Blogs

There is an ever-growing stream of media commentary on the Grenfell fire, increasing daily as the public enquiry unfolds. There are some elements in the media with the goal of obscuring or excusing the plain facts as part of a pre-emptive defence manoeuvre to protect those most implicated in what caused the fire and the 72 deaths. That they feel the need to use such distortions to defend the Grenfell landlords and those who ordered and oversaw the Grenfell refurbishment that fitted the lethal cladding only increases the suggestion of a general doubt on all sides about their innocence.

2019 marks the 20th anniversary of the National Minimum Wage.

The latest news coming from Venezuela tells us that in Caracas and elsewhere, the demonstrations for, and against, the Maduro government are carrying on. The army, which largely supports the elected President, is dealing brutally with demonstrators and the death toll on the streets has reached several dozen.

It is hard to describe how awful the job is. Almost anyone could do it for a few minutes, even find it stimulating, nice bit of exercise, find a location, a bit of mental stimulation, almost a game. But give it an hour, the feet hurt, the knees hurt, the lower back hurts, the brain hurts… give it a few days and there is no learning curve anymore. Give it a few weeks and you are no longer the same person. You are the walking dead between seven and three.

An account of a political desert and the dangers of political idolatry.

For some time now, May 1 has been transformed into an institutional catwalk, an empty stage on which workers' conflicts, now devoid of a sense of class and in some disarray, can be paraded.

The capitalist mode of production, characterised by exchange for profit, private property, wage labour and capital accumulation, has only existed for around 300 years. Since the late 19th century it has found its way to even the most remote corners of the Earth by the way of exploitation, dispossession and imperialist competition. It has brought immense scientific and technological progress but at great cost. Wars, poverty, hunger, inequality, and oppression have plagued this system throughout its existence.

a critique of "freed market anti-capitalism" as argued in Keven Carson's "The Iron Fist Behind The Invisible Hand"

2019 finds humanity in an increasingly dangerous place. The consequences of global economic stagnation, itself the product of a much deeper crisis of profitability, can be seen in the rise of nationalism, racism and xenophobia. These in turn threaten not only to add to the increasing proliferation of unending wars around the world but to the possibility of more general conflict further down the line. Not unconnected to the current wars are the environmental disasters which the pursuit of profit has already inflicted on millions across the globe. If allowed to proceed unchecked capitalism threatens, in one way or another, the very existence of the only home humanity has.

analysis of Trump's border wall

We cannot talk about proletarian and communist revolution if it does not express both the emancipation of the proletariat from class exploitation, and, on the same basis, the emancipation of women from gender oppression.

A documentary made during the US backed civil war in El Salvador, documenting the social conditions of the country and many of the atrocities.

Since 2011 Libya has been living with a continual war between internal factions, tribal struggles and the arrogant presence of all, or almost all, of the greatest imperialist powers in Europe and beyond.

Workers in the meatpacking industry have a long history of militancy. Many first generation US citizens shaped the famous battles of the Chicago stockyards. Today's precarious migrant workers, often with no legal status, face an even bigger challenge.

A defense of labor unions in Anarcho-syndicalist revolutionary strategy

Trico - A victory to remember, The 1976 equal pay strike at Trico Folberth, Brentford, by Sally Grovers and Vernon Merritt. Great book on an important women-led strike in 1976. We summarise the main events and then share some thoughts on struggles for 'equal pay'.

Some critical commentary on the Full Brexit group's call for a "socialist and internationalist Brexit".

Twenty years ago, from 24 March to 10 June 1999, United States and other NATO airplanes conducted bombing raids over what was left of Yugoslavia. Ever since the late 1980s, as capitalism’s world economic crisis sharpened and the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia went down with the USSR, rival war lords had been whipping up ethnic and religious divisions in order to carve out new state territories for themselves.

The dire situation really does pose the question of what sort of society we should and could be living in the 21st century.