Grenfell Tower – the smoke & the mirrors
There is an ever-growing stream of media commentary on the Grenfell fire, increasing daily as the public enquiry unfolds. There are some elements in the media with the goal of obscuring or excusing the plain facts as part of a pre-emptive defence manoeuvre to protect those most implicated in what caused the fire and the 72 deaths. That they feel the need to use such distortions to defend the Grenfell landlords and those who ordered and oversaw the Grenfell refurbishment that fitted the lethal cladding only increases the suggestion of a general doubt on all sides about their innocence.
The Dead Don't Die: who makes the zombies?
George Barrett, anarchists and the Great Unrest
Freedom Press published a selection of essays by 1910s anarchist activist George Barrett, Our Masters Are Helpless, at the start of this month. Below is an edited and slightly expanded text of the launch event talk.
The Absurdity Of Socialist Leaders: Ernesto's Will To Power
Working Class Decomposition and Gig Economy Work
On 8 May 2019 around 300 protesters, mostly Uber and Lyft drivers, blocked Market Street in San Francisco in front of Uber's international headquarters as part of a global strike by drivers timed to coincide with Uber's IPO. This brief analysis attempts to situate these struggles against working class decomposition, with its roots in neoliberal deregulation, and the rise of so-called "gig economy" work.
Teesside Construction Workers Challenge the State
Few thoughts on democratic socialism - Introduction to a pamphlet on class struggle under Allende‘s government, Chile 1973
We want to present a pamphlet written by comrades of ours about class struggle and the social democratic government under Allende in Chile in 1973. Chile is one of many examples in history that shows us that the relation between working class movements and left governments is more complicated than the mechanistic picture of force (movement) and container/stabiliser (government) often painted by current democratic socialists.
Communism's Infamous Death Toll
Marximation
Iran and the USA on the Warpath?
Whether this situation of neither war nor negotiation, or ‘a bit of war, a bit of truce’ is going to last for a long time or will be temporary, one thing is certain. Neither Trump nor Khamenei, despite their desires and intentions, will ever be able to bypass the impasse that the present crisis is creating.
Brexit or Remain: A Choice of Tripe at the End of May
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ANC: The Chosen Party for South African Capitalism
The victory of the ANC in the South African election has yet again shown it is the capitalists’ chosen party for running South African capitalism. Its primary role is organising and enforcing the exploitation of the working class even when this means downing strikes in bloodshed as we saw at Marikana in 2012 (see leftcom.org).
1980-1: Class Struggle in Poland
As a follow up to our recent article about Solidarność (see: leftcom.org) we are republishing three of the leaflets that the CWO and Battaglia Comunista distributed in 1980-1 among workers in Britain, Italy, France, and the USA on the events unfolding in Poland.
Solidarność: Trade Unionism or Self-Organisation?
Political and economic crises led to the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc. The downturn in the post-war accumulation cycle, the Cold War, the USSR’s disastrous intervention in Afghanistan, as well as the popular revolts in Central and Eastern Europe all played a role. But it is the class struggles of 1980s Poland to which we turn our eye here.
Twenty Years of the National Minimum Wage
Civil War in Venezuela: An Economic and Human Catastrophe
The latest news coming from Venezuela tells us that in Caracas and elsewhere, the demonstrations for, and against, the Maduro government are carrying on. The army, which largely supports the elected President, is dealing brutally with demonstrators and the death toll on the streets has reached several dozen.
Workers' Conditions in UK Warehouses
It is hard to describe how awful the job is. Almost anyone could do it for a few minutes, even find it stimulating, nice bit of exercise, find a location, a bit of mental stimulation, almost a game. But give it an hour, the feet hurt, the knees hurt, the lower back hurts, the brain hurts… give it a few days and there is no learning curve anymore. Give it a few weeks and you are no longer the same person. You are the walking dead between seven and three.