history
Australia: Freedom fighter Chicka Dixon departs, his activist spirit lives on
Why global capitalism is tipping towards collapse, and how we can act for a decent future
"Random events, those happenings that nobody could foresee, always have a huge impact on historical outcomes."
March 15, 2010 -- This is an excerpt from an essay that forms the entire contents of the March 2010 edition of UNITY, Socialist Worker New Zealand's quarterly Marxist journal for grassroots activists. Following editions of the journal will expand on the crises which are converging to tip global capitalism towards collapse. To subscribe to UNITY journal, email Len Parker at office@sworker.pl.net. UNITY is posted to your letterbox four times a year. Price: $25 for NZ subscribers, NZ$40 offshore fastpost. This excerpt has been posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with permission.
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By Grant Morgan
Part 1: History lessons
The fable behind the stereotype
South Africa: "`Forgotten' Voices in the Present" book and documentary
A dream deferred from South African History Archive on Vimeo.
By the South African History Archive
"Forgotten" Voices in the Present: alternative, post-1994 oral histories from three poor communities in South Africa was authored by Dale McKinley and Ahmed Veriava and funded by Sephis and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. It is the fruition of two years worth of work and commitment to the goal of giving agency to those usually caught on the margins of South African society.Organised women are key to strike success: Learning from the 1985 British miners’ strike
The British coalminers’ strike of 1984-5, which ended 25 years ago on March 3, was a turning point in British politics. In this article, Terry Conway discusses the impact of Women Against Pit Closures and its legacy.
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March 3, 2010 -- Socialist Resistance -- Since her election as prime minister in 1979, Margaret Thatcher had wasted little time in attacking working people in every way she could. The massive program of coal pit closures was critical for her government.
The strike was to be “the” central issue of British politics. The stakes were understood by the majority of members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), who saw that what was at stake was the loss of the thousands upon thousands of jobs and the devastation of entire communities in the many areas where the coal pit was the centre of local life.
Nadezhda Krupskaya, a revolutionary fighter, feminist and pioneer of socialist education
By Graham Milner
March 7, 2010 -- Born into a family of radical Russian gentry in 1869, Nedezhda (which from Russian translates as "Hope") Konstantinovna Krupskaya became, with her partner V.I. Lenin, a founder and central leader of the organisation of revolutionaries that led the Russian working class to power in October 1917 -- the Bolshevik Party (majority faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party).
Alexandra Kollontai: International Women's Day -- a militant celebration
To mark International Women's Day 2010, Links International Journal of Socilalist Renewal reproduces Alexandra Kollontai's classic history and explanation of this important anniversary. Thanks to the Marxist Internet Archive (MIA) for making this and other writings by Kollontai available. Notes by MIA.
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By Alexandra Kollontai
Mezhdunarodnyi den' rabotnitz, Moscow 1920 -- Women's Day or Working Women's Day is a day of international solidarity, and a day for reviewing the strength and organisation of proletarian women.
Mugabe and reconciliation: The genesis and meaning of `We Are All Zimbabweans Now'
By James Kilgore
[This paper was presented to the Center of African Studies, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, on February 3, 2010. It is posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with James Kilgore’s permission.]
Photo essay -- Repression in Honduras: History repeats
Photos and text by James Rodriguez
(Version en español aquí.)
February 7, 2010 -- Tegucigalpa, Honduras -- MiMundo.org
“The 1980s were characterised by a wave of violence in several countries in Latin America. Our country, Honduras, was not an exception. Even though the phenomenon of ‘disappearances’ occurred mostly during the military dictatorships, many people also vanished during democratically elected governments.”[1]
Lars T. Lih's contribution to a Leninism for the 21st century
Lenin Rediscovered: What Is To Be Done? In Context
Malaysia: Two-party system – and a ‘third force’?
By Jeyakumar Devaraj
February 11, 2010 -- Aliran Monthly -- Malaysia has only known one ruling coalition in the past 52 years since independence. But the result of the March 2008 election has led to rising hope among many Malaysians that an enormous change might be around the corner – a two-party system under which the people are free to choose between two coalitions, which are both capable of governing the country.
The purpose of this paper is to locate the institution of a two-coalition system against a wider historical perspective.
The concept that every person has an equal right to select the government irrespective of his or her social status, wealth, education, religious affiliation or beliefs is a revolutionary idea. And it is relatively new.