Skip to main content
The Morning Star Shop
Building a revolutionary outfit: security and socialist aesthetics
As an indication of the state of the class struggle, the contest for the streets is still central to progressive politics, says NICK WRIGHT — and how leftists take to the streets matters too
For the working-class movement, the street is our stage. When the dominant media is monopoly owned, the few spaces where the working class can find its voice and make it heard are precious.

MUCH of politics is performance. The exuberant picket lines of this past year, the mass character of the strike movement and the enormous public support strikers and their families enjoy have breached the cloak of silence that renders the working-class movement invisible.

Mass mobilisation has transformed our routine activity into headline news.

The witty wordplay and irreverent humour of nurses and medics have transformed weary picket lines into living tableaus, while many union leaders now strive to emulate Mick Lynch’s deadpan delivery.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is accompanied by councillor Brian Collins (left) and the Head of Kent County Council, Linden Kemkaran (right) as he poses for a photo with members of Kent County Council, County Hall, Maidstone, July 7, 2025
Features / 17 July 2025
17 July 2025

Holding office in local government is a poisoned chalice for a party that bases its electoral appeal around issues where it has no power whatsoever, argues NICK WRIGHT

Re your message in #nujchapel:  If we website looks like shit, no-one is going to take us seriously, or be inclined to subscribe - that's why I think we have to prioritise the way it looks, especially when the site (editorial-wise) is largely working.  When it comes to the issues you mentioned to me the other day (word count, curly quotes, bylines), there are quick and easy work arounds for them (copy and paste text into BBedit, Word, Pages, wordcount.com, etc. Leave curly quotes, bylines, etc to the web de
Democracy / 2 July 2025
2 July 2025

From Gaza complicity to welfare cuts chaos, Starmer’s baggage accumulates, and voters will indeed find ‘somewhere else’ to go — to the Greens, nationalists, Lib Dems, Reform UK or a new, working-class left party, writes NICK WRIGHT

Jack Murillo, a Marine veteran, holds a sign in front of law enforcement guarding a federal building on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, in Los Angeles
Features / 19 June 2025
19 June 2025

There is no doubt that Trump’s regime is a right-wing one, but the clash between the state apparatus and the national and local government is a good example of what any future left-wing formation will face here in Britain, writes NICK WRIGHT

Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, delivers a speech about Europe's role in a fragmented world in Berlin, Germany, May 26, 2025
Trump's Tariffs / 5 June 2025
5 June 2025

European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde sees Trump’s many disruptions as an opportunity to challenge the dollar’s ‘exorbitant privilege’ — but greater Euro assertiveness will also mean greater warmongering and militarism, warns NICK WRIGHT

Similar stories
Jack Murillo, a Marine veteran, holds a sign in front of law enforcement guarding a federal building on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, in Los Angeles
Features / 19 June 2025
19 June 2025

There is no doubt that Trump’s regime is a right-wing one, but the clash between the state apparatus and the national and local government is a good example of what any future left-wing formation will face here in Britain, writes NICK WRIGHT

RED FLAG FLYING: The Soviet flag is hoisted over the Reichst
Features / 30 January 2025
30 January 2025
NICK WRIGHT examines the British ruling class's complex relationship with fascism before, during and after the second world war
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trum
Features / 19 December 2024
19 December 2024
From Maoist student provocateur to Brussels bureaucrat, Jose Manuel Barroso now emerges to push European rearmament and the Atlanticist dream of a forever war with Russia to the tune of billions of euros, writes NICK WRIGHT
Features / 14 August 2024
14 August 2024
From Lee Anderson's sad parliamentary antics to Tommy Robinson's lager-soaked rallies, STEPHEN ARNELL skewers the hollow bravado of Britain's resurgent right and looks at how mass mobilisation can counter its influence