Workers' Liberty

For the first time in many years there are now significant differences in policy and intent between New Labour and the Tory party. That, in part, is the reason we say vote Labour in the general election wherever there is not a credible socialist candidate.

Is the Jewish background of some the committee members in the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war relevant?

A briefing for activists produced by Workers' Liberty students.

Patterns from the past will not repeat themselves exactly. But they may shed some light.

In 2009, Sean Matgamna, a founder of the AWL political tendency, marked 50 years in revolutionary politics. In this article, he discusses the background to the decision by him and two comrades to launch the Workers’ Fight group, forerunner of the AWL, in 1966.

Is left unity a pipedream? When the socialist left organised the Socialist Alliance nearly a decade ago there was much talk of uniting the left. Most of the 9 pieces collected here explore the question as we saw it then. The new situation, with looming Tory victory in the general election and the new assault on the labour movement that most likely will follow, poses the issue once more, from a new angle. We invite discussion.

Debate on aspects of the history of Irish Trotskyism and Irish Republicanism. Originally titled: "Irish Marxist rebuts internet slander", and "Comments on a smear job", it appeared on the website of the Irish Mandelites, "Socialist Democracy". In an abusive and typically foolish introductary paragraph, they say that they themselves are unwilling "to join in this arcane discussion, but we do recognise Raynor’s right to defend himself and publish the letter in that spirit."

What revolutionary socialism is, at root, about.

John Maynard Keynes posed many sharp questions about capitalism, often further developing ideas which Marx had sketched before him. He framed the whole issue as one of "safeguarding capitalism", but can "Keynesian" methods really do that?

A collection of 23 articles by members of AWL or its predecessor organisations on some basic questions of SWP theory, history, politics and people.

An account by I N Steinberg, a political opponent of the Bolsheviks, here summarised by Draper, shows that the 1917 upheaval was not a conspiracy but a real people’s revolution.

Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution was one of the most important of his contributions to Marxism, but it has become one of the most vulgarised aspects of his legacy.

The SWP has collapsed politically into its "Red-Green-Brown" alliance with clerical fascism - with the MAB, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, and other reactionaries

This activist briefing was produced by a member of Workers' Liberty and a supporter of the Workers' Climate Action network, for use in the environmental movement.

During the Great Strike of the miners The Socialist Party (then "Militant") which controlled Liverpool Council opted out of confrontation with the Thatcher Government, choosing to do a short-term deal with Thatcher, leaving the miners to fight on alone. The miners defeated, the government, and after them the Kinnock Labour Party leadership, settled accounts with "Militant" and Liverpool.

Socialists in the 2001 General Election

Who the English Defence League are and how they can be stopped

An assessment of how working-class politics will shape and in turn be shaped by the result of the upcoming General Election, whether a Tory victory or some form of minority government.