A Tale of Two Londons
For years, London has been a playground for international investors while 2.5 million Londoners – 28% of the population – lived in poverty. As Covid-19 slows the influx of capital, it’s time to imagine a more equal city.
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Ellie Whittaker
Ellie Woolstencroft is an activist with Labour for a Green New Deal.
The Novels of Sylvia Townsend Warner
The British novelist’s works, currently being reissued, encompassed witches, communist revolutionaries, and medieval monasteries – but running through them all is her formal invention and socialist politics.
Aleksei Navalny: Man for All Seasons
Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny is lionised by the Western press, but his actual politics are rarely interrogated – allowing him to align with hardline nationalists while appealing to a liberal audience.
Yes, We Can Tax the Rich to Pay for the Pandemic
In Britain today, nurses often pay higher tax rates than hedge fund managers. The failure to properly tax wealth is a scandal – and it should end now, before Covid-19 deepens inequality even further.
It’s Time to End the Cladding Scandal
Almost four years after Grenfell, 700,000 people in England live in homes with flammable cladding – it is a symptom of a housing sector driven by profit and a government which refuses to regulate.
The Enduring Socialism of Leo Panitch
The late Leo Panitch provided indispensable tools to understand class, parties and the state – but more than anything he gave us a pathway to a world beyond capitalism.
Levelling Down: How Regional Inequality Is Growing under Covid-19
Before Covid-19, the Tories promised to ‘level up’ Britain’s post-industrial regions – but new research shows they have been hammered by the pandemic and government support has been thin on the ground.
How Money Shapes Our Politics
Capitalism’s greatest myth is that it is a democratic system. While the rich dominate our parliament, fund our parties and own our newspapers, real democracy is impossible.
Remembering C. L. R. James
Socialist historian C. L. R. James was born 121 years ago today. His landmark text ‘The Black Jacobins’ remains the authority on Haiti’s slave revolution and one of the greatest radical histories of all time.
Remembering ‘Big’ Jim Larkin
James Larkin, leader of the 1913 Dublin Lockout, died on this day in 1947. An exceptional orator and Ireland’s most influential trade unionist, he came from what Marx once called “the great heart of the proletariat.”
The Mutiny of the Mini-Capitalists
The Reddit-fuelled GameStop short squeeze isn’t a threat to capitalism, because the rich can’t be beaten at their own game – but it does show the power of collective action to expose corrupt systems.
How New York’s Market Workers Fought Back
This week, a 1,400-worker strike in Hunts Point, New York won an immediate raise with no concessions. It’s a sign that the US labour movement is beginning to reclaim its militant roots.
Green Capitalism Is Losing the War for the Planet
Around the world, politicians herald the growth of renewable energy – but the bitter reality is that green capitalism is failing to overcome fossil fuels. To save the planet, we need a break from the market.
The Solution to the Housing Crisis: More Council Houses
The rallying cry to ‘build more housing’ has gained momentum across the political spectrum – but solving the housing crisis is about affordability and access, not supply. We need housing for public good, not private profit.
Behind the British Gas Strike
As the British Gas strike returns to the picket, we speak to the workers involved – about the threat to their family lives, bullying ‘fire and rehire’ tactics, and how one company’s celebration of key workers rang hollow.
The Ancient Roots of Trespass
The Tory government’s plan to make trespass a criminal offence is part of a centuries-old tradition: using the law to protect wealthy landowners at the expense of our right to roam.
The Covid Class War
The global pandemic has pushed between 200 and 500 million people into extreme poverty, while the richest have added $3.9 trillion to their fortunes. Covid-19 is not a crisis impacting us all equally – it’s a class war.
The Department for Deloitte
Tory peer James Bethell once helped Deloitte get government contracts as a private lobbyist. Now, as a health minister, he has overseen a test and trace system which employs 1,127 of their consultants.
Remembering Howard Zinn
On the anniversary of Howard Zinn’s death, we recall his life as a radical public intellectual – and his contributions to building a people’s history.
Renewing the Struggle Against the Far-Right on Holocaust Memorial Day
Today’s far-right mocks the Holocaust to minimise its horrors. In remembering its victims, our task is to reveal how racist ideologies made it possible – and why solidarity is the most powerful form of resistance.