Search results for ""lawrence wishart ltd""

Part of a definitive English-language edition, prepared in collaboration with the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Moscow, which contains all the works of Marx and Engels, whether published in their lifetimes or since. The series includes their complete correspondence and newly discovered works.

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Part of a definitive English-language edition, prepared in collaboration with the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Moscow, which contains all the works of Marx and Engels, whether published in their lifetimes or since. The series includes their complete correspondence and newly discovered works.

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Part of a definitive English-language edition, prepared in collaboration with the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Moscow, which contains all the works of Marx and Engels, whether published in their lifetimes or since. The series includes their complete correspondence and newly discovered works.

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This edition makes easily accessible the most important parts of Marx's and Engels's major early philosophical work, The German Ideology, a text of key importance for students.

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This second in the six volume series covers the years of the General Strike, and includes a detailed examination of the policies, successes and failings of Communists and the militant left generally.

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This first in the six volume series covers the early 20s - the wave of post-war militancy, the negotiations between Marxist groups which led to the formation of the Communist Party, the Party's early organisation and political policies, and the coming into office and the fall of the First Labour Government.

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This book highlights the pivotal role of the Caribbean in the Second World War.

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A collection of political writings by the radical socialist and feminist geographer, Doreen Massey, edited by David Featherstone and Diarmaid Kelliher.

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Who were the women who fought back at Grunwick and Gate Gourmet? Striking Women gives a voice to the women involved as they discuss their lives, their work and their trade unions. Striking Women is centred on two industrial disputes, the famous Grunwick strike (1976-78) and the Gate Gourmet dispute that erupted in 2005. Focusing on these two events, the book explores the nature of South Asian women’s contribution to the struggles for workers’ rights in the UK labour market. The authors examine histories of migration and settlement of two different groups of women of South Asian origin, and how this history, their gendered, classed and racialised inclusion in the labour market, the context of industrial relations in the UK in the two periods and the nature of the trade union movement shaped the trajectories and the outcomes of the two disputes. This is the first account based on the voices of the women involved. Drawing on life/work history interviews with thirty-two women who participated in the two disputes, as well as interviews with trade union officials, archival material and employment tribunal proceedings, the authors explore the motivations, experiences and implications of these events for their political and social identities.

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Robin Murray: Selected Writings demonstrates the breadth of Murray's intellectual curiosity and his political commitment to finding new ways of organising the economy and society. A thinker at the heart of left-wing thought and contributor to the seminal 1968 May Day Manifesto, Robin Murray's pioneering work encompasses diverse areas including fair trade, waste management, and, crucially, the regeneration of London via the London Industrial Strategy of radical local authority the GLC in the 1980s. Much of Murray's work has striking contemporary relevance, for example his passion for ecological sustainability, co-operatives and fair trade, and his analysis of the developing 'attention economy' and its impact on a new era of digital platforms. This collection has been curated to showcase the many contexts within which Robin Murray's boundless energy, enthusiasm and intellectual curiosity saw him collaborating. Murray's work exemplifies how cooperation can bring about real social change; this book will appeal to students, policymakers and anyone interested in radical social transformation.

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Jeremy Corbyn is the epitome of the anti-leader: he would, by impulse, shy away from the very idea of `Corbynism’. Yet when a general election is called, Corbyn’s Labour promises to force a break with the current consensus every bit as historic as those of Attlee in 1945 and Thatcher in 1979. Corbyn is a phenomenon that has been purposely misrepresented and wilfully misunderstood, with supporters derided as `Corbynistas’, fans and cultists. This book of specially commissioned essays explores the true nature of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership; expectations of how Labour might fulfil its promise of a new kind of politics; and the limits to what Labour can achieve; as well as offering tools for transforming the party from the bottom up. Building on the work of Mark Perryman’s previous book The Corbyn Effect, this new collection is vital reading for all those interested in left politics and the future of the Labour Party. It presents a comprehensive account of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party: where it came from, how it has begun a process of radical change, and the party it promises to become.

