Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
A good beginning
Reader’s letter to the Weekly Worker, May 02 2013 I read with interest Anne McShane’s and Ben Lewis’s accounts of Alexandra Kollontai and August Bebel, and their relationship to feminism.
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Tags: Alexandra Kollontai, August Bebel, Claire Lacombe, feminism, marxism, Rosa Luxemburg, women's movement
Austromarxism and terrorism
In ‘Why Marxists oppose individual terrorism‘ (1911), Trotsky contrasted individual terrorism with industrial action: “The anarchist prophets of the ‘propaganda of the deed’ can argue all they want about the elevating and stimulating influence of terrorist acts on the mass…
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Tags: assassination, Austrian workers' movement, Austromarxism, Friedrich Adler, marxism, SDAP, terrorism, Trotsky
Irrational and brittle
There has been some debate following the Weekly Worker’s series of articles on feminism, including on Labour Representation Committee member Louise Whittle’s blog, Harpymarx. It’s regrettable that a lot of it has been conducted in a less than sober manner
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Tags: anarchists, AWL, cpgb, feminism, Harpymarx, weekly worker
The first English translation of Karl Kautsky’s 1898 text, ‘Past and Recent Colonial Policy’ – translated by Ben Lewis and myself and featuring a highly critical introduction by Mike Macnair – is now available here.
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Tags: anti-imperialism, colonialism, imperialism, Kautsky, orthodox Marxism, translation
Class consciousness and partyism
A report of a joint event between the CPGB and the Assoziation Dämmerung in Hamburg, including my talk on the proletariat past and present, has been published in the electronic magazine Schattenblick. You can read the German language text here. Assoziation Dämmerung have published an audio recording of the event here.
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Tags: Assoziation Dämmerung, class consciousness, cpgb, proletariat, Schattenblick
Published in Weekly Worker, 14 November 2013 It’s class war! For a revolutionary perspective!” screamed the flyer in graffiti-styled letters set against a mural background, promoting a joint event between the Assoziation Dämmerung and our CPGB delegation to Hamburg. As the aesthetic sense suggests, the Assoziation Dämmerung emerged from what is known as Germany’slinke Szene, the […]
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Tags: animal liberation, Assoziation Dämmerung, Autonome, autonomism, cpgb, critical theory, Die Linke, DKP, proletariat
We now have a translation and journalism agency: Partisan Media. We are a collective of journalists and translators working in English, German, and Polish. As politically and culturally engaged writers based in London we cover most issues, but specialise in politics, history, current affairs, Europe, culture and the social sciences. We have written and translated […]
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Tags: historical materialism, journalism, socialist history, socialist studies, translation
Otto Bauer and Austromarxism
I will be translating a political biography of Otto Bauer and the Austromarxist movement for Brill Publishers’ Historical Materialism series. The book will be published in 2015.
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Tags: Austromarxism, Otto Bauer, SDAP, Second-and-a-Half International, translation, workers' movement
Published in Weekly Worker, 8 November 2012 There can be no annual Marxist school without a session on the far right and that was the case with Socialism 2012. But, credit where credit is due, the Socialist Party in England and Wales does not treat the subject as an easy recipe to stir up emotions, […]
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Tags: anti-fascism, English Defence League, fascism, Keynesianism, Labourism, nationalism, Socialism 2012, socialist party, SPEW
Drawing the line
In his comments (Letters, October 11) on my article in the Weekly Worker (‘Not part of the left’, October 4), Chris Cutrone of the Platypus group asserts that, “for good or ill”, the ‘anti-Germans’ must be considered “part of the global left”. A strange declaration, seeing as neither the German left nor the hard-core anti-Germans […]
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Tags: Anti-Germans, Antideutsche, Chris Cutrone, Platypus
Published in Weekly Worker, 4th October 2012 According to some circles in Germany, Fabian Köhler is a Nazi and anti-Semite pure and simple. In 2009, when he interviewed a local member of the National Democratic Party for the student paper Unique under the pretence of investigative journalism, so they say, his real intention was to provide a […]
Filed under: Politics | 3 Comments
Tags: Anti-Germans, Antideutsche, Antifa, Autonome, germany, Platypus, Stephan Grigat, Stop The Bomb
A German translation of ’Günter Grass and the German neurosis‘ has just been published by Hintergrund magazine (issue 3/2012). You can order the magazine here or from the Junge Welt shop.
