Issue 1608 - 05 November 2026
Riot, loot and burn
France’s huge protest movement began with schoolers and now there is the November 5 general strike. Inevitably the disaffected, the backward, the plain criminal see an opportunity. However, says Jack Conrad, the task of Marxists is to raise consciousness, encourage organisation and inculcate discipline
Letters
No understand; No tankies; Justified anger; Balfour anniversary; Reparations; History anathema; Ferdori solidarity
Revolutionary road to democracy
With the Democrats taking control of both houses of Congress and a much-expanded DSA contingent, it might appear that the US constitution has proven itself fit for socialist purposes. That is far from the case, argues Ian F. America needs a new, democratic, constitution
A hidden supreme leader
Irrationalist belief in divination, spirit contact, haloes and jinn armies grows above. Below, living standards are falling and protests are reviving. Yassamine Mather looks at the two worlds that make up the Islamic Republic
Bertolt Brecht and Holy Joy
Culture can bring together theatre, poetry, music, stand-up comedy, anthropology and communist politics. That, explains Tam Dean Burn, is the ambition of the Diderot Gesellschaft Movement
The great AI swindle
Caught between faltering returns and lower-priced competition from China’s state-directed tech industry, the east Asian AI bubble is bursting. How will this affect the US? The big test will be the public launch of Anthropic, writes Michael Roberts
A long old road
Nigel with pet dog, Nigel posing as Kitchener, Nigel solving the pothole crisis. Edited by ex-leftist Mick Hume, Reform UK’s new paper has been launched. Paul Demarty reads it, so you don’t have to