Skip to main content
Donate to the Fighting Fund
The 1660 Restoration and the lessons of defeat
KEITH FLETT considers how the return of the monarchy after Cromwell offers lessons for a left facing the return of Donald Trump, showing that radical traditions endure despite reactionary victories
HISTORIC DEFEAT: Charles II landing in Dover in 1660 [Wellcome Images/Creative Commons]

ROSA LUXEMBURG saw the future as a choice between socialism and barbarism.

In that respect, the presidential landslide for Donald Trump is not good news for the left. Of course, Trump does not lead directly to barbarism, but there is a clear direction of travel, although whether he or his Democratic opponent would be the more likely to start a world war is a moot point.

In the US, abortion rights, civil liberties and much else may be under question and threat. No doubt, organisations from the community and from the labour movement will fight to defend them.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Statue of Oliver Cromwell
Full Marx / 2 February 2026
2 February 2026

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

A ballot box arriving during the count for the Blackpool South by-election at Blackpool Sports Centre, Blackpool, May 2, 2024
Features / 11 September 2025
11 September 2025

Who you ask and how you ask matter, as does why you are asking — the history of opinion polls shows they are as much about creating opinions as they are about recording them, writes socialist historian KEITH FLETT

Ramsgate beach 1899
History / 14 August 2025
14 August 2025

The summer saw the co-founders of modern communism travelling from Ramsgate to Neuenahr to Scotland in search of good weather, good health and good newspapers in the reading rooms, writes KEITH FLETT

Assertion of Liberty of Conscience by the Independents of th
Books / 6 March 2025
6 March 2025
ANDREW MURRAY is compelled by the moment of revolution in British history when Parliament had political intimacy with society