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
What do Marxists think … about housework?
Socialists have advanced a number of ideas about work conducted in the home, most of which is done by women. The MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY explores some of these theories
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
IT’S a fair bet that some Marxists don’t think about it at all, and some that do, don’t think it’s a matter for serious discussion. But it is!
Marx himself saw housework as an unfortunate necessity, famously declaring that it was “petty, stultifying and degrading.” As a guess he didn’t do too much of it.
Engels argued that in the earliest societies, sexual divisions of labour were not inherently oppressive.
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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.
Professor MARY DAVIS argues that feminism has been hollowed out by liberal co-option – and only a revival of socialist, class-based politics can restore International Working Women’s Day’s original, radical purpose
The legacy of socialist feminists such as Alexandra Kollontai challenges us today to confront an uncomfortable truth: framing prostitution as empowerment lets the abusers of the Epstein class off the hook, warns HELEN O’CONNOR
As Ash Regan’s Unbuyable Bill sparks debate in Scotland, the real issue remains unaddressed: a digitalised sex industry and a neoliberal economy that repackages exploitation as empowerment while leaving women’s material conditions unchanged, argues LAUREN HARPER