Football World Cup 2002
Steve Jones from the British Marxist magazine Socialist Appeal looks at the World Cup and also the game closer to home, with the ITV Digital catastrophe.
News and analysis
The latest news and analysis from The Communist, alongside reports of our activity. For Marxist theory and history, click here.
Golden Jubilee: The “Suffering” Royalty
The Jubilee has come and gone. India and Pakistan stood on the brink of nuclear war. Suicide bombers were striking in Israel and Belfast was aflame with sectarian conflict. But on the streets of London and other British cities, millions of people cheerfully participated in street parties in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Yet this year’s festivities totally lacked the grassroots "spontaneity" of the Silver Jubilee, 25 years ago. The enthusiasm for the monarchy that has been whipped up by the media in recent weeks is at best superficial. The mood is quite different to 1977 and even more distant from that of 1952.
Report of the book launch, London, May 21, 2002 (With photos!)
This is a report of the successful meeting in London organised both to launch Ted Grant’s book History of British Trotskyism and to celebrate 10 years of .
The Unbroken Thread: Report of London Meeting, May 21, 2002
This is a shorter report of the same event.
Britain: Is the new-found Royalist optimism justified?
The Queen has started her Golden Jubilee tour of Britain, and particularly with the events (and non-events) following the death over Easter of the Queen Mother, the media are trying to create a revivial of the monarchy’s public standing. Steve Jones looks at this, and at the real role of the British monarchy.
Equal Value in the NHS: Fight for equal pay!
Peter Doyle, an organiser for the public sector union Unison in Cumbria, Northern England, reports on the Equal Value claims that his union region is submitting to the government to get women workers in traditional "women’s jobs" in the health service the same levels of pay as workers in traditional "men’s jobs". They are on the verge of an important victory.
The Falklands War – 20 years later
On March 30, 1982, in response to Argentina's deepening economic
crisis, and the repression of General Galtieri's military-police
dictatorship, the workers had taken to the streets of Buenos Aires. The
regime was staring overthrow in the face. It responded by starting a
war, one of the principal aims of which was to distract the attention
of the masses. In all wars the policy and analysis of every
organisation is put to the test. The analysis made by the Marxists, on
the other hand, remains as valid as when it was written. Unlike other
tendencies we can reproduce everything we wrote twenty years ago
without changing a single word.
The Falklands Crisis – A Socialist Answer
This is the complete text of a pamphlet written by Ted Grant in May 1982.
Female immigration – Maximum Surplus Value
We are publishing a letter about the conditions of female immigrants to
Europe written by Marina Kosara, a member of the Young Socialists in
Vienna who works with immigrants.
The Abortion Referendum in Ireland
The Irish population in a referendum has just rejected a government
move to further restrict women’s limited access to abortions. This is a
blow for the reactionaries but the right to abortion is still out of
reach for most Irish women, being available only to those who can
afford to travel to Britain.
A Global Steel War?
On Wednesday March 6, President Bush imposed tariffs as high as 30% on most steel imports coming to the US from Asia and Europe. This will hit European steel makers hard, especially in Britain where there is a slump already in the steel industry. In periods of capitalist economic downturn, national interests predominate over international. Bush is supposedly a supporter of the "free market". But the Wall Street Journal called the tariff "perhaps the most dramatically protectionist step of any president in decades." By Michael Roberts. (March 7, 2002)
We are also publishing two articles from the British Marxist magazine Socialist Appeal about the desperate plight of the steel industry in Britain and its workers. Steel industry correspondent Miles Todd explains that industrial action is the only way to prevent massive job losses.
Britain: Who are the Real Wreckers?
Following on Blair’s attack on the trade unions, in which he accused them of being "wreckers" for daring to oppose his privatisation plans, the British journal Socialist Appeal has published this special supplement entitled The Wreckers’ Bulletin.