Author Archives: Callum Williamson

Reinvigorated spirit

No po-faced bureaucratism

Russell Brand Revolution Century, 2014, pp384, £20 It is a terrible force of habit (and probably a shameless indication of my inbuilt confirmation bias) that, whenever I pick up an otherwise unknown book with the word ‘revolution’ in the title, I invariably flip straight to the index. I am looking for one thing: Marx, the bewhiskered ...

The Green road to free education?

demo

Communist Students were out for Wednesday’s Free Education demo, Callum Williamson reports on the event and the need for the left to come up with a strategy for quiet times Considering the betrayal of the NUS bureaucracy (which it is alleged, actually called around Students Unions to discourage mobilising for the event after dropping its initial ...

‘March of history’ and the question of agency

Predicting the future: a risky business

Immanuel Wallerstein, Randall Collins, Michael Mann, Georgi Derluguian, Craig Calhoun, Does capitalism have a future? Oxford University Press, 2013, pp192, £14.99 As its title suggests, Does capitalism have a future? is an attempt on the part of five prominent sociologists to discuss the prospects for the system of capital, and the likelihood of its replacement by a new social ...

Intersectionality vs Social-imperialism

awlbadge

The recent spat in the NUS over Islamic State is indicative of the political disorientation of the student movement, writes Charles Gradnitzer In July, Alliance for Workers’ Liberty member Dan Cooper brought a motion headed ‘Iraqi/Kurdish solidarity’ to the National Union of Students national executive council.1 The motion, which sought to “condemn the IS and support the ...

Oasis between bible groups

Students need a united left

Communists on campus are still swimming against the tide, reports Ben Lewis The annual start-of-the-year freshers’ fairs, where students new and old get a glimpse of some of the weird and wonderful societies, clubs and associations they can get involved in at university, provide a decent opportunity for the scattered forces of the far left to ...

Peace, Peace, No Peace

palestinian-defiance-in-gaza

As the long process of rebuilding Gaza ‘begins’ once again, it may often seems as though the Palestinian people are doomed to suffer an endless cycle of slaughter and impoverishment.  Israeli Antizionist Author and member of Left Unity’s Communist Platform ,  Moshé Machover has a better grasp of the situation than most. We sent Communist ...

Storms, floods and a deluge of crap

Winds, floods and the revenge of nature

Natural flood management is part of the solution, not dredging. But if we seriously want to preserve and restore nature, argues Eddie Ford, then we need to challenge capitalism Parts of southern and central England have experienced the wettest January since Met Office statistics began in 1910 and, according to the Radcliffe Meteorological Station in Oxford University, ...

The forgotten ally and friend

AWL

Rease Higgs responds to the AWL’s defence of its behaviour over ‘comrade Alpha’ Predictably, my article highlighting the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty’s opportunist and hypocritical behaviour in the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts last week,1 triggered an immediate response. Ed Maltby, an executive committee member, was told to talk privately to those who appeared troubled by ...

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