Party & Programme
End the cycle of splits
24 May 2012
If the left is to build a serious political organisation it will have to facilitate internal dissent, writes Mike Macnair. And that will require both majorities and minorities to act responsibly
Blasphemy laws old and new
01 Apr 2021
Freedom of speech includes the right to criticise, explain and even mock, insists Eddie Ford
End of a dead end
25 Mar 2021
Last week’s general election saw big losses for the Socialist Party. Predictably, the leadership’s purge of the left has backfired. Emil Jacobs of the SP’s Communist Platform reports
Lamb dressed as mutton
18 Mar 2021
Lawrence Parker reviews 'A centenary for socialism: Britain’s Communist Party 1920-2020' by the Communist Party of Britain, edited by Mary Davis
In the era of pandemics
18 Mar 2021
Covid-19 has brought with it the potential for genuine transformation. Mark Kosman unashamedly looks on the bright side
The afterlife of Bobby Sands
11 Mar 2021
Glowing leftwing tributes to the hunger-striker contrast markedly to the prevailing attitude 40 years ago. Paul Demarty looks at the modern-day paradoxes
1921 turning point?
11 Mar 2021
Mike Macnair spoke to Online Communist Forum on March 7 about the related centenaries of the 1921 Kronstadt rebellion, the adoption of the NEP and the ban on factions in the Russian Communist Party
A minimum-maximum programme
11 Mar 2021
This is the mission statement of the Marxist Unity Slate - a set of proposals for the 2021 convention of the Democratic Socialists of America. The aim is to achieve democratic discipline and principled election campaigns, as well as uniting Marxists around a vision of a mass working class socialist party
The misuses of Gramsci
25 Feb 2021
Quoted by charlatans to provide an air of magic, praised for his ambiguities, more revered than read: David Broder calls for a serious engagement with a political strategy that still has considerable relevance
Mario Draghi? No, thanks!
18 Feb 2021
The political establishment has put differences aside to support a government that is committed to making workers, pensioners and the petty bourgeoisie pay for the Covid-19 crisis, reports Toby Abse
We light fires
18 Feb 2021
One half of the Labour Campaign for Free Speech does not believe in free speech. They want a ‘free speech, but ...’ campaign. Jack Conrad explains why the left should champion the unrestricted right to organise, strike, assemble and speak
From symbol to failure
11 Feb 2021
On February 8 1971, 50 years ago, the geurrillaist left began its armed struggle by attacking a gendamerie post at Siahkal. Three police were killed and two comrades rescued. Yassamine Mather spoke to Ardeshir Mehrdad. He was a member of the Organisation of Iranian People’s Fadai until 1980 and later became editor of Iran Bulletin
Principle, confusion and hope
11 Feb 2021
Having looked at the birth and early years of the guerrillaist left in her first article Yassamine Mather turns to the internal struggles within the Fedai
SUPPLEMENT: Three waves of protest
04 Feb 2021
Feelings of injustice, a lack of rights and a sense of betrayal have become universal and act as psychological and subjective drivers of protest, writes Ardeshir Mehrdad. But how can protest be forged into a movement than can topple the regime?
SUPPLEMENT: Limits of guerrillaism
04 Feb 2021
Mohamad Reza Shalgouni was a founder-member of the Organisation of Revolutionary Workers of Iran (Rahe Kargar). He spoke to Yassamine Mather about his strategic reassessment as a prisoner of the shah and experience of the revolutionary years of 1978-79
For or against ‘AGREEMENTISM’?
28 Jan 2021
In his third and final article in this series Lars T Lih analyses the duel over support for the Provisional Government that divided the Bolsheviks from the Mensheviks before Lenin’s return from exile in Switzerland