Robinson successfully defended his school from closure, fought for the unification of the teaching unions, mentored future trade union leaders and transformed teaching at the Marx Memorial Library, writes JOHN FOSTER
Socialism, democracy and the division of labour
Stereotyped ideas about the 20th century’s actually existing socialism do a disservice to the working class and fail to grasp the complexities facing every revolutionary generation, argues ZOLTAN ZIGEDY
FLAGS OUT: The hammer and sickle flag of the Soviet Union is hung over the entrance to Claridge’s, London. Russian leaders Marshal Nikolai Bulganin, chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, and Nikita Krushchev, first secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, were residing at the hotel at the start of their 10-day visit
to Britain, April 1956
A judge in a German court ruled that the ban activity imposed on renowned Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah was unlawful, reports LEON WYSTRYCHOWSKI
At the very moment Britain faces poverty, housing and climate crises requiring radical solutions, the liberal press promotes ideologically narrow books while marginalising authors who offer the most accurate understanding of change, writes IAN SINCLAIR
From Gaza protest bans to proscribing Palestine Action, political elites are showing a crisis of confidence as they abandon Roy Jenkins’s apologetic approach for Suella Braverman’s aggressive ‘hate march’ rhetoric, writes PAUL DONOVAN
ANSELM ELDERGILL examines the legal case behind this weekend’s Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival and the lessons for today
Ben Chacko talks to RMT leader EDDIE DEMPSEY about how the key to fixing broken Britain lies in collective sectoral bargaining, restoring unions’ ability to take solidarity strike action and bringing about the much-vaunted ‘wave of insourcing’
The summer of 1950 saw Labour abandon further nationalisation while escalating Korean War spending from £2.3m to £4.7m, as the government meekly accepted capitalism’s licence and became Washington’s yes-man, writes JOHN ELLISON
PROFESSOR Richard Wolff is a prominent, influential intellectual, with a big following on the left. He is an erudite, clear and passionate speaker and writer. He is well-regarded for his exposition of Marx’s ideas — a “go to” when the media tolerates a conversation critical of capitalism, one even advocating “socialism.”
For all of that, he does not represent Marx’s thought well, nor does he offer a viable, serious alternative to capitalism.
It is not a question of Wolff’s scholarship or his commitment to justice. It is, instead, a deep-seated, unwavering hostility to the real existing socialism of the 20th century and the century’s leading Marxist exponents, the communists.
More from this author
The prospect of the Democratic Socialists of America member’s victory in the mayoral race has terrified billionaires and outraged the centrist liberal Establishment by showing that listening to voters about class issues works, writes ZOLTAN ZIGEDY
In 2024, 19 households grew richer by $1 trillion while 66 million households shared 3 per cent of wealth in the US, validating Marx’s prediction that capitalism ‘establishes an accumulation of misery corresponding with accumulation of capital,’ writes ZOLTAN ZIGEDY
The transformation of a stable secular state into a fractured ruin largely ruled by Western-backed fundamentalists exposes the hollow nature of ‘multipolarity’ and the absence of principled anti-imperialism today, writes ZOLTAN ZIGEDY
ZOLTAN ZIGEDY reflects on the lessons from two books looking at the US labour movement and the recent history of spontaneous mass uprisings – and finds two pernicious ideologies working against the interests of the people
