Category: UK

31 Mar

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Greece two months on: where is the hope?

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Alexis_Tsipras_Greek_Prime_Minister_Graffiti

“Hope is coming. Europe is changing. Greece is going forward.” Two months into Syriza taking office after the historic victory of the Left at the polls on 25 January, dare we hope for a breach in the iron cage of austerity? Is hope even alive? My answer is an unequivocal “yes”. That’s not down to […]

27 Feb

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Peter Pinkney: A Marxist running for the UK Greens

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Peter Pinkney speaking at Philosophy Football's  Greatcoats for Goalposts event {credit: Simon Green}

Some joined up thinking in Redcar Peter Pinkney, President of the RMT, Rail, Maritime and Transport, Trade Union, spoke to Kevin Ovenden about his decision to stand for the Green Party at the general election in May in the once Labour heartland seat of Redcar on Teesside. The electoral advances by Syriza in Greece and […]

Filed under: Featured, Greens, trade unions, UK

08 Dec

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‘Abolishing the present state of things’

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Paris Commune: the ‘reabsorption of the State power by society’

Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality [will] have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things. The conditions of this movement result from the premises now in existence. —Marx & Engels (1845), The German […]

06 Nov

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Left Flank at Historical Materialism in London

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HM London Poster

Historical Materialism’s 11th annual conference — How Capitalism Survives — begins tomorrow at SOAS, Vernon Square, in London. Four writers and contributors to Left Flank are speaking. On Friday morning at 9.45am, Elizabeth Humphrys, Tad Tietze and Luke Stobart are speaking in a session on ‘Anti-politics, social movements & the practical critique of the state’ (Room V121) — along […]

21 Sep

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A funny thing happened on the way through Upton Park

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LOndon

I was inspired partly by an exchange of well-made points on my Facebook wall between two great friends Jay and Paddy. But the main reason for taking time out to write this on a sunny Sunday morning in east London is because a funny thing happened on my way home last night. I really hope […]

27 Oct

25 Comments

Russell Brand, let’s get this done.

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Russell-Brand-Revolution

OK Russell, let’s get this done. I’m in Europe and the crisis is everywhere. I landed in Greece and it hit me in the face: people trying to generate an income in any way they can; road works half complete and not touched for months (if not years); teachers on strike against austerity; people sleeping […]

08 Oct

1 Comment

Athens anti-fascist conference: a milestone for the Left

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Conference

By KEVIN OVENDEN This piece is a follow-up to “Greece, the state & anti-fascism”, which was subsequently also posted at Socialist Unity in the UK and Socialist Worker in the US. The anti-fascist conference in Athens last weekend hosted by the Greek anti-fascist/anti-racist coalition KEERFA was a major step forward. About 600 people, from a broad spectrum […]

10 Apr

7 Comments

Thatcher, the ALP & the dregs of neoliberalism

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747387-thatcher-hawke

If there’s one thing the entire Australian Left agrees on right now it’s that “Thatcherism was a very bad thing”. But beyond that, it may be appropriate to ask what exactly it is that people think was a bad thing. The answer to that question rests on one’s interpretation of what exactly was going on […]