The latest news, analysis, and Marxist theory from The Communist, alongside reports of RCP activity.
Owen Walsh of the Leeds Marxists reviews Channel 4’s series “New Worlds” – a period drama set during the time of King James II, which outlines the history of the years following the English Civil War and the settlement of European colonists in America – and analyses the ideas and driving forces behind the actions and events of the time.
After a united struggle of action for the past academic year, university staff in the UCU, Unite, and Unison are now having to decide whether to end the dispute and accept a mildly improved offer of a 2% pay increase. The alternative for UCU members is to continue with a boycott of examination marking. The HE dispute therefore hangs in the balance, and workers now find themselves between a rock and a hard place due to the lack of a fighting leadership in the unions.
At this year’s conference one subject dominated the whole proceedings: the question of pay. At the core was the divisive and insulting pay offer by Jeremy Hunt, Health Minister, who has ignored the NHS Pay Review Body recommendations and is only prepared to give a 1% pay increase to staff who are already at the top of their grade and nothing to the rest. 70% of staff in the NHS will therefore not get a pay rise.
We are pleased to announce here details of this year’s annual International Marxist School, hosted by Socialist Appeal, the International Marxist Tendency, and the UCLU Marxist Society. This year’s summer school, entitled “A Century of Struggle”, promises to be an exciting and interesting weekend of talks and discussions on pivotal historical events in the class struggle over the past century, from the beginning of World War One in 1914 to the revolutionary movements of 2014. Buy your ticket today and join us for this revolutionary weekend event!
Recent statistics about falling inflation, decreasing unemployment, and economic growth have been touted by both the Tories and bourgeois economists as a sign that their programme of austerity is working and that, after six years of recession and falling wages, things are starting to get better. But the official figures hide the reality that the vast majority of the population still find themselves struggling to cope with the biggest decline in living standards since Victorian times.
This Easter, as every year, socialists and Republicans across Ireland will commemorate the 1916 Easter Rising. Yet with only two years to go until the centenary, the aim of the Workers’ Republic that James Connolly appears as far off as ever. Fightback – the Marxists in Ireland – comment on the continuing crisis of capitalism in Ireland and the response from Labour and the small forces to their left.
On the back of two televised debates, Nigel Farage and UKIP have seen their popularity rise in the opinion polls. Farage has frequently taken to banker bashing, posing himself as the defender of the hard working people of Britain against the evils of the EU, immigration, and big business. But far from being an anti-establishment party, the real programme of UKIP is that of attacks against the working class.
Ukrainian president Oleksandr Turchynov declared earlier this weak that a full-scale operation will be launched to regain control over Eastern Ukraine. Later, the same man announced a date for a referendum in Eastern Ukraine. Others are talking about UN peacekeepers coming in. This contradictory flip-flopping indicated the insoluble mess the Ukrainian authorities have got themselves into.
On Wednesday 2nd April, Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, and Nigel Farage, leader of UKIP, went head-to-head in the second of two debates on the question of the European Union. Alex Bollard of the Queen Mary’s Marxists looks at the arguments put forward by these two representatives of capitalism – two personalities who offer nothing to the working class.
At this year’s national conference of the National Union of Students, held in Liverpool, three delegates from the Marxist Student Federation made an intervention with a fringe event on capitalist crisis and education, by distributing a bulletin spreading Marxist ideas, and by selling the Socialist Appeal newspaper. Through this action we were able to meet a number of students enthusiastic about learning more about Marxism.
On Wednesday 2nd April 2014, roughly 450 people filled the LSE’s Old Theatre to hear a lecture on ‘The Seventeen Contradictions of Capitalism’, given by the prominent Marxist academic, Professor David Harvey, who was launching his new book on the Marxist theory of capitalist crisis. Josh Holroyd reviews Harvey’s analysis of the crisis of capitalism.
The past two decades have witnessed a barrage of propaganda against Marxism and its revolutionary heritage. The mainstream media, universities, professors and historians: all have gone on the offensive to discredit Marxism. In this article, originally published in the Marxist Student magazine, we examine the most common myths about Marxism and socialism.