Ben Lewis saw few signs of 'Revolt' at the recent Socialist Worker Student Society day school The March 3 ‘Revolt’ day school in London, organised by the Socialist Worker Student Society, was conceived of as a ‘mini-Marxism’ to sign up new activists sympathetic to SWSS and to provide new comrades with an understanding of the ‘International ...
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 ...
Independent scholar Lars T Lih introduces excerpts from Karl Kautsky's 'Republic and social democracy in France', published in English for the first time. This article first appeared in the Weekly Worker. Storming of the Bastille in July 1789: proletarian and petty bourgeoisie then exert their power, according to Kautsky At the end of 1904, Karl Kautsky began ...
Below we publish a Karl Kautsky article from April 1917, translated into English for the first time by Ben Lewis. It is introduced by Lars T Lih, a historian based in Canada, who has been at the forefront of re-examining the complex relationship between these two widely misunderstood figures of the 20th century workers’ movement. ...
James Turley, member of CS and the CPGB, takes issue with other Weekly Worker writers on the question of self-determination and the prospects for Arab unity It became an obvious necessity for the CPGB to tidy up its line on Israel/Palestine as the question of Zionism flowered into a full-scale war between our organisation and the ...
This is a talk given by Lars T Lih which has been taken from the Socialist Democracy website. In a previous interview with CS back in December Lih stated that " [Karl]Kautsky’s positive influence on Lenin does not end even in 1914". This speech explains why he thinks so. Lenin and Kautsky: The final chapter By LARS ...
Lars T Lih is an acclaimed scholar living in Canada. Ben Lewis spoke to him about his book, Lenin rediscovered: ‘What is to be done?’ in context (2006) and some of the questions it raises for the left in understanding its own history and tradition One of the themes of Lenin rediscovered was Lenin’s closeness to ...
Our party must be as open and democratic as the society we fight for, argues Dan Macintyre On the left you will hear much about the need for a ‘revolutionary party' or a ‘vanguard party' to organise and strengthen the working class struggle for a socialist society. Indeed, there are many groups on today's left who ...
James Padmore, elected unopposed to the executive of Communist Students, has sent this letter: I was unable to attend the Communist Students conference in December but, based on the report in the Weekly Worker, it seems that it ...