Workers' Liberty

Between 50 and 60% cent of the population identify as ‘working class’. Despite the term ‘working class’ vanishing completely from the language of the Labour Party, the proportion claiming this now-unspoken identity has been fairly stable since the 1950s.

To be working class is to be at one pole of a pair. The other pole is the capitalist class.

“I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence and enjoy it to the full.”
Leon Trotsky, April 1940

By Sean Matgamna
Introduction
Watching the accelerating political and moral degeneration of the Stalinised “Communist International" in the mid-1930s, Leon Trotsky entitled one of his commentaries “Is There No End To The Fall?" Had he been forced to observe the contemporary “revolutionary left" during the Balkans war of April-May 1999 he might have addressed the same incredulous and bitter question to a large proportion of those who name themselves “Trotskyists".

The magazine New International, in 1950, advertises a series of "wire-recordings for socialist education". They include a recording of a debate between Max Shachtman and Frederick von Hayek, on socialism vs capitalism, in February 1950.

By Paul Hampton

“The attempt of the bourgeoisie during its internecine conflict to oblige humanity to divide up into only two camps is motivated by a desire to prohibit the proletariat from having its own independent ideas.

By Max Shachtman

The 1917 revolution was one of the greatest democratic moments in history.

by Albert Glotzer
Many of the core activists of today’s left had their thinking shaped by the dramatic struggles of 1979-84, or of the late 1960s and early 70s — times when capitalism seemed to be in intractable crisis, and mass working-class action to change society was a prospect near at hand.

Recently, Network Rail chief executive John Armitt received a total bonus package of more than £200,000; his deputy, Iain Coucher, more than £179,000; the other two executive directors £133,937. And that's just the bonuses! Last year, Network Rail's four most senior executives shared £1.1m in bonuses. Armitt got over £350,000, on top of his £500,000 salary. NR, a so-called 'not-for-profit' company, has just reported a pre-tax profit of £1billion.

Review of Paul Burkett, 2006, Marxism and Ecological Economics, Amsterdam: Brill

The conventional wisdom among Greens is that, so far as environmental struggles go, the organised labour movement is only occasionally an ally and often an opponent. Most ecologists dismiss Marxism as having little to offer today’s environmental concerns such as climate change.

Click on "read more" to download the whole pamphlet as pdf, or to read it section-by-section online.

Workers' Liberty 17, January 1994, is a special issue on Socialism and Democracy.

Appendices to the Workers' Liberty pamphlet, with texts by James P Cannon, Max Shachtman, V I Lenin, and Hal Draper on socialism, democracy, and the Russian Revolution of 1917; and articles by John Bl

Debate between then Labour Party leader Michael Foot, and John O'Mahony, in 1982 on socialism and democracy, with a 1994 introduction.

By James P Cannon. This is an extract from Cannon's reply to a criticism of his court evidence in 1941.

Comrade Munis [1] is dissatisfied with our assertions at the trial that “we submit to the majority”.

By James P Cannon, from Socialism on Trial, 1941. This is an extract from Cannon's evidence in the court where, during World War 2, he and other American Trotskyists and trade unionists were put on trial and jailed for hindering the US war effort.

THE FATE OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY.

When, after Korniloff’s adventure, the paramount parties on the Soviets made an attempt to make amends for their previous attitude of indulgence towards the counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie, they demanded the speedy convocation of the Constituent Assembly.

Lenin called for the "dictatorship of the proletariat" as a great expansion of democracy.

The Russian revolution was the most important event of the 20th century.

Note, March 2007:
Michael Foot, then leader of the Labour Party, wrote the articles reproduced here on democracy, revolution, socialism, and Stalinism in the Observer. John O'Mahony wrote the reply in Socialist Organiser.

Lots of workers do overtime to supplement low wages. But while you might feel the need to do this to get by, the system of overtime itself helps the bosses keep your wages down.

Other workers, even if their pay is OK, might feel pressured to do overtime to keep the job running and save their workmates from carrying the burden of uncovered duties. But where employers can rely on workers doing overtime, you find that vacancies take longer to be filled. Why should the company hurry up spending money on recruiting, training and kitting out new staff when they can use the existing ones? Even where overtime rates are higher than normal rates, they are cheaper for the employer than hiring a new worker.

A guide to studying the Communist Manifesto (PDF). If you prefer to download it as a Word file, click here.

A guide to studying the Communist Manifesto ('Word' file). If you prefer to download it as a PDF, click here.

Russia is taking back energy resources into state control. The latest move is to take back control of the Sakhalin 2 project from Shell. It has used similar methods to that used against Khodorkovsky, the Russian oligarch, to take back control of Yukos. The state now owns the majority of energy resources in Russia through the medium of the state owned Gazprom. It has also used the huige financial resources of Gazprom to extend state control of other industries totally unrelated. For example, the majority of the media is now back in state hands with Gazprom recently acquiring further media interests.

In the summer of 1913 the government introduced a military bill… It was supposed to cost a thousand million Reichmarks for both new and current expenditures. However, the SPD confined itself to mere parliamentary protests; its members in the Reichstag even voted for the financial measures necessary to meet the military demands, because this time these were to be covered by property taxes. Even members of the party’s left wing (Radek and Pannekoek) advocated the passing of these measures. But knowing that nationalist and imperialist sentiments had moved many of the Reichstag members to vote in favour of the tax measures, Rosa Luxemburg underlined the principle that, in view of the rapidly approaching danger or war, the party should do nothing which might create even the appearance of expressing confidence in the government and consenting to its armaments policy.

An interview with Ignazio Silone (1939)

In the event of a war between Italy and France, which country would you favour?

Tunisia

What do you mean?

The world is now divided into two great fronts: one composed of the conservatives, that is, of the democracies or other partisans of collective security; the other composed of the revisionists or fascists. Neither of these two fronts is capable of assuring peace or of solving the economic and political problems now confronting the world.

(January 1956)

I do not adhere to any system of philosophy, to any ideology, or to any orthodoxy. I think that all the ideological systems inherited from the last centuries, like the society that produced them, are in crisis at present — which does not mean that they do not contain some partial truth. I think that this has been the lot also of Marxism, in all of its variants. All metaphysics has lost its self-evidency.