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
Not much left of the left
05 Oct 2023
So many rival projects and not a serious idea amongst the lot of them. A week ahead of the Liverpool conference, Carla Roberts looks at what little remains of the once mighty Corbyn movement
Unity and its discontents
28 Sep 2023
Are campaigns calling for unity bound to fall on stony ground? Lawrence Parker takes issue with Mike Macnair on communist rapprochement
It’s good to talk
28 Sep 2023
Unwillingness to fight through political differences results in unprincipled splits which cannot be explained and reduces the movement to gravel. Mike Macnair issues a call for debate
Two forms of unity
21 Sep 2023
There are any number of broad unity projects being plotted, floated and pushed at the moment. All will fail. James Harvey reports on our assessments, debates … and a membership application
Once more unto the breach
14 Sep 2023
Workers did not rule and suffered terrible oppression, but, sticking to the provisional assessment made by Trotsky in the 1930s, the Soviet Union was still a workers’ state, insists Daniel Lazare
Mr Griffiths goes to Beijing
07 Sep 2023
Showered with all manner of treats, the CPB’s gensec is a credulous fanboy of China’s ‘socialist modernisation’, writes Paul Demarty
Anti-Semitism of useful idiots
31 Aug 2023
We need a principled defence of free speech and a firm grasp of geo-strategic realities. Mike Macnair discusses the case of David Miller
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