Filed under: Politics | 1 Comment
Tags: anti-Semitism, fascism, Günter Grass, german neurosis, germany, Hintergrund, imperialism, national socialism
A play about the 2011 summer riots: Archie W Maddocks, ‘Mottled lines’ (director: Henry Bell) Published in Weekly Worker, 19th July 2012 Inspired by the outbreak of underclass rage that rocked the UK in August 2011 and dedicated to “those who rioted and those who didn’t”, Mottled lines is the debut of the 23-year-old playwright Archie W […]
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Tags: 2011 england riots, Archie W Maddocks, london riots, Mottled Lines, nationalism, stage, theatre, UK riots 2011
Soft on Occupy
It was encouraging to see London Occupy activists symbolically linking up with the workers’ movement by participating in the May 1 demonstration. Their ‘impromptu’ protests targeting high street outlets that participate in the government’s ‘workfare’ scheme on the same day, likewise, were a step up from their calling upon an ill-defined ‘democracy’ to act against […]
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Tags: anti-capitalism, Anti-Capitalist Initiative, Occupy, Proudhonism, real democracy
Looking at a literary scandal and the bourgeoisie’s attempts to cope with the past Published in Weekly Worker, 19th April 2012 “Abominable”, “irritating”, and “over the top” – these are the attributes that the German tabloid Bild, otherwise known for agitating the local populace against ‘lazy Greeks’ and suchlike, used to describe a poem, ‘What must […]
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Tags: anti-Semitism, fascism, Günter Grass, germany, imperialism, Israel, national socialism, what must be said
Published in Red Mist, 16th March 2012 From the early 70s until the early 90s, West German train stations, post offices, and other public places were routinely equipped with the infamous ‘Terroristen’ posters parading mugshots of wanted Red Army Faction militants. A hefty reward was promised for any relevant information leading to capture – but, […]
Filed under: Movies, Politics | 3 Comments
Tags: imperialism, Jason Russell, kony, kony 2012, liberals
Dreaming of 1945
Published in Weekly Worker, 24th November 2011 The Labour Representation Committee, rather than being a single tendency body, serves as an umbrella for a variety of groupings and individuals, primarily those in the Labour Party who consider themselves to be on the left. As such, it hosts an array of left Labourites, Marxists, Stalinites and […]
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Tags: alliance for workers liberty, communism, labour party marxists, labour representation committee, new communist party, socialism, the labour party
A triumphant victory?
Co-written with Claire Fisher, published in Weekly Worker As readers will know, home secretary Theresa May responded to the English Defence League’s intention to hold an anti-Muslim demonstration in Tower Hamlets and the proposed counter-demonstration of the left by banning all marches in five London boroughs in the month of September, including the City of London.
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Tags: edl, English Defence League, fascism, islamophobia, lumpenproletariat, neo-fascism, popular front, unite against fascism, working class
Tottenham riots sparked it all
Published in Weekly Worker, 11th August 2011 On Sunday afternoon, it looked as if the police had been instructed to use a new tactic to contain the public anger: grin. The area around Tottenham police station, which had been subject to severe rioting the previous night, was cordoned off by the boys and girls in […]
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Tags: 2011 england riots, england riots, london riots, Mark Duggan, riots, the filth, the police, tottenham riots, uk riots
Published in Weekly Worker, 4th August 2011 “Any information relating to anarchists should be reported to the local police” – that is what the good citizens of Westminster were being urged in a notice recently issued by the Metropolitan Police. After all, they are told, “anarchism is […]
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Tags: anarchism, anarchists, communism, donnacha delong, National union of journalists, nuj, the met, the police
Tahrir Square comes to Madrid
published in Weekly Worker, 2nd June 2011 “Rallies are boring,” said one activist characteristically at the ‘open organising assembly for June 30 strikes’ in central London. The May 23 meeting may have been attended by more than 100 activists from various tendencies, but it was certainly decentralised direct action groups such as UK Uncut that […]
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Tags: democracia real ya, democracy movement, direct action, real democracy, real democracy now, socialism, Spanish Revolution, spanishrevolution, uk uncut
A report from the Laurie Penny vs. AWL debate on 27th Jan 2011 in central London “If you have come to see a bloodbath, you’re in the wrong place”, announced Alliance for Workers Liberty member Ed Maltby. No worries Ed, I didn’t expect that. After all, various […]
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Tags: alliance for workers liberty, anarchism, laurie penny, leninism, marxism, socialist workers party, student leaders, student protests, the left
Arty resistance
A report from the Artists Of The Resistance meeting on 26th January 2011 in central London Apparently, SWP members are required to keep a copy of Socialist Worker on their desks whenever they attend a public meeting. This functions as an advertisement as well as territorial urination when different tendencies meet in the same room. […]
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Tags: anti-cuts, art, artist against the cuts, artists, artists of the resistance, coalition of resistance, left liberalism, revolutionary art, situationism, socialist realism
A report from the Hackney Alliance To Defend Public Services meeting on 25th January 2011 “Over the past months I’ve been using every opportunity I can to urge the Coalition Government to not make these devastating cuts to Hackney’s budget”, promises a puppy-eyed Jules Pipe, Mayor of Hackney, on leaflets currently distributed by Labour Party […]
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Tags: anti-cuts, hackney, hackney alliance to defend public services, jules pipe, labour party, morning star, no cuts, opportunists, the commune
