To mark the 90th anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War – the bloodiest stage in the ten year-long Spanish revolution that began in 1931 – we are republishing two articles, by Hannah […]
This year marks the 90th anniversary of a wave of mass strikes in France, following the election of a Popular Front government. To mark the occasion, we publish an article written by PETER TAAFFE, which […]
‘The death of Trotsky: The true story of the plot to kill Stalin’s greatest enemy’, by Josh Ireland deals with Stalin’s vilification and hunting down of his most formidable political opponent, Leon Trotsky, the co-leader […]
This April is the 110th anniversary of the 1916 Easter rising in Dublin and in other parts of Ireland. The defeat of the rebellion saw the summary trial and execution by the British state of […]
Today, 7 November, marks the 108th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. It is also known as the ‘October revolution’ because the Bolsheviks seized power in Petrograd on October 25, 1917, according to the Julian calendar […]
Yesterday a judge in Belfast gave a ‘not guilty’ verdict regarding ‘Soldier F’, a former parachute regiment solider who was accused of the murder of two civilians in Derry city, on January 30th 1972, in […]
From Socialism Today, magazine of the Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales). Seventy years ago on 26 June 1955 around three thousand people assembled in a field in Kliptown, just outside Johannesburg. They were gathered to […]
Hiroshima, 6 August 1945, 8:00 am. The ‘all clear’ sounded, signalling the end of an air raid by US bombers. Workers and school children left their homes, putting out fires, clearing damage and going to […]
Commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of ‘victory in Europe’ (VE) are taking place today, with establishment dignitaries saluting veteran service men and women who liberated Europe from the clutches of fascism. However, the official ceremonies […]
Today marks 80 years since VE Day – or Victory in Europe Day – when fighting against Nazi Germany in Europe came to an end. The Second World War saw modern capitalist technique guarantee death […]
The 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz was marked by televised ceremonies at the mass death camp and statements from governments and politicians. People everywhere express revulsion and condemnation of the murderous actions of […]
The New Popular Front (NPF) received the most seats in the recent parliamentary elections in France, 182 out of the 577 total in the National Assembly. Standing on a programme of reducing the pension age […]
Anna Reid’s history of the ‘intervention’ in Russia after the 1917 revolution, when 180,000 troops from imperialist powers were sent to support the counter-revolutionary ‘White’ armies, is meticulously researched but politically bereft. Reid fails to […]
Fifty years ago, this week a “strike” was called by the Ulster Workers Council (UWC) – a coalition of loyalist paramilitary groups, backed by some unionist politicians, like Ian Paisley – in Northern Ireland, in […]
From Socialism Today, No. 277 (May 2024) The signing of the North Atlantic Treaty, between the US, Canada and Western European powers in April 1949, can only be understood as one more brick being laid […]
The following article, written twenty years ago by Manny Thain for the 30th anniversary of the revolution, looks back on the lessons to be drawn from this turbulent period of Portuguese history. In addition to […]
The post-war economic upswing in the countries of ‘the West’ was an unprecedented era of capitalist development rooted in a unique combination of economic and geopolitical factors that cannot be repeated, argues Robin Clapp, in […]
The strike wave of the last two years in Britain and in other European countries has taken levels of industrial action to a scale not seen since the 1980s. A new generation of trade union […]
The Communist Women’s Movement inspired tens of thousands of women following the Russian revolution. CHRISTINE THOMAS looks at the latest volume in an ongoing series regarding the Communist International that pulls together previously unpublished material […]
February 12th marked the 90th anniversary of a brief civil war in Austria, when workers attempted to defeat the mounting attacks of the then ‘Austrofascist’ government on the workers’ movement and democratic rights. The text […]
The Independent Socialist Group (ISG) interviewed Hugo Rodríguez, a member of Socialismo Revolucionario (then Workers Democracy), the Chilean section of the Committee for a Workers International (CWI), with which ISG stands in political solidarity. Hugo […]
September marks the 50th anniversary of the 1973 coup in Chile led by General Pinochet, which overthrew the democratically elected left-wing government of Salvador Allende, and ushered in 17 years of brutal military dictatorship. On […]
The article below appeared in Militant, issue no. 169, published on 17 August 1973, one month before Pinochet’s coup. Militant was the newspaper of the Militant Tendency, forerunner of the Socialist Party, the CWI in […]
Fifty years since it was crushed, the Chilean revolution of 1970-73 remains a reference point, not only in Chile, but internationally, for both the working class and its organisations and the capitalist classes. In Chile, […]
Rich in lessons for today One of the most important and tragic events in the history of Iraq took place on 8 February, 1963. The left-wing government led by Abd al-Karim Qasim was overthrown in […]
