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Stop the War: the Story of Britain’S Biggest Mass Movement by Andrew Murray and Lindsey German, Bookmarks, 2005, 280 Pp
Stop the War: The Story of Britain’s Biggest Mass Movement by Andrew Murray and Lindsey German, Bookmarks, 2005, 280 pp. Abdullah Muhsin and Gary Kent I am sorry. If you think I am going to sit back and agree with beheadings, kidnappings, torture and brutality, and outright terrorization of ordinary Iraqi and others, then you can forget it. I will not be involved whatsoever, to me it is akin to supporting the same brutality and oppression inflicted on Iraq by Saddam, and the invading and occupying forces of the USA. Mick Rix, former left-wing leader of the train drivers’ union, ASLEF, writing to Andrew Murray to resign from the Stop the War Coalition. Andrew Murray and Lindsey German are, respectively, the Chair and Convenor of the Stop the War Coalition. Their book tells a story about a ‘remarkable mass movement’ which the authors hope ‘can change the face of politics for a generation.’ It tracks the Coalition from its origins with no office, no bank account, just one full time volunteer, through the ‘chaos of its early meetings’ to the million-strong demonstration of February 2003. The book seeks to explain the Coalition’s success in bringing together the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and ‘the Muslim Community’ to create ‘the broadest basis ever seen for a left-led movement.’ The authors attack the ‘imperialist’ doctrines of George Bush and Tony Blair, criticise the arguments of the ‘pro-war left,’ and finish with a chapter opposing the occupation and demanding immediate troop withdrawal. In addition, the book includes a broad -
Marx and the Politics of the First'international
This article was downloaded by: [York University Libraries] On: 07 September 2014, At: 15:14 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Socialism and Democracy Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/csad20 Marx and the Politics of the First International George C. Comninel Published online: 08 Aug 2014. To cite this article: George C. Comninel (2014) Marx and the Politics of the First International, Socialism and Democracy, 28:2, 59-82, DOI: 10.1080/08854300.2014.918451 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08854300.2014.918451 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. -
A Socialist Schism
A Socialist Schism: British socialists' reaction to the downfall of Milošević by Andrew Michael William Cragg Submitted to Central European University Department of History In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Supervisor: Professor Marsha Siefert Second Reader: Professor Vladimir Petrović CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2017 Copyright notice Copyright in the text of this thesis rests with the Author. Copies by any process, either in full or part, may be made only in accordance with the instructions given by the Author and lodged in the Central European Library. Details may be obtained from the librarian. This page must form a part of any such copies made. Further copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the written permission of the Author. CEU eTD Collection i Abstract This work charts the contemporary history of the socialist press in Britain, investigating its coverage of world events in the aftermath of the fall of state socialism. In order to do this, two case studies are considered: firstly, the seventy-eight day NATO bombing campaign over the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999, and secondly, the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević in October of 2000. The British socialist press analysis is focused on the Morning Star, the only English-language socialist daily newspaper in the world, and the multiple publications affiliated to minor British socialist parties such as the Socialist Workers’ Party and the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee). The thesis outlines a broad history of the British socialist movement and its media, before moving on to consider the case studies in detail. -
The Case of Bernstein and Engels
Munich Personal RePEc Archive Probabilism and determinism in political economy: the case of Bernstein and Engels Wells, Julian The Open University 3 February 1998 Online at https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/55325/ MPRA Paper No. 55325, posted 22 Jan 2020 09:07 UTC Probabilism and determinism in political economy The case of Bernstein and Engels Julian Wells The Open University I: Introduction Eduard Bernstein’s proposals for revising marxist theory Rather, it is to examine the intellectual sources of his burst like a thunderclap on the late 19th century workers’ error, and in particular to examine Bernstein’s views on movement, and in particular on the German social the determinism which he maintained was a central feature democracy. Here was the militant who had suffered 20 