The United Front: A Contested Policy
Introduction In an article published last August, A reflection on the French legislative elections 2024, I recounted how the fascist Rassemblement National (RN, formerly Front National) was pushed back.[i] After coming top in the June European Parliament elections, the RN was expected to win the June-July French legislative elections and get into government. Mass anti-fascist […]
Reflections on the 2024 French Elections
Parliamentary elections took place in France over two rounds of voting on 30 June and 7 July. They followed elections to the European Parliament on 6-9 June that registered further advances for the far-right and fascists. In Germany AfD (Alternative for Germany) came second with 15.9 percent of votes. In Austria FPÖ (Freedom Party of […]
The Invasion of Ukraine
In 2021 Russia began to amass troops on its border with Ukraine and in Belarus to the north of Kyiv. On 24 February 2022 Russia began what it called a “special operation”, which was in actuality an outright invasion. Putin believed he could occupy Ukraine within just a few days. He did not expect the […]
The UK General Election: How to Prevent Disaster Under Starmer
After 14 years of ignominious Tory rule, Labour ousted the Conservatives by winning 411 to 121 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons. On the face of it, this is massive victory for the left in politics, a welcome change from far-right victories that have come out of Europe, and an endorsement of Keir Starmer’s […]
No War! Stop the Invasion of Ukraine!
Speech given to the Pōneke branch of the International Socialist Organisation, 8 March 2022. On the 24th of February, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced what he called a “special military operation” in Ukraine. Russian troops, who had been massing on Ukraine’s borders since December last year, crossed over and invaded Ukraine, first into areas of […]
No war: Solidarity with the Ukrainian people – Russian troops out!
For internationalist solidarity between Ukrainian and Russian workers For Ukrainian and Russian workers’ resistance to Putin’s attack on Ukraine For Russians overthrowing the Putin regime For Ukrainian self-determination No to NATO, no to interference by the US and its allies As Putin invaded Ukraine, Russians bravely responded with illegal anti-war demonstrations in 53 cities. This […]
Can Prime Minister Boris Johnson Survive After By-Election Defeat?
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson may “go” very soon. His leadership of the Conservative Party is in the balance after their defeat in the North Shropshire by-election. If he is given the heave-ho it will be the result of a groundswell of revulsion in the general public at the lies, hypocrisy and sleaze that surrounds […]
What Karl Marx learned from the Paris Commune
Well before the Paris Commune, in the German Ideology and “Theses on Feuerbach”, both written in the mid-1840s, Karl Marx and his collaborator Frederick Engels argued that it was only through struggle that the mass of workers and oppressed could come to see their own power, throw off the ideas of capitalism and become capable of founding […]
Celebrating the Paris Commune of 1871
“The workers of Paris, amidst the failures and treasons of the ruling classes, have understood that the hour has struck for them to save the situation by taking into their own hands the direction of public affairs … They have understood that it is their imperious duty, and their absolute right, to render themselves masters […]
Review: New light shed on Anti-Fascist Resistance
A review of: Anti-Nazi Germans, in two parts: Enemies of the Nazi State from within the Working Class Movement by Merilyn Moos and German Volunteers in the French Resistance by Steve Cushion, (Community Languages in association with the Socialist History Society, London, 2020) Martin Monath: A Jewish Resistance Fighter Among Nazi Soldiers, by Nathaniel Flakin, […]
