Anyone in any doubt that the Tories are still scum should listen in on the House of Commons debates on the Welfare "Reform" Bill. The sheer callousness with which government backbenchers dismiss critics of the Conservative-Liberal coalition’s attacks on benefits is enough to make the blood boil.
I read recently a book by the economist Barry Eichengreen called Golden Fetters. This is about the collapse of the gold standard during the Great Depression of 1929-39.
A couple of weeks ago the economist Paul Krugman said he was "both terrified and bored" by the eurozone crisis. I know what he means.
Leon Trotsky paints a brilliant portrait of the last tsar, Nicholas II, in his great History of the Russian Revolution. He treats Nicholas’s weakness, malice, and stupidity as symptoms of a decaying regime.
The old ones are sometimes the best. "Denial is not a river in Africa, but it is a state occupied by many eurozone politicians."
It was probably an advantage for Ed Miliband that people were a bit vague about exactly where he stood when he stood in last year’s Labour leadership election.
There are moments when the fundamental conflict defining capitalist society becomes visible for all to see. Athens on Wednesday of last week was one of them.
Barack Obama concluded his announcement that US forces had assassinated Osama Bin Laden by saying, "Tonight, we are once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our mind to."
Hardened boosters of capitalism must be tempted to dismiss the global economic and financial crisis as history.
Western intervention in Libya has exposed the extraordinary flux in relations among the great powers. In the first place, they’re badly split.
Leon Trotsky recalls in his memoirs that, immediately after the Russian Revolution of October 1917, Lenin said to him in German, "Es schwindelt"—"It makes one dizzy."
I hadn’t intended to respond to Laurie Penny’s reply (A response to Alex Callinicos) to my piece on Comment is Free (Student demonstrators can't do it on their own), which in turn was a response to her original Guardian article, which appeared on Christmas Eve (Out with the old politics). But there has been such a flurry of criticism and support all over Fa
