Britain
Britain: Reflections on the crisis in the Socialist Workers Party
"As an important part of the English-speaking left, the SWP over the years has influenced many individuals and groups.
Forgotten legacies of Bolshevism on revolutionary organisation
"Iskra. It is often argued that the early period of the organisation of Iskra resembled the small, highly homogenous and monolithic cadre grouping that today is promoted as the sine qua non of revolutionary organisation, but if one looks at the original concept of the Iskra editorial board, we can see it promoted debate among a plurality of tendencies."
[Click HERE for more discussion on revolutionary organisation.]
Britain: ‘To fight austerity we need a united left’ -- Anticapitalist Initiative
By Simon Hardy, Anticapitalist Initiative (Britain)
Scotland: Why socialists support independence
Scottish Socialist Party spokersperson Colin Fox addresses the Edinburgh rally for independence, September 22, 2012. Photograph By Craig Maclean.
By Colin Fox
September 20, 2012 -- Colin Fox's blog -- Tommy Docherty, the legendary wit and manager of Manchester United, once quipped after his team had suffered a humiliating defeat, "We lost 4-0 and frankly we were lucky to get the nil." The Tories [Conservative Party] in Scotland know just how he felt, for they are so hated that out of 56 MPs they have just one, and they were lucky to get that!
And yet, as incredible as it may seem, their coalition partners [in the British government] are despised even more. The Liberal Democrats now have no constituency members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) in mainland Scotland and were "mauled" in last year’s local elections for "joining" the hated Tories at Westminster.
Richard Seymour: The problem of left unity
By Richard Seymour
Ricardo Patiño Aroca: Why Ecuador granted Julian Assange political asylum
Telesur English, August 16, 2012 – The
"The Tommie Smith/John Carlos 'black power' salute of 1968 – two medal winners overturning the symbolism, refusing to let their individual excellence serve the forces that degraded them and their people."
For more discussion of issues surrounding sport and politics, click HERE. For more on the Olympics, click HERE.
By Mike Marqusee, London
August 4, 2012 -- Mike Marqusee.com, posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with permission -- I enjoyed my afternoon at the Olympics, sitting in my public lottery assigned £50 seat at the ExCel, with a fine view of the men’s boxing. And I enjoyed it not least because I was finally able to watch the sport itself without the surrounding hype, the layers of commentary. For a moment there was only that pleasure special to sport: the spontaneity of a story being fashioned in front of your own eyes, once and once only (despite digital repeats), robustly itself and not pretending to be anything else.
Britain: Coalition government parties battered in local elections
Respect's Alyas Karmani defeated the Labour Party leader o