Party & Programme
End the cycle of splits
24 May 2012
If the left is to build a serious political organisation it will have to facilitate internal dissent, writes Mike Macnair. And that will require both majorities and minorities to act responsibly
Symbol of fatuity
17 Oct 2024
Beginning as a left nationalist, he ended up as a nothing. A common pattern. Mike Macnair argues that claims for Scottish independence are illusory because small nations can never really be independent
Formulations, fetishes and failures
10 Oct 2024
Steve Bloom dogmatically clings to ‘new left Trotskyist’ orthodoxy, says Mike Macnair, and this leads him and his co-thinkers to strategic unrealism and abandoning working class political independence
Analysis of historical causes
03 Oct 2024
We must ruthlessly criticise all past attempts. As Mike Macnair once again demonstrates, Steve Bloom’s arguments on method and history only give support to dogmatism and personality cults
Fetishising revolutionary crisis
26 Sep 2024
Clinging to the general strike, and to the idea of taking the tide at the flood, is at the core of present failures. Mike Macnair argues that Steve Bloom’s call for ‘synthesis’ is badly misconceived
Corbyn’s maybe party
19 Sep 2024
An eclectic mixture of soft lefts, reformist has-beens, committed localists, inveterate unity-mongers and the plain deluded have been secretly meeting. But, asks Carla Roberts, can we expect anything more than yet another Labour Party mark two?
Amy Leather vanishes
19 Sep 2024
What lies behind the mid-term changes at the top? The central committee limits itself to a single gnomic pronouncement. Meanwhile, Paul Demarty investigates
A hundred years is enough
19 Sep 2024
Three books, all published in 1924, laid the ideological groundwork for a Lenin cult, which is still responsible for the confessional sects and academic historians alike getting the Bolsheviks and the Russian Revolution so wrong. Lars T Lih shows that there was no Hegel moment, no April theses break, no conversion to Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution. Lenin and the Bolsheviks consistently upheld revolutionary social democracy
Matters past and present
12 Sep 2024
Historical and theoretical issues are important, but they should not be turned into obstacles. Steve Bloom critically defends Fourth International orthodoxy and, despite that, calls for revolutionary unity in the concluding part of his response to Mike Macnair
Historical and methodological differences
29 Aug 2024
Because revolutions have failed, that does not mean they were bound to fail. Steve Bloom continues his exploration of revolutionary strategy and history
Free speech, including for opponents
01 Aug 2024
Labour has dumped Tory culture war ‘free speech’ legislation. Mike Macnair explains why any left promotion of speech control legitimises the imposition of speech controls by the right
Primary task set
18 Jul 2024
Theory and programme are treated seriously, but there are leftist and anarchistic carryovers. Martin Greenfield reports on the Revolutionary Communist Organisation conference in Australia and the next steps that are needed in what will doubtless be a long journey
Fragile unpopular front
18 Jul 2024
Unity with the neoliberal Macronites made the Nouveau Front Populaire the largest bloc in the lower house. But, Mike Macnair warns, the signs of fragmentation are already all too apparent, and there is a real danger that Marine Le Pen will have a successful presidential run in 2027
A Gaza election?
11 Jul 2024
The low turnout and lack of enthusiasm for Labour could not prevent a Tory bloodbath on July 4. Paul Demarty examines the results, and warns of the right’s hidden strength
Online Communist Forum, Sunday June 23 5pm
20 Jun 2024
No time to waste
20 Jun 2024
How to react to the upcoming election of the most rightwing Labour government ever? Recreating Corbynism is no solution, argues Max Shanly. We need something more