The Omagh bomb of 25 years ago was the end of any significant republican armed campaign in Ireland or elsewhere. The backlash ruled such out for many years. The Omagh bombing was one of the […]
Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland, available on BBC iPlayer, is one of the outstanding documentaries on the conflict in Northern Ireland that is euphemistically known as the ‘Troubles’. Rather than an overarching narrative, […]
Seventy-five years on from the arrival of the Windrush ship from Jamaica, HUGO PIERRE, a Black male members rep on the Unison trade union national executive council (writing in a personal capacity), traces the experiences […]
And why it has not overcome sectarian divisions On the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, Niall Mulholland explains the origins of the ‘peace process’, and why the fundamental problems underpinning […]
The 29th January 2023 marked the 30th anniversary of the start of the historic 1993 struggle of Timex workers in Dundee. The almost 8 month-long dispute was the most significant industrial struggle in the history […]
The video link below features Carmel Gates, General Secretary of the Nothern Ireland Public Services Alliance (personal capacity) – the largest trade union in the North of Ireland – and a Militant Left (CWI Ireland) […]
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Fourth Congress of the Communist (Third) International (also known as the Comintern), held from 30 November – 5 December 1922, in Moscow. Leon Trotsky, co-leader, along with […]
To most socialists, it will come as no surprise to find that Christmas is the continuation of very ancient traditions of mid-winter festivals. However, it may be a surprise to learn just how relatively new […]
The current mass movement in Iran by women and the working class is taking place against the regime that came to power in the revolution of 1979. What lessons are there for today’s revolutionaries from […]
As workers involved in the current strike wave in Britain are increasingly supporting calls for a 24-hour general strike, Kevin Parslow looks at the general strike organised by the Chartists in 1842. In December 1842, the Chartists […]
In a seven-part production for BBC TV, ‘TraumaZone’, Adam Curtis has delved into the predominantly unseen work of hundreds of BBC film crews carried out over 35 years across what was the USSR. In an […]
Bloody Counter-Revolution Carried Through Today, 6 December, marks the formal centenary of the creation of the ‘Free State’ in Ireland, comprising 26 of the 32 counties on the island, following the Anglo-Irish Treaty. One of […]
The 1917 ‘October Revolution’ in Russia, which took place on 5 November by the old Russian calendar, has spawned countless books and articles, many of the written from the point of view of defenders of […]
After World War Two, the civil rights movement erupted in America. Black people in the US faced enormous racism and discrimination, especially in the south, a legacy of slavery. Large numbers of Black people moved […]
On 9 April 1992, the Conservative Party won a general election with a record-breaking 14 million votes. On 2 May 1997, it lost the next general election, with its standing shattered by the events that […]
Mikhail Gorbachev, who has died at the age of 91, was the last president of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and was also general secretary of the 20 million-strong ruling Communist Party. Extensive […]
The former Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, died yesterday. Eulogies have come from many sources, including reactionary defenders of the capitalist system, like Henry Kissinger. But what did Gorbachev really stand for? What was his real […]
With the rising tide of pay strikes and ballots, there is much talk of a ‘summer and autumn of discontent’, with comparisons to the 1978-79 so-called ‘winter of discontent’ being drawn in Britain. Due to […]
Fifty years ago, the class struggle was on the rise internationally. In Britain, this was reflected by a big shift towards the left in the trade unions and Labour Party, especially in its youth wing, […]
This summer marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the ‘civil war’ in Ireland, which saw the final stages of an extraordinary decade of social and national revolutionary and counter-revolutionary movements. A split among […]
As figures from the world military powers raise the threat of the use of ‘tactical’ nuclear arms, with the war in Ukraine and tensions over Taiwan in the background, the 77th anniversary of the second […]
“Arise Ye Workers” read the banner as five London dockers were carried shoulder high from Pentonville Prison in London. The date was 26 July 1972. Five days earlier, the ‘Pentonville Five’ – Con Clancy, Tony […]
Capitalism, the system we live under today, is unequal and undemocratic. It is a class society, based on the exploitation of the working class by a ruling class – the capitalists, a small minority of […]
This month marks the fortieth anniversary of the Falklands/Malvinas war. Below we republish a chapter on the war from the book, The Rise of Militant, by Peter Taaffe. Peter explains the approach taken by Marxists […]
Fifty years ago, the miners’ strike for a fairer pay system saw some of the biggest demonstrations of workers’ power in Britain since World War Two. The Tory government, led by Edward Heath, was trying […]
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