Carry on recruiting! Why the Socialist Workers Party dumped the 'downturn' in a 'dash for growth'
An analysis of the Socialist Workers Party, the most significant grouping in the UK far left, examining whether it really is a revolutionary organisation, or just an opportunistic recruitment machine.
Originally written in 1993, we believe its central premise to be equally valid today, especially given the current political climate in which the SWP is again calling on the TUC to demand a general strike.
Did the Bolshevik seizure of power inaugurate a socialist revolution? A Marxian inquiry - Paresh Chattopadhyay
Chattopadhyay applies Marxian categories to the Russian Revolution of 1917 to examine its socialist content.
In the eyes of the overwhelming majority on the left – certainly in South Asia – the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia in 1917 signalled the victory of socialist revolution or at least started the socialist revolution in that country. Those who accept this position hold it more or less axiomatically.
The Marxian Concept of Capital and the Soviet Experience - Paresh Chattopadhyay
The present work analyzes the Soviet economic experience in the light of the Marxian concept of capital.
Greece: war and civil war
Submitted by Ed on Dec 25 2010 17:02
Text of a talk by Andrew Flood on the activities of the Greek Communist Party before and during the Second World War and it's reactionary effect on the resistance movement as well as the support of the allies for authoritarianism in Greece.
Greece has been a somewhat unstable entity throughout its history and particularly with the coming into being of nation states in the 18th century. Its borders have shifted, expanded and contracted on several occasions over the last 200 years leaving behind a legacy of quite virulent Greek nationalism.
Revolution and Dictatorship - Luigi Fabbri
Essay by Luigi Fabbri analysing the Russian revolution and its authoritarian distortion by the Bolsheviks, with Victor Serge (the "anarchist who has forgotten his principles") singled out for special criticism.
Revolution and Dictatorship (On one anarchist who has forgotten his principles)
A ‘Moscow trial’ in Ho Chi Minh’s guerrilla movement - Ngo Van Xuyet
Submitted by eating poultices on Nov 22 2010 00:17
Vietnamese libertarian socialist Ngo Van Xuyet's account of the repression of revolutionaries around 1945 by Ho Chi Minh's guerrilla forces.
The coming to power of Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam in 1945 was favoured by the special conjuncture of circumstances in which the country found itself: the absence of the French imperialist state apparatus, disrupted by the Japanese army since 9 March 1945, and the surrender of Japan itself on 15 August 1945.
Venezuela: an election lost is an army gained
Submitted by Caiman del Barrio on Oct 11 2010 00:24
As his party loses unilateral control of parliament for the first time since his election, President Hugo Chávez looks to assimilate the working class via military service.
Last month saw a tight photo finish in Venezuela’s parliamentary elections, with President Hugo Chávez’ PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela) gaining a 48% of votes cast to the rightwing opposition MUD (Democratic Unity Table) coalition’s 47%.
Ecuador: the President who cried "¡Golpe!”
Submitted by Caiman del Barrio on Oct 4 2010 20:13
Last Thursday, the world was briefly enthralled by events in Quito, Ecuador, where left-leaning President Rafael Correa called his followers out onto the streets via a hospital telephone, claiming that a police and military coup d’etat was in motion against his regime. However, upon closer examination, a different picture - one of popular anger with austerity measures and mass reduncancy - emerges...
News channels and radio stations on Thursday night dramatically reported a siege - apparently maintained by a number of insubordinate policemen - of the Quito hospital where Correa was being treated for injuries caused by a tear gas canister thrown at him while he addressed protesting policemen in their barracks.
Ante Ciliga,Trotsky, and State Capitalism: Theory, Tactics, and Re-evaluation during the Purge Era, 1935-1939 - Michael S Fox
Michael S. Fox on Trotsky and state capitalism during Stalin's purges. In PDF format.
From Class against Class
A fresh look at Lenin - Andy Brown
Solidarity pamphlet #56, in which Andy Brown examines the failure of the Russian revolution and its relation to the ideology of Lenin, its key leader, as described by his own words. With a Postface by Ian Pirie and A.A. Raskolnikov.
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