News

Assata Shakur—a revolutionary who defied US state repression

To be a black revolutionary in the US in the early 1970s was to accept the likelihood of prison or death. Assata Shakur, who was born JoAnne Deborah Bryon, knew the risks and faced both.

Comintern, July 1920—a critical juncture

The Comintern met for the second time 100 years ago. Simon Basketter looks at how the debates there help us to understand and challenge the capitalist system today

Labour report will be used to tarnish the left as ‘racist’

A report into alleged antisemitism in the Labour Party will be used as another way to push back activists, says Nick Clark

The private firms making a killing from Covid

Under the cover of coronavirus, the Tories have used the real need to stock up on personal protective equipment and other much needed supplies to hand over billions of pounds to private companies. Tomáš Tengely-Evans investigates

Ida B Wells, a writer who exposed the racist terror of lynching

'Tell the world the facts,' said Wells as she unmasked US racism

Tower Hamlets workers say, ‘We can win this strike’

Some 1,500 workers in east London are standing up to a bullying Labour council hellbent on making their lives worse. Sarah Bates spoke to strikers about why workers are angry, what’s at stake and why solidarity matters

Billions for bosses—job losses for us

Vast bailouts are being gifted to the bosses to boost the economy. But this won’t stop businesses from cutting jobs and the wages of workers

Letter to a Jeremy Corbyn supporter—time to leave Labour

In a third letter to a Jeremy Corbyn supporter, Charlie Kimber argues to break from Labour, join the Socialist Workers Party and to build the resistance on the streets

Leicester—how a city at risk has been failed by the Tories

The Midlands city of Leicester is the first in England to have a local lockdown in response to an upsurge in coronavirus cases. But while mainstream commentators have encouraged racist explanations, it’s the Tories who have put people at risk

Claude McKay, a poet, activist and communist

“If we must die, O let us nobly die/So that our precious blood may not be shed/In vain,” is perhaps another way of saying that black lives matter.

Meting out misery - coronavirus outbreaks and the meat industry

As coronavirus spreads through slaughterhouses in the US and Europe, Simon Basketter looks at how the drive for profit is to blame

Richard Horton: the system has failed

Richard Horton, the longstanding editor of the medical journal The Lancet, is scathing about the establishment’s handling of the coronavirus crisis. He told Socialist Worker why.

Out of work and out of money - how lives are being torn apart by profit system

Workers are being pushed to make big sacrifices during the lockdown—but things could get much worse as unemployment bites. Tomáš Tengely-Evans spoke to some of those affected, and argues that the crisis shows why we need a different system

How the sun set on the British empire

As Britain’s rulers try to defend their colonial past, Sarah Bates looks at how resistance, imperialist rivalries and decline ended the biggest empire in the world

W.E.B Du Bois—a pioneer of anti-racist theory and struggle

Du Bois was one of the most prolific and popular sociologists, academics and civil rights activists of the first half of the 20th century

How blood of slavery fed profit system

Defenders of slavers’ statues warn that tearing them down amounts to an attempt to “erase” Britain’s history. On the surface of it, many of them pretend this is about keeping the legacy of slavery visible, not hiding it away.

Fannie Lou Hamer: ‘I am sick and tired of being sick and tired’

The indomitable political activist Fannie Lou Hamer was one of the most urgent and important voices of the US civil rights movement.

Are all white people racist?

Is there a role for white people in the movement against racism? And what should it be?

United States—a history of revolts against racism

Alongside a terrible history of vicious racism in the US, there is a tradition of militant anti-racism. Yuri Prasad looks back at when black and white people have fought back together against the system

Britain’s not innocent—a history of racist cops

When David Oluwale drowned in the River Aire in Leeds in 1969, police wrote “Wog” on the nationality section of his death certificate. His killing was the first black death by cops in Britain—and shows that police racism, violence and cover-up are a very British problem.