Arkivet – Nummervisning

Fra International Socialism Journal nr. 143

Forfatter: Titel

Nr.

Side

Udgivet

Om

Contents (ISJ 143, Summer 2014)

143

1

jul 14

Contributors (ISJ 143, Summer 2014)

143

2

jul 14

Alex Callinicos: Analysis: Nemesis in Iraq

143

3

jul 14

To justify the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, George W Bush and Tony Blair argued that the country belonged under Saddam Hussein to an “axis of evil” of “failed states” (the others were Iran and North Korea) that were a danger to themselves and others. But if ever there was a failed state, it is the Iraqi regime that emerged from the occupation following the invasion, as the sudden fall of Mosul to a coalition of forces headed by the jihadis of ISIS in mid-June has shown.

Alex Callinicos: Analysis: Towards the break-up of Britain?

143

11

jul 14

Creeping up on the British state is potentially its biggest internal crisis since the struggle for Irish self-determination reached its climax a century ago. The outcome of the referendum on Scottish independence on 18 September could tear a huge chunk out of the United Kingdom, rendering its very name a joke, with major geopolitical, economic and domestic political consequences.

Mike Gonzalez: Analysis: The reckoning: the future of the Venezuelan Revolution

143

25

jul 14

Hugo Chávez’s final testament, before his death in March 2013, was the Plan de La Patria 2013-19. It opens with a combative reaffirmation of the project for “socialism for the 21st century” that Chávez memorably announced at the Porto Alegre World Social Forum in 2005.

Andy Jones: UKIP and the politics of immigration

143

37

jul 14

The outcome of May’s European and local council elections demonstrates beyond doubt both widespread disaffection with the traditional framework of British party politics and the fact that the issue of immigration is now placed firmly at the centre of political debate. In the European elections the UK Independence Party (UKIP) won 27.5 percent of the vote, becoming the first party other than the two main parties to win a national election in 100 years.

Megan Trudell: The changing history of the First World War

143

61

jul 14

The anniversary of the First World War has already made clear the extent to which the history of the war is contested. For David Cameron, the planned commemoration costing £50 million will be a: “commemoration that captures our national spirit in every corner of the country, from our schools and workplaces, to our town halls and local communities. A commemoration that, like the Diamond Jubilee celebrations this year, says something about who we are as a people”.

Paul Blackledge: The great schism: socialism and war in 1914

143

85

jul 14

On 4 August 1914 social democratic deputies in both the German Reichstag and the French Chamber of Deputies voted unanimously for war credits.1 Among those who voted on that day were deputies who had, less than a week earlier, met together under the auspices of the Socialist (Second) International to champion peace.

Alex Callinicos: Thunder on the left

143

111

jul 14

The paradox of the present situation is that capital is weak—but the radical left is much weaker. Alternatively, capital is economically weak, but much stronger politically, less because of mass ideological commitment to the system than because of the weakness of credible anti-capitalist alternatives.

Donny Gluckstein: Classical Marxism and the question of reformism

143

141

jul 14

We stand at an unusual place in history, both in Britain and internationally. It is more apparent than ever that while humanity possesses the means to abolish want, we live under an anarchic system that viciously assaults the working class and the poor across the globe. Yet the impact of this realisation on our movement is contradictory.

Anne Alexander: Capital and resistance in the Middle East

143

165

jul 14

A review of Gilbert Achcar, The People Want: A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising (Saqi, 2013), £17.99, and Adam Hanieh, Lineages of Revolt: Issues of Contemporary Capitalism in the Middle East (Haymarket, 2013), £14.99.

These important books make a significant contribution to our understanding of the revolutions of 2011 in the Arab world. Written from a regional perspective, and both mobilising an impressive range of comparative data, they represent the most significant attempts yet to grapple with the theoretical challenges of analysing this immense popular uprising from a Marxist perspective.

Tomáš Tengely-Evans: Piketty and Marx

143

177

jul 14

A review of Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Harvard University Press, 2014), £29.95.

In January, Oxfam’s “Working for the Few” report tore apart the idea that wealth “trickles down” and revealed that just 85 billionaires now own more than the poorest half of the world’s population. In the past year alone Britain’s 1,000 richest individuals have seen their wealth increase by 15 percent from £449 billion.

John Newsinger: Defusing George Orwell

143

187

jul 14

A review of Robert Colls, George Orwell: English Rebel (Oxford University Press, 2013), £25.

