Cladding scandal: Tory Fire Safety Bill prioritises profits over lives

Millions of people are still stuck in deadly homes, almost four years since the Grenfell tower disaster. Despite the Tories’ Fire Safety Bill, the flammable cladding scandal is still far from being resolved. The ongoing Grenfell enquiry has continued to expose the unscrupulous means by which landlords and housing developers have cut corners to maximise their profits – all at the expense of working-class lives. It is believed that inadequate regulations and Read more…

Lessons of the Lancaster Rent Strike

The Lancaster rent strike emerged during the national student movement against universities and landlords during the COVID-19 pandemic. From Newcastle to Bristol thousands of students withheld their rent, and Lancaster was a shining example of this, winning a significant victory for students. The student rent-strike began in January 2021. 1,500 students came together to withhold rent and sign an open letter against the university. The student movement across the country helped inspire Read more…

The class, the party and the leadership: How to organise revolution

Capitalism has ceased to take humanity forward. It should long ago have been overthrown by the working class. Why hasn’t it then? The key to answering that question lies in the role of leadership and of the revolutionary party. This article, based on a talk at the 2021 Montreal Marxist Winter School, looks at the different sides of this question and the rich lessons of the world working-class movement. The year 2020 Read more…

Myths of Marxism: Are Socialism and Democracy Compatible?

Socialism is often portrayed in capitalist societies as the antithesis of democracy. However, this is a myth, which is used by the ruling class to deter workers and youth from learning about the reality of socialism. Socialism and workers’ democracy are not only compatible but need each other. You cannot have genuine socialism without workers’ democracy. And you cannot have genuine workers’ democracy without socialism. 

The partition of Ireland at 100: A story of blood-soaked counter-revolution

One hundred years ago, on 3 May 1921, the partition of Ireland became law in the British parliament. As the Marxist revolutionary, James Connolly, had predicted, partition created “a carnival of reaction both North and South”. It took years of terror, pogroms and bloodshed to establish what the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, James Craig, termed a “Protestant state for a Protestant people”. In the South, the newly established Free State was baptised in the blood of the Republicans who resisted the Treaty and partition.

Gaza bombing: Israel twists the knife – prepare mass resistance!

The Israeli bombing of Gaza has already killed at least 48 Palestinians – among whom 14 are children – and injured hundreds, while six Israelis have been killed by rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. The international media has once again presented the bombings as a legitimate retaliation against Hamas’ decision to fire rockets into Israel. However, as usual, they give a completely one-sided view of the real causes of this escalation of the crisis in Israel and Palestine.

Chile: The institutions of the Pinochet era begin to creak

The Chilean bourgeois institutions, like an old rickety wardrobe, creak through all their cracks at the slightest breeze. This last month, these failing institutions have been brought to their knees, as the result of a bill that would authorise, for the third time, a withdrawal of 10% of pension funds by contributors from private pensions. President Sebastián Piñera was defeated on this issue and once again, it was the organisation of the Read more…

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