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
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
Programme makers
13 Jun 2024
Without the working class organising itself into a political party there can be no chance of socialism. But, argues Jack Conrad, without a comprehensive, fully worked-out programme, that party has no chance of taking coherent form, guarding against opportunism or navigating the road to socialism
Illusion springs eternal
13 Jun 2024
A Starmer government will supposedly trigger a ‘crisis of expectations’. But, asks Carla Roberts, how can it? With promises of financial responsibility and keeping to Tory spending limits, popular expectations are almost non-existent
Rising above the smog
06 Jun 2024
Dual power and the mass strike is a failed strategy that directly leads to today’s endlessly fragmented ‘far left’. Instead we need a mass Communist Party and a strategy of republican democracy. Mike Macnair replies to Steve Bloom
Breaking the grip of Zionism
06 Jun 2024
There is a way out of the hell into which the Palestinian masses have been consigned by Israeli settler‑colonialism. Jack Conrad presents the communist solution
Continuing a conversation
30 May 2024
‘Bourgeois democracy’ is democratic and also undemocratic. But the term correctly captures the class nature of a particular form of state, insists Steve Bloom
Muddleheaded Labourism
30 May 2024
Vincent David of the Spartacist League central committee says any Labour vote is “crossing the class line” - even in the absence of an alternative left candidate. Instead he urges everyone to join Tusc’s dead-end Labour Party mark two project