At one point in his new study of George Orwell, Robert Colls, Professor of Cultural History at De Montfort University, insists that he is not trying to argue that “Englishness is the key to Orwell”. This is somewhat disingenuous because this is, in fact, precisely what he does argue, somewhat obsessively, it has to be said. At various times we are recommended to admire Orwell’s “belly-to-earth Englishness”, told that he “built his politics out of his nation”, was “drawn to Labour’s sort of Englishness”, had a “great reconciliation with England, his England” and had even, in 1940, “started to solve the riddle of Englishness”.

John Rose: Ukraine and the Bolsheviks

143

201

jul 14

‘The Russian Revolution unleashed a vicious struggle between revolutionaries (above all the Bolsheviks based among the miners of the Donbass in the east), Ukrainian and Polish nationalists, and red and white armies.’

This sentence in Alex Callinicos’s analysis of events in Ukraine, “Imperial Delusions”, in International Socialism 142, addressed the troubled relationship between the Bolsheviks and Ukraine. Understandably, given the article’s focus on contemporary events, it could not do justice to the profound challenge that Ukraine posed for the Bolsheviks after they had seized power in October 1917. It was a challenge which, arguably, undermined the revolution from its earliest days.

Andy Ridley: Book review: Dark thoughts: psychology and genocide

143

205

jul 14

Sabby Sagall, Final Solutions: Human Nature, Capitalism and Genocide (Pluto Press, 2013), £20.50.

In Final Solutions Sabby Sagall analyses the nature and the role of the subjective and irrational in determining genocidal mass murder. The book poses the question as to what underlying psychological and historical conditions and processes are necessary to cause groups of people to kill other groups of people en masse, out of the context of immediate military engagement.

Debs Gwynn: Book review: Women and war

143

209

jul 14

Lindsey German, How a Century of War Changed the Lives of Women (Pluto Press, 2013), £14.

Lindsey German describes her book How a Century of War Changed the Lives of Women as “an attempt to understand the relationship between women and war in Britain in the 20th and 21st centuries”. As well as analysing the effect of war on women, throughout the book German attempts to explain the political, industrial and social context in Britain in relation to conflicts and resistance movements.

Paul Sillett: Book review: By any means necessary

143

210

jul 14

Dave Hann, Physical Resistance: A Hundred Years of Anti-fascism (Zero, 2013), £18.99.

There is much to recommend in this work, prepared for publication following Dave Hann’s untimely death from cancer by his partner, who, like Dave did, still leads from the front. Much of the book is based on interviews, carried out with some of the best anti-fascists (and chroniclers, like Morris Beckman) you will find. Hann is aware of the contradictions of differing approaches to anti-fascism and his willingness to air differing opinions is commendable.

Terry Sullivan: Book review: Much too much, much too young

143

213

jul 14

Richard House (ed), Too Much, Too Soon: Early Learning and the Erosion of Childhood (Hawthorn Press, 2011), £20

In April this year Ofsted Chief Inspector Michael Wilshaw announced that from September 2015 four year olds will be tested within the first few weeks of starting school. This “baseline assessment” will then form the starting point to judge schools and their teachers.

Sally Kincaid: Book review: China’s changing education

143

215

jul 14

Xiaming Li, Education in China: Cultural Influences, Global Perspectives and Social Challenges (Nova, 2013), £124, and Holly H Ming, The Education of Migrant Children and China’s Future (Routledge, 2013), £85.

Chinese education has become a hot topic in the UK. Education and childcare minister Elizabeth Truss recently led a delegation to Shanghai to “discover” why Shanghai pupils had come the top of the OECD Pisa (Programme for International Student Assessment) tables in maths in 2012.

John Sinha: Book review: #Leninism

143

217

jul 14

Paulo Gerbaudo, Tweets and the Streets (Pluto Press, 2012), £15.

Are social media a substitute for a revolutionary paper? Is the social network a substitute for a revolutionary party? These are some of the questions Paulo Gerbaudo attempts to answer.

Gary McFarlane: Book review: Black Power comes to Britain

143

220

jul 14

Robin Bunce and Paul Field, Darcus Howe: A Political Biography, (Bloomsbury, 2014), £54.99.

This fascinating political biography of Darcus Howe will teach even the most knowledgeable of students of Caribbean history and the struggles of the diaspora many valuable lessons.

Camilla Royle + Alex Callinicos: Pick of the quarter: This quarter’s selection

143

224

jul 14

New Left Review + Historical Materialism + Race & Class and more ...