Politicians who continue to welcome contracts with US companies without considering the risks and consequences of total dependency in the years to come are undermining the raison d’etre of the NHS, argues Dr JOHN PUNTIS
Latest editorial
Could a Labour government lead us to socialism?
For many Labour Party members, deciding whether to leave or stay will turn on the quality and politics of their local councillors and MP, writes the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY
MISH RAHMAN introduces the platform of a new organisation within Your Party, which will campaign for the highest level of democracy, accountability and participation, having learned from the mistakes of Labour in the 2015-19 era
The colonial mindset behind the governance of the UN is the reason for its inertia when it comes to conflict resolution, argues ROGER McKENZIE – but can China’s Global Governance Initiative point in a new direction of global equality?
ANDREW MURRAY wonders what the great communist foe of Oswald Mosley would make of today’s far-right surge, warning that while the triumph of Farage and ‘Robinson’ is far from inevitable, placing any faith in Starmer in an anti-fascist front is a fool’s errand
LOTTE COLLETT welcomes the arrival of a new party for the left, a vehicle for councils to finally fight for progressive policies on housing, green spaces and public facilities, rather than administering cuts and misery from central government
KEVAN NELSON reports back from a delegation to the epic celebrations for the anniversary of Vietnam’s 1945 revolution, where British communists found a thriving, prosperous socialist country, brimming with ambition and well-earned national pride
THE short answer is “no” but also “we’re unlikely to get socialism without one.”
Britain’s parliamentary institutions, which were secured through struggle and sacrifice, can have a potentially vital role in the advance to socialism. But today we have a contradiction: while industrial militancy, including groups such as teachers and health workers, is resurgent alongside a significant growth in environmental and community activism, Labour — and in particular the Parliamentary Labour Party — has shifted so far to the right that it currently offers no significant prospect for progressive change in Britain.
A century after Lenin’s death (and following an excellent recent symposium at the Marx Memorial Library on Lenin in Britain and his relevance today) it might be worth starting with his observation (referring to Marx’s analysis of the Paris Commune) of the way that “the oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class shall represent and repress them in Parliament!”
More from this author
Most currently popular arguments for degrowth describe a real problem without recognising its true cause – capitalism’s insatiable need to accumulate, argues the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY
Most phenomena have an explanation, writes the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY, but occasionally ‘anomalous’ events have led to new scientific understanding
The fight to defend public services is as important as the struggle over wages, but presents different challenges to workplace organising — especially with regards to bourgeois propaganda and conditioning, writes the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY
Marx and Engels’ concern with soil provides a focus for understanding the relationship between capitalism and the environment, argues the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY
