The Battle of Cable Street: 80 years on
Today, 4th October, marks the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street, a momentous event in which the working people of London united to deliver a decisive blow against the menace of British fascism.
Oppression
Black Lives Matter: from Ferguson to London
A little over five years since the shooting by police of Mark Duggan in Tottenham and two years since the beginning of the movement in the USA, Black Lives Matter (BLM) has finally taken shape in Britain. To commemorate Duggan’s death and continue to challenge police racism, big protests were organised in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Nottingham on 5th August, as well as smaller ones elsewhere around the country.
USA: Police brutality, racism, and the politics of polarisation
The question of instituitionalised racism has shot to the surface in the USA as a result of a series of unprovoked killings of black youth by police officers. Vigilante shootings of police officers have recently been seen in response. John Peterson of Socialist Appeal USA explains the background of polarisation that has led to these horrific exchanges.
Women’s emancipation: Hillary Clinton vs the class struggle
In her campaign to receive the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, Hillary Clinton has tried to portray herself as a defender of women’s rights. Many young women and men in the U.S., however, can see right through the smoke and mirrors, and recognise Clinton as a member of the increasingly hated establishment.
International Women’s Day: Women and the poverty trap
8th March marks International Women’s Day, originally founded over a century ago by socialists to remember the struggles of working class women. Today, we are still a long way from achieving equality between the sexes in the workplace; and with the onset of the crisis in 2008 things have only gotten worse.
#OscarsSoWhite: representation and racism in Hollywood
A media storm has surrounded this year’s Oscars in Hollywood, as a result of the lack of ethnic diversity in the nominations for the acting categories. Similar criticisms have also been levelled at the Brit Awards, the main musical awards in the UK. Owen Walsh explores the question of diversity within the culture industry.
Campus ‘censorship’ and liberation struggles – a Marxist perspective
The activities of political students attempting to create ‘safe spaces’ and campaign against hate groups have attracted plenty of negative attention in the mainstream press for their ‘restriction of freedoms of expression and speech’. The Marxist Student Federation provides a socialist perspective on the fight against oppression.
Cologne: Against racism and sexism – the need for class unity
Over five-hundred reports of abuse and harassment were made to the police in Cologne, Germany, on New Year’s Eve. What exactly happened remains unclear. What is not uncertain is that the assaults in Cologne have been used by the ruling class and the right-wing media to attack and demonise immigrants, dividing the working class.
Labour’s right-wing female candidates play the “feminist” card
As Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership campaign surges forward, his right-wing rivals are scrambling to find ways of defeating him. For Cooper and Kendall, one of the latest tactics is an attempt to appeal to female voters on the basis of their “feminist credentials”. Despite this, Corbyn is predicted to get 61% of first preferences from women.
A woman’s place is in the Revolution
To celebrate International Working Women’s Day 2015, Natasha Sorrell from the Sheffield Marxists discusses women’s role in revolution throughout history. Alongside Natasha’s talk, we reproduce several quotations from Lenin, Kollontai and others on the same subject.
Zero hours equality?
This Sunday, on 8th March, is International Women’s Day. More than one-hundred years since the first International Working Women’s day in 1911, what is the situation for women in Britain in today? Seven years after the onslaught of the financial crisis, working class women remain oppressed due to their gender and exploited due to their class.
To end racism and police brutality, end capitalism!
The ugly face of Obama’s “hope we can believe in” has been starkly revealed. The extrajudicial killings of Michael Brown andEric Garner, unarmed black males killed by white police officers, have set off an emotional firestorm of protests and outrage on a scale not seen in the US in many years. It is the task of the Marxists to help people draw out the revolutionary conclusions implicit within the situation.