News

Why it is dangerous to prop up the centre

Britain has recently overtaken Italy for the prize of having the most shambolic political system in an advanced capitalist country. But there are now attempts at parallel solutions to both countries’ governmental crises.

Pound zig-zags are due to Europe crisis

The pound rose on the foreign exchange markets last week after Boris Johnson became the new prime minister. Alex Callinicos looks at why.

The deep roots of the neoliberal crisis

The crisis of the neoliberal order accelerates by the week.

Trade and conflict at the G20 summit

The G20 has become a venue for the struggle between the two giants of the global economy, the United States and China.

Boris Johnson won’t end the Tories’ woes

The fact that Donald Trump has endorsed Boris Johnson for the Tory leadership, telling the Sun newspaper “he would be excellent”, is no surprise

Far right gain from mainstream crisis

The two “moderate” blocs that have run the European Parliament for decades have seen their control torn away in the recent elections.

Security leak farce and Gavin Williamson sacking shows Tory weakness

In many ways Gavin Williamson, the sacked Tory defence secretary, is a preposterous figure. As chief whip, he helped Theresa May become prime minister. Promoted to defence secretary in November 2017, he struck hawkish poses.

The Brexit Party aims to strengthen the far right - don’t be a fool for Farage

There are two common mistakes about Brexit. The first is that it is necessarily a coherent right wing project about achieving an even more radical form of neoliberalism than currently prevails in Britain.

Extinction Rebellion marks a watershed - don’t miss the boat of climate rebellion

I’m sure there are very many people who feel the Extinction Rebellion (XR) protests in London over Easter mark a watershed.

Are the Tories facing an existential crisis?

Jean-Paul Sartre wrote a brilliant novel called The Reprieve, set during the Munich crisis of September 1938. He showed how the agreement that ended the crisis solved nothing, simply postponing the outbreak of the Second World War by a year.

Brexit is not a key cause of the crisis in the car industry

Bad news has been hitting the British car industry since the start of the year. In January Jaguar Land Rover announced 4,500 redundancies, mostly in Britain.

Does money make the world go round?

In the past few weeks discussion of the obscure economic school is Modern Monetory Theory has gone viral

Labour rows expose electoralism’s limits

The formation of The Independent Group (TIG) by breakaway Labour and Tory MPs is a sign of the extent to which the two-party system is buckling under the pressures of Brexit.

Antisemitism is a far right ideology

Antisemitic conspiracy theories have nothing to do with the politics of Jeremy Corbyn, with his history of anti-racist and anti-imperialist campaigning, let alone that of the Marxist left

Centre group is formed on shrinking ground

Finally, all the rumours of a new centre party have given birth to—a mouse

Colin Barker - a Marxist committed to socialism from below

Colin Barker, following Erik Olin Wright and Jeremy Hardy, is the latest outstanding socialist whom we have lost these past few days.

Banks propped up by states a decade on

The 2007-8 financial crash continues to overshadow the world economy. The big economic news last week was the decision of the US central bank, the Federal Reserve Board (Fed), not to increase interest rates.

Class was the key for Erik Olin Wright

The Marxist sociologist Erik Olin Wright died of leukaemia last week. He was 71 years old.

Jeremy Corbyn can break the impasse over Brexit if he backs free movement

After the crushing House of Commons defeat for her deal with the European Union (EU), Theresa May has been going through the motions of talking to opposition parties.

Struggle can break paralysis on Brexit

A thin ray of light shone through the Brexit tangle last week. Two government defeats in the House of Commons marked the moment when Theresa May definitively lost control of the parliamentary process governing Britain’s departure from the European Union (EU).