Irrationality and mass paranoia invade our societies by Yorgos Mitralias “But why are they attacking us? What have we done to them to make them hate us and bomb us like this?”. These are surprising and thought-provoking questions from ordinary Russians living in the Kursk region, asked by reporters sent to cover the advance of Ukrainian troops into this Russian territory. And they are all … [Read more...]
Archives for August 2024
FACTS FOR WORKING PEOPLE Book Review: In The Tracks of Marx’s Capital
Review From Michael Roberts' Blog on Facebook In the Tracks of Marx's Capital - a new book by Sungur Suman and Ahmet Tonak, is out now. This book provides an accessible introduction to Marx’s seminal work Capital and explores the core ideas of Marxian political economy relevant for modern day economies. The first part gives an overview of Capital based on the authors’ original thinking in … [Read more...]
WIN ARCHIVE LIBRARY – THE LESSONS OF CHILE
by Roger Silverman - 11th September 2023. It is the fiftieth anniversary of the Chilean coup – an event that shocked worker activists the world over. The Junta surrounded mines and factories with tanks. Sickening descriptions were given by eye-witnesses of sadistic beatings and tortures. Tens of thousands were executed: summarily shot, bludgeoned, mutilated and tortured to death, or hurled … [Read more...]
WIN ARCHIVE LIBRARY – UNDERSTANDING SHAKESPEARE
by Roger Silverman. First, I can at last reveal the true identity of Shakespeare: the plays of Shakespeare were written by a man called William Shakespeare. It is sheer reactionary snobbery to suggest that his poetry and plays could only have been written by an aristocrat. On the contrary: an aristocrat of that time would have written from a very different perspective. He was the son of a … [Read more...]
WIN ARCHIVE LIBRARY – RUSSIA: LITERATURE AND REVOLUTION
by Roger Silverman. In Russia, literature and revolution are inextricably intertwined. There is a proud and unbroken Russian tradition of defiance of successive autocratic regimes by artists and writers. It happened under the Tsars; it happened under the tyranny of Stalin and his successors; and it happens still today under the Putin dictatorship. There is no country with a richer … [Read more...]
WIN ARCHIVE LIBRARY – THE BOLSHEVIKS AND PARLIAMENT
by Roger Silverman. We revolutionaries are often misrepresented as enemies of democracy. Didn’t the Bolsheviks ban opposition parties, shut down the Constituent Assembly, impose war communism, create a one-party police state…? On the contrary. For instance, far from imposing a one-party state, the first Soviet government was not even a one-party government: it was a coalition with the left … [Read more...]
WIN ARCHIVE LIBRARY – WHAT WAS STALINISM?
by Roger Silverman. Socialists today still find themselves under the dark shadow that Stalinism has cast over the history of the twentieth century. It is more than ten years since the collapse of the Stalinist regimes of Russia and Eastern Europe – overthrown in many cases by workers’ uprisings. These were hideous, corrupt, vicious regimes, and workers rightly celebrated their downfall as … [Read more...]
WIN ARCHIVE LIBRARY – THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION – 100 YEARS ON
by Roger Silverman - 7th November 2017. We revolutionaries are often misrepresented as enemies of democracy. Didn’t the Bolsheviks ban opposition parties, shut down the Constituent Assembly, impose war communism, create a one-party police state…? On the contrary. For instance, far from imposing a one-party state, the first Soviet government was not even a one-party government: it was a … [Read more...]
A Quick Comment on the UK Riots and Immigrant Bashing – LBC Radio interview
by RICHARD MELLOR WATCH THE RADIO INTERVIEW HERE James O'Brien is very good here. The caller's mind won't be changed though because he's dishonest about his real feelings and view of the world. He also probably reads the Daily Mail, the Express and other rags that also foster nationalist and racist views. I remember an English woman complaining to me that all these Somalis who come in and … [Read more...]
Seymour Hersh: NETANYAHU’S ASSASSINATION SPREE
Killings by Israel in Lebanon and Iran risk dragging the US and the Middle East into a regional war POSTED BY RICHARD MELLOR Vice President Kamala Harris and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrive for a meeting in the vice president’s ceremonial office at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington on July 25. / Photo by Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images. The … [Read more...]