of the historical materialist method. This is important, years of exile, whose editorship of the party newspaper had because—as I claimed in passing in a previous IWGVT made it such a powerful weapon, the acquaintance of Marx paper (Wells 1997) but did not substantiate—there is a and the friend and literary executor of Engels, saying in pervasive atmosphere of determinism in the thought of terms that their scientific method was so fatally flawed that many marxists, which is, however, unjustified by anything it should be fundamentally recast. to be found in the works of Marx and Engels. Not only that, but Marx’s forecasts about the The paper will first review Bernstein’s critique of Marx development of capitalism, made on the basis of this and Engels, and suggest that his misunderstanding is not method, were not only untenable but had already been simply attributable to any personal scholarly exposed by events. -
Interpreting Marx's Theory of the State and Opposition to Anarchism
Interpreting Marx's Theory of the State and Opposition to Anarchism Though Marx intended to dedicate a volume of Capital to the question of 'the State', he died before he could even begin that work. We are, therefore, left to reconstruct the 'Marxist theory of the state' from scattered references littered throughout Marx and Engels' collected works. My analysis investigates the shifts and contradictions in their thought, as well as the utility these contradictions served in misrepresenting the anarchist alternative. By Matthew Crossin “… no state, howsoever democratic its forms, not even the reddest political republic… is capable of giving the people what they need: the free organisation of their own interests from below upward…" - Mikhail Bakunin, Statism and Anarchy, p. 24 “[With the abolition of classes] the power of the State, which serves to keep the great majority of the producers under the yoke of the numerically small exploiting minority, disappears, and the functions of government are transformed into simple administrative functions. [The anarchists] put matters the other way round…” - Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels, Fictitious Splits in the International, p. 74 1 Marxism, Anarchism, and the State The purpose of this essay is to reassess the views of Karl Marx, his close partner Friedrich Engels, and their anarchist contemporaries on the crucial question of ‘the State’.2 Specifically, I contend that dominant interpretations of Marx have unsatisfactorily addressed his varied and contradictory analysis of the State; its role (if any) in the construction of a socialist society; and the ways in which this has both overlapped and come into conflict with the anarchist view. -
Mike Macnair
Paper of the Communist Party of Great Britain weekly No need for a party? Mike n Labour makes gains workern Non-Labour left Macnair reports from the n Lib Dem slump US Platypus convention n CPGB aggregate No 865 Thursday May 12 2011 Towards a Communist Party of the European Union www.cpgb.org.uk £1/€1.10 CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS BECKONS 8 May 12 2011 865 US LEFT No need for party? The US Platypus grouping does not have a political line because there is ‘no possibility of revolutionary action’. Mike Macnair reports on its convention attended the third annual Platypus about madness and the penitentiary, as International Convention in Chi- well as about the history of sexuality, Icago over the weekend April 29- have been falsified by historians. May 1. The Platypus Affiliated So- And, though he identified Foucault’s ciety is a, mainly student, left group tendency to marginalise class politics, of an odd sort (as will appear further he saw this as merely a product of the below). Its basic slogan is: ‘The left defeat of the left, rather than as an is dead; long live the left’. Starting active intervention in favour of popular very small, it has recently expanded frontism. Hence he missed the extent rapidly on US campuses and added to which the Anglo-American left chapters in Toronto and Frankfurt. academic and gay/lesbian movement Something over 50 people attended reception of Foucault was closely tied the convention. to the defence of extreme forms of The fact of Platypus’s rapid growth popular frontism by authors directly on the US campuses, though still as or indirectly linked to Marxism yet to a fairly small size, tells us that Today, for whom it was an instrument in some way it occupies a gap on the against the ‘class-reductionist’ ideas US left, and also tells us something of Trotskyists. -
Chris Harman