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An account of the assault on the Union at Grangemouth in 2013, when workers were forced to accept cuts in their pay andconditions by the owner's threat of closure. Written by the Grangemouth convenor, The Battle of Grangemouth is a vital storyin trying times, and demonstrates why, now more than ever, being organised is vital for the defense of basic right at work. Published in association with Unite the Union.This book tells the story of the industrial dispute at Grangemouth in 2013, when the owner threatened to close a large part of the complex unless the workforce accepted severe cuts to their wages and conditions. The events at Grangemouth represented, in very acute form, the disaster of contemporary approaches to running the economy. What was once a publicly owned and well-run national asset has been allowed to fall into the hands of a company controlled by one man - Jim Ratcliffe - who thus has been able to exert immense power over the future of a vital national resource.Ratcliffe conducted a relentless campaign against the union at the site, with the intention of removing its main organisers, partly through exploiting the row in Falkirk Labour Party over candidate selection. Through these endeavours he succeeded in inflicting considerable hardship on a large number of people, but he did not destroy the strong union organisation at Grangemouth, which remains committed to defending the workforce and local community from his depredations.

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In one sense, of course, all of Stuart Hall's writing was political, but this collection focuses on the essays he wrote throughout his life that directly engaged with the political issues of the day. From the beginning, his analyses focused strongly on the central role of culture in politics, and his insights are evident across the whole selection, whether he is writing about Thatcher's authoritarianism or the double shuffles of Tony Blair. These essays come from three broad periods: the 1950s and 1960s, when Hall was involved in the New Left; the 1970s and 1980s, when he evolved his critique of Thatcherism; and from the 1990s until the end of his life, when he focused on the emergence of neoliberalism. The editors have brought together the best and most representative works of a writer with a unique and conjunctural approach to understanding politics, and have collected those works that have a general application to broader political questions. The collection is therefore valuable for readers interested in the politics of the past sixty years, in specific political questions, such as around political commitment, or the politics of empire, and specific political moments, such as the Cuban Crisis, or the actions of New Labour. But Hall's engaging writing and the connections here between his more obviously political writing and the other areas of his work-including identity politics and race-also make the collection an essential resource for those interested in politics more generally.

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2014 is WAF's 25th anniversary year, and this book maps the development of the organisation over the past 25 years, through the life stories and political reflections of some of its members. It focuses on the ways in which lived contradictions have been reflected in their politics. Their stories describe the pathways that led them to WAF, and the role WAF has played in their lives and in the different forms of politicial activism in which they have engaged. Discussing feminist activism from a wide variety of different ethnic and religious backgrounds, contributors highlight the complex relationships of belonging that are at the heart of contemporary social life - including the problems of exclusionary political projects of belonging. They also explore the ways in which anti-fundamentalism relates to broader feminist, anti-racist and other emancipatory political ideologies and movements. The personal stories at the centre of this book are those of women whose lives enact the complexities of multiple (if shifting and contingent) mutually constitutive axes of power and difference. Much of their concerns therefore relate to crossing the boundaries of collectivity and practising a 'dialogical transversal politics' that has developed as an alternative to identity politics.

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This book asks whether or not it is possible to combine the values of solidarity and belonging with curiosity and openness towards difference. Is it possible to create an 'Open Tribe'? As markets become global, and social welfare is cut back, many people feel exposed and vulnerable to the economy, and the response is to become defensive, to turn inwards, to look for comfort in 'people like us'. But we need both 'openness' and a sense of belonging in our conversations about change, and Sue Goss discusses these questions in a series of conversations with politicians, academics, campaigners and thinkers. Each conversation travels in a different direction, exploring the worlds of politics, work, community and the state. But powerful themes emerge across each discussant - about the 'battle for the human' - a different way of looking at ourselves and at each other - and a set of shared values from which to challenge and rethink all our social and economic institutions.

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Arthur Horner (1894-1968) was a miners' leader from the 1926 general strike to his retirement as general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers in 1959. During his life, he played a crucial role in the fight for a national mineworkers union, and in the development of the National Coal Board; he was a champion of the Republicans in Spain; he was imprisoned several times for his views; and, he was in constant demand as a speaker. But it was his warmth, good humour and enthusiasm which made 'little Arthur', as he was affectionately known by his union colleagues, really memorable.

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This book brings together leading British and Spanish historians in an examination of key aspects and themes of the Spanish Civil War. Contributors discuss the politics of memory; recent revisionist historiography; biographies of international volunteers; the experience of nursing in Catalonia; the baptism of fire of Jarama; Britain's blocking of aid to the Republic; Soviet intervention in the conflict; and the crimes of Franco, both during and after the war.

