Features

Poetry Corner: The Carpet Weavers of Kuyan-Bulak Honour Lenin by Bertolt Brecht

The Carpet Weavers of Kuyan-Bulak Honour Lenin by Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht was a German Marxist poet, playwright and theatre director. Brecht lived through a turbulent era. Narrowly avoiding conscription at 16 during World War One, he worked prodigiously through throughout the period of the Weimar Republic. Brecht was forced to flee with the rise of the Nazis in 1933. He left the USA during the McCarthyite “Red Scare” returning to what was then the German Democratic Republic. He died on the 14th of August 1956.

Poetry Corner: Ballads of Lenin by Langston Hughes

Ballads of Lenin by Langston Hughes, 1933.

Langston Hughes was a poet and social activist of African, European and Native American heritage. A communist who was particularly involved with the struggle of African-Americans, he travelled extensively around the USSR and was involved in film making and Soviet anti-segregation propaganda before travelling to Spain to report on the Civil War.

After various accusations and a testimony in front of the US senates anti-communist Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations he was distanced from the Communist Party USA and the socialist movement as a whole. Although still venerated as a great African-American activist and poet large sections of his work are still shunned due to their intimate attachment to the communist movement.

The Capitol riots are not a new milestone in fascism

Maryam Pashali analyses the historic trends behind the storming of the US Capitol and argues that labels of ‘fascism’ provide an easy scapegoat for the leading capitalist ‘democracy’ and its centuries of fostering white supremacy.

Pro-people policies and power of youth yield the Left: an emphatic victory in the Indian state of Kerala

Muhammed Shabeer writes about the recent wins of the CPI (Marxist) in Kerala despite smear attempts by the likes of the fascist BJP Party.

Young people are disillusioned with capitalism – not democracy

A prominent study published towards the end of 2020 through Cambridge University made the stark finding that “This is the first generation in living memory to have a global majority who are dissatisfied with the way democracy works while in their twenties and thirties”, receiving significant coverage in parts of Britain’s media.

Poetry Corner: Woman’s Question by Frances Moore

Woman’s Question by Frances Moore

A Sheffield teacher and activist in the National Union of Teachers, Frances Moore (1906 – 1994) was married to Bill Moore, who was a fulltime worker for the Communist Party. Although Frances’ busy life left with little time to write in her younger days, later on she produced a substantial body of poetry, some of which was published. The poem featured here raises clearly the need for women’s equality.

The working day after the revolution

Evan Richards writes about the difference between labour in a capitalist society and that of a revolutionary socialist society, arguing that only socialism can truly emancipate workers from wage-slavery and other forms of work-based exploitation.

Poetry Corner: [To Margot Heinemann] by John Cornford

[To Margot Heinemann] by John Cornford

John Cornford from a relatively privileged families and attended Cambridge University. It was at Cambridge that he met and fell in love with Margot Heinemann and where they both joined the Communist Party. John’s mother, Frances Crofts Cornford, was a poet, and he himself was already writing poems at school.

After gaining a BA first-class honours in History, he became the first Englishman to enlist against Franco in the Spanish Civil War and was killed in battle on the Andujar and Cordoba Front on 27 or 28 December 1936.

Cornford wrote just a few poems in Spain, including A Letter from Aragon, Full Moon at Tierz: Before The Storming of Huesca and the poem featured here [To Margot Heinemann].

YCL100: Conquer Your Future

Robin Talbot explains why you should celebrate 100 years of the Young Communist League of Britain, 1921-2021. Today (24 December 2020) the YCL will be launching a new online platform for celebrating our centenary. For the next 100 days, we will be counting down towards the live launch of our 100 year celebrations, starting in April and reaching a finale in April 2022.

The modern union movement in Britain: an interview with a union member

Maryam Pashali interviews Pete, a BFAWU union member and kitchen staff worker for J.D. Wetherspoon, detailing the recent Spoon Strike and ways in which workers can organise within their workplaces.

#EndSARS December protests keep up the fight for change in Nigeria

Hannah Francis provides an update on the anti-police brutality protest movement sweeping Nigeria and explains how we can provide support and solidarity from Britain.

Poetry Corner: Call to Account! by Vladimir Mayakovsky

Call to Account! by Vladimir Mayakovsky, 1917.

Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and came to be one of the most celebrated communist poets in the Soviet Union and internationally. He was also a talented playwright, artist and actor who used art as a medium to convey the politics and ideals of the new socialist state.

Cuba: socialism, science and agriculture

Ciaran Gallagher writes about the case of sustainable agriculture in Cuba and how the initiative is spearheading global ecological conservation.

CP to hold online feminist festival on ‘Sisterhood, Socialism & Struggle’ in January 2021

The Communist Party is organising a new year marxist feminist festival celebrating ‘Sisterhood, Socialism & Struggle’ in Britain and across the world. The free weekend event, January 16 -17 2021, will provide an opportunity for women and men on the left to enjoy culture, discussion and debate focused on the importance of women’s liberation for the whole human race.

Exposing Colombia’s dirty counter-insurgency operations

Researcher Oliver Dodd draws on interviews and field work to look at some of the tactics that the Latin American state, with the support and guidance of the US, has used against Marxist rebels in its 50-year civil war.

Disability and Austerity

Since the imposition of austerity on our country in 2010, the working class have felt the effects of underfunded public services and brutal cuts to the lifelines we all rely on.

Remembering Dolores Ibárruri – la Pasionaria

Today marks the 125th anniversary of the birth of Dolores Ibárruri – La Pasionaria – the Spanish Republican and communist politician of the Spanish Civil War, known for her now famous slogan ¡No Pasarán! (“They shall not pass”) during the Battle for Madrid in November 1936. Here we reproduce a short biography of her life and contribution to the struggle.

Lessons from history: ‘Nae Pasaran’ review

Nae Pasaran is a 2018, hour-and-a-half documentary about about a group of workers at a Rolls-Royce factory in East Kilbride, Scotland, who refused to work on Chilean Air Force parts from 1974-78 due to the atrocities carried out in Chile by the Pinochet dictatorship.

From the trade union strike to the farmers strike: the protests going on in India

Debojit Banerjee outlines the conditions underlying the massive movements of workers and farmers resisting the right-wing Modi government in India today with the biggest strike action ever seen.