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
What sort of partyism?
09 Jan 2025
Archie Woodrow is quite good on identifying the left’s problems, less good when it comes to giving answers. Mike Macnair continues his series of articles on the ‘party discussion’
Forging communist unity
09 Jan 2025
A proposal from the TAS steering group issued on January 4 2025
It’s good to do more than talk
09 Jan 2025
We need to unite, not when it comes to the long term, but in the here and now and in a disciplined, principled, programmatically anchored organisation. Jack Conrad reports on some recent meetings and developments
What sort of Partyism?
12 Dec 2024
Ideas that party building can be skipped, that programmatic differences ought to be avoided, that there should be bureaucratic restrictions on polemics - all are roads to nowhere. In the second part of his discussion Mike Macnair focuses on a group of RS21 members and Joe Todd’s recent contributions
What sort of partyism?
05 Dec 2024
Since September a range of left groups have put forward ‘pro-party’ arguments. Mike Macnair explores the good and the bad
Four times in four years
05 Dec 2024
Another austerity budget, another symbolic general strike. Toby Abse reports on stagnant living standards and how the centre-left is moving towards the trade union bureaucracy
What sort of party?
21 Nov 2024
Setting up yet another loose network, a broad left alliance or a confessional sect would obviously be pointless. Mike Macnair responds to an invitation to discuss what is the main question before us today
An unpalatable choice
21 Nov 2024
With a February 23 general election agreed, German society is set to move right, reports Carla Roberts
Whimpering out of existence
14 Nov 2024
The beginning of the end of all those efforts to rally what was the Corbyn movement seems to be in sight. Carla Roberts reports on the factions and the confusion
Debating our culture
31 Oct 2024
Our present differences are minor - a scratch - but scratches have to be taken seriously. Failure to do so risks the danger of gangrene. Mike Macnair reports on the debates at the October 27 CPGB aggregate of members and visitors
Four matches and a friend
24 Oct 2024
Jack Conrad remembers Tom May, December 4 1940-October 5 2024
Crushing it in the egg?
24 Oct 2024
‘No platform for fascists’ and ritual confrontation with the far right have been tested to destruction. As a tactic it clearly does not work. We need a serious alternative, argues Mike Macnair
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