The issues that have driven the “trade union debate” in International Socialism are fundamental to the left in Britain and most importantly to Marxists. The “problem”, often repeated in this journal and elsewhere, is simply this: the level of strike… Continue Reading
I am very grateful to Paul Le Blanc for responding to my article “In Defence of Party Building” and for his detailed discussion of its contents.1 As Paul and I well know, such expressions of “thanks” are commonly a formal… 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
I have been asked to comment on John Molyneux’s polemic “In Defence of Party Building”.1 I am pleased to do so, since discussion on the matter of a revolutionary party has become increasingly urgent—particularly in this moment of accelerating climate… Continue Reading
Along with Mark O’Brien and several other authors in this journal, I am anxious to understand what lay behind the dramatic drop in UK strike activity from the late 1970s to the early 1990s and the extremely low level ever… 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
I am grateful to John Kelly for taking the time to respond to some of the issues raised by my review of his history of the British Trotskyist movement, Contemporary Trotskyism.1 I will here just aim to reply briefly to… 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
In his critical but not hostile review of my book Contemporary Trotskyism, Christian Høgsbjerg notes, on the positive side, that it is “generally well-informed”, based on “painstaking empirical research” and is “thought-provoking”.1 He agrees that the social movement activity of… Continue Reading