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Published ten years after the Good Friday Agreement, this book is about the people, ideas and movements that created it. But it is also about its limits; how the Agreement's promise was frequently betrayed by an establishment that found it difficult to give up its dominance. Campbell documents the forces strongly resisting change, including those inside the police, military and secret services whose refusal to repudiate their long history of collusion prevented them from contributing to peace-making. Gender is woven into the texture of this story - from the men who sought to dominate the streets to the women who fought for the equality agenda.The book has an inspired sense of people making their own history, and is full of their stories. These are people whose contribution was from the grassroots - loyalist ex-combatant Gusty Spence, the PPU's Dawn Purvis, Unison's Inez McCormack, Thomas Donahue of the AFL-CIO, Father Aidan Troy of Holy Cross School, to name only a few. It is on the efforts of people such as these that the success of the new state will continue to depend.

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Morgan goes far beyond the question of Russian gold, to dig beneath a host of myths and misconceptions. He shows that Labour's parliamentary advance was itself inconceivable solely on the basis of the workers' and trade union 'pennies' with which it is usually identified. In addition to the virtual market that developed in Labour's parliamentary nominations, there was almost always a need to cultivate private benefactors - not excluding Russian ones. Thus, as Morgan shows, George Lansbury drew on a wide variety of financial sponsors to create the space both for his own political career and for Labour's daily newspaper, the Daily Herald. As for the communist party itself, Russian subsidies often gave rise to fierce internal conflict and controversy: it was certainly regarded as mixed blessing by many. Kevin Morgan has uncovered some fascinating new material on this period of left history, and through his insightful analysis a much more complex picture than hitherto emerges, both of Labour-communist relations and those between the CPGB and the Comintern.

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John Fisher describes the immense energy and activity associated with the union's education programme, and shows how it has contributed to the union's development over the years, especially in the sustenance it has given to the TGWU's strong shop steward tradition and to the union's internal democracy. As one TGWU leader put it, 'Money spent on education is always bread cast upon the waters. We can't make a tidy balance sheet, as we can with other union benefits. What we can do is show confidence in our members, and have faith in their ability to make good use of the facilities offered them'. This book makes a convincing case for the lasting benefits of such trust. Based on detailed archival and documentary research, Fisher charts the changes that have taken place in the union's programmes over the years. Perhaps more than anything this is a story of activism, of the motivation of thousands of students and hundreds of tutors, often for little or no financial gain, who believed that education played a central role in developing themselves, the union and the labour movement as a whole. In telling their story, Fisher also evokes the exhilaration which all those involved in trade union education have experienced, when trade union members begin to understand their own organisation and develop the confidence to take part in it - and in the longer run, to extend their control over it.

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Rosa Luxemburg holds an enduring fascination as a radical socialist committed to democratic values, and a woman whose charismatic personality and impassioned speeches inspired her followers without resort to bureaucratic organization. Her assistant and friend, Mathilde Jacob, was Luxemburg's mainstay during her years of imprisonment in World War I. Jacob provided material and emotional support, organized Rosa Luxemburg's clandestine communication with the outside world, and herself played a key role in the illegal work of the Spartacus group. When revolution broke out in Germany in 1918, she sought unsuccessfully to pretect Rosa in the tragic events that led to her death. Mathilde Jacob's memoir, written as a testimony of "love for a person and for a cause", and sent abroad for safe-keeping when she fell victim to the Nazis, was unknown to Rosa Luxembourg's early biographers. It paints a vivd portrait of the subject, and of the group of friends that made up the Spartacus leadership - Karl Liebknecht, Leo Kpgiches, Clara Zetkin and Paul Levi.

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'All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned ...the need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere' ...this was the Communist Manifesto's description of the global reach of capitalism. Globalisation, evidently, is not a new phenomenon; but on the eve of the new millennium, the processes that constitute the phenomenon of globalisation are intensifying, and being experienced in new ways. The immense scholarship and analytic powers of Marx mean that his writings on international capitalism and its effects remain of interest in current debates on globalisation. With this in mind, Lawrence and Wishart offer a new selection from the writings of Marx, in the hope that it will enrich current discussions. The selection includes extracts from The Communist Manifesto, Capital volumes 1-3, The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 and The Poverty of Philosophy Dave Renton teaches History at Edge Hill College and is the author of Fascism: Theory and Practice (Pluto, 1999).

