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
Other theories, other labels
10 Aug 2023
If, after the launch of the first five-year plan, the Soviet Union cannot be classified as a workers’ state, what was it? Jack Conrad looks at some alternatives that have been offered by different schools of thought
Clean breaks and clear principles
03 Aug 2023
Today’s left largely misunderstands and therefore misrepresents Clara Zetkin’s contribution to the politics of Marxism. Ben Lewis provides an excerpt from the introduction to a newly translated pamphlet
Defending neutrality
03 Aug 2023
What are so-called socialists doing upholding the foreign policy of their ‘own’ bourgeois state? Anne McShane upholds the principles of international socialism
Rebranding as Transform
03 Aug 2023
Yet another call for a new broad left party, yet another disappointment to come. Mike Macnair looks at the latest offering
Online Communist Forum, Sunday July 30 5pm
27 Jul 2023
Blind leading the blind
27 Jul 2023
With Sir Keir in complete control of Labour, the left faces a crisis of perspectives - a crisis which finds full expression in three recent articles. Whatever the nuances and subtle differences, says Mike Macnair, they all remain trapped in possibilism
No call for staying calm
20 Jul 2023
Paul Russell looks back at the disgusting record of police savagery and gives his take on the challenges faced by the left in the next presidential election
Point of no return
06 Jul 2023
Temperature records fall one after the other. Things are on course to get worse, not better. Clearly stunts are not enough, we need to get serious about system change, writes Eddie Ford
Supplement: Back to Nevsky!
06 Jul 2023
Lars T Lih uses an eyewitness account to dispose of some old myths and to show how, if they were to rewin their majority, the Bolsheviks had to adjust to the shock of finding themselves in a minority
Veiled lessons
29 Jun 2023
Yassamine Mather spoke to Anne McShane at a Hands Off the People of Iran meeting. Given the recent wave of arrests in Iran and new legislation reinforcing the wearing of the hijab, the experience of the Soviet Union’s Zhenotdel in the 1920s is of particular relevance.
Dumbness of dumbing down
29 Jun 2023
The Morning Star’s CPB is about to enter its pre-congress discussion period. We have here, though, a classic case of bureaucratic, not democratic, centralism. Mike Macnair investigates
First plan realities
22 Jun 2023
Clearly the first five-year plan had nothing to do with the realisation of socialist planning. In the second of two articles, Jack Conrad investigates the counterrevolution within the revolution
A year of strikes
22 Jun 2023
We must go beyond Labourism. Kevin Bean assesses the upsurge in trade union action and its limitations
Still with us in our hearts
15 Jun 2023
Fred Carpenter December 28 1952 - May 18 2023
First plan backgrounds
15 Jun 2023
Planning and socialism are synonymous. However, as Jack Conrad argues in a two-part article, there is planning and planning. The Soviet Union’s first five-year plan owed more to chaos than plan