Two events, at each end of the last week here in London, have highlighted the real range of activities and viewpoints of the left community in this country. The 7th annual Historical Materialism Conference, held last weekend at SOAS and Birkbeck, offered a fantastic opportunity for over 700 attendees from around the world to discuss [...]
Since Chris’ tragic death at the weekend there have been a number of warm and inspiring tributes, and I thought I’d highlight a few here.
Michael Rosen in the Guardian.
Alex Callinicos, John Rose and many other comrades in Socialist Worker.
Snowball on Histomat.
Keith Flett from the London Socialist Historian’s group.
Chris Harman, editor of International Socialism, former Editor of Socialist Worker and a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party, died last night in Cairo where he was speaking. This news is still raw, but I wanted to offer some initial thoughts.
Chris made, through his journal writings and numerous books, an enormous contribution to post-war [...]
“He thinks we’re all bloody bourgeois” scoffed Austen Ivereigh, as he puffed on his Montecristo in a trendy bar in King’s Cross, whilst reading aloud David Broder’s response to yesterday’s Strangers Into Citizens demonstration. “This looks like it was written thirty years ago,” he chortled to himself. Ivereigh is a founder of the Strangers into [...]
“Dirty hippy layabout scum, taking the taxpayers’ money and wasting it, not interested in politics as much as his own image or where the next spliff is coming from.” Such is the common description of any student on an occupation. Always seen a illegitimate because they don’t have proper jobs. Always seen as not really [...]
Todays march, entitled “Put People First”, fighting for social justice in the wake of the crisis was fantastic. An extremely diverse crowd of 70,000 people turned out to march in central London. Socialist organisations were out in force, as were environmentalist groups, and lots and lots of trade unionists. It is a rare thing to [...]
‘What is to be Done’ is often thought of as Bolshevism’s orginal sin document. The bit where Lenin admits his elitism unashamedly, and sets his followers down a road that leads inevitably to the gulag. You see, it contains this notorious passage:
The history of all countries shows that the working class, exclusively by its own effort, [...]
Reuben’s post On being nicer to Christians got me thinking. Not about the hostility he might once have held towards Christians in public places or the things he might have said to them (for some reason something about a lion feeding springs to mind!), but about the other groups stopping him in the street for [...]
A while ago, I was asked to talk about my favourite film. Now this is never an easy task. Not because I find discussing the things I’m passionate about particularly difficult, but because naming a favourite film in the first place is a rather daunting. Much harder than trying to pin down a favourite band [...]
