From Algiers to Beirut and Baghdad to Khartoum, it appears that revolution is once again “the choice of the people”—as a slogan echoed by tens of thousands on protests in Sudan puts it.1 Meanwhile, the temperature of social and political… Continue Reading
In the first ten years of independence in Africa, even leaders of states that were not explicitly Marxist expressed an allegiance to socialism and an admiration for the Soviet Union. This included many famous leaders of independent Africa: Gamal Abdel… Continue Reading
“This is the way the world ends,” wrote T S Eliot in “The Hollow Men”. “Not with a bang but a whimper”. Well the world didn’t come to an end in Zimbabwe on 21 November 2017, when Robert Mugabe resigned… Continue Reading
The commission was chaired by Bob Geldof and headed by prime minister Tony Blair, chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown, and minister for international development Hilary Benn. It also included: Michel Camdessus, who as managing director of the IMF until… Continue Reading
Towards the end of the 1980s and early 1990s strikes, riots and demonstrations forced 19 one-party states in Africa to institutionalise a democratic opposition. But the headlong rush into neo-liberalism and continued structural adjustment policies somewhat de-֊legitimised the ‘birth of… Continue Reading
A review of Morten Jerven, Africa: Why Economists Get It Wrong (Zed Books, 2015), £14.99 Africa: Why Economists Get It Wrong provides a critical review of the recent economic history of Africa. Morton Jerven argues that, for most of the… Continue Reading
Sub-Saharan Africa is huge. Its area is larger than that of China, the United States and India combined or five times that of the 28 countries of the European Union. Its population, at over 930 million, is also getting on… Continue Reading
If Tony Cliff credited the theory of permanent revolution as Trotsky’s most outstanding and original contribution to Marxism, then Cliff’s own revisions to the theory in 1963 were similarly remarkable. An appraisal of Cliff’s work, ten years after his death,… Continue Reading
The resources exist worldwide easily to wipe out Third World poverty and the G8 are guilty of not providing them. That was the message motivating very large numbers of people to demonstrate as we went to press. But there was… Continue Reading
Gordon Brown has trumpeted loudest about his initiatives to reduce Africa’s debt. If we are to believe the newspaper headlines and even the hype of some NGOs, the chancellor has not only led the way in tackling the debt of… Continue Reading