Issue: July/August 2019

  • China’s resistance to the US trade war

    China’s defensive measures China is taking strong measures to defend itself against the trade war the US has launched against it. For example, The Times of 30 May 2019 gives details of how it is increasing its soya crop in order to avoid having to import soya beans from the US. The Times reports:... [Read more]

  • Brexit and the Tory leadership race

    The donkey derby to replace the outgoing Theresa May as British Prime Minister is fast approaching the final furlong. Only two riders are now left from an initial pack of thirteen. Before the race even began, three of the contenders withdrew after failing to receive the requisite support of even... [Read more]

  • Hong Kong government withdraws proposed extradition legislation

    A pregnant young lady from Hong Kong and her boyfriend went on a romantic short holiday to Taiwan. The lady, Poon Hui-wing, 20, never returned to Hong Kong from this Valentine’s trip last year, but her boyfriend, Chan Tong-kai, 19, did. During a quarrel in their hotel bedroom he had... [Read more]

  • Comrade Josef Skala speaks in Britain

    Comrade Josef Skala from the Prague branch of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM) gave two insightful talks this weekend (15-16 June 2019), the first in Birmingham on Saturday evening, and the second in central London on Sunday. In his talks to members of the... [Read more]

  • Brexit, profiteers and the NHS

    The American threat During his recent visit to Britain the US President Donald Trump caused widespread horror in the bourgeois press when he stated that, in negotiations for any post-Brexit US-UK trade agreement, everything, including the NHS, would be on the table. Within a very short... [Read more]

  • Iran – False flags flying over Hormuz Straits

    Advisors to US President Donald Trump are routinely frustrated by the President’s seemingly limitless ability to play down rising tensions with Iran. Despite mock imperialist media outrage over alleged Iranian attacks on oil tankers, and the shooting down of a US drone in mid-June,... [Read more]

  • British imperialism announces: there is no peace, only war

    Clausewitzs’ famous aphorism, that war is a continuation of politics, by other means has been given a 21st century update by General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith, the British Chief of the General Staff. Speaking to a conference of defence chiefs Sir Mark explained that there was now... [Read more]

  • Shifting sands in the Middle East

    With jihadists and their imperialist backers holed up in Idlib province there was a wave of media coverage in June as the Syrian Arab Army moved to liberate the area. British and US diplomats and politicians along with the corporate media were keen to frame the story as being one of a... [Read more]

  • Ukraine – Zelensky begins to show his true colours

    Ukrainian elections, which returned a TV comedian for President, raised as many questions as eyebrows. The winner, Volodymyr Zelensky, has been said in many quarters to represent a bright ‘new direction’ for Ukraine, a ‘breaking of the mould’, and a ‘new dawn’, in short, all the usual... [Read more]

  • A worker’s visit to the Symphony Hall, Birmingham, to hear Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony

    On Saturday 16 March I saw a performance by the city of Birmingham symphony orchestra (CBSO) of Shostakovich’s Symphony No 5. The symphony took up the second half of the performance, with the period before the interval dedicated to a mixed bag from Shostakovich’s ‘the Limpid Stream’ and his Piano... [Read more]

  • Stalin and the Bolsheviks of Transcaucasia in the fight against reactionary nationalism – PART ONE

    It might be asked why we should have any particular interest in the conduct of the class struggle in Transcaucasia which was carried out by the Bolsheviks. Beyond the fact that JV Stalin is known as a Georgian, little is known amongst our comrades about the history of the region.... [Read more]

  • Anniversary of the D-Day landings

    6 June has marked the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings by US and British forces mainly. They set sail on 6 June 1944 for Normandy on the northern coast of France. This year’s anniversary was marked with great pomp and ceremony. Invited to the celebrations were the US... [Read more]