“I am going to lose £700. Travel card expenses to and from work cost me £98. No childcare. I support my three children back home (overseas). I can’t afford rent and bills with this change.” “The change in hours could force me to quit, doing so would make me and my children homeless.” These are statements from cleaning staff at Goldsmiths University regarding the changes to contracts of cleaners that outsourcing Read more…
The crisis of capitalism has given rise to a mood of questioning and mass movements across the world. From the Spanish Indignados, to the Syntagma Square in Greece, and more recently the Nuit Debout in France, youth are starting to take action and challenge the capitalist system. As part of this general mood, recent years have also seen a number of spontaneous movements erupt against the multiple forms of oppression that Read more…
The ideas of Marx have never been more relevant than they are today. This is reflected in the thirst for Marxist theory at the present time. In this article, Alan Woods deals with the main ideas of Karl Marx and their relevance to the crisis we’re passing through today. It is 130 years since the death of Karl Marx. But why should we commemorate a man who died in 1883? In Read more…
We publish Rob Sewell’s introduction to Lenin’s 1902 pamphlet, What is to be Done? Rob (editor of Socialist Appeal, the IMT’s British paper) explains the importance of this text, in which Lenin rebuked reformist and opportunist trends in the Russian Social Democracy, and argued for building a committed party of professional revolutionaries to lead the working class to power. It bears huge relevance for Marxists striving for revolution today. Lenin’s book What is to be Read more…
The annual Revolution Festival, hosted by Socialist Appeal and the Marxist Student Federation, will be taking place in London from Friday 19 October to Sunday 21 October 2018. The event will be held at Student Central in Malet Street and will feature discussions on a huge variety of topics, including: Rosa Luxemburg and the German Revolution France 1968: the biggest general strike in history Protectionism and Free Trade Consciousness and Artificial Intelligence Read more…
Between 24-29 July, 370 Marxists from more than 25 countries gathered in the Italian Alps for the 2018 congress of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT). In years to come we believe this congress will be remembered as a turning point in the effort to build a worldwide organisation capable of leading the working class in the struggle to overthrow capitalism. This was by far the biggest world event the IMT has Read more…
Things have been getting worse. Students are being saddled with debt and their mental health is deteriorating as a result. At the same time, the NHS is being bled dry and can no longer take care of an ailing population. It seems the only jobs available for young people are on zero-hour contracts or consist of casualized employment for companies like Uber and Deliveroo. The rich are leading the world to Read more…
Picture this: the year is 1018 and you’re the court jester for some provincial lord. You perform amusing tricks for him, and if you do a good job he might toss you some scraps from his table. He sleeps well, having exhibited such charity. You sleep on a flee-infested straw bed, but at least your stomach is full. Today the year is 2018, you’re a student with a degree the ‘market’ Read more…
Growing up I always considered myself a Marxist and was always vocal in criticising capitalism during lessons at school. My parents had struggled with four children and having to move around the country to find work. My childhood was quite austere in some respects and I could see how hard-working my parents were for sometimes very little reward. This was how I came to see capitalism for the exploitative economic model that Read more…
The principal of King’s College London has contacted all students warning that respect for “freedom of expression” will be upheld at the university – through curtailment of the right to protest. The university’s new measures to ‘promote free speech’ implicitly reference a recent incident that occurred during a lecture by the chairman of the Ayn Rand society, Yaron Brook and far-right YouTube troll, Carl Benjamin (otherwise known as Sargon of Akkad) Read more…
Anyone who reads our website or the Socialist Appeal newspaper regularly will know that we live in extremely turbulent times. The established order is beginning to crumble. The global crisis of capitalism has produced political turmoil all over the world. In every country, long established parties and traditions are being thrown aside as ordinary people seek a way out of the suffering brought about by this rotten system. Never before has Read more…
Growing up in an old mining village, I have always been acutely aware of the effect Thatcherism had on Britain. Those around me would reminisce about how it used to be; a shop, a church, a train station and a pub all gave life to the area. But by the time I was born the mine had been closed and this hub of activity had been destroyed. The community that gave Read more…
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