Category: Capitalism
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10,000 opportunities but not a single job
Welcome to another instalment of the crisis of capitalism Andy Burnham’s Labour administration has announced the launch of the new Modern Work Experience Programme with Sainsbury’s, suggesting that it will make 10,000 ‘work experience’ positions available to young people in a supposed attempt to address declining employment among teenagers leaving school. According to The Independent,…
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Crime does not keep office hours
I was out in a local town yesterday when a young lad approached me. He was not from the area and his bike had been stolen. He had managed to find the local police station, only to discover that it was closed. His phone battery had died, so he asked whether I could look up…
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The Battle of Walkley, Sheffield 1922
A look at how the Unemployed Workers’ Movement helped poor workers stand up for themselves against landlords, bailiffs and police in the 1920s and 1930s. Reposted from our comrades CPGB-ML It’s summer 1922 and the postwar recession is biting hard in Sheffield, with 49,000 on unemployment benefit and thousands more having exhausted this and scraping…
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When flags & factions replace the class struggle
The Palestine flag has become embroiled in Britain’s culture war. The ruling class has many different avenues for creating division within the working class but its objective is always the same: keep the working class divided and looking in every direction – except up!One of its current tactics is to demonise Islam and embolden reactionary…
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The story of the English Revolution
Published in 1949 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the execution of Charles I, this short pamphlet gives a wonderful overview of the real content and meaning of the earth-shaking event that was the English revolution. Written by the excellent CPGB historian AL Morton and published in 1949, this short history gives a wonderful overview…
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Church and King
The state needs two things to continue existing: a divided working class and the ability to use force. The state is not identical to the government. The elected government is the visible, changeable face of the state. Thatcher Out, Starmer Out, doesn’t matter, the state remains. In 1780 the state was weak. Globalism was in…
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Wake up and smell … the class war
The removal of an England flag from a Portsmouth housing block is exactly the kind of minor incident that the far right seizes upon and inflates into a national outrage. A dispute about communal property or fire regulations is presented as proof that “you are no longer allowed to be English”. The facts become secondary.…
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How the Mental Health Crisis is Being Weaponised Against Workers
A dangerous world In the west today it is common to hear acronyms such as ADHD, PTSD and OCD surrounding mental health and especially in discussions of depression and anxiety. While a wider discussion about mental health is useful to those suffering, the question of its cause and origination is often neglected. For instance, what…
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Misinformation is a Weapon of Mass Destruction
On 19th June in Leith, Edinburgh, a bare-chested loony tried to “protect our country” by stabbing five innocent people. Local man Kenny said that Leith’s only problem was drugs, a problem starting in the 80s. These people weren’t suspected drug dealers, they were attacked for one reason. I’m not going to give it credibility by…
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Andy Burnham and the search for a working-class hero
The Makerfield by-election was never really about Makerfield.It was about a growing crisis inside British politics. Labour’s enormous parliamentary majority has not delivered popularity. Quite the opposite. After two years of attacks on workers, continued austerity, support for Nato’s war agenda and unwavering backing for Israel’s genocide of Gaza and slaughter in Lebanon, public faith…