Should Jeremy Corbyn stand as an independent in Islington North? Should socialists stand candidates against Labour generally and against Keir Starmer specifically? Should socialists be calling for a new workers’ party? If so, what sort of party? None of these questions can be answered without first answering the questions that Continue Reading
Socialism
What’s the problem with pensions?
The recent massive demonstrations against the Macron administration in France forcing through so-called pension reforms reveals the determined attempts of pro-capitalist governments in all the major economies to cut real wages when we are old and can no longer work. The Macron government has forced by decree a ‘reform’ that Continue Reading
Whether Jeremy Corbyn stands or not …
On Tuesday 28 March I joined 35 or so socialists in Welwyn Hatfield constituency to watch a screening of the film ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn! The Big Lie’ distributed by Platform Films. By chance, the showing took place on the day that the Labour Party National Executive Committee took the decision Continue Reading
No laughing matter
Keir Starmer’s speech on crime and anti-social behaviour on 23 March 2023 was not a simple dis-interring of the trope ‘tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime’ introduced by Blair in 1994. With the neo-Blairites in full control of Labour Party policy, Starmer, reflecting on past criminal Continue Reading
The property question
The key question for socialists is who owns the resources of society and decides how to allocate them. At the moment we are fighting to force the owners’ club to give us a few scraps from their enormous wealth. It’s a daily, hourly fight. We need to own the world’s Continue Reading
Where now for the left?
The Labour Party has never been a socialist party. A socialist party would stand for the abolition of capitalism, a system based on the exploitation of the working class for profit. It would stand for the establishment of a completely new system, one based on the common ownership of society’s Continue Reading
Housing in a socialist society and how do we get there?
In Britain, a socialist government would inherit a housing sector that has undergone a massive transformation of ownership and control in the last half a century. The state withdrew from supplying housing via Thatcher’s right to buy and Blairism’s stock transfer program. State housing assets were, for the most part, Continue Reading
The Communist Manifesto
175 years on and still relevant This month marks the 175th anniversary of the publication of The Manifesto of the Communist Party in February 1848. It appeared on the world stage in German, just in time for the revolutionary events that broke out that year across Europe. It is a brilliant, succinct, rallying Continue Reading
Tories out – Fight for socialism
Socialists must demand a General Election now. With the sacking by Prime Minister Liz Truss of her own Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and her own resignation after just 44 days in the job, the Tories are in absolute crisis. Their mandate for government has evaporated. Democracy demands that we have an Continue Reading
No Gods, No Masters
The socialist society we aim for will have no classes, no hierarchy, no kings, queens, princes, duchesses, no bosses, no masters. This also means no servants, no serfs, no slaves. All will have an equal say. There will be no palaces for the privileged, and no gutter for the homeless, Continue Reading