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We live in a world where questions of truth and of falsehood are left increasingly unattended. Such questions are often replaced by a relativism which allows any group the right to assert their values with impunity. Should, however, stories from an event such as the Holocaust be given equal truth status to neo-Nazi claims that it never happened? This book is a polemical warning against a too easy rejection of the standards of truth and value in the modern world, and is a further sortie in Christopher Norris's prolonged battle with the wilder side of postmodernism. Christopher Norris makes a timely reassessment of the cultural theorist Louis Althusser, and also makes a political case for Jacques Derrida whose "deconstruction" techniques are described as a useful tool when up against the rhetorical gestures of those theorists, such as Stanley Fish and Richard Rorty, who are trapped in the postmodern playpen. The book should be of interest to any student of contemporary philosophy, critical theory and politics, and should be a contribution to the debate that is currently dominated by conservative thinkers. Christopher Norris is the author of "The Deconstructive Turn", Jacques Derrida", "What's Wrong with Postmodernism" and "Uncritical Theory: Intellectuals, Politics and the Gulf War".

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Part of the English-language edition, prepared in collaboration with the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Moscow, this volume contains the correspondence between Karl Marx and Frederick Engels from the latter part of the 19th century.

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Part of a definitive English-language edition, prepared in collaboration with the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Moscow, which contains all the works of Marx and Engels, whether published in their lifetimes or since. The series includes their complete correspondence and newly discovered works.

Read more less

Part of a definitive English-language edition, prepared in collaboration with the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Moscow, which contains all the works of Marx and Engels, whether published in their lifetimes or since. The series includes their complete correspondence and newly discovered works.

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This volume contains the end of Marx's economic manuscripts of 1861-63 which concludes his analysis of the production process of capital, concentrating on problems of the reproduction and circulation of the aggregate social capital. The book is part of a definitive English-language edition, prepared in collabo ration with the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Moscow, which contains all the works of Marx and Engels, whether published in their lifetimes or since. The series includes their complete correspondence and newly discovered works.

Read more less

Part of a definitive English-language edition, prepared in collaboration with the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Moscow, which contains all the works of Marx and Engels, whether published in their lifetimes or since. The series includes their complete correspondence and newly discovered works.

Read more less

Part of a definitive English-language edition, prepared in collaboration with the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Moscow, which contains all the works of Marx and Engels, whether published in their lifetimes or since. The series includes their complete correspondence and newly discovered works.

Read more less

Part of a definitive English-language edition, prepared in collaboration with the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Moscow, which contains all the works of Marx and Engels, whether published in their lifetimes or since. The series includes their complete correspondence and newly discovered works.

Read more less

Part of a definitive English-language edition, prepared in collaboration with the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Moscow, which contains all the works of Marx and Engels, whether published in their lifetimes or since. The series includes their complete correspondence and newly discovered works.

Read more less

Part of a definitive English-language edition, prepared in collaboration with the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Moscow, which contains all the works of Marx and Engels, whether published in their lifetimes or since. The series includes their complete correspondence and newly discovered works.

Read more less

Part of a definitive English-language edition, prepared in collaboration with the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Moscow, which contains all the works of Marx and Engels, whether published in their lifetimes or since. The series includes their complete correspondence and newly discovered works.

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Drawing on examples from Rhodes's railways to the tragedy of Grenfell, The Broken Promise of Infrastructure takes readers on a journey through a cultural history of infrastructure development across Britain and its Empire.

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Grunwick was the strike that changed the rules of the game.It changed the way the unions thought about race, about their own core values, and about the best way to organise among the new immigrant communities coming to Britain in the 1970s. Moreover, it changed the way unions thought about the law, and raised big questions about their will to win.In the beginning, Grunwick wasn't a strike about wages - it was about something much more important than that. It was about dignity at work. And, for the small band of Asian women strikers, who braved sun, rain and snow month-in and month-out on the picket-lines, from August 1976 to July 1978, rights in the workplace and pride at work, were far more important than any amount of money.At the time, this book was the seminal account of the dispute, providing the workers' own story in their own words and told by two of the leading participants in the strike. Now, forty years later, its themes still resonate, making this book vital reading for all of those who seek to organise within their own communities and workplaces.

