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Working people across Britain are fighting back against austerity, war, repression and exploitation. The challenge now is to unite those struggles, says Communist Party of Britain assistant general secretary JOHNNIE HUNTER
Is private property peculiar to capitalism and do socialists want to abolish it?
In the second in a series of Marxist Q&As, the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY examines the nature of private property and how it’s used to extract profit
Train drivers’ union Aslef general secretary DAVE CALFE speaks to Ben Chacko about his hopes that Burnham’s devolution agenda will include the importance of the railway
DIANE ABBOTT provides an analysis of the reasons for EU and British voters’ dramatic swing to the right
Some of the review’s proposals could make the benefits system less cruel and dehumanising. But its vague plans for services and non-cash support revive the threat that disabled people will lose control over the money we need to survive, writes DYLAN MURPHY
Believe it or not, there was a time when the US government built beautiful homes for working‑class Americans to deal with a housing shortage, writes ERAN BEN-JOSEPH
MAT COWARD has heaps of good advice on recycling garden and household waste over the winter
NO, to both questions. Private property predates capitalism and will survive long after it has been abolished.
But it is important to distinguish personal possessions — your clothes, bicycle, your home (if you “own” it) from capital.
Capital is a particular form of private property — including factories, mines, transport and energy utilities, shops, offices, and, increasingly, financial capital — that enables its owners to make profit from the work of others, and to accumulate yet more capital, and power.
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MML director MEIRIAN JUMP outlines the recently refreshed library’s busy autumn schedule that ranges from book sales, archival exploration, community work with online education and the ever popular site tours
Class struggle is the motor of history but the direction and detail of change at any time and place is the outcome of many factors, suggests the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School
Dignity is important to all humans, argues the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School, but it does not come about automatically. In a less than perfect world, dignity can accompany suffering, but the collective dignity of working people is achieved through acting together to change the world.
The selection, analysis and interpretation of historical ‘facts’ always takes place within a paradigm, a model of how the world works. That’s why history is always a battleground, declares the Marx Memorial Library