Left groups and people

Socialist Green Unity Coalition, Respect, SWP, Socialist Party, Weekly Worker, IWCA, RDG, Green Party, Ken Livingstone ... and a few others.

Ukrainian socialists hold conference

On Saturday 17 September, two members of Workers’ Liberty (virtually) attended the national conference of the Ukrainian socialist organisation Sotsialny Rukh (Social Movement). The conference took place over one day, and was attended by politicians, supporters and labour movement activists from throughout the world. The conference served as a chance for Sotsialny Rukh to reflect on the work they’ve done since the outbreak of the war in February. Membership has grown. Though it is not a mass movement yet, the influence the group has had in terms of coordinating support for the Ukrainian working...

Letter: Neither slogan can prevail

A debate was held on 2 July at Queen Mary University London on the Ukrainian war between Alex Callinicos and Gilbert Achcar, two communist writers, as part of the 2022 Marxism programme organised by the Socialist Workers’ Party (SWP). To stop the Ukraine war and prevent weapons from being sent, as Alex said? or to send weapons to Ukraine because Russian imperialism would not give up war and occupation without weapons, as Gilbert said? After the debate, I told Gilbert that this situation was more complicated than the two slogans. It is possible to talk about the attitude of the communists and...

“Kick the Tories out” and socialist politics

Many on the left have started pushing slogans like “Kick the Tories out”. And us too . The unions, we argue, must mobilise industrially, and also unite with the Labour rank and file to tie Labour to scrapping anti-union laws, taxing the rich, restoring public services and benefits, and public ownership (including of energy, to decarbonise). The Socialist had “Kick the Tories out” as its front-page headline on 18 June; Socialist Appeal had “Time to sweep them out!”; Socialist Worker had placards, “Kick the Tories out!”, and for months now has had headlines like “Finish him [Johnson] off”,...

Urgent challenge for French left

It’s good that France’s neoliberal president Emmanuel Macron comes out of the 19 June second round of France’s National Assembly elections with only 246 seats out of 577, way short of a majority. And Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s electoral tactic has worked well. The Nupes alliance agreed just one candidate from among its four components — Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise, the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, and the Green EELV — in each constituency, and so reached the second-round run-off in 370-odd seats, far more than it would have done with four first-round candidates everywhere. It came out...

Letter: A festival of dialogue

As Dale Street reports ( Solidarity 637 ), the debates on Ukraine at Lutte Ouvrière (LO) fete this year (27-29 May) were poor. Still, I think people in our Workers’ Liberty contingent had a good time. The Fete itself is impressive for bringing together many thousands of socialists and workers — working-class families from the region and groups of workmates brought by LO activists from all over France — in a fun event that mixes genuinely good food and entertainment with a really inspiring and educational international meeting of revolutionaries. Workers’ Liberty has described the world...

From blocking Macron to rebuilding left politics

As a tactic, Jean-Luc Mélenchon's Nupes alliance of his La France Insoumise with the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, and the Greens (EELV), on a soft left platform, worked well in the first round of France's National Assembly election, on 12 June. In a low turnout (48%), Nupes got about the same vote (26%) as the Ensemble coalition of Emmanuel Macron, who was re-elected president with 59% on the second round on 24 April. Having one official Nupes candidate in each seat, rather than four different candidates from the four components, means that Nupes gets into the 19 June run-off votes in...

Oppose Putin's war, support Ukraine, welcome refugees — response to TSS statement

We wrote this in response to Transnational Social Strike's call for signatories to their statement , as an organisation that opposes Putin's war. TSS declined to publish it — or any replies — and the two signatories we contacted, Plan C and Angry Workers of the World, requesting they publish it instead, did not reply. We are, however, debating these organisations and others in Bristol on 25 June . We welcome further debate. On 24 February 2022, the same day that Transnational Social Strike published their statement , Russia invaded Ukraine. Putin’s military aggression has to the date of...

Different debates on Ukraine at Lutte Ouvrière fête

Should socialists be in favour of a military victory for Russia in Ukraine? Or should they take a “dual-defeatist” position (opposing both sides), saying it is really a war between NATO and Russia?

Lutte Ouvrière and Ukraine’s right to self-determination

En français . Once upon a time, in a faraway land called the Soviet Union, Ukrainians and Russians lived happily together. But then some wicked bureaucrats destroyed their country. This gave NATO generals, who were just as black-hearted as the bureaucrats, the chance to seize new lands. So Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. This sums up the analysis of the war in Ukraine provided by the French socialist newspaper Lutte Ouvrière (LO, Workers’ Struggle). According to LO, “the Ukrainian and Russian peoples are linked by a long shared history and culture. … For 70 years they lived within the Soviet...

What socialists are doing in Ukraine

Denys Pilash of Ukrainian socialist organisation Sotsialniy Rukh (Social Movement) spoke to Ruth Cashman. Denys Pilash is tired. He travelled 600 miles from Ukraine’s capital to Lviv to host the European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine delegation , then after sleeping on a floor he translated between English and Ukrainian for a conference that overran several hours. With no break he moved from interview to interview with visitors keen to hear his take on the invasion, the situation for the Ukrainian left, and the future of Ukraine. Still, he sits with us for an hour explaining the work of...

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