Mario Mieli’s book, written in the late 70s, reveals a world lost to us now – the radicalisation of the late 60s and early 70s, which provided the context for what was then called the gay liberation movement. Huge mobilisations arose against the war in Vietnam, while black people in the US rose in rebellion in cities across America after the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968 – rebellions which inspired the Stonewall riot, the founding event of the gay liberation movement, the following year. In Britain, a national miners’ strike brought down the Tory government in 1974. Many on the far left believed that capitalism was in its death agonies and that revolution was on the agenda of the day.
Class war on new ground
7 January 2019, bySocialists are in a hurry these days. With the idea of socialism catching on among a widening swath of the U.S. population, and class conflict showing signs of heating up there can be little time for idle talk. Rather, there is an urgent need to diagnose the current political and economic situation, identify what is new and what is not about that situation, and propose a strategy for the way forward based on the diagnosis.
The Poisoning of Flint
30 December 2018, byRacism, inequality, and austerity politics were the culprits in the poisoning of Flint, Michigan. And residents are still living with the consequences.
Trotskyism in China
27 December 2018, byIn the early 1930s there were more Trotskyists in China than anywhere else outside Russia. The defeat of the Chinese revolution in 1927 was one of the decisive factors in the emergence of Trotskyism as a distinct body of thought, and a powerful influence in shifting Trotsky’s views on the nature of Stalinism. It is thus hardly surprising that those who had been on the sharp end of the defeat should be especially receptive to his critique.
Hugo Blanco: From Trotskyism to Indigenous Vitality
17 December 2018, byHugo Blanco is a figure of great significance for contemporary thought on revolutionary potential. His ideas and practical commitment straddles two great perspectives:
A revolutionary for life
27 November 2018, byHugo Blanco is an inspiration to revolutionary ecosocialists. Born in Cusco, once capital of Tawantinsuyuand now in Peru, in 1934, his first struggles were school protests. He travelled to Argentina, where he abandoned university to work in a meat-packing factory in La Plata, and his encounter with the Fourth International eventually led him back to Peru where he became a factory and then peasant organiser.
Returns of Marxism: Marxist Theory in a Time of Crisis
18 July 2018, byThis rich collection was initially published in 2014 by the International Institute for Research and Education (IIRE), which opened in Amsterdam in 1982. One of the founding Fellows of IIRE was Ernest Mandel. The book is edited by Sara R. Farris, who teaches sociology at Goldsmiths College, University of London.
Political education: someone’s done it better
11 July 2018, byReview of David Camfield, We Can Do Better: Ideas for Changing Society, Halifax & Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing, 2017, 168 pp., $25 Canadian
Transnational Solidarity on the Gay and Lesbian Left: An Interview With Emily Hobson
1 June 2018, by ,Aaron Lecklider: The title of your book is Lavender and Red: Liberation and Solidarity in the Gay and Lesbian Left. Could you tell us a bit about what the book is about and in particular what the relationship is between liberation, solidarity, and sexuality?
Merry Month of May: A Firsthand History of ’68 France
23 May 2018, byWhere are the riots of yesteryear?
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the wave of radical revolts and revolutionary uprisings that startled the world in 1968 and which, although ultimately crushed by the forces of reaction that dominate the world to this day, left in its wake rights so fundamental that we tend to take them for granted — sexual freedom, civil rights, women’s’ equality. Yet a half-century later these hard-won liberties are under attack and people are once again rising to defend them.
