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
Socialism, democracy and the division of labour
Stereotyped ideas about the 20th century’s actually existing socialism do a disservice to the working class and fail to grasp the complexities facing every revolutionary generation, argues ZOLTAN ZIGEDY
FLAGS OUT: The hammer and sickle flag of the Soviet Union is hung over the entrance to Claridge’s, London. Russian leaders Marshal Nikolai Bulganin, chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, and Nikita Krushchev, first secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, were residing at the hotel at the start of their 10-day visit
to Britain, April 1956
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
PROFESSOR Richard Wolff is a prominent, influential intellectual, with a big following on the left. He is an erudite, clear and passionate speaker and writer. He is well-regarded for his exposition of Marx’s ideas — a “go to” when the media tolerates a conversation critical of capitalism, one even advocating “socialism.”
For all of that, he does not represent Marx’s thought well, nor does he offer a viable, serious alternative to capitalism.
It is not a question of Wolff’s scholarship or his commitment to justice. It is, instead, a deep-seated, unwavering hostility to the real existing socialism of the 20th century and the century’s leading Marxist exponents, the communists.
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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
SETH SANDRONSKY recommends a Marxist critique of the ‘race-first’ views of the influential black US theorist Cedric Robinson
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.
Nature as well as society works dialectically, asserts the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School