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Politics
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Cliff Slaughter, 1928-2021: a life for revolution and its challenging legacy

Terry Brotherstone writes: Cliff Slaughter, whose life was dedicated to revolutionary, working-class internationalism and Marxist critique, died at the home in Leeds where he lived with Vivien Mitchell, his comrade and wife of 55 years, on 3 May 2021, aged 92. His last published article – an appeal for the radical rethinking of how Marx’s materialism should be practised today – appeared in Critique at the end of 2020. That essay now looks like a Parthian shot, a posthumous challenge to serious socialists to shed shibboleths and engage without prejudice in theoretical work as an indispensable part of revolutionary practice.…

Politics
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The crisis in the Labour Party and building an alternative

Thelma Walker writes: When did the destruction of the Labour Party I supported for nearly 40 years really begin? Could it be the ‘New Management’ of the current Labour front bench? They certainly believe their shift to the right will save us all from the ‘Trots’, the ‘Tankies’ and the ‘Corbyn cultists’. Yes, I’ve been labelled all those things – socialists who remain in Labour are seen as ‘barnacles on the boat’. Starmer and co are of course present at Labour’s deathbed, but those who know history realise that Labour has rarely offered true democratic socialism in its over 100…

Politics
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The March of Folly Resumed: Russia, Ukraine and the West

Richard Sakwa writes: In his speech of 24 February 2022 justifying the invasion of Ukraine, Russian president Vladimir Putin singled out two key aims – the ‘demilitarisation’ of Ukraine and its ‘denazification’.1 These goals have been the subject of much ridicule, some of it deserved, yet the formulation of Russian war aims in these terms represents the culmination of a long period of conflict-gestation, which finally spilled over into a reckless and brutal conflict. The struggle quickly turned into a proxy war between Russia and the West, with the Ukrainian people suffering the brutal effects of the assault. The war…

Brexit
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Brexit: myths and realities

Paul Atkin responds to Tom Wood’s recent article on Labour Hub. In “Conceptualising Brexit”, Tom Wood argues in a rather abstract way that withdrawal from the EU makes “Socialism” more possible in the UK; this begs a number of questions. Why did a section of the ruling class want Brexit and what are they trying to do with it? The ruling class in the UK was split over Brexit. Significant sections, especially in manufacturing, wanted to stay in. The largest donation to either campaign was to Remain from Sainsburys. The next four largest donations all went to Leave and all…

Julian Assange Assange-no-extradition
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A Free Man in Belmarsh

James Graham writes: I’m surrounded by books. I grab the one off the top of the pile and play a game of open sesame. Here goes: “They must feel that they are weak. How could this very establishment in the United Kingdom, which has been in power for hundreds of years, feel threatened? It’s quite sophisticated after all. It has many different components: the intelligence services, the banks, the landed gentry, the oligarchs from Russia, the commercial media, …the BBC which is the big propaganda organism that helps keep the country cohesive… How could they feel threatened by a wild…

Latin America
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Chile: another good-sized nail in neoliberalism’s coffin

 Men [and women] make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.  – Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. A few days ago, when neofascist candidate José Antonio Kast was winning the first round of the country’s presidential elections, Chile’s 2019 rebellion aimed at burying neoliberalism appeared to be at an end. However, it has been greatly reinvigorated with the…

Climate Change
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COP26: why advanced countries must proportionately make the biggest cuts in carbon emissions

A briefing by Paul Atkin: As climate change and nuclear war are the two issues which can overturn the present basis of human civilisation, the COP26 conference will profoundly affect every person on our planet. It should therefore be an arena for strictly objective international scientific discussion and international cooperation, and strictly objective scientific evidence on climate change has been published in the run up to the conference. Regrettably, however, COP26 has also become a site for geopolitical propaganda, primarily carried out by the United States; which attempts to present the advanced countries, and in particular itself, as playing the…

China
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Europe should avoid being drawn into the US’s cold war on China

Fiona Edwards writes: The U.S. administration is attempting to draw Europe into its cold war policy against China, which so far the European Union, in particular, has refused to participate in. This makes the region a key focal point in world politics today. This threatening U.S agenda, which is completely against the interests of the people of Europe, China and the U.S., is unfortunately and persistently being advanced by the U.S. administration. But significant opposition to this dangerous cold war approach is also growing across the world, including in Europe. The opposing interest of the U.S. proponents of the new…

International
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In honour of Mikis Theodorakis

Heinz Bierbaum, President of the European Left writes: It is with regret that we write these lines, bidding farewell to one of contemporary Greece’s biggest personalities. Through his music and life, Mikis Theodorakis, the incomparable composer, everlasting fighter, partisan, communist and activist brought new meaning to freedom and political awareness. Theodorakis remains a symbol of the fight for freedom, democracy and social justice as well as a vibrant reminder of the battle against oppression and despair, as well as resistance. The first time Theodorakis was imprisoned and tortured for his ideals he was only 18 years old, as a resistance…

Mexico
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Mexico’s mid-term elections: a watershed moment

David Raby writes: At the beginning of April Mexico began the official two-month campaign period for the mid-term elections due on June 6th, which include 15 of the 32 state governorships, all 500 members of the lower house of Congress, all members of state assemblies in 30 of 32 states, and mayors and councillors in over 1,900 municipalities (roughly equivalent to US counties) throughout the country. These elections are of vital importance for the future of AMLO’s 4T Transformation of the country’s affairs, and opinion polls indicate that his Morena party is likely to win a large majority of the…

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