Lenin speaking to a crowd in Moscow's Sverdlov Square with Leon Trotsky and Lev Kamenev beside him, May 1920 (Photo: Wikipedia public domain)
🚩 On this day, April 22 1870, Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin was born.
Reforming the state was not enough: "Workers... have to set up their own democratic organisations and take political power for themselves in a socialist revolution".
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Former US ambassador Peter Mandelson and UK prime minister Keir Starmer laughing together (Photo: Flickr/ Number 10)
🥀 Keir Starmer — from no ideology to no answers
Starmer’s failures are paving the way to Downing Street for Nigel Farage.
But why did Starmer fail so spectacularly on his own terms?
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🗞️ The new Socialist Worker is now out! This week we say:
*All out on 16 May against Tommy Robinson*
*Starmer’s sleaze is a gift to far right*
*Will Iran war burst AI bubble?*
Buy it. Read it. Sell it.
socialistworker.co.uk
Image of a row of International Socialism Journals on a book shelf
🚩 International Socialism journal (ISJ), a quarterly journal of Marxist theory
From analysing the rise of the far right to developing a Marxist understanding of climate chaos, ISJ publishes a range of powerful articles.
Buy the latest ISJ.
Read a full selection of articles.
isj.org.uk
Vladimir Lenin addressing a large crowd outside
🚩 Socialist Workers Party: Ideas & Theory
SWP TV YouTube channel
- Hundreds of videos
International Socialism
- Our theoretical journal, for deeper understanding
Pamphlets
- Live political topics
Educational courses
- Helping new members with Marxist theory
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Screenshot of interactive map of SWP branches in Britain
✊🏽 SWP Meetings & Branches
Socialist Workers Party (SWP) branches across Britain hold weekly meetings where we talk politics and discuss campaigns. These events are open to everyone.
Use the map to find a meeting near you.
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Socialist Workers Party bloc at a Palestine solidarity march in London. In the foreground, a Socialist Workers Party member holds a red smoke flare in one hand and an LGBT+ Palestine solidarity banner in the other hand. In the background, a forest of Socialist Worker placards reading "Freedom for Palestine" in English and Arabic, Palestine flags, and beyond, the Houses of Parliament's Big Ben.
Socialist Workers Party gazebo at a Palestine solidarity march in London, with party activists holding up the then latest issue of Socialist Worker, with its front page headline reading "Victory to Palestine".
✊🏽 The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) is a revolutionary socialist party with branches across Britain.
We fight against oppression, exploitation and environmental destruction.
Join us!
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A series of editions of Socialist Worker, showing the range of front page issues, from anti-Trump protests to Palestine liberation to women's rights to capitalism driven climate change to anti-racism.
Images of examples of an edition of Socialist Worker newspaper (with a front page headlining anti-racism), a pamphlet on LGBTQ+ activism, and an edition of International Socialism (headlining an article on climate catastrophe)
🗞️ Subscribe to Socialist Worker
Never miss one of our publications. Subscribe to our weekly newspaper Socialist Worker and our quarterly journal, International Socialism and a selection of pamphlets delivered to your door.
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Mark Thomas
📺 SWP TV
Know Your Enemy: What is Fascism?
With Mark Thomas
A talk delivered at Marxism 2024, a festival of socialist ideas
Hosted by the Socialist Workers Party
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Glasgow Southside Stand Up To Racism march, led by a banner reading "Stop Islamophobia. Stop the hate"
✊🏽 Thousands join anti-racist marches in Scotland
Unity marches in Glasgow, Paisley and Aberdeen say ‘we won’t stand for racism and fascism’.
Read on
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Your Party Scotland conference, with view of large hall with Your Party Scotland banners, many seated attendees, and a panel of speakers on a stage.
‼️ ‘Urgent need for a new left alternative in Scotland’ after Your Party mass resignations
Niall Christie and Ellie Gomersall spoke to Socialist Worker about the crisis of Your Party Scotland — and where next.
Read more
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On a Stand Up To Racism counter-demonstration in London last year, with the Tower Hamlets banner out front, followed by a forest of Stand Up To Racism and Socialist Worker placards, with slogans including "Refugees welcome. Stop the far right" and "Smash fascism & racism" (Photo: Guy Smallman)
✊🏽 Together let’s stop Nazis on 16 May
The Palestine solidarity and anti-fascist movements are urging “everyone to London” on Saturday 16 May.
They've called a demonstration under the slogans “Nakba 78 — justice for Palestine” and “United against Tommy Robinson and the far right”.
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Yanis Varoufakis, author & economist Jodi Dean, author Zarah Sultana, MP Andrew Feinstein, anti-apartheid campaigner
Ilan Pappé, author & historian Alyssa Battistoni, author Gary Younge, writer Tariq Ali, veteran left wing author
John Bellamy Foster, author MV Ramana, author Shahed Ezaydi, author Matt Huber, author
💥 Marxism 2026: Britain's biggest left wing festival
2-5 July, central London
Line up includes:
Yanis Varoufakis • Gary Younge • Costas Lapavistas • Jodi Dean • Zarah Sultana • Richard Boyd Barrett • Andrew Feinstein • James Meadway • Alyssa Battistoni
🎟️ Get your tickets now:
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Obituaries: Terry Bell, 1942-2026
Terry Bell, former member of the African National Congress (ANC) and the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), has died in South Africa, aged 84.
