History
International Left Opposition, 1928-33; forging an international leadership
Thu, 01/07/1999 - 18:54Battered but unbroken by his fight inside the USSR with Stalin, Trotsky began his foreign exile in 1929 by creating an international opposition (ILO). Dave Stockton reveal the obstacles that had to be overcome by the ILO in building unity around political principle, a trusted international leadership and disciplined practice Read more...
An ongoing history: the LRCI ten years on
Wed, 30/06/1999 - 10:59The LRCI was founded ten years ago. Richard Brenner draws a balance sheet of our fight for a re-elaborated Trotskyist programme and a new democratic centralist international Read more...
The break up of Yugoslavia
Thu, 04/02/1999 - 23:00Imperialism has played, and continues to play a destructive and reactionary role in the Balkans and in the break up of former Yugoslavia. But no revolutionary socialist can neglect to point the finger of blame at Stalinism too. Read more...
The murder of Luxemburg and Liebknecht
Lesley Day Wed, 04/11/1998 - 23:00Eighty years ago, on the night of 15 January 1919, two great socialist revolutionaries died. Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were brutally murdered by paramilitaries, acting on the orders of the German social democratic government. Lesley Day commemorates the anniversary of Luxemburg and Liebknecht’s death by analysing their contribution to the Marxist tradition. Read more...
Clara Zetkin and the struggle for a working class women's movement
Thu, 01/10/1998 - 22:00The period of the 1880's and 1890's in Germany was a period of rapid industrialisation carried through under the guidance of the repressive German state. It saw the birth and growth of German Social Democracy as the mass workers party. It drew women, and children, into industry on a large scale.
It was in this situation that women within the SPD-particularly Clara Zetkin struggled to lay the basis for a socialist led, working class based women's organisation. In 1891 the first issue of Die Gleicheit, subtitled 'for the interests of working women' appeared. It was an independent paper, with its own editorial board, led and coordinated by Social Democratic women, themselves disciplined party members. Read more...
Trotsky and the Fourth International: Turn to the masses
Tue, 30/06/1998 - 10:59The final split with the Communist International (Comintern) brought home a brutal fact: the International Left Opposition (ILO) was tiny. Read more...
Race, class and nation in Black America
Tue, 30/06/1998 - 10:59In a continuing debate over the black question in the USA, GR McColl argues that the comrades of the Trotskyist Fraction remain wedded ahistorically to Trotsky’s slogans of the 1930s rather than developing a concrete analysis of today’s situation. Read more...
Indonesia 1965 - The road to a bloodbath
Mon, 29/06/1998 - 22:00With the fall of the Suharto dictatorship, old parties and old programmes will resurface. In the heat of battle a new generation of activists will have to learn from tragedies. Read more...
British fascism: Routed on the streets
Sun, 15/03/1998 - 17:38Sir Oswald Mosley, MP, split from Labour to form the New Party in March 1931, together with a group of left MPs. By October 1932 Mosley had transformed the party into the British Union of Fascists. Paul Morris recounts the events that led to his movement’s defeat. Read more...
150 years of the Communist Manifesto
Colin Lloyd Fri, 30/01/1998 - 11:591998 marks the 150th anniversary of the Communist Manifesto. Issued on the eve of Europe’s first co-ordinated wave of revolutionary struggles it remains an unparalleled exposition of the theory and practice of scientific socialism, writes Colin Lloyd Read more...