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Winston Churchill is one of the most famous figures in
British history and the official approach is that it would be unpatriotic not
to admire him. The purpose of this article is to draw aside the veils of myth
and legend which establishment historians and fawning admirers have spun around
him and look at the real Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill. The facts reveal a
different man altogether.
For over a century Marxists have argued the need to take the banks and
other financial institutions into public ownership as part of the
socialist transformation of society. The founding document of
scientific socialism, the ‘Communist Manifesto’, in 1848 called for,
"Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a
national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly."
"Neoliberalism", sometimes called "market
fundamentalism", i.e. the policy of non-intervention by the state in
the economy, has been the dominant ideology of the bourgeoisie for close to
three decades, involving widespread privatisation and all the
other policies that go with it. The present economic meltdown,
however, is forcing governments to intervene, regulate, and even
nationalise firms because they have no choice. So is "neoliberalism"
dead?
Thirty
five years ago on 11th September 1973 a coup eliminated the
democratic Popular Unity government in Chile and killed the elected President
Salvador Allende in the presidential palace. In the days, weeks and months that
followed tens of thousands of activists were murdered and dumped in unmarked
graves by the military. Tens of thousands more were imprisoned and tortured –
many in Santiago football stadium. This was a catastrophe for the Chilean and
international working class.
The Labour
Movement must learn from the lessons provided by its own history. The trade
unions were created out of class struggle. To establish themselves they had to
fight the hostility of Parliament, the courts, the employers and the media. Here we trace how the TUC arose from the need
to secure a legal basis for the developing union movement in the 1860s.
This week we publish in 3 parts a history of British Trotskyism by Martin
Upham. This was a PhD thesis on the subject, and while we would not
agree with all the points raised in it, we believe it deserves a wider
audience, particularly for those interested in the history of our
movement. For a more in-depth study of the subject readers are urged to
consult Ted Grant’s book on the the History of British Trotskyism.
Together with the same author’s
‘Materialist conception of history’ this is a brilliant introduction to
historical materialism. Clearly there are limits to the ‘what if’ way of
looking at historical processes, but the reader will no doubt find Plekhanov’s
conclusion that even such over-arching figures as Napoleon or Robespierre did
not fundamentally change the broad course of historical development compelling.
After all Plekhanov is defending the basic materialist conception of history,
i.e. that progress is determined by material forces that manifest themselves in
the activities of millions of people. He explains it well. In doing so he is
illuminating the interplay of accident and necessity in history.
This week we publish in 3 parts a history of British Trotskyism by Martin
Upham. This was a PhD thesis on the subject, and while we would not
agree with all the points raised in it, we believe it deserves a wider
audience, particularly for those interested in the history of our
movement. For a more in-depth study of the subject readers are urged to
consult Ted Grant’s book on the the History of British Trotskyism.
Last month was the 68th anniversary of the brutal assassination of Leon
Trotsky by a Stalinist agent. We commemorate this event by publishing
the transcription of his address to the N.Y. Hippodrome Meeting. The
speech "I Stake My Life!" was delivered by telephone from Mexico City
for the opening event of the Dewey Commission on the Moscow Trials.
Today we publish in 3 parts a history of British Trotskyism by Martin Upham. This was a PhD thesis on the subject, and while we would not agree with all the points raised in it, we believe it deserves a wider audience, particularly for those interested in the history of our movement. For a more in-depth study of the subject readers are urged to consult Ted Grant’s book on the the History of British Trotskyism.
The initial
trigger for the writing of this document was the Sino-Soviet split, its
importance for the world Communist movement at the time, and its significance
for the forces of genuine Marxism, the Trotskyists. In the first place Ted
declares that the split confirms Trotsky’s brilliant prediction, “That the
theory of ‘socialism in one country’ would lead inevitably to the degeneration
on nationalist lines of the parties of the Communist International.”
On the 26th of Ocotber 1972, the then President of the Republic of
Dahomey was deposed in a coup d’etat led by Major Mathieu Kérékou. He deposed a
system in which three members of a presidential council would rotate power. He overthrew the President Justin Ahomadegbé,
who was placed in house arrest until 1981 alongside the other members of the presidential
governing council who were Hubert Maga and Sourou-Migan Apithy.