After years hidden away, Oldham’s memorial to six local volunteers who died fighting fascism in the Spanish civil war has been restored to public view, marking both a victory for campaigners and a renewed tribute to the town’s proud International Brigade heritage, says ROB HARGREAVES
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Government spending and debt: a new approach
Introducing a new paper from Rebuild Britain, FAWZI IBRAHIM argues that it is high time for the working class to drop the Labour Party as its vehicle for change, and take economic matters directly into its own hands
While pretending to seek peace, Europe is heading toward a collision course with Russia – using security guarantees, troop deployments, expropriation and censorship as tools, writes SEVIM DAGDELEN
Alba party leader KENNY MacASKILL makes some suggestions on how to save our pubs and reduce irresponsible drinking
The catastrophe unfolding in Gaza – where Palestinians are freezing to death in tents – is not a natural disaster but a calculated outcome of Israel’s ongoing blockade, aid restrictions and continued violence, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE
Opinion polls point to electoral collapse, parliamentary rebellion and a looming leadership challenge as Starmer’s Labour haemorrhages working-class support and the far right exploits the vacuum left by a hollowed-out party, says NICK WRIGHT
The long-term effects of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange mean that the impact of war lasts well beyond a ceasefire
IN his book, Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism, Lenin refers to imperialism as a “special stage,” “a very high stage of development,” “specific historical stage,” “the latest phase” and “the beginning of its transition to socialism.”
Imperialism, writes Lenin, is the stage of capitalism’s development in which “the dominance of monopolies and finance capital is established; in which the export of capital has acquired pronounced importance.”
Rarely does he refer to it as the highest stage — but, given the title of the work, it has invariably been interpreted literally, that capitalism can evolve no further for it has reached its zenith.
Whether this is what Lenin intended is irrelevant, for this approach has permeated the communist movement and the left in general, yet it has little Marxist merit. It implies that once that stage is reached (which Lenin dates back to the early 20th century), time stands still, capitalism’s internal contradictions disappear and with them any further evolutionary development. But what happens to the socialist embryo that is born within capitalism? Does that cease to evolve as well?
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Lenin’s theory of the weakest link shifted the centre of gravity of the proletarian revolution towards peoples’ struggles in the developing world, contrary to the expectation of Marx and Engels. The effect was to hinder the cause of socialism by decades. Time bring it back to its natural home, argues FAWZI IBRAHIM
Centrist governments around the world face rejection by their electorates as neoliberalism fails to deliver the public prosperity it never promised – and the same fate awaits Labour unless it starts to deliver for those struggling to survive, says ALAN SIMPSON