Jim Creegan
Jim Creegan was chairman of the Penn State chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in the 1960s, lectured in philosophy in the 70s, belonged to the Spartacist League in the 80s, was a leading member of the International Bolshevik Tendency and a union shop steward during the late 80s and 90s. He lives in New York City, now unaffiliated but unresigned.
Latest articles by Jim Creegan
Failed with flying colours
Contemporary US capitalism has shown a complete inability to renew itself through reform, argues Jim Creegan
A political system test
Joe Biden is attempting to reverse US imperial decline through a neo-Keynesian turn, argues Jim Creegan
Drivers that led to January 6
There was far more involved in the storming of the Capitol than an antiquated constitution and corrupt political parties. Jim Creegan responds to Daniel Lazare
Republicans at odds
Following the events of January 6, Jim Creegan looks at the state of play within the Grand Old Party
Assessing Adolph Reed
Jim Creegan looks at the thinking of the American left’s foremost anti-identitarian
Oppression and moralism
BLM protests must be supported, but they are often misdirected. Black liberation must be linked to the class struggle, argues Jim Creegan
Old radicals, new liberals
The refusal of Democratic Socialists of America to back Joe Biden is more than welcome, argues Jim Creegan
All will not end well
Despite the easing of the lockdown, there will be no quick economic bounce-back, warns Toby Abse
Inconvenient memory
Jim Creegan points to the hypocrisy of both those attacking Joe Biden over accusations of sexual abuse and those defending him
Overdrawn lessons
The USA needs socialism, writes Jim Creegan, not a democratic revolution.
Primary contradictions
Jim Creegan assesses the battle for the Democratic nomination. The left has a real opportunity.
Commitment to orderly progress
Jim Creegan argues, in his second and concluding article, that while Karl Kautsky’s writings contained insights, his entire political career can only serve as a negative example. We intend to carry a rejoinder in the near future
Steady rightward trajectory
Responding to a flurry of debate, US comrade Jim Creegan gives his view on the evolution of Karl Kautsky in the first of a two-part article
Different perspectives, different objectives
Both Lars T Lih and Jack Conrad are wrong when it comes to the history of Bolshevism, argues Jim Creegan
The Bolsheviks and democracy
Jim Creegan rides to the defence of Trotsky’s Lessons of October
Walking the tightrope
Jim Creegan looks at the quandary posed by Jacobin magazine and the new DSA
Left wing of the permissible
As the Democratic Socialists of America begin to make an impact, Jim Creegan analyses the politics of its founder, Michael Harrington
Trump in transition
Jim Creegan discusses how the bourgeoisie disabuses presidents and high officials of any notion that they are free agents
Revenge of white working class
Trump’s victory shows that the establishment has lost control over the election process. Jim Creegan draws up a balance sheet of the class forces
Different plot twists, same ending
Jim Creegan shows that there is nothing progressive about the Hillary Clinton’s platform
Life of a heroic traitor
Jim Creegan looks back at the extraordinary story of Roger Casement on the 100th anniversary of his execution
Two roads to ruin
Republican establishment figures are unsure whether to throw their weight behind Donald Trump or wait for better times. Jim Creegan reports
Possibilities and pitfalls
The job of socialists is to channel the opportunities opened up by the Sanders campaign into the fight for class independence, argues Jim Creegan
Democrats divided
There should be no support for Bernie Sanders, argues Jim Creegan
Rebellion on the right
Jim Creegan looks at the state of play in the Republican selection process
The red and the green
Ken Loach (director) Jimmy’s hall 2014.
Democratic dictatorship vs permanent revolution
Did Lenin and the Bolsheviks lack a credible strategy? Jim Creegan replies to Jack Conrad
April in Petrograd
Is Lars T Lih a disinterested scholar without a political agenda? Jim Creegan argues against the creation of yet another mythical Lenin
Methods of social control
In the age of ‘colour-blindness’, what accounts for the targeting of blacks by police? Jim Creegan critiques a recent influential book
The cauldron boils over
Racial repression has provoked mass protest. Jim Creegan responds to the two high-profile killings by the US police
Review: Class difference and sexual passion
Abdellatif Kechiche (director); 'Blue is the warmest colour'
Tea Party: An enraged Frankenstein's monster
The Tea Party seemed to come from nowhere. But nowadays it is turning on its big business patrons and threatening the interests of capitalism itself, writes Jim Creegan
US decline: The shock and awe that wasn’t
Jim Creegan analyses the secular decline of the United States as the world hegemon and the failure of Barack Obamas Syria gambit
Snowden and the state: David and Goliath in high tech
People like Edward Snowden may normally function as software in a hard drive, writes Jim Creegan, but for the state they have one drawback: they can think
USSR polemic: In defence of defencism
The Soviet Union did indeed feature a form a form of planning, argues Jim Creegan in his reply to Paul Flewers
US elections: Mugged by reality
The US presidential election of 2012 is less interesting for the victory of Barack Obama than for the debacle of the Republican Party, writes Jim Creegan
US elections: The more effective evil
Barack Obama hardly represents a rampart against Republican extremism, as some on the left still maintain. Jim Creegan looks at the state of play in the final week of the election campaign
US elections: Crazy politics and class forces
Jim Creegan examines the campaign of the Republican Party in the 2012 presidential elections
A radical for all seasons
Jim Creegan takes a look at the political life of Alexander Cockburn, 1941-2012
Democratic centralism and idiocy of the sects
Comrades need the space to develop and express their ideas, argues Jim Creegan. The wider the distance between a given question and the party's immediate objectives and tasks, the more latitude they should have to do so in public
West coast rebound
Oakland and Longview - Jim Creegan reports on two parallel struggles
Hot autumn in New York
Jim Creegan reports on the occupiers who aim to take on Wall Street and examines the implications for left politics
Washington paralysis: a geriatric disorder
Jim Creegan looks at the battle of the budget ceiling and the intransigence of the Tea Partiers
Middle East comes to Midwest USA
Jim Creegan reports on the class struggles in Wisconsin
No change, no hope
Jim Creegan reports on Barack Obama's surrender to Congressional Republicans and the renewed ruling class offensive following the Democrats' defeat in the US mid-term elections
Obama's healthcare triumph is a con
Jim Creegan looks at the devious manoeuvring carried out by Obama and the Democratic leadership
Tea Party tempest
Jim Creegan examines the social roots and ideological drives behind the anti-Obama populist movement that has exploded on to the political scene in the last year
Searing indictment of capitalism spoilt by nostalgia for New Deal
Jim Creegan reviews Michael Moores (director) Capitalism: a love story 2009 (no UK release date yet)
Grander in scope, poorer in content
Were Marx and Engels really at one over the dialectic of nature? US communist Jim Creegan replies to Jack Conrad
The usable past of left republicanism
Far from pursuing a coherent strategy, writes Jim Creegan, James Connolly ended up believing that perhaps other forces could act in the workers' place
Ken Loach's use of Irish history
US communist Jim Creegan revisits the controversy over a film that has at last reached New York