Sects and ‘new left’ disillusionment. Mike Macnair reviews P Blackledge, N Davidson (eds) Alasdair MacIntyre’s engagement with Marxism: selected writings 1953-1974, Brill (Historical materialism series),... »
Politics
Arthur Horner: a political biography – Nina Fishman
Coal and Clausewitz. Lawrence Parker reviews Nina Fishman’s ‘Arthur Horner: a political biography’ (Vol 1 1894-1944; Vol 2 1944-68), Lawrence and Wishart, 2010, pp608, £22.50 each. While writing this review, my attention was drawn to a Doncaster Socialist Workers Party resignation letter that has recently been circulating on the internet. In the... »
David Harvey interview
Rethinking revolution. David Harvey, Marxist academic and author of the newly published The enigma of capital, spoke to Mark Fischer. Many commentators, from both Marxist and non-Marxist standpoints, predicted the current capitalist crisis. But have there been any features that surprised you? Something that has surprised me about the way this crisis presents itself is the extremely... »
A companion to Marx’s Capital – David Harvey
Not just a study aid. Andrew Coates reviews David Harvey’s ‘A companion to Marx’s Capital’ Verso, 2010, pp320, £10.99. “Of course, we have all read, and all do read, Capital.” Louis Althusser’s opening words to Reading Capital (1968) were improbable to most Marxists then, and even more unlikely now. Forty years on, in the wake of the... »
A people’s agenda: a pamphlet for the general election 2010
Limits of Labourism. Ben Lewis reviews the Labour Representation Committee’s ‘A people’s agenda: a pamphlet for the general election 2010’ pp12, donation. The Labour Representation Committee has been stepping up its activity for the election. A campaign of the Labour left whose most prominent leader is John McDonnell MP, the LRC is unsurprisingly calling for a... »
Marxism and ecology: capitalism, socialism and the future of the planet – Martin Empson
Ecology and economism. Ben Lewis reviews Martin Empson’s Marxism and ecology: capitalism, socialism and the future of the planet Bookmarks, pp32, £1.50 In some ways, this Socialist Workers Party pamphlet is a useful read. Although it hardly presents a thoroughgoing critique of capitalism and its plundering of nature, it carries arguments, backed up by numerous figures... »
Contemporary British fascism – Nigel Copsey
BNP contradictions James Turley reviews Nigel Copsey’s Contemporary British fascism Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, pp264, £19.99 The rise and rise of the British National Party is a source of much consternation in contemporary Britain, among bourgeois society and the left alike. The BNP is viewed as a fascist interloper, sneaking into ‘mainstream’ politics with murderous intent. Yet there... »
Paul Cockshott critiques Mike Macnair’s Revolutionary strategy
Democracy or oligarchy? Paul Cockshott critiques Mike Macnair’s Revolutionary strategy and argues for a rethink on the question of a democratic republic Mike Macnair of the Communist Party of Great Britain has recently written a book whose avowed aim is to reformulate left strategy along Kautskyan lines. One might say: surely this is a retrograde step... »
Ernest Mandel: a rebel’s dream deferred – Jan Willem Stutje
Psycho-babble about Trots Mike Macnair reviews Jan Willem Stutje’s Ernest Mandel: a rebel’s dream deferred Verso, 2009, pp600, £19.99 On August 1 Kathryn Hughes reviewed Hermione Lee’s Biography: a very short introduction (Oxford 2009) in The Guardian. The first point Hughes takes from Lee is that the biography is less straightforward than it appears. As a... »
A history of modern Iran – Ervand Abrahamian; and Iran and the rise of its neoconservatives – Anoushiravan Ehteshami and Mahjoob Zweiri
Ideological pigeonholes Dave Osler reviews Ervand Abrahamian’s A history of modern Iran (Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp224, £14.99) and Anoushiravan Ehteshami and Mahjoob Zweiri’s Iran and the rise of its neoconservatives (IB Tauris, 2007, pp215, £20) Dramatic turn in the political situation somewhere in the world? That is usually no problem... »
From fatwa to jihad: the Rushdie affair and its legacy – Kenan Malik
Islam and Rushdie. James Turley reviews Kenan Malik’s From fatwa to jihad: the Rushdie affair and its legacy Atlantic, 2009, pp266, £16.99. The year 2009 is the anniversary of many things – the 20th of the collapse of the eastern bloc countries that instigated the final death of a decrepit Stalinism; the 25th of the Miners’... »