How Marxism Works Chris Harman How Marxism Works - Chris Harman First published May 1979 Fifth edition published July 1997 Sixth edition published July 2000 Bookmarks Publications Ltd, c/o 1 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3QE, England Bookmarks, PO Box 16085, Chicago, Illinois 60616, USA Bookmarks, PO Box A338, Sydney South, NSW 2000, Australia Copyright © Bookmarks Publications Ltd ISBN 1 898876 27 4 This online edition prepared by Marc Newman Contents Introduction 7 1 Why we need Marxist theory 9 2 Understanding history 15 3 Class struggle 25 4 Capitalism—how the system began 31 5 The labour theory of value 39 6 Economic crisis 45 7 The working class 51 8 How can society be changed? 55 9 How do workers become revolutionary? 65 10 The revolutionary socialist party 69 11 Imperialism and national liberation 73 12 Marxism and feminism 79 13 Socialism and war 83 Further reading 87 Introduction There is a widespread myth that Marxism is difficult. It is a myth propagated by the enemies of socialism – former Labour leader Harold Wilson boasted that he was never able to get beyond the first page of Marx’s Capital. It is a myth also encouraged by a peculiar breed of academics who declare themselves to be ‘Marxists’: they deliberately cultivate obscure phrases and mystical expressions in order to give the impression that they possess a special knowledge denied to others. So it is hardly surprising that many socialists who work 40 hours a week in factories, mines or offices take it for granted that Marxism is something they will never have the time or the opportunity to understand. -
Although Many European Radical Left Parties
Peace, T. (2013) All I'm asking, is for a little respect: assessing the performance of Britain's most successful radical left party. Parliamentary Affairs, 66(2), pp. 405-424. There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it. http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/144518/ Deposited on: 21 July 2017 Enlighten – Research publications by members of the University of Glasgow http://eprints.gla.ac.uk 2 All I’m asking, is for a little Respect: assessing the performance of Britain’s most successful radical left party BY TIMOTHY PEACE1 ABSTRACT This article offers an overview of the genesis, development and decline of the Respect Party, a rare example of a radical left party which has achieved some degree of success in the UK. It analyses the party’s electoral fortunes and the reasons for its inability to expand on its early breakthroughs in East London and Birmingham. Respect received much of its support from Muslim voters, although the mere presence of Muslims in a given area was not enough for Respect candidates to get elected. Indeed, despite criticism of the party for courting only Muslims, it did not aim to draw its support from these voters alone. Moreover, its reliance on young people and investment in local campaigning on specific political issues was often in opposition to the traditional ethnic politics which have characterised the electoral process in some areas. When the British public awoke on the morning of Friday 6th May 2005 most would have been unsurprised to discover that the Labour Party had clung on to power but with a reduced majority, as had been widely predicted. -
Week School on Political Issues from the History of AWL
Week school on political issues from the history of AWL Day One Session: Heterodox, orthodox, and “orthodox Mark 2” 1. Why we started: 1966-8 Trotskyism: http://www.workersliberty.org//taxonomy/term/555 http://www.workersliberty.org/wwaawwmb The AWL's tradition: http://www.workersliberty.org/node/5146 Session: Party and perspectives What happened in 1968 and how the left responded ***************** Why we fused with IS (SWP) Timeline 2. Ireland: 1968-71 1964 July 2: After years of civil rights agitation in USA, Civil Rights http://www.workersliberty.org/node/10010 Act becomes law. October 15: Labour wins general election, after 13 years of Session: The debates in 1969 - “withdraw subsidies”, Tory rule “southern arsenals”, “troops out” before August 1969, “Catholic economism” and transitional demands, “troops out” 1965 in August 1969. January 31: USA starts bombing of North Vietnam. Vietnam war, and movement against it, escalate. Day Two February: SLL, then biggest revolutionary group in Britain, launches its own independent "Young Socialists" as a 3. The Tories and Labour 1970-4 response to limited expulsions by Labour Party after SLL wins majority in Labour youth movement. Session: General strike Our Labour Party debate then: syndicalism, economism, and 1966 politics Summer: Beginning of "Cultural Revolution" in China: a faction of the bureaucracy mobilises gangs to purge rivals 4. Stalinism 1968-75 reinforce autarkic, ultra-statist policy. But many leftists in the West will admire the "Cultural Revolution"; Maoism will Session: Czechoslovakia 1968 be a big force on the revolutionary left from 1968 to the “Soviet dissidents” mid-70s, though less so in Britain than in other European Vietnam and Cambodia 1975 countries. -
To Download the Paper As A
