Review

Robert Service has written, to great acclaim, a new biography of Leon Trotsky. “Trotsky moved like a bright comet across the political sky,” Service tells us. - read article...

This is the first systematic biography of the main leader and theorist of the Fourth International after 1945, who was, as noted by Tariq Ali in his preface, one of the most creative and independent revolutionary thinkers of our time. - read article...

Phil Hearse welcomes an impressive new biography of Ernest Mandel, but questions whether it does justice to the scale of the famous revolutionary’s achievements. - read article...

THE ISSUE OF same-sex sexualities in the Arab world is a political and intellectual minefield, and more so since 9/11 than before. In a bizarre twist, neoconservatives and other rightists who were hostile for decades to the lesbian/gay movement(1) have repackaged themselves as defenders of oppressed Arab women and gays. Responses from the left have been divided. - read article...

Ernest Mandel’s Introduction to Marxism has been and remains a reference book for many activists. Thirty years after its first publication, in 1974, Daniel Bensaïd looks back at one of Mandel’s most widely read works. - read article...

Gabriel Kolko, historian of the Vietnam war and American imperialism, makes a complete rejection of socialism and Marxism in After Socialism. Phil Hearse finds his critique wanting. - read article...

We have been waiting a long time, a very long time, for this book to be published... - read article...

Contemporary Colombia clearly ranks as one of the most difficult settings in which to wage resistance for social justice. At the same time, the abundance of injustice demands such resistance. Evil Hour in Colombia, the new book by Forrest Hylton, demonstrates a deep and penetrating understanding of the sociocultural, economic, and political post-Independence history of Colombia. It is a powerful indictment of the imperial practices of the US state. - read article...

2006 saw British socialist paper, Socialist Resistance start a new publishing arm - Socialist Resistance Books. It has now published its third title - "Ecosocialism or Barbarism". - read article...

Michael Löwy looks at the new book by Cuban "unaffiliated Trotskyist" Celia Hart. - read article...

"In the end, then, the positive implications of the removal of white minority rule have been muted for most people in the region: extreme socio-economic inequality, desperate poverty, and disease (AIDS most notably) remain the lot of the vast majority of the population. " - read article...

Socialist Resistance in Britain has recently published a new book of writings by Cuban writer Celia Hart. John Lister says that the book represents the revival of a more critical tradition in Cuban communism. - read article...

Tariq Ali’s new short (100 pages) polemical book against New Labour is a must for every socialist. - read article...

British Marxist John Lister has written an impressive account of the global counter-revolution in health care. One of the world’s biggest industries, accounting for global spending just short of 3 trillion US dollars in 1997, or almost 8% of world GDP, no wonder health care is a major casualty of neoliberal globalisation. - read article...

Barry Sheppard’s book is a sustained exercise in retrieving memories of experiences associated with left-wing radicalism prevalent in the 1960s. This is done especially for the benefit of younger activists who have become engaged in the struggle for global justice in opposition to the corporate-military quest for “empire.” - read article...

A new biography of Mao Tse-tung by ’Wild Swans’ author Jung Chang and Jon Halliday will force many on the left to re-assess some of their opinions about Mao and the CCP, before and after the struggle for power, according to our reviewer. - read article...

A new book on the water struggle in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba casts new light on a key battle, and raises fundamental questions of strategy for popular struggles. - read article...

David Mandel shares his unrivaled knowledge of the union movement in these countries, drawing on innumerable discussions with workers and worker activists. - read article...

For fifteen years or so, beginning in the late eighties in the southern city of Porto Alegre, there was a radical experiment in direct democracy which involved thousands of citizens in improving the conditions under which they lived. This experiment was called the Participatory Budget (PB). - read article...

Discussing the ideas in this book is useful, not because John Holloway has legions of devoted followers, but because many of the ideas he advances about fundamental social change are widespread in the global justice movement and anti-war movement internationally. - read article...

