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
Delusions of techno-fix
21 Oct 2021
Today’s capitalist politicians are unlikely to agree, let alone implement, the measures needed to stop runaway climate change. Jack Conrad argues that the fundamental problem lies at the level of the system itself. Nonetheless, as shown by the Soviet Union, more than the mere abolition of capitalism is needed. The associated producers must take control
Prince over the water
14 Oct 2021
The takeover of Newcastle United by Saudi Arabia’s MBS highlights the contradictory position of fans in modern football, says Paul Demarty
Honouring the victims
14 Oct 2021
On October 9 a group of Iranian revolutionaries, now mainly based in North America and Europe, organised an online meeting to commemorate the 1988 massacre of political prisoners. Among the speakers were Yassamine Mather, Shahin Chitsaz and Mike Macnair
The wealth of nature
14 Oct 2021
There are still those who merely offer a mirror image of bourgeois ideology, with the claim that workers create all the wealth. Jack Conrad argues that nature more than contributes: it is primary
Vigorous debate
07 Oct 2021
Paul Drummond reports on the discussions at last weekend’s meeting of CPGB and LPM comrades
Addressing the central issues
30 Sep 2021
Foppe de Haan returns to his differences with Mike Macnair on the question of the ‘professional-managerial class’
Class, state and constitution
16 Sep 2021
Rising classes have to reshape states in their own interests. Mike Macnair explores the revolutionary origins of capitalist modernity
Accused of corruption
09 Sep 2021
It is bad enough that a ‘communist’ is a senior minister in a capitalist government, writes Peter Manson. But now things are even worse
Artificial antiquity
09 Sep 2021
The creation of a new constitution is not only relevant to social transition. It is fundamental, argues Mike Macnair
weapon forged in lies
09 Sep 2021
Derek James calls upon the left to show courage and refute every false accusation with the truth
Constitutions ancient and modern
02 Sep 2021
Bourgeois politicians, not least those in Britain and the US, make frankly risible claims about the constitutions of their respective countries. But, argues Mike Macnair in the first of two articles, Marxists are right to treat constitutions seriously
Manufacturing consensus
02 Sep 2021
We do not want to unite the whole of the anti-racist movement, if that means uniting all prepared to mouth anti-racist platitudes. In fact, writes Paul Demarty, so far as such ‘unity’ exists, our role is to destroy it
Reasons for Afghan debacles
12 Aug 2021
Daniel Lazare reviews: Rodric Braithwaite ‘Afgantsy: the Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89’ Oxford University Press, 2011, pp448, £10.28; Artemy M Kalinovsky ‘A long goodbye: the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan’ Harvard University Press, 2011, pp290, £22.95; Bruce Riedel ‘What we won: America’s secret war in Afghanistan, 1979-89’ Brookings, 2014, pp189, £17
Centrality of class independence
12 Aug 2021
Khomeini and the clergy completely outmanoeuvred the left. But it need not have been that way. In his second and concluding article on the role of oil workers in the 1979 revolution, Peyman Jafari stresses the complex nature of ideology and class consciousness
Code red for humanity
12 Aug 2021
The IPCC report is out and what it says is grim, says Eddie Ford: major climate change is ‘inevitable’ and ‘irreversible’. Objective circumstances cry out for the left to agitate, educate and organise around a far-reaching minimum programme to prepare the working class to take power on a global scale