Brian Parkin
Obituary: Mike Cooley, architect and bee
Brian Parkin pays tribue to Mike Cooley, a modest and inspiring trade union leader with a lifelong vision of a liberated technology, redirected to serving human need.
Post-war to post-industrial Scotland
Successive British governments have restructured the Scottish economy in damaging ways. Now we need a radical plan for a de-carbonised and independent Scotland.
Review: Who the hell is… Karl Marx?
Manus McGrogan's new introduction to Marx and Marxism combines theory with a vision of a world free of exploitation and oppression.
Not an atom of truth
It is a dangerous fantasy to think that nuclear energy can be part of a ‘green’ recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic or any form of solution to the climate catastrophe.
Naming of parts 2020
Poem by Brian Parkin, based on an original by Harry Reed. