This speech was given on 22 February 2017 at the Georgian Embassy in London. I want to thank the British Georgian Society for inviting me to give this talk, and to the Georgian Embassy for hosting…Read more…
Another world was possible – for workers: The Georgian Experiment, 1918-1921
The following is the text of a speech I delivered at the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia in Tbilisi on Wednesday, 2 November 2016. Thank you to Irakli Petriashvili and the Georgian Trade…Read more…
Liveblog: New Scientist Live, London
11:30 Robert Matthews, What are the chances? Coming soon … 11:25 Darren Naish: What dinosaurs really looked like. This was the first lecture I attended and I loved it. Naish started by…Read more…
Why Sanders and his supporters are now backing Clinton
Over the course of the last year, millions of Americans voted for Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist candidate who offered a program of radical change. According to public opinion polls, nearly…Read more…
Day 8: From protest to politics
In the mid-1960s, not long after the March on Washington, the organizer of that historic protest, Bayard Rustin, wrote an article. It was called “From protest to politics”. Rustin argued…Read more…
Day 7: Putin’s Party
A few years after the second world war, a strange book was published in New York City. It was called The Russian Menace to Europe and judging by the title, one would imagine it was one of many books…Read more…
Day 6: Don’t vote for Dr Jill Stein
I am addressing this to my friends who have supported Senator Bernie Sanders but are now considering voting for, and working for, Dr Jill Stein, the candidate of the Green Party. First of all, let me…Read more…
Day 5: Bernie Sanders gives the speech of a lifetime
The first night of the Democratic National Convention began badly. The first speaker was a woman minister and all went very well until she mentioned the name of Hillary Rodham Clinton. And then the…Read more…
Day 4: This is what a revolution looks like
The Democratic National Convention opens in just a few minutes; I am sitting in the hall, looking down on the delegates and the stage. People are slowly coming into the hall. This place has the…Read more…
Day 2: Have America’s two major political parties entered into a suicide pact?
For some time now, commentators have been talking about the Republican Party’s tendency to self-destruct. Every time Donald J. Trump said something stupid or outrageous, he won more support….Read more…
Day 1: A whiff of fascism in Cleveland
I arrived in Philadelphia last night, just in time to catch Donald Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. Though I have to confess that after the first four hours of…Read more…
Bernie Sanders: The primary is over, and now the real work begins
Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign was the largest mobilisation of the American Left in history. He won more than twenty states and over ten million votes. His vote total was more than…Read more…
Trade unions in the Middle East: Opening remarks at the Svensson Prize panel
Last week the International Trade Union Confederation released its annual Global Rights Index. The Index reviews the state of workers rights in 141 countries. “The Middle East and North Africa,” it…Read more…
The Arthur Svensson International Prize for Trade Union Rights – my speech in Oslo
It is a great honour to be here today and to receive the Arthur Svensson International Prize for Trade Union Rights on behalf of LabourStart. I want to thank the union Industri Energi for awarding…Read more…
For this activist, the battle of Berlin is over
I have just left the Global Convention of Democrats Abroad here in Berlin where I represented Senator Bernie Sanders. I was not a delegate, or elector, and hold no office in Democrats Abroad. But I…Read more…
The final solution on Sark
This article appears today in the Jewish Chronicle. One of the most shocking documents on display at Yad Vashem is a typed list prepared by Adolf Eichmann for the Wannsee conference held in January…Read more…
Online trade union campaigns: how should companies respond?
Part of a talk I gave a few weeks ago for the Ethical Trading Initiative in London.Read more…
Proud to be a Zionist
Jeremy Corbyn’s brother recently made headlines by tweeting that “#Zionists cant cope with anyone supporting rights for #Palestine”. That the tweet took place in the context of a heated discussion…Read more…
After Wisconsin, can Sanders still win?
This article appears in today’s edition of the Morning Star. Bernie Sanders’ victory in the Wisconsin Democratic Primary this week is being spun by the mainstream media as “too little, too…Read more…
Haufenweise schwarze Schafe
This article appears in this week’s edition of Jungle World. Die britische Labour Party und ihr neuer Vorsitzender Jeremy Corbyn haben ein Problem mit dem Antisemitismus in den eigenen Reihen….Read more…