Marx says that revolutions are the locomotive of world history. But perhaps it is quite otherwise. Perhaps revolutions are an attempt by the passengers on this train—namely, the human race—to activate the emergency brake. Walter Benjamin, 1940, Notes for “On… Continue Reading
Universal Basic Income (UBI), while having several differing strands of thought among its proponents, is in essence the proposal to introduce a single non-means tested, unconditional flat payment to all citizens regardless of employment status.1 Luke Martinelli provides a useful… 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
Hence, from this nothing could come but a kind of eclectic, average socialism, which, as a matter of fact, has up to the present time dominated the minds of most of the socialist workers in France and England. Hence, a… Continue Reading
Internationally the neoliberal order continues to implode. Donald Trump seems intent on pursuing trade wars with both the United States’ strategic rival China and allies such as the European Union and Canada, while he embraces détente with North Korea, once… Continue Reading
The two Russian Revolutions of 1917 inspired socialists and trade unionists across the world. The February Revolution raised the prospect of the overthrow of dictatorship, October the possibility of workers’ revolution and socialism.1 October ripped up the blueprint for socialism… Continue Reading
The extraordinary British general election of 8 June 2017—held amid the echoes of police gunfire on London Bridge—showed that the forces destabilising the advanced capitalist societies since the global economic and financial crisis that broke out nearly a decade ago… Continue Reading
In June and July 1917, the then secretary of the Labour Party Arthur Henderson visited revolutionary Russia on behalf of Lloyd George’s coalition government. He returned extremely disturbed by what he had seen. The radicalism of the Russian working class… Continue Reading
“In passing across a narrow and unreliable bridge, a small but reliable prop may prove one’s salvation. But woe to him who clutches at a rotten prop that crumbles at a touch—for, in that case, a plunge into the abyss… Continue Reading
Something remarkable happened over the summer of 2015. Immediately after Ed Miliband resigned following Labour’s defeat in the general election, the grip exercised by Blairism over the Labour Party had seemed set to continue grimly on. The field competing for… Continue Reading