Next Saturday (22 February) voters in Nevada will participate in caucuses to choose their 48 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Early voting has already begun. According to the latest…Read more…
Review: Last Days of the Reich, by Count Folke Bernadotte
Before he was the United Nations peace envoy to the Middle East during the first Israeli-Arab war, Count Folke Bernadotte played a central role in a bizarre series of meetings with Heinrich Himmler…Read more…
Review: Stern: The man and his gang, by Zev Golan
I asked a friend recently what he knew about the Stern Gang, and he replied that they were “very small … and vicious”. That pretty much sums up the group known as the…Read more…
Thinking beyond the primaries
This article appears in this week’s issue of Solidarity. In early June, voters in the U.S. territory of the Virgin Islands will go to the polls to choose their delegates for the Democratic…Read more…
Sanders and the unions
This article appears in the current issue of Solidarity. Bernie Sanders has introduced a new phrase into American politics: “working class.” For decades, hardly anyone has used those two words…Read more…
Bernie Sanders – Dangerous Trotskyist?
This article appears in the current issue of Solidarity. In the hunt for dirt on Bernie Sanders, hostile journalists have come up with very little. He had his honeymoon in the Soviet Union. He…Read more…
Review: The Reckoning: How the Killing of One Man Changed the Fate of the Promised Land, by Patrick Bishop
This is the story of the killing of Avraham “Yair” Stern, the leader of the Jewish underground group in Palestine that bore his name, by a British police officer in Tel Aviv in 1942….Read more…
Why the Georgian Experiment matters to Russia today
This is the speech I gave in Moscow on 16 January 2020 to mark the publication of The Experiment: Georgia’s Forgotten Revolution 1918-1921 in Russian. First of all, I would like to thank the…Read more…
Review: Downsizing, by Tom Watson
Tom Watson was, until very recently, the deputy leader of the British Labour Party. A few years ago, he was diagnosed as suffering from Type 2 Diabetes. At the time, he was 50 years old…Read more…
The “Bernie Blackout” is now over
This article appeared on the website of Workers Liberty. A few weeks ago, the mainstream media narrative about Bernie Sanders ran like this: Sanders appeals to a very limited audience in the…Read more…
Review: Talking to Strangers, by Malcolm Gladwell
I think I read a negative review of this book somewhere. And for that reason, I delayed buying it. Which is odd because I think I’ve read — and really enjoyed — all his other…Read more…
Review: Foe, by Iain Reid
This is a seriously creepy book. It takes place sometime in the near future, though we learn very little about it. The narrator gives little away, and often seems to understand even less than we…Read more…
Review: It Was a Long Time Ago, and It Never Happened Anyway: Russia and the Communist Past, by David Satter
First of all, that’s a great title for a book. And this is a very good book. Veteran journalist David Satter explores the difficult terrain of historical memory in post-Communist Russia. He…Read more…
Sanders and Soleimani
This article appears in the current issue of Solidarity. The drone attack ordered by US President Donald Trump has shaken up the entire Middle East, raising fears of a regional conflict – or worse,…Read more…
Review: A Forgotten Hero: Folke Bernadotte, the Swedish Humanitarian Who Rescued 30,000 People from the Nazis, by Shelley Emling
Count Folke Bernadotte is largely forgotten today, but his murder in Jerusalem in 1948 made headlines around the world. The first UN peace mediator in the Middle East, he was targeted by members of…Read more…
Review: The War in the West, A New History: Volume 1: Germany Ascendant 1939-1941, by James Holland
This is history on a grand scale. James Holland has limited himself to the war in the west, covering the period up to the German invasion of the USSR in June 1941. So in terms…Read more…
Sanders, Corbyn and Anti-Semitism
This article appears in the current issue of Solidarity. Click here to download as a PDF. Bernie Sanders has a proud record both of supporting Israel and of being critical of its government. He…Read more…
Review: 17 Church Row, by James Carol
I enjoyed James Carol’s Jefferson Winter novels. It was a guilty pleasure, I admit that. My life is not richer for having read them. So I had high hopes that I’d enjoy this…Read more…
Sanders, Debs and the Lessons of 1920
This article appears in the current issue of Solidarity. Earlier this year, a photograph made the rounds on the Internet. It showed Bernie Sanders meeting a young supporter in Iowa. Bernie is smiling…Read more…
Impeachment? What impeachment?
This article appears in this week’s issue of Solidarity. Something strange is going on with the Democratic presidential candidates and the impeachment of Donald Trump. All the candidates…Read more…