Year: 2020

‘Working Class History’? — None of the above

“Libcom” (short for libertarian communism – read “anarchism”), founded in 2002 by members of the Anarchist Youth Network has, perhaps unsurprisingly given its ideology, had little real world impact. However, since July 2014 they have been subtly undermining the historical record with a populist “on this day” blog on Twitter and Facebook called not “anarchist […]

Double victory for the Communication Workers Union

This morning on their Facebook page the Communication Workers Union, representing tens of thousands of postal workers across Britain, have announced that a one off payment of up to £200 will be paid to all postal workers. In a statement the union said that, “Following the recent exchange of correspondence, the union has been in […]

Poetry Corner: Masses by César Vallejo

César Abraham Vallejo Mendoza was a Peruvian poet, writer, playwright, and journalist. Born the 11th child to parents who were both of mixed Spanish and Quechua Native origins, Vallejo as a child witnessed at first hand hunger and poverty and the injustices done to the indigenous peoples of the region.

Vallejo attended the University of Trujillo, where he studied both law and literature, writing a thesis entitled El romanticismo en la poesía castellana (“Romanticism in Castilian Poetry”; published 1954).

Although he published only three books of poetry during his lifetime, he is considered one of the great poetic innovators of the 20th century in any language. He was always a step ahead of literary currents, and each of his books was distinct from the others, and, in its own sense, revolutionary.

An Open Letter to all Working People from the Communist Party

Dear comrade, sister or brother, The Communist Party is writing to you as one of the millions of people whose work keeps our society going in good times and bad. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the value of all those workers who have continued to provide the goods and services that we all need to […]

2020 NEU Left and Chicago Teachers Union bilateral discussion

On Wednesday 26 February, members of the NEU Left – the broad left-wing alliance within the National Education Union (NEU) – met in the Marx Memorial Library in London with Debby Pope, representative of the Executive Board of the Chicago Teachers Union.

The aim of this meeting was simple: to discuss common challenges, possibilities, and most importantly, how the rank and file members of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) had managed to successfully build a broad left-wing alliance that achieved power in the union structures and made a difference, including many successful grassroots campaigns.

The Gendered Impact of COVID-19

The ongoing Covid-19 crisis taking place across the world is producing some of the most significant upheavals the world has seen since the Second World War. UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, was first admitted to hospital with the Virus on the 5thof April. His battle with the illness prompted a wave of sympathy, with commentators sending niceties, positing that this highlighted that the Coronavirus can and does affect us all. “We are all in this together”, as Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, argued, and while it is clear that the Coronavirus is affecting us all, it is important to highlight that it is not affecting us all equally. There are obvious class differences in how people are able to cope amid the government lockdown. However, there are also key gender differences, and as usual women are bearing the brunt of both the economic repercussions of the lockdown, and are put at greater risk of infection.

Africa & the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic is being exacerbated by the deep-rooted poverty, underdevelopment, and instability which affect the 55 countries and 1.3 billion people of the African continent – a legacy of colonial domination, post-colonial exploitation of people and resources and imperialist economic, political and military interventions today.

How to and how not to deal with a pandemic, COVID-19 and US imperialism.

In recent months the COVID-19 virus has taken the world by storm. The virus has also tested every country it has touched. It has revealed just how murderous the bourgeoisie is, Engels coined the term ‘social murder’, claiming that “when [capitalists] force workers in a condition that knowingly leads to death, it should be called what it […]

Organising in Social Care during COVID-19

I work as a lifeguard. I sit at the side of the pool and watch people swim up and down. Occasionally, I’ll tell some kids that ‘no’, they can’t dive headfirst into other swimmers, then I go back to watching the pool. When the COVID-19 outbreak began I thought I was going to be out of a job due to being on a zero hours contract. Every casual worker for South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture was in the same boat.