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...]
Remembering Comrade Madi Gray
Workers International Network learned of the death of our much loved and respected comrade Madi Gray with great sadness. Madi was born in Cape Town in 1943. Her parents were immigrants who arrived during the inter-war period as refugees from Germany; they saw similarities between Hitler's Nationalist Socialist Party and the National Party in South Africa, which came to power in 1948. Her mother … [Read more...]
Interim statement of WIN and ISp – Common Statement on working together and developing closer relations.
LINK TO JOURNAL OF Launching Internationalist Standpoint - Internationalist Standpoint Delegations representing Internationalist Standpoint (ISp) and the Workers’ International Network (WIN) met on a number of occasions in the course of 2023 and discussed key themes related to the conditions faced by the working class globally, the present crisis of world capitalism, and the … [Read more...]
Sydney Silverman
with Roger Silverman As one in a series 'Lives of the Left' presented by Labour Left Alliance, Roger Silverman tells the moving story of his amazing resilient father and Labour MP Sydney Silverman. Socialist, human rights campaigner, conscientious objector, lawyer, lecturer, Sydney devoted his life to the left; among his many achievements he fought for the admission to the UK of Jewish … [Read more...]
Lev Landau the Revolutionary
by Giorgos Mitralias Almost everyone knows the name of Einstein (1), but that of Lev Landau (2) is familiar only to a few followers of the exact sciences. And yet, both of them share several common features: They occupy first-rank positions in the short list of the greatest geniuses of the past century. They distinguished themselves by their freedom of thought and the non-conformity of their … [Read more...]