Workers' Liberty 25, October 1995

Where is Russia going?

An interview with Kiril Buketov who is the deputy editor of the main trade union newspaper Solidarnost and one of the founders of the independent Labour information centre. Download PDF

Darcus Howe on "The inevitable revolt"

Darcus Howe is an activist, one time British Black Panther and presenter of the Devil's Advocate series on television. He spoke to Mark Osborn about the panthers legacy and black politics in America. Download PDF

The Monthly Survey

Socialists must support Scottish self-determination (Dale Street) Labours maundy money (Martin Thomas) The Fragile Middle East peace (Mike Fenwick) TUC leaders bow down to Blair Tories come clean on the welfare state (Jill Mountford) Northern Ireland: still in stalemate (Jack Cleary) Bosnia still needs solidarity (Chris Reynolds) Download PDF

The Place of Marxism in History

'He who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth', Goethe. 'Does Marxism have a future ?' One way to answer this question is, paradoxically, to look to its past. In this excellent little book, based on a series of lectures given to militants of the Fourth International, Ernest Mandel's aim was to "apply the materialist interpretation of history to Marxism itself : not consider its appearance as a matter of course, but understand that it requires an explanation, and to provide one". It is an very useful book for young comrades eager to discover the origins and...

The real John Maclean - Part 2

John Maclean was one of the greatest revolutionaries which the British labour movement has ever produced. Yet at the end of his life he refused to join — and indeed denounced — the early Communist Party, then inspired by Lenin, not Stalin. His stance has been taken by some as evidence for the idea that outside intervention from Moscow ruined a British revolutionary movement which would have developed better left on its own, by others as authority for the project of developing a separate Scottish revolutionary movement. Bob Pitt argues against such views. Part one of this article, covering...

Bosnia still needs solidarity

I am writing this article on 26 September [1995]: it is best to specify the day, so quickly and dramatically have been the reversals in ex-Yugoslavia over the last two months. At the end of July, Serbia and its Bosnian-Serb understudies were on the offensive. On 11 and 25 July they overran the Muslim enclaves of Srebrenica and Zepa in eastern Bosnia, massacring thousands. On 19 July they launched a big offensive against the north-western Muslim enclave of Bihac. It looked likely to fall. A Bosnian government drive to break the siege of Sarajevo, in June, had failed. Western leaders muttered...

The Left and Max Shachtman Part 1

Two distinct currents emerged after 1940 from the Trotskyism of Trotsky. The “official” “orthodox” Trotskyism of James P Cannon, E Mandel, Michel Pablo, Gerry Healy, Ted Grant, etc. The other was mainly associated with the name of Max Shachtman. (The British SWP is a hybrid, owing more to the former than the latter). The Shachtman current mutated into a number of tendencies­­– Shachtman himself ended his days as a sort of American Fabian– but it’s history remains a matter of great importance for those engaged in the work of renewing Trotskyism in the post Stalinist world. Ernest Haberkern*...

An open letter to Tony Benn: "The main enemy is Serb imperialism"

This is a response to this September 1995 speech by Tony Benn , written and sent shortly after the speech. *** Dear Tony Benn, The problems with the rally of the “Committee for Peace in the Balkans” on 18 September began with the title: “Stop the NATO bombing”. It’s like “Oppose the Maastricht Treaty”. “Oppose Maastricht” covers very different attitudes to Europe, and “Stop the NATO bombing” covers very different attitudes to Serbia. You, we, and Norman Tebbit can all agree to “oppose Maastricht” — but with very different positive alternatives to the Euro-capitalist plan we all oppose. On 18...

Tony Benn on Bosnia: "The main enemy is NATO"

What follows is a speech given by Tony Benn MP at a “Committee for Peace in the Balkans” rally on 18 September 1995. For our reply to Benn at the time, "The main enemy is Serb imperialism", see here . *** Whatever the deficiencies of the former Yugoslavia, it was held together without bloodshed. Then Yugoslavia tried to reform its economy. The IMF came in and demanded cuts. They squeezed the economy. The federal government pushed the responsibility for making the cuts down onto the republics. They decided that it would be best not to be part of the Belgrade set-up. The Germans came in and...

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