With only one week to go until the founding conference of the Marxist Student Federation, we publish here the full agenda for the one-day conference, being held in SOAS, London, on Saturday 15th February. We encourage all our student readers to attend what promises to be a fantastic event.
We continue publishing here the latest analysis of the world situation by the International Marxist Tendency. In this second part, we look at the crisis in Europe, which is a particularly acute expression of the worldwide crisis of capitalism, and which is creating enormous political and social tensions and contradictions across the whole continent.
The recent interview with actor/comedian Russell Brand on Newsnight with Jeremy Paxman, dubbed a call for revolution by many, quickly became a viral sensation. Brand’s indignation and discontent in the interview and the viral spread of the YouTube video is a clear indication that these are not merely the ramblings of an eccentric celebrity, but a sentiment that is shared by millions. Mark Rahman of Socialist Appeal USA looks at the recent spate of calls for revolution from celebrities.
Labour Party members and trade unionists have been given just one short month to digest and discuss the new “reforms” on trade union affiliation to the Labour Party. Steve Jones examines the likely impact of the internal changes being presented by Ed Miliband.
The capitalist media have presented the recent policies of Miliband and Balls on the banking system and tax as revealing a ‘growing contempt for capitalism’ amongst Labour leaders. The reality, however, is of confused and contradictory policies that simply create the illusion of defending the poor whilst ultimately defending the capitalist system.
In Britain, a handful of super-rich plutocrats control our lives. On a world scale, according to Oxfam, a mere 85 top billionaires, who could all comfortably fit into a double-decker bus, own more wealth than half of the world’s population put together. Rob Sewell, editor of Socialist Appeal, looks at the obscene levels of inequality under capitalism.
We publish here a letter from Bob Faulkes, a Socialist Appeal supporter from Hackney Labour and Unison, who comments on the recent closure of ten fire stations in London, which were shut for good without any resistance from the firefighters’ leaders. What is required is a strong leadership at the top to match the fighting spirit of the workers.
We are publishing here the latest analysis of the world situation by the International Marxist Tendency. In this first part, we look at the world economic situation and discuss the global crisis of capitalism – the deepest crisis in the history of capitalism. This forms the background to the political and social situation, which has developed to revolutionary proportions worldwide.
We publish here a short obituary to Pete Seeger, the American folk singer and activist, who sadly passed away last week on 27th January at the age of 94. Seeger was a decent man who suffered disgraceful harassment at the hands of the US establishment throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
Alan Woods – editor of In Defence of Marxism and author of “Reformism or Revolution” – speaks at the UCLU Marxist society, where he provides a Marxist analysis of World War One and discusses the possibility of world war today.
After five years of decline and stagnation, a sudden economic spurt has raised hopes of recovery in Britain. But the UK cannot be viewed in isolation. It is part of the world crisis of capitalism. Rob Sewell, editor of Socialist Appeal, looks at the real state of the British economy and discusses the false optimism of the capitalists.
The recent death of Nelson Mandela happened to coincide with the release of Justin Chadwick’s biopic based on Mandela’s autobiography ‘A Long Walk To Freedom’, which is essentially a chronicling of events in Mandela’s life from his beginnings as a lawyer, up to his election to presidency in 1994. Ed Taylor of the Sheffield Marxists reviews this biographical film about the famous anti-Apartheid leader.