Ted Grant: 1913-2006
Originally published 20 July 2006, and republished today to mark the anniversary of Ted Grant’s passing. You can celebrate Ted’s legacy by purchasing his books and collections of his writings at Wellred Books.
Tell the truth: History is not linear
Students all over the world are seeing the holes in the education they are given. It is no longer enough to dispel myths to young people through their schooling. More and more, people are turning away from the lies told to them. Here, Iris d’Honfleur, a recent A Level student, looks at her experience of A Level History.
Founding of the Chinese Communist Party: Heroism and tragedy
This month the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) celebrates its 100th anniversary. The CCP achieved astonishing things. It led the Chinese Revolution, an epic struggle for power lasting over two decades. However, it is safe to say the party founded 100 years ago was the direct opposite of what it has Read more…
Lessons of Stonewall
Today is 52 years since the Stonewall riots of 28 June 1969, which marked the beginning of the modern LGBT rights movement. Following other revolutionary events of the 1960s, the riots – described as the “hairpin drop heard ‘round the world” by the New York Mattachine newsletter – marked a shift amongst LGBT people away from individualised, small-scale activism and towards mass protest and demonstrations.
Windrush scandal: our fragile freedoms under capitalism
The first Commonwealth ‘subjects’ arrived in Britain on the Empire Windrush in 1948 from the Caribbean. Although on paper they came as citizens, the real reason for their arrival was a shortage of labour in the war-torn colonial metropole.
United States: The racist terror of Tulsa 1921
One century ago, on 31 May and 1 June 1921, a so-called “race riot” erupted in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Despite a brave attempt by black residents of Tulsa to fight the pogromists, an estimated 300 black people were murdered in those events. The true history of these events has been airbrushed to this day. They represent the horrific fruit of centuries of divide and rule by the American ruling class.
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.
Tell the Truth: Ireland’s Great Famine
Ultimately, this whole catastrophe occurred in order for the capitalists and landlords to increase their bottom line. In order to put an end to hunger and famine – which still afflict the world today – we must put an end to this capitalist horror show once and for all.
Tell The Truth: The Opium Wars
Among the most formidable civilisations that early capitalism had to confront in its period of ascent was China. In The Communist Manifesto, Marx listed among the key moments of capitalist development not only the conquest of the Americas and the transatlantic slave trade, but also the opening of new markets in the Indian subcontinent and East Asia. The horrors which attended capitalist domination in Asia were scarcely less than those seen in the Atlantic.
The Paris Commune: triumph, tragedy and lessons for today
The following is an introduction to Wellred Books’ new republication of The Civil War in France by Karl Marx. This excellent overview explains the main events and political processes of this inspirational watershed in the history of working-class struggle. The Communards’ heroic, triumphant, but ultimately tragic efforts to build the Read more…
Tell The Truth – The Rise of the East India Company
As capitalist interests began to develop in England in the 15th and 16th century, so did their interest in colonisation overseas. In the year 1600, the East India Company, a joint-stock company of various London merchants, was granted a monopoly over trade in the East Indies. The Royal Charter served Read more…
Tell the Truth: The Origins of the British Working Class
At school we are usually presented with a sanitised picture of how capitalism arose in Britain. The story goes something like this: The Industrial Revolution was primarily the result of entrepreneurial ingenuity and technological innovation. The peasants, who were looking for work, migrated into the burgeoning cities where they were Read more…
