What is a socialist to make of China? – Part One

Introduction: The Poisoned Well of Discourse Nothing has caused more consternation, heated debate, and in general bad takes in our time than the discourse around the self-described People’s Republic of China. In the 21st century, it has assumed the role previously played by the USSR as the big bad “communist” superpower in Western—particularly American—imagination, only…

The reformist urge to romanticise the Corbyn years

As the cost of living crisis becomes ever more severe, civil and democratic rights come increasingly under attack, relations with the EU strain, and the corruption, cruelty and incompetence of the Tories is increasingly apparent, one of the more persistent responses online is people making post after post saying “Corbyn was right”, “,we should have…

The socialist case for Welsh independence

Introduction: The Impasse of British Wales I have written frequently about the dire state of my country on this blog. Our economy has suffered greatly as a result of both the COVID-19 pandemic and the complications of the government’s Brexit deal. We are soon to be hit with a cost of living crisis that the…

Why the fall of communism was a disaster for Eastern Europe, and the world

Introduction: Thirty Years of Delusion On Christmas Day in 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev, then the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, declared his intention to resign as president of the USSR, and to hand the presidency to Boris Yeltsin. By this point, the collapse of the USSR was already seen as a…

Don’t be deterred, young communists at Glasgow

At COP26, while bourgeois politicians from around the world pretended to be concerned about climate change and take turns agreeing to milquetoast solutions we caught a glimpse at what the establishment is truly afraid of. Over the weekend Glasgow was the site of mass protests, with up to 100,000 people taking to the streets to…

Left-wing superpatriotism: An infantile disorder

One aspect of sectarianism in the left is that it may reflect varying ideological or political interests. Earlier in this blog I covered an example of sectarianism which advocated for the left to police the “tankie” tendencies within our ranks in capitulation to liberal orthodoxy. Sadly, this is not the only mode of sectarianism plaguing…

Why the Labour Party cannot be a vehicle for transformative change

Being a leftist in Britain is one of the most depressing things you can be. In theory, all the conditions are there for the end of right-wing rule: a government that wilfully bungled its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, food shortages caused by a bad Brexit deal the goverment was responsible for negotiating, mass opposition…

Is it wrong for a socialist to have a nice house?

Several days ago, left Twitter erupted in outrage yet again, and as usual it throws a fit over a life choice made by a single individual. I am of course referring to social democratic Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who recently bought a fairly nice-looking house worth $2.7 million. That’s it apparently. He didn’t make money…