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What was happening in Burnley Town Hall when the British National Party was winning and holding seats there? What lay behind the far right’s advance, and what effect did it have on local government and wider policy trends? How did mainstream parties respond? This is the inside story of these developments, written by the council worker responsible for promoting good race relations in Burnley during the turbulent years following the ‘northern town disturbances’ of 2001. The book connects the story of one Lancashire town to contemporary social divisions and political trends across the UK: - The rise of right-wing populism, widespread antipathy to immigration, and a deep distrust of established politicians - The success of Boris Johnson's Conservatives in offering nationalism as an answer to some people's sense of abandonment in deindustrialised areas - Labour’s attempts to ‘reconnect’ and win back support in northern constituencies like Burnley, which voted 67 per cent for Brexit and was one of the ‘red wall’ seats that Labour lost at the 2019 general election. On Burnley Road is both a remarkable example of granular social history and an urgent contribution to current debates on issues which affect us all. MakinWaite’s perspectives on political identities, multiculturalism, and the potential of ‘civic mediation’ will interest anyone who is looking for effective ways forward to overcome racism and inequality, and to rebuild our democratic culture.

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Tanks on the streets, local regiments confined to barracks and the imposition of martial law.This was not Petrograd, but Glasgow in 1919.Revolt on the Clyde is William Gallacher's eye witness account of these tumultuous events - and more - in an era that helped put the 'Red' into 'Red Clydeside': as the bastion of Scottish socialism. It is the story of establishing works councils, of rent strikes and of the opposition to the First World War, an opposition that seemed poised to usher in a socialist revolution in Scotland.It is also the story of the extraordinary individuals who fashioned those times: of John Maclean and V.I. Lenin - and of Gallacher himself, a working class leader, temperance campaigner, Communist MP, and central force, driving events on the Clyde from 1913-19.This story continues to inspire, and it maintains its relevance for the present day, as an unsurpassed account of struggle, sacrifice, idealism and industrial militancy. This is essential reading for anyone interested in the twentieth-century history of the left in Britain, and especially Scotland.

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This new edition of C. J. Arthur's student edition of Marx's most famous text is re-issued for Marx's 200th birthday in May 2018. Marx's Capital: A Student Edition makes one of the most influential texts of the modern era open and accessible to readers as never before. Karl Marx's Capital was first published in 1867, since when it has become the classic text of Marxism for professional economists, social scientists, philosophers, students, and political activists alike. But the sheer extent of Marx's great work of political economy has often daunted readers, and hampered their understanding of his ideas. Harold Wilson once jokingly claimed he gave up when he came across a two-page footnote on the first page. C.J. Arthur, whose student edition of The German Ideology by Marx and Engels has long proved popular, has substantially edited and abridged Marx's monumental work. His efforts make this book, one of the most influential texts of the modern era, open and accessible to readers as never before.

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In 1895, Eleanor Marx and Edward Aveling were two of the best-known socialists in Britain, mixing with the most influential figures of their time, from Keir Hardie to William Morris. The couple were committed to building a socialist political force based on the 'scientific' theories of Eleanor's father Karl and his collaborator, Friedrich Engels. Marx and Aveling's 'letters' to Russia from England offer a unique perspective on British socialism as it entered its crucial phase, which culminated in the foundation of the Labour Party in 1900. As they reported from the heart of capitalist Britain, a Liberal government fell, having failed to keep its promises to labour. The remainder of the year saw the election of a Conservative-led Unionist administration, an underwhelming general election performance by socialists, and the death of Engels. These lively, accessible letters include sharp reflections on Victorian cultural figures including Oscar Wilde, Annie Besant, and the 'new woman' novelists. An introductory essay sheds light on the authors' complex, tumultuous life and work together, and reveals the friendships and political connections Karl Marx, Engels and the authors had with prominent Russian revolutionaries. The book will be of interest to students, historians, and all those interested in left politics and movements in Britain.

