social democracy

‘A “black swan” will inevitably alight’: Boris Kagarlitsky on why the left movement will have to be constructed afresh

From a Russian prison, Boris Kagarlitsky puts forward his views on the rise of the far right and reasons for the left's crisis.

Lenin, the Labour Party, and Democrats

By Doug Enaa Gree

John Riddell on Zimmerwald, 1915: New socialist resistance against war

Triumph, disarray, defeat – German workers 1918-1933

Britain: Why Jeremy Corbyn's Labour leadership bid panics the right

Jeremy Corbyn joins Pride in London, alongside some of the activists backing his campaign. Photo: Steve Eason.

The surprising support for Jeremy Corbyn in the race for the leadership of the British Labour Party has electrified the left and is terrifiying the right. Below a number of articles from the British left explain why.

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Left Unity Newsletter, posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal on July 28, 2015-- The movement in support of Jeremy Corbyn for Labour leader has set politics alight – and got the media in a panic. Corbyn’s candidacy is demonstrating the mass support that exists in society for the policies he stands for, and Left Unity has also supported since its foundation: an end to austerity and war, a different society based on peace and equality.

This unexpected movement is an expression of the same sentiment that is seeing a new left rise across Europe – with the difference in expression perhaps down to Britain’s archaic electoral system.

Left Unity wishes the campaign all the best. This is an opportunity for the Labour Party to become the party it was founded to be, defending and extending its great achievements of the welfare state – the party that millions want.

Social democracy's past and present dissected