Bolshy

What do you think about... the Euro?

What should socialists do when faced with a choice between two options, neither of which are going to be beneficial to the working class? How should socialists vote in a Euro referendum? Some socialists believe voting 'no' to the Euro is the only answer. They feel that if Britain joined the single currency, it would subject the working class here to the power of reactionary bureaucrats in Brussels. They also believe that the euro will bring cuts, and if it is brought in, it will mean a victory for the Blairites and their capitalist partners in crime. Because socialists are anti-capitalists...

Support Iran's Students!

In 2000, the National Union of Students Conference elected jailed Iranian student Ahmed Batebi Honorary Vice-President. Now Iranian students need our solidarity again! For the last two weeks, students at universities across Iran have been protesting against the plans of the Islamic fundamentalist dictatorship to privatise higher education. These protests, which have begun to develop into a renwed movement for freedom of speech and democracy, have met with heavy repression. Student activists have been attacked by the security services and religious thugs, with dozens badly beaten and jailed...

Socialist Feminism Part One: What is Socialist Feminism?

What is 'feminism' and the women's movement all about? Often feminists are seen as dungaree and Doc Marten wearing 'man haters'. The Women's Movement is seen as dated. Some believe that the demands of the 1970s 'second wave' feminists have been met. However, all feminists are not all the same and they don't all agree. Although it's clear that women are subjugated, feminists disagree on how to end this subjugation and what exactly it is that causes it. Many feminists have failed to be relevant to many women, seeing male dominated society as the problem or 'formal equality' as the solution...

The Left

Bolshy supports the Alliance for Workers' Liberty, but the AWL is just one of many socialist groups in Britain. Why is the left so divided? How can it be united? And, in the meantime, how do you choose? Mike and Faz take the temperature of the British left... If you decide that you're a socialist and want to join a socialist organisation, one of the first problems you'll encounter is - which one? There are dozens of left groups active in Britain, each with its own separate membership, publications, meetings, campaigns etc. Sometimes these groups cooperate; more often, they maintain an attitude...

Socialist Feminism Part 2

Last time we looked at what exactly socialist feminism is, but what have socialist feminists had to do with women’s struggles? During early industrialisation, women’s work was hard and ideas that women were not strong enough to carry out all roles were common. Eventually male workers claimed that competition between men and women in the work force would lead to lower wages for men; so male workers demanded women and children be pushed out of many factories, forcing women into the home. Even so, working class women remained exploited at work as well as in the home. In the late 19th Century...

EDITORIAL: Fight for workers' solidarity!

By Daniel Randall, Editor On May Day, people all over the world will take to the streets to celebrate hundreds of years of working class struggle. From the Haymarket Martyrs, to the Matchgirls' strike, from the miners' and fire-fighters' strikes of recent years to the Great Russian Revolution, from the Spanish Civil War to the Solidarnosc shipyards, May Day commemorates those times when working class people stood up for their rights and fought back against their oppressors. What does May Day mean? It's about solidarity - working class people in all countries standing together to fight...

The History of May Day

by Jim On May 1 1886, 80,000 workers and their families walked down Chicago's Michigan Avenue in the worlds first ever May Day Parade. At the same time 340,000 workers in 12,000 factories across the US downed tools in a general strike to demand an eight-hour day. They demanded that their employers provide work for the thousands who were being made unemployed by new machinery. The next day Chicago police attacked peaceful strikers with guns and clubs, killing one and wounding several. The next day 6,000 striking lumber workers marched to the aid of strikers at the McCormick Harvester factory...

Solidarity with Iraqi workers now!

By Mick from No Sweat So the bombs have stopped dropping, the "boys" are coming home and "liberation" has been brought to Iraq. The Guardian - in between bravely backing Blair over Iraq, the fire-fighters, immigration, any old anti-working class "tough decision" he can come up with - featured a cartoon by Martin Rowson showing two Iraqis celebrating their liberation in the rubble of Baghdad and commenting that, "if I just sew another thirty trainers by lunchtime, I'll earn a dollar". And that is basically the liberation the war will bring. Religious bigots and trans-national corporations are...

The War after the War

YOUR views on the war... Marc, 16 School student from Leicester 'The war was fought only in the interests of the imperialist West. Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator who needed to be overthrown, but it's the people of Iraq who should have done this, not Bush and Blair. The mass demonstrations and walkouts organised by students are fantastic and we should keep pursuing these as a strategy, if America doesn't allow democracy in Iraq. The anti-war movement needs to turn into a pro-democracy movement. Another important step is for students to unite with workers.' Jasm A Kurdish communist 'The...

Working class internationalism - not the United Nations!

by Amina Many of those who initially opposed the US war on Iraq said that they would have supported it if the United Nations Security Council had passed a "second resolution". A large section of the anti-war movement, including the Stop the War Coalition, focused on the war being "illegal" - with the strong implication that, if the UN had backed it, it would have both "legal" and right. I think socialists should reject this approach, and refuse to put their trust in the UN. There is a very obvious practical problem with making our opposition to or support for something hinge on the UN. A...

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