The UK Prime Minister may have the regal touch in northern England, but he’s been wrong-footed on the constitutional challenges posed by the Celtic Alliance of first ministers from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, argues KENNY MacASKILL
WHAT is “race”? If by race you mean distinct groups of humans distinguished by physical and/or mental characteristics which derive from their biology, their genes then — “race” doesn’t exist.
That’s not a Marxist conclusion either — it’s a scientific one, backed up by evidence that is pretty universally accepted.
All humans have descended from a common group of ancestors which then radiated and developed into what, once, probably could have been described as different “races” in the sense of groups sharing a common gene pool (itself a contested concept).
Humans are part of the ‘animal kingdom’ – and of nature in general – but also distinct from it and labour (work) is part of what makes us unique, declared Engels. His insights 150 years ago into how our species came to be and how we differ from the rest of nature, are as important today as they were then, says the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY
Nature as well as society works dialectically, asserts the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School
RICHARD SHILLCOCK examines an enjoyable, but philosophically conventional book, and urges Marxists to employ their capacity to embrace the totality in any explanation
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


