Continue Reading
‘Tell me what you think about Hungary and I will tell you who you are,’ said a Polish writer in late November 1956. So in this spirit let us make a declaration. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was an authentic… Continue Reading
July 26, 1956. A crowd, tens of thousands strong, gathered in Manshiyya Square in Alexandria, to hear a speech by Egypt’s president, Gamal Abd-al-Nasser. The atmosphere was tense—only days before Nasser had received a humiliating rebuff from the US Secretary… Continue Reading