Shostakovich: The musical voice of the Russian Revolution
From this year’s Revolution Festival, Peter Kwasiborski, introduces Shostakovich.
Theory
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Is Britain’s working class too weak to carry out a revolution?
A popular myth is that the British working class is too weak to carry out a revolution. Yet by examining the concrete facts, we find working class Britons are highly proletarianised and have taken the path of struggle many times in the past years. Will Collins examines this question further.
A brief history of the East India Company
425 years ago this month, the East India Company was founded in London. This “empire within an empire” soon ruled almost the entirety of the Indian subcontinent, bleeding its people dry – and laying down the foundations for the development of British imperialism.
How the British monarchy brought down Australia’s most progressive government
Fifty years ago, Australia’s democratically-elected, left-reformist Labor government was forcibly dissolved – by the British monarchy. This detail, which remained hidden for decades, demonstrates the necessity of breaking with these oppressive ruling class institutions once and for all.
Here to fight, here to stay: Grunwick Strike – “We are the lions”
We continue our series on anti-racist struggles with an article from the late Steve Jones. In the 1970s, an unimposing Gujarati woman, Jayaben Desai, led one of the longest and most violent strikes in the post-war period, transforming the British labour movement.
Igor Stravinsky’s ‘The Rite of Spring’: The modernist ballet that sparked a riot
Stravinsky captured the spirit of the modernist movement. The Rite of Spring ballet, published in 1913, was decried as ‘childish barbarity’ by its bourgeois critics at the time. In reality, it only refracted the horrors that would unfold in the next four years of world war.
Can we just tax the rich?
Recently, reformists like Zack Polanski and Jeremy Corbyn have been putting forward the idea of a wealth tax. They claim this could easily raise billions in tax revenue. While their proposals are certainly popular, do they truly offer a way forward?
Chaos on the bond markets – what does this mean?
On the eve of the Autumn Budget, the bond markets – the investors who bankroll the British state – are getting jittery. The capitalists are losing faith in Labour’s ability to carry out the necessary cuts to ‘balance the books’. But what alternatives do they have?
The anarchic AI race: boom, bubble, and bust
Tech corporations and governments are pouring trillions into the ‘AI arms race’. But warning signs are flashing that this is all a massive speculative bubble, waiting to burst. This anarchic speculation is set to have a catastrophic impacts on the world economy.
‘Frankenstein’: How Mary Shelley’s masterpiece stood the test of time
After two centuries, Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ remains one of the most enduring works of Romantic and Gothic literature, defining much of modern science-fiction. Now, Del Toro’s excellent new adaptation shows it still has room to be developed and reinterpreted.
The BBC ‘coup’: A ruling class at war with itself
The BBC is a key component of the ruling class’ carefully-built state machinery. So, when two of its leading figures are forced to resign, this suggests that a hidden war is going on in the murky depths of the state, and paints a picture of an establishment in crisis.
Anton Chekhov’s short stories: A truthful reflection of pre-revolutionary Russia
Anton Chekhov’s influence on modern literature endures to this day. While best known for his dramatic works, Chekhov’s short stories masterfully portray the lives of ordinary people in 19th-century Russia – where seismic social transformations were taking place.