Essays & Interviews
The left must resolutely oppose the US-led New Cold War on China
The techniques of the original Cold War have been updated and adapted for a new enemy in a new century, and while the political essence is the same it seems that every Cold War must have its own ‘third camp’ in the Western left – with China taking the place of the Soviet Union as the evil ‘social imperialist’ power to be opposed.
The Palestinians’ inalienable right to resist
Solidarity with the Palestinian cause is meaningless if it dissipates the moment that the Palestinians resist their oppression with anything more than rocks. Those who are not under brutal military occupation or refugees from ethnic cleansing have no right to judge the manner in which those who are choose to confront their colonisers
Grey and sober Jerusalem
In an excerpt from his memoir, Out of Place, Edward Said recalls the Jerusalem of his childhood, when, ‘Already too tall and developed to look my age, nervous Tommies at the barbed-wire barricade peered into my satchel, and examined my zone pass suspiciously, their unfriendly foreign eyes looking me over as a source of trouble.’
Statues and gangs: fascist panic and policing
Bloated since the 1990s, there has been a continuous extension of activities categorised as criminal, of police capacity, and of police access to – and powers over – people. Bolstered by tough law-and order talk from the government, policing is increasingly unaccountable and moving rightwards.
Britain’s Covid-19 care home cull
Deprived of protective equipment and tests, threatened with funding cuts unless they accepted Covid-positive patients from hospital, along with the enforcement of ‘Do not attempt resuscitation’ notices, care homes and their residents have borne the brunt of government policy. This amounts to no less than social murder, one that was a long time in the making.
From Eritrea to Bolivia: who supported the Washington backed coup?
To be a revolutionary Eritrean in the diaspora demands one not be associated with the Washington State Department or uncritically support Isaias Afewerki. There is a transformative approach to transitioning Eritrea and it won’t work through collusion with the State Department, Human Rights Watch, or Amnesty International.
Justice for Workers at Goldsmiths in the fight against casualisation
With traditional trade unions increasingly unable to tackle casualisation and job losses, with calls across the country for the UCU to step in and respond to the threat of mass job losses amid the Covid crisis, J4W discuss their tactics and how necessity has led them to organise among workers across Goldsmiths.
British Communism’s Patriotic Disease
Left-wing patriotism in Britain carries the shameful legacy of the Second International’s self-destruction, and even a progressive patriotism presents a paternalistic narrative in which workers of colour are the ‘good immigrants’ who helped rebuild the nation rather than resisted colonialism.
The false hope of a Biden presidency
It is telling that many of those who have publicly celebrated the election results are those liberals who, in their own words, cannot wait to stop caring about politics again. It is only those aware of Biden’s decades as a senior official of the US empire that understand the implications of his victory.
Imperialism, Colombia’s massacres, and what you can do about it
This year alone, at least 223 social leaders in Colombia have been massacred for their political beliefs. But we are not calling for Western society to come and save us. Instead, we want Westerners to understand that they have an active duty to put an end to the violent situation made possible by their governments and businesses.
Against Performativity
Biological science must reconcile itself with trans existence. Hodder reminds us that the purpose of dialectical materialism is not simply to recognise what exists, but ‘to recognise it in order to change it’, and we are already changing sex and gender, without Judith Butler opening the door for us.
This is Not an Aberration
Contrary to the racist notion that it should not lower itself to the standards of its enemies, it must be stated plainly that the US is in fact the global expert on assassinations, crushing internal dissent, and mass violence.
Keir Starmer and Britain’s Road to Socialism
The Communist Party of Britain’s support for Labour was never unconditional but a necessary tactic for a united working class, and though they could keep up this pretence under Corbyn it is unthinkable under Starmer. And so, although the new programme was only published in April, a new edition of Britain’s Road to Socialism is immediately necessary.
The Progressive International, a Global Green New Deal and the Limits of ‘Left Unity’
The Progressive International stands in marked contrast to the earlier internationalist alliances, and much like the original New Deal in the 1930s it is an attempt to save capitalism and support the very institutions and ideologies that are pushing the planet to the point of no return.
StudyTube and the fetishisation of productivity
During a global pandemic that is exposing the contradictions of global capitalism, StudyTube instead re-frames this as an opportunity to accelerate one’s own productive potential. Ruby Granger, it seems, is committed to going down with the ship of capitalist realism, even as its edifice begins to crumble around her.
Mark Fisher in Postmodernity
Though Fisher uses the concept ‘capitalist realism’ with the hope of coming out the other side of postmodernism, he succumbs to its ambiguities and false genealogies as it fetishises what is new; the USSR becomes identical to the US and European powers, and Marx, Lenin, and Stalin become dead white men who may as well be T.E. Lawrence.
Bolsheviks without Soviets
Revolutionary parties in Britain have been overtaken by liberal movements in their demand for citizens’ assemblies and strikes. And although they model themselves on the successes of the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks’ central demand – ‘All power to the Soviets’ – is entirely lost on them, and instead revert to a Blanquism that demands ‘All power to the party.’
When Workers Shot Back
The lasting impact of the Russian Revolution made armed struggle a legitimate strategy for contesting and seizing power. The Bolshevik use of armed struggle was increasingly emulated globally by independence movements, nationalists, anti-colonialists, and the left in the networks of European colonies and home countries across the globe.
Lessons from LulzSec
Before 4chan became a cesspool of fascism, groups such as Anonymous and LulzSec emerged from the fringes of nerd culture promoting radical slogans with a loosely anti-imperialist and anti-police level of distrust of the state.
Social Democracy and its Discontents: Race and Class in the Fallout of the UK General Election
An insidious narrative surrounding the election result is that Corbyn and the Labour left erred by subordinating ‘authentic’ class issues to identity politics and diversity. One thing is certain: socialists must confront racism head on, and foster working-class unity in all its diversity.