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Two Years of Wandering is a vivid picture of life in Soviet Russia during the civil war, through the eyes of Lenin's longstanding political rival, the leading Menshevik Fedor Dan. It is the first translation into any language of Dan's memoir, written and published in Russian in 1922. Dan had been an active revolutionary and Marxist since the 1890s, and one of the Soviet leaders in 1917, but by 1920, when this memoir begins, he and his party were leading a precarious, semi-legal existence. From then until his expulsion from Soviet Russia in 1922, Dan's life as a mobilised state employee and political oppositionist took him from Moscow to the Urals, the Russo-Polish front, Soviet congresses in Moscow and Petrograd - and to prison. Now available for the first time in English, Francis King's translation of Dan's memoir sheds new light on life in the 'war communist' siege economy in the capitals and the provinces, on the mentalities of the supporters and critics of Lenin's government, and on the political logic driving the development of the Soviet one-party system and its criminalisation of any dissent. The volume is essential reading for both academics and general readers interested in the crucial political and social shifts that took place in Soviet Russia during this period of great change.

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What kind of thing is 'neoliberalism'? This collection of essays explores a range of possible answers to this question, arguing that neoliberalism is a complex, but specifiable and analysable phenomenon: a discursive formation, an ideology, a governmental programme, a hegemonic project, an assemblage of ideas, techniques and technologies, and what Deleuze and Guattari call an 'abstract machine'.Following an introductory essay by Jeremy Gilbert which contextualises the meaning and significance of neoliberalism, the collection considers the genesis, persistence and polyvalency of the concept across a range of cultural sites and discursive genres from political philosophy to pornography, from economics to photographic technology. Chapters examine the intersection of neoliberal ideology and political practice with experiences of race, gender, sexuality and class; with grand politics, technical innovation and hard economics.This book is essential reading for anyone interesting in the contemporary cultural climate, and the impact of the pervasive concept of neoliberalism on society in the present.

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The young generation aren't apathetic. We're disenfranchised, under or unemployed, insecure and anxious. But we're also angry. We know there are alternatives to the political consensus, but voices calling for comprehensive radical changes are ignored. We urgently need new forms of collective organisation. In the run up to the 2015 General Election, this third book in the Radical Future series looks at young peoples' resistance to what passes for politics. Mainstream politics has failed the young: our political system is fundamentally bankrupt. We have much to stand against, but little to vote for. The coalition government openly prioritises economic gain for the few above the lives of the many, allowing UKIP to repurpose frustration from rising inequality into racist bigotry. Instead of providing structural opposition, the Labour Party tear themselves apart in their failure to do anything different. Growing numbers identify with the Left, but the institutions that once supported it are old, stagnant, and sectarian. When we do manage to create mass resistance, we come up against the state through the police: physically and legally. It's easy to lose the belief we can create change. In this climate, the vital protest movements of recent years seem long gone. The message is clear: the neoliberals have won. In our third book, on the cusp of an election that feels like an irrelevance, the Radical Future collective take up this thread. Each author's chapter seeks to re-engage with radical alternative politics: values like social justice, liberation and collectivity. Bringing together contributors from different fields and perspectives means that we don't all argue for the same thing. But the question that we are all asking is: How can we fight back?

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This issue looks at communism through the prism of its relationship to young people. Contributors discuss young members and youth sections within the communist movement, the youth policies of communist parties and governments, and relationships between the generations both within families and in the public arena.

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Bert Ramelson (1910-1994) was a remarkable man who lived through remarkable times. Born into a Jewish ghetto in pre-1917 Ukraine, he went on to become Britain's foremost communist during the turbulent years of industrial strife in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s. He lived through the first years of the Bolshevik revolution and the ensuing Civil War - during which members of his family were murdered in the anti-Semitic pogroms of the period. After a short spell in Palestine working on a Kibbutz, he fought in the Spanish Civil War as a member of the Canadian contingent of the International Brigade, and then as a tank commander with the British Army in the Second World War. Having been taken prisoner at Tobruk, Ramelson went on to lead a mass breakout from an Italian Prisoner of War Camp. From 1937 onwards, Ramelson lived as a professional revolutionary. After the war he spent nearly twenty years as a full-time Communist Party worker in Yorkshire, but it was his appointment as the Party's National Industrial Organiser in 1965 that brought him to national prominence. During this period he received the accolade of being named by prime minister Harold Wilson as the most dangerous man in Britain. As well as playing a leading role on the industrial scene, Ramelson was also centrally involved in the leadership of the Communist Party, where he played a key role in many a stormy debate - including taking the lead in confronting the Soviet authorities when he denounced their 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia.

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