Tom Blackburn is a founding editor of New Socialist. He lives in Greater Manchester.
Having been vilified and spied on when he was an active politician, Tony Benn was patronizingly dismissed in his later years. A new collection of Benn’s writings shows why his democratic socialist vision was such a powerful threat to the status quo.
Based on the accounts of nearly 150 people directly involved in the 1984-85 miners’ strike, Robert Gildea’s new book is a powerful retelling of the seismic struggle that has divided Britain for decades.
If it wins the next general election in the UK, Keir Starmer’s Labour Party could try to fix the damage inflicted on the National Health Service by years of Tory austerity. But Labour seems set on further privatizing the NHS.
The Blair-era Labour Party introduced a raft of policies hostile to civil liberties. The British government continues to push legislation to clamp down on protesters and protect police, and Keir Starmer is letting it happen.
Workers have been striking throughout the summer to demand an end to Britain’s cost-of-living crisis that doesn’t come at their expense. Expect more such strikes in the very near future.
Keir Starmer’s political career shows him to be an opportunist with a sycophantic attitude toward those in power. Since becoming Labour leader, his main priority has been to expunge left-wing ideas and influence, not to defeat the Conservative Party.
The “Beergate” scandal is, in the grand scheme of things, small potatoes. The real scandal should be that Britain is awash in crushing poverty, and Labour under Keir Starmer is doing little to fight it.
Last year saw setbacks for the Left in much of the world, but recent victories in Latin America are a reminder that socialist politics continue to offer an alternative to a system in crisis.
When Keir Starmer ran for Labour leader last spring, he promised to unite the party. In reality, he has worked tirelessly to silence socialists, while doing nothing to take the fight to the Tories.
Emmanuel Macron has revealed what the political center of the twenty-first century looks like in practice: a war on workers, authoritarian demagogy, and a further emboldening of the far right.
Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership was a historic challenge to neoliberalism and inspired millions of people. But bursts of enthusiasm at election time weren’t enough to empower working people — and a year since Labour’s defeat, its centrist management is working to ensure that the Left never threatens its rule again.
England’s North-South divide lies at the heart of Britain’s recent political disputes, from Brexit to the fate of the Labour Party. There’s a long and fascinating history behind that regional chasm, from the Norman conquest to the Industrial Revolution and the rise of Margaret Thatcher.
British socialists may be reeling from December’s election defeat, but the injustices that fueled their movement are still as glaring as ever. Sooner or later, the forces inspired by Jeremy Corbyn will regroup and resume the struggle, under the leadership of a new generation.
Keir Starmer is posing as the Labour Party’s unity candidate, appearing prime ministerial while sticking by the party’s left-wing policies. But if elected, he would be forced to choose between these priorities — and it’s clear the left policies would lose out.
The stakes at this UK Labour Party conference are high: can it secure a parliamentary party willing to support a transformative socialist government?