Teacher, journalist, trade unionist, courageous fighter against apartheid.
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Robin Hood was a symbol of defiance for centuries as in this 16th century woodcut, showing him mounted on a horse with bow and arrows (Photo: WikipediaCommons)
Reviews & Culture: Reclaiming the radical legend of Robin Hood
The tale of Robin Hood is one of class conflict.
The far right want to claim him as a tax dodging aristocrat. Judy Cox looks at the origins of a class fighter.
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View of workers inside a mountain mining silver, dimly illuminated by handheld lamps or candles (Illustration: Wellcome Library on Wikimedia commons)
Teach Yourself Marxism with Judy Cox
🚩 Where does capitalism come from?
Primitive accumulation led to the emergence of two new social classes — one that owned the means of production and the other with no choice but to sell their labour power.
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Housing charity protest, with people standing holding placards and a large banner reading "Cut Shelter reserves not wages" and behind them, a large wall slogan "Fight for Home"
✉️ Letters: Demand end to shocking council housing debt – sign Shelters petition
Plus readers on stopping Reform UK on campus, organising for reproductive rights and the prospect of Gulf Stream collapse.
Read more
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View of train station in Southport, where healthy life expectancy is under 60 (Photo: WikipediaCommons)
⚠️ Life expectancy gap between rich and poor growing
The latest figures lay bare the class divide at the heart of Britain.
For men in deprived areas, healthy life expectancy has fallen below 50 years for the first time since records began in 2013.
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On an LGBT+ pride march, with a view of people celebrating pride pre-pandemic, carrying colourful Gay Pride and LGBT+ flags
📣 After BBC attack on asylum seekers, LGBT+ campaigners speak out
The BBC could have decided to expose the real scandal of how asylum seekers are disbelieved, criminalised and mistreated.
Instead, it chose to boost exaggerated far right conspiracy tropes about asylum cheats.
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A man stands amidst bombed out ruins in southern Lebanon (Photo: Guy Smallman)
‼️ Lebanon ceasefire: ‘Israel is deliberately attempting to destroy us’
‘They have targeted civilian markets that were crowded during rush hour. Lots of people have been killed,’ says Ghassan, a socialist in Beirut.
Read more
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Petrol station at night (Photo: Erik Mclean on Pexels)
🤑 Bankers and bosses cash in as fuel prices rise
At the start of his war on Iran, Donald Trump promised that rising oil and gas prices would make the US “a lot of money”.
It’s becoming very clear who’s profiting — bankers and bosses.
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Protesters took to the streets in central London demanding housing justice. In view are people marching behind a banner calling for rent controls, and placards with the slogan "Homes for people not for profit" (Photo: Guy Smallman)
🪧 National Housing Demo calls for rent controls and council housing
Thousands of people marched through London on Saturday in a national housing demonstration.
Called by Homes4All, London Renters Union and others, backed by 50+ tenants’ and trade unions and grassroots campaigns.
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When a state makes the process of gaining refugee status a bewildering labyrinth, the emergence of a cottage industry of fraudulent route-finders is no surprise. The solution is not to obsess over crooked route-finders, but to provide safe passage and humane treatment for asylum seekers.
The BBC would have better devoted those resources to exposing the intentionally harsh environment for asylum seekers, made ever more hostile by a succession of racist xenophobic governments, notably the current Labour government.
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Screenshot of BBC News Politics article headline: "Bogus websites, staged protests and pretend atheists: Inside the fake asylum industry"
‼️ BBC dog whistles to far right about "fake asylum industry", ignores government's hostile environment
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Narendra Modi with Indians in New York 2024 (Pic: Wikimedia commons)
⚠️ India’s Modi government purges voters from electoral roll
More than a million Muslims in India’s giant state of West Bengal have been stripped of their right to vote by the hard right BJP government led by Narendra Modi.
Read more
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Daniel 'Tommo' Thomas (left), a close associate of Nazi Tommy Robinson (right) and a ring leader of the mob in Epsom.
‼️ Don’t let fascist thugs exploit sexist assault in Epsom
Fascist violence will not bring justice for the victim of the assault in the Surrey town, says Women Against The Far Right.
Read on
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Sonic scan of what appears to be a foetus or unborn baby in a womb (Photo: WikipediaCommons)
📺 Reviews & Culture
An emotional story reflecting on pregnancy, loss and parenthood, "Babies" is a six-part drama about a couple who experience recurrent miscarriages.
Babies is available on BBC iPlayer
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Book front cover: Jungle Days: Supporting Celtic in the 1980s by John Wight, with a collage of footballers in their iconic striped kit, and an image of the Spitting Image satirical TV show's caricatured puppet of Margaret Thatcher.
📚 Reviews & Culture
"Jungle Days: Supporting Celtic in the 1980s" by John Wight: A superb history of Glasgow’s iconic and turbulent Bhoys.
Plus a new graphic novel "Black Arms to Hold You Up" showing the brutal violence used against black people in the USA and their armed response.
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Tahir Square in Cairo, Egypt, during the Arab Spring rebellion: a night time scene, crowded with protestors, illuminated by exploding aerial fireworks (Photo: WikipediaCommons)
In Depth
🚩 What sort of revolution is needed? asks Judy Cox
Throughout history, revolutions have upended the old way of life and transformed society. But to bring true liberation, we need more than a political revolution.
Read more
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