We continue our series on revolutionary women with a look at the great German socialist Clara Zetkin pioneer of the struggle for women’s liberation, writes Natalie Sedley Clara Zetkin, born in 1857, was a key figure in the world’s first mass socialist party, the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), where she fought for the cause […]

“Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought!” Here we look at the life of Helen Keller as part of our series on revolutionary women in history Many people have heard of Helen Keller, the blind and deaf woman who learned to talk when her friends wrote sign language on her hands. Films […]

The resignation from the Socialist Workers Party of 42 members of the Left Platform, including leading figures such as Lindsey German and John Rees, delivers an important opportunity for SWP and Left Platform members alike to reconsider critical elements of their political tradition.

This site begins a new series on revolutionary women to highlight their often forgotten role in the communist movement. Katja Teran starts the first in the series on Yevgenia Bosch Yevgenia Bogdanovna Bosch was born on 11 August 1879 (23 August after the calendar was modernised) in Ochakiv in the Ukraine. Victor Serge, the communist writer, […]

The UK economy has officially come out of recession. Unemployment has fallen for the first time in two years. Consumers spent more than expected in the Christmas sales, the housing market appears buoyant and manufacturing companies are reporting levels of optimism not seen for more than two years. But the recovery will be a long, […]

2010 WAS A year of youth rebellion as the students from schools and colleges across the country took furious action against the Tories’ hike in fees and cuts in grants. Let no one speak of the apathetic, playstation generation again. The cry of ‘Tory scum’ went up in every town and city across Britain. Voiced […]

The British SWP is in crisis with a faction fight, expulsions and a major dispute on tactics for the period ahead. Richard Brenner surveys the dispute and examines the linked issues of party democracy, the united front, industrial policy and the fight for a new workers’ party. Britain’s largest socialist group – the Socialist Workers […]

Recent months have seen an increase in the number of homophobic attacks across the country. Alex Kelby and Jim Parker argue for a militant campaign of resistance Over the summer, a number of gay men were attacked coming out of London bars. In one incident, a 21-year old was left paralysed after being repeatedly stabbed […]

This resolution outlines our position on the nature of the prison system

An action programme to fight the capitalist crisis

Resolution on the methods and principles of communist organisation, from ideological current to mass party

Buying sex from a woman who is the victim of trafficking will be made illegal under new legislation. The law will also apply to men who knowingly pay for sex with a woman who has a pimp. Either offence could lead to a rape charge. In addition, new laws will also result in “kerb crawlers” […]

Originally published in our international magazine, fifthinternational.org In February 2008 the resignation of 81 year-old Fidel Castro as Cuban president due to his deteriorating health, and his succession by brother Raul Castro gave rise to debate over the path that Cuba was now to take. Recent economic reforms, particularly those in agriculture have fuelled speculation that […]

Why have US workers never had a party of their own?

The biggest left group in Britain, the Socialist Workers Party, suffered a serious setback when its Respect project split in November. Simon Hardy explains the political roots of its crisis

The specific role of women workers in the February revolution occurred because of the very acute way the war had affected them. The mobilisation of soldiers and production for the war effort led to enormous deprivation in the cities and villages of Russia. As early as April 1915 there were riots by women demanding bread, […]

“In Rosa Luxemburg the socialist idea was a dominating and powerful passion of both heart and brain, a truly creative passion which burned ceaselessly. The great task and the over-powering ambition of this astonishing woman was to prepare the way for social revolution, to clear the path of history for socialism. To experience the revolution, […]

Betty Heathfield, who died aged 78, will be chiefly remembered for the work she did to organise the miners’ wives movement during the Great Miners’ Strike of 1984-85. As chair of Women Against Pit Closures (WAPC), she helped pull together a mass movement of women, essential to raising money and food for the besieged mining […]

Betty Friedan, who died last month, was a key figure in the modern women’s movement. Her book, The Feminine Mystique, published in the United States in 1963, galvanised women into action and shook up the picture of the ideal family that dominated US life in the post-war boom of the 1950s and 1960s. Friedan came […]

Andrea Dworkin died last month. Dworkin was seen by most as an intransigent, man-hating radical feminist. She wrote extensively about male violence, drawing upon her own experiences.Dworkin had a very traumatic life. She suffered anti-Semitism and sexual abuse from a very young age. Then, after decades as a feminist writer and lecturer she was drugged […]

“Respect for women… can triumph in the Middle East and beyond!” President George Bush at the UN, September 2002 Since the US/UK invasion on Iraq something has practically vanished from its streets. That something is the sight of Iraqi women. Not surprisingly, the empty speeches promising liberation for the women of Iraq after the fall […]

Rachel Hodgins reviews Playing with Fire by David Edgar, National Theatre to 21 October The past few years have seen a welcome revival of political theatre in Britain. David Edgar started his career as one of a generation of political playwrights and, unlike many of his contemporaries of 30 years ago, has been producing political […]

Workers Power 279 October 2003 One hundred years ago this month the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) was founded. The WSPU became the militant wing of a mass movement of women fighting for the vote. Within this organisation many of the direct action tactics used today were first developed. Kirstie Paton and Stuart King […]

Sylvia Pankhurst developed a very different view from her mother and older sister of how the vote for women could be achieved. Although she did not speak out against it, she was opposed to the ‘terrorist’ turn which she believed “retarded a wonderful movement which was rising to a great climax”. For Sylvia a successful […]

George W Bush is set on war. He will not let anything get in his way. Not Iraq’s agreement to let weapons inspectors back. Not the United Nations meddlesome attempt to let diplomacy work to disarm Saddam Hussein. He will try to bully France, bribe Russia and berate China to get the UN Security Council […]

Globalisation strangles the global south, but how can the working class of the poorest countries come to the head of the struggle against it?

How the Bolsheviks were able to lead the world's first successful workers' revolution.

'Socialism is a good idea, but...' is an argument we have all faced. This article outlines how the transition is grounded in the everyday conditions of capitalism.

  The period of the 1880’s and 1890’s in Germany was a period of rapid industrialisation carried through under the guidance of the repressive German state. It saw the birth and growth of German Social Democracy as the mass workers party. It drew women, and children, into industry on a large scale. It was in […]

A political-economic analysis of the working class under capitalism.