Livio Maitan, a regular contributor to ’International Viewpoint’, has just published La strada percorsa - Dalla Resistanza ai nuovi movimenti: lettura critica e scelte alternative ("The Road Taken - From the Resistance to the New Movements: A Critical Reading and Alternative Options"), with a preface by Fausto Bertinotti. - read article...

From 1959 to 1967, Che’s thought evolved considerably. He distanced himself ever further from his initial illusions concerning Soviet or Soviet-style socialism, that is, from the Stalinist version of Marxism. - read article...

It is a remarkable development indeed when an economist of Joseph Stiglitz’s stature proclaims that in many ways the critics of neo-liberalism have a deeper understanding of the global economy than elite policy makers - read article...

Michael Löwy has made important contributions to Marxist thought for more than three decades. Portions of his previous writings have been gathered into the seven essays on nationalism and internationalism that make up this slim volume, produced as part of an innovative series by the International Institute for Research and Education in Amsterdam. - read article...

August Nimtz tells us his book’s three central themes are: 1 Marx and Engels "were the leading protagonists in the democratic movement in the nineteenth century"; 2 "they were first and foremost political activists, and not simply ’thinkers’"; 3 their practical political experience was central to shaping their theories. - read article...

For thoughtful activists who are in the process of committing themselves or recommitting themselves to "the long haul" of revolutionary struggle, this is among the most valuable books that have appeared in the last several years. It is valuable for anyone who wants to develop a deeper comprehension of the history and theory of Marxism. - read article...

Empire is a paradox. An overly long (478 pages with notes and index), often abstruse intellectual exercise, Empire would appear to be a work destined to obscurity-to be read, at best, by small groups of left-wing intellectuals ensconced in academia. However, the book has attracted enormous attention, not only in the academy, but also in the mainstream press and among anti-capitalist and global justice activists in both the US and Europe. - read article...

IN this book, Stephen Cohen presents a devastating critique of American policy towards Russia since the fall of USSR. - read article...

Subtitled "September 11, Causes and Consequences" Fred Halliday’s book says little about the "two hours which shook the world", but is in fact an assessment of the international political factors which gave rise to the attack, notably the questions of Islamic fundamentalism, globalisation and United States capitalism. - read article...

The contemporary movement for lesbian/gay liberation was born out of the ferment of the New Left. Its leftist roots were openly acknowledged. Times have changed, nowadays lesbian/gay spokespeople and theorists are less likely to identify with the anti-capitalist left than they used to be. - read article...

Our articles on the floods in Pakistan have given details of how to send financial aid to the Labour Relief Fund. If it is more convenient for you, you can also send funds through the Europe Solidaire Sans Frontieres account. - read article...

Pakistan is facing worst ever floods of its history. Torrential rains have unleashed flash floods in different parts of the country since last three weeks. Water levies broke leaving the people exposed to flood water. More than 12 million people have suffered due to these floods. More than 650,000 houses have collapsed, mainly in villages. Thousands of acres of crops have been destroyed due to flood water. Houses, live-stock such as cattle’s and goats, household goods, clothes, shoes and other items have been destroyed. Residents of villages are currently without drinkable water, food, shelter and in need of clothes. In particular, the situation is dire for children and women and they are in desperate need of food and clothing. Disease is spreading fast in the areas affected due to lack of drinkable water. In particular, flu, fever, diarrhea, cholera have been noted and are spreading. - read article...

An unexpected, unthinkable, yet - concerning current circumstances - quite expectable and natural thing has occurred yesterday night. Three public social activists that have always expressed a consistent antifascist attitude and shunned civil indifference have been detained. - read article...

We, the participants at the Istanbul ESF, affirming that we have a strong engagement aganist all war and occupation and that we are for a politial resolution of the Kurdish issue, have made the following resolution : - read article...

Under the impulse of the World Bank and international capitalist institutions, the Moroccan regime started a privatization process of the universities and attacks against the right to studiy. The announcement of the “Emergency plan” to the university at beginning of the academic year, i.e. of the brutal aggravation of these attacks, put a spark to the powder. The class-struggle trade unionists of fight, organised within the UNEM, are at the forefront of the mobilization against the “Emergency plan”. - read article...