So& Wloirkdersa’ Lirbeirtty y No 214 24 August 2011 30p/80p For a workers’ government Ban the EDL? 1911: Liverpool The religion of the page 3 on strike page 8-9 Socialist Party pages 11-12 Post-riot clampdown on working-class youth OPPOSE THIS CLASS-HATE BLITZ See page 5 More socialist ideas and labour movement news online: www.workersliberty.org NEWS What is the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty? Libya: the return of hope Today one class, the working class, lives by selling From back page workers’ rights. gogue on the British left and its annihilation, it is its labour power to another, the capitalist class, But in fact the funda - will ever have to face. irresponsible and morally which owns the means of production. Society Outright support for Qaddafi is confined to a mental lesson of Libya — Workers’ Liberty be - degenerate to simply de - is shaped by the capitalists’ relentless drive to marginal fringe of sects,. as with all the heroic and lieves that a people staring mand that it ceases, or to increase their wealth. Capitalism causes inspiring uprisings we down the wrong end of a oppose it ever taking poverty, unemployment, the blighting of lives by For most of the far-left, have see in the Middle state-sanctioned massacre place. We believe that the overwork, imperialism, the destruction of the the intervention of NATO East and North Africa this have the right to call for gains of the uprising vin - environment and much else. in Libya cancelled out the year — is that no ruling assistance, even from im - dicate that view. -
The Barriers Come Down: Antisemitism and Coalitions of Extremes in the Uk Anti-War Movement
THE BARRIERS COME DOWN: ANTISEMITISM AND COALITIONS OF EXTREMES By Dave Rich These are strange times for the British far right. Long left alone on the political extremes where they obsessed about secret Jewish machinations behind every government policy, all of a sudden they think they have noticed the most unlikely people agreeing with them. The British National Party advised its members to read The Guardian for information about “the Zionist cabal around President Bush1”. Followers of the neo-Nazi Combat 18 have found themselves publicly supporting the President of Malaysia, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, while the National Front found itself in sympathy with Labour MP Tam Dalyell. No wonder John Tyndall, former leader of the British National Party, wrote gleefully that “certain things are coming out into the open which not long ago would have been tightly censored and suppressed…We are witnessing a gigantic conspiracy being unveiled2”. But are the antisemites of Britain’s far right correct in thinking that their view of a Jewish-controlled world is becoming accepted across the political spectrum? This excitement amongst Britain’s neo-Nazis has been fuelled by the widespread theory that the war in Iraq was devised and executed by pro-Israeli, mainly Jewish, neo-conservative lobbyists in Washington D.C.; that this is only one example of how American foreign policy has been hijacked by a Jewish or Zionist cabal; and that these neo-cons are pro-Israeli to the point that they did this not for the good of America, but purely for the interests of Israel and, by extension, Jews. -
Petty Bourgeois Deviations?
Petty bourgeois deviations? https://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article6154 International left Petty bourgeois deviations? - IV Online magazine - 2019 - IV534 - July 2019 - Publication date: Monday 22 July 2019 Copyright © International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine - All rights reserved Copyright © International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine Page 1/3 Petty bourgeois deviations? This contribution has been published in the July-August issue of Sozialistische Zeitung (SoZ) which is published since 1986 in Cologne.* The CWI is an international organization in the Trotskyist tradition. [1] Its strongest national organization is the âEurosoemother partyâEuros Socialist Party in England and Wales. In the 1980s, when its members were still working in the Labour Party, then as the âEurosoeMilitant TendencyâEuros , it gained great prestige through its fight against Margret Thatcher's poll tax, among other things. According to reports, this organization could be threatened with division. By all accounts and that is where the problem begins. We are dependent on âEurosoeleakedâEuros internal documents on the Internet, press articles based on them from other left-wing groups in the English-speaking world and a kind of Kreml-astrology. The CWI does not publicly discuss the differences of opinion that have arisen. In particular, a 12-page text by Peter Taaffe (English member of the leadership of the CWI for almost 50 years) dated 15 January this year and entitled âEurosoeIn defence of a working-class orientation for the CWIâEuros is available on the Internet. At the very beginning, heavy guns are fired at the CWI: âEurosoe... the CWI is confronted with ...tendencies towards petty bourgeois MandelismâEuros . [2] Above all, Taaffe accuses the Irish organization of the CWI of âEurosoeabandoning the necessity of an organization based on the working class movementâEuros in favour of âEurosoeidentity politicsâEuros ..