James Turley and Ben Lewis argue that there can be no short cuts to building the mass, Marxist student movement we need We would like to express our concern at the drift of some Communist Students comrades towards the highly ambiguous Anti-Capitalist Initiative project. We are both veterans of, and also members of the Communist Party ...
Simon Hardy and Chris Strafford defend the 'Anticapitalist Initative' Ben Lewis’s criticism of the new Anti-Capitalist Initiative exposes not the weakness of our new project, but the problems of his own sect and its approach to politics (‘Ditch sects and fronts’, May 3). Firstly, deriding the meeting as small is petty and misleading. The meeting was initially ...
Besieged workers in Iran urgently needs our solidarity, reports Chris Strafford Repression, economic crisis, mass unemployment, withdrawal of subsidies and the imminent threat of US led bombings have led to a great immiseration for the working class within Iran. The growth of poverty within Iran is stark, last month the cost of vegetables rose 92%, rice ...
Last Saturday's launch of the Anti-Capitalist Initiative provided further evidence of an increasingly fractured, rightward-drifting left. Ben Lewis reports As I reported in last week’s Weekly Worker, bound up with the recent decamping of 15 younger comrades from Workers Power (British Section of the League for a Fifth International) is another far-left unity drive under the ...
The left must begin a process of rebuilding the movement and discussing how to create a revolutionary alternative, argues Chris Strafford The economic crisis and the austerity agenda has thrown the working class into largely defensive actions. The trade union leadership has crucially undermined any serious fightback and is offering only token resistance. We have a ...
Politics is becoming polarised in austerity Europe. We must empower the working class with a revolutionary perspective, says Callum Williamson The results from the first round of voting in the French presidential elections were another indication of a growing rage against the liberal-capitalist political establishment, a rage which the populist right has been the most successful ...
The left must organise on the basis of genuine democratic centralism, argues Ben Lewis Readers might be aware that Workers Power, the organisation which heads the League for a Fifth International (LFI), has recently suffered yet another split - its second haemorrhaging of cadre in the last six years. Around 15, predominantly younger comrades departed, reducing ...
Vahed bus drivers' union executive member Reza Shahabi has been sentenced to 6 years in prison and a further five year ban from trade union activism. He has also been ordered to return around secen million Toman's which had been raised in solidarity to help imprisoned trade union activists. This is after two and a ...
Has today's anti-Stalinist left sleepwalked into a Stalinoid conception of 'Bolshevism'? This is an edited and expanded version of the speech delivered by Ben Lewis (CS executive & CPGB) to the March 31-April 1 Platypus convention in Chicago. First published here. I must begin by thanking Platypus for hosting this debate. It is a shame that ...
Below is a statement organised by Iranian left activists. The Farsi version is linked at the bottom of this piece Following the recent rumours of a military attack on Iran, several Israeli citizens have initiated a campaign, opposing the probable war of the American and Israeli states against Iran. In doing so, they are sending messages ...
The demonstration in London against fees and cuts on 14th March should give the student left a lot to think about over the coming weeks. It was supposed to be the highlight of the National Union of Student's 'week of action', which went almost entirely ignored by the national media. The turnout - about 500 ...
Cat Rylance gave this speech to the 2012 conference of Stop the War Coalition, on behalf of Communist Students There are lots of motions here today on Iran and Syria, but ours is different. It spells out some issues that other motions don’t. Namely: the government of Iran is not our friend and is not the ...
The capitalist class still have no credible strategy to escape the crisis unfolding around us. The crazy logic of capitalism is plain for all to see: while people lose their jobs and welfare, while people starve and live in appalling conditions, the capitalist class sits on trillions upon trillions of money, unwilling to invest... Click the ...