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Modern scientific research has
identified the major physiological, neurological, and genetic
differences between humans and our biological ancestors. In particular,
it has been found that the human brain is qualitatively different in
terms of the development of the parts of the brain that control abstract
reasoning, social behaviour, and manual abilities.
One of the great classics of Marxism
is the book by Frederick Engels entitled ‘The Origins of the Family,
Private Property and the State’. Engels applies the method of historical
materialism to this earliest period of pre-history to uncover the past.
As a contribution to International Women’s Day, we are republishing in
two parts an article by Mary Hansen and Rob Sewell which examines this
question.
The Great Unrest is the term used by historians to describe
the period a 100 years ago when
Britain saw many industrial conflicts such as the Cambrian Combine Strike, the
Tonypandy Riots and many other struggles.
In Wales there was also a major dispute in the Cynon Valley and riots in
Llanelli during the Railwaymen’s strike. Strikes occurred in Clydeside, London,
Liverpool, Hull and many other towns and cities throughout the land. Important ideas were developed
and discussed during this period which had a profound affect on the Labour and
trade union movement.
Darrall Cozens, a member of the UCU and Coventry NW Labour
Party, considers what we need to learn from these events.
Alan Woods contrasts the ideas and methods of Marxism with those of anarchism, focussing on questions like revolutionary leadership, spontaneity, and the state.
The crisis of capitalism is
accompanied by a crisis of bourgeois thought: philosophy, economics,
morality – all are in a state of ferment. In place of the earlier
optimism that stated confidently that capitalism had solved all its
problems, there is an all-pervading mood of gloom. Not so long ago,
Gordon Brown confidently proclaimed “the end of boom and bust”. After
the crash of 2008 he was forced to eat his words.
Five years ago today comrade Phil
Mitchinson passed away tragically at the age of 38. Phil was an
outstanding Marxist and a leader of the International Marxist Tendency.
He also edited the Socialist Appeal for a period.
“We are all Keynesians now.” So said Richard Nixon, the Republican and former President of the USA, in 1971. Forty years later, it seems that John Maynard Keynes is back in fashion, especially amongst the leaders of the British Labour movement. The reformist leaderships of the Labour Party and the trade unions cling to the Keynesian idea that the economy can simply be “stimulated” back in growing. But as the Marxists have explained before, the current economic crisis is not just part of some boom-and-slump, but is an organic crisis of capitalism, and growth cannot simply be created at will.
Whilst chatting with students at Worcester University, I was presented
with a flyer for a production of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
that night in the university, an opportunity not to miss. However my
expectation of a theatrical interpretation of this socialist classic by
just two actors was very low but this was blown away as soon as the
performance began.
The 4th October marks the 75th 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. In this article, Andy Southwark commemorates the brave stand of those workers who fought the Mosleyite thugs, while drawing important lessons for today’s struggles against the English Defence League and BNP.
Had the Chinese Communist Party(CCP) leadership been fully conscious of
what their conquest in Shanghai in 1927 really meant, there would have
been no stopping them. The example of Shanghai being taken by the
organised working class, rather than the military forces of the
Guomindang, could have been spread around the country through the CCP
party structures and their network of commanders in the Northern
Expedition from Guangzhou up to Wuhan, Nanchang, Nanjing and Shanghai.
On March
20th, 1926, another event similar to the assassination of Liao Zhongkai
took place. It laid the basis for the violent coup of Chiang Kai-shek in
Guangzhou, when his mask of democratic revolution slipped. The uneasy
tension between the Guomindang right wing and the CCP comrades inside
the Guomindang broke out into the open.
The period between 1918 and 1939 was the most revolutionary in world
history. It was touch and go for the survival of capitalism. A
devastating blow could and should have been inflicted against global
capitalism in China in 1925-7, instead the opportunity was frittered
away.