On the last day of June, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) released its annual “Global Rights Index”. It presented a bleak picture of a world where workers’ rights are routinely trampled upon. And according…Read more…
50 years later …
This week marks the 50th anniversary of my first visit to Israel. It was July 1973 and I was one of a group of six members of the Young People’s Socialist League (YPSL) sent to…Read more…
Review: Damascus Station, by David McCloskey
Remember a time when the CIA was seen as either the bad guys or at best morally complicated? Back in the Seventies, post-Watergate, if the CIA put in an appearance in a book or film,…Read more…
Review: The Russian Revolution and Leninism or Marxism? by Rosa Luxemburg
This is effectively two long articles combined in one small book, and re-reading it after many years, I can now understand it in a different light than before. Rosa Luxemburg has been claimed by many…Read more…
Review: Reich for Beginners, by David Zane Mairowitz, illustrated by German Gonzales
A very good introduction — in graphic novel format — to the life and work of Wilhelm Reich, a brilliant psychoanalyst and a man who attempted to reconcile the teachings of Freud and Marx. His…Read more…
Review: The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism, by Bertrand Russell
In 1920, when this book first appeared, there were not very many critics of the new Soviet government on the Left (outside of Russia). Anarchists including Emma Goldman visited Russia and came away disenchanted. Rosa…Read more…
In Georgia, Chiatura’s miners are once again in struggle
In 1924 a rebellion against Bolshevik rule broke out in western Georgia. The opening shots were fired in the manganese mining town of Chiatura, which had for years stood at the centre of working class…Read more…
What Washington can teach London about history
Last week, on a visit to Washington, D.C., I spent some time in two new museums and walked away wondering why we don’t have museums like that in the U.K. The first was the National…Read more…
Review: Social Democracy versus Communism, by Karl Kautsky
As the Second World War was coming to an end, anti-Stalinists on the Left found themselves facing a difficult problem. The Soviet Union had won a resounding victory against Nazi Germany. Stalin was widely perceived,…Read more…
Review: Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less, by Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz
Write shorter sentences. Use one syllable words where possible. That’s the message of this short book, which is padded with lots of empty space, some forgettable graphics and endless advertising for the authors’ software which…Read more…
Review: Replay, by Ken Grimwood
If you’ve seen the movies ‘Peggy Sue Got Married’ and ‘Groundhog Day’ you’ve got the plot of Replay. The novel begins with the death of 43-year-old Jeff Winston — who immediately re-awakens a quarter century…Read more…
Cambodia: Union leader jailed – international solidarity needed now
Six months ago, a woman trade union leader from Cambodia was on her way home from Melbourne, where she attended the world congress of the International Trade Union Confederation. Chhim Sithar, the leader of Labor…Read more…
Review: The Last Dance, by Mark Billingham
Mark Billingham was taking a real risk writing this book. After two decades of turning one excellent crime novel after another featuring North London’s Tom Thorne, he’s now put that series aside (he says temporarily)…Read more…
Review: ‘Big Bill’ Haywood, by Melvyn Dubofsky
Melvyn Dubofsky wrote one of the great books about the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and followed it up with this short biography of the IWW’s most famous leader, ‘Big Bill’ Haywood. It’s a…Read more…
Review: The English Führer, by Rory Clements
I was not aware when I purchased this book that it was the most recent in a series featuring American-born Cambridge professor (and spy) Tom Wilde. The good news is that knowing that, I’ve saved…Read more…
Review: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, by Mark Manson
I admit that it’s a great title. And the opening few pages are kind of cute. And then — nothing. The book has absolutely nothing to say. And it’s based on nothing, other than Mark…Read more…
Qatar, the ILO and the unions
Six months ago, news broke that Belgian police had arrested the newly-elected general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) as part of the “Qatargate” scandal. The government of Qatar was accused of paying…Read more…
An emergency appeal for help from LabourStart
Let’s start with the good news. At the end of April, we held the most successful Global Solidarity Conference ever. Nearly 300 trade unionists from 30 countries gathered in Tbilisi, Georgia in an impressive display…Read more…
Tbilisi: Meeting at a time of wars, crises and catastrophes
I’ve just come back from an international conference that could not have happened thirty years ago. And it’s a conference that might also prove impossible to hold in just a few short years. LabourStart’s Global…Read more…
International working class solidarity in an age of crises, wars and disasters
The following was my opening speech to the LabourStart Global Solidarity Conference – Tbilisi, Georgia – 28 April 2023. Tbilisi, Georgia: Opening plenary of the LabourStart Global Solidarity Conference, 28.4.23. Friends, brothers and sisters, comrades….Read more…