History shows us that the limited rights the working class enjoys today were won through bitter class struggle and revolution. ‘Resistance’, a recent photography exhibition in Edinburgh, aptly showcased this in documenting a century of struggle against the British state.

Prisons are overcrowded, probation services are chronically understaffed, and crimes from burglary to violent offences are on the rise. Despite successive governments’ promises to be ‘tough on crime’, Britain’s repressive institutions are falling apart.

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.