Many people still associate socialism and especially Marx’s version of socialism with the brutal Stalinist regime in the Soviet Union. Tony Cliff’s book State Capitalism in Russia has enabled us to explain why the horrific crimes committed by the Stalinist regime had nothing to do with socialism. Instead Cliff argued that Russia under Stalin’s rule...
In February's issue of Socialist Review Alex Callinicos addressed the claim that Leninism is finished. Here, Ian Birchall responds to Alex arguing that he asks the question, but does not fully answer it
Tony Cliff, the founder of the Socialist Workers Party, made major contributions to revolutionary theory and practice. Ian Taylor reviews a new biography of Cliff and assesses his place in post-war Marxism
Tony Cliff was one of the most remarkable individuals on the British left in the later 20th century. He spent his life in the struggle, from his early days as a Jewish revolutionary in occupied Palestine to when he came to Britain and founded the group that became the Socialist Workers Party.
Sixty years ago the Socialist Review Group, forerunner of the International Socialists and later the Socialist Workers Party, was founded by a group of 21 people in a flat in Camden Road in London. Ian Birchall looks back at the struggles socialists faced then and their relevance for today.
Ten years ago this month Tony Cliff died. Cliff was a founder of the Socialist Workers Party, and, Ian Birchall explains, made a huge contribution to the left in Britain and around the world
It’s with sadness that we report the death of Peter Thomas, a member of the Swansea branch of International Socialists, the SWP’s forerunner in the 1970s. As a young worker Pete was inspired and recruited by SWP founder Tony Cliff.
The opportunities for revolutionary socialists in Britain began to improve in the 1960s. The long economic boom was faltering, with Britain falling behind its competitors.
Last week I discussed how Leon Trotsky’s followers were thrown into confusion when the reality of the world after 1945 failed to fit with Trotsky’s predictions.
Tony Cliff was born in Palestine in 1917. He came from a staunchly Zionist family. From an early age his anger about the way Arabs were treated in their own country led him towards socialism.
Looking back on my own experience in Palestine I can see how today’s horror grew from small beginnings. Zionism, Jewish separateness and the belief in a Jewish homeland, have developed into state violence. My parents were pioneering Zionists, leaving Russia for Palestine in 1902 to join a total Zionist population of a few thousand.
Attacks on Labour and trade union leaders, as well as the occasional anecdote, makes 'In the Thick of Workers' Struggle', Tony Cliff's second volume of selected writings, essential reading.
Tony Cliff, the founder of what became the Socialist Workers Party, died on 9 April 2000. Twenty years on, we republish the obituary we printed at the time.
When a person dies, the autopsy reveals the nature of their illness. The collapse of the Stalinist regimes in Russia and Eastern Europe makes it possible to be absolutely clear about the nature of those regimes. There was no resistance to the collapse from the mass of people. They didn't defend the system. That shows they didn't believe the regimes had anything to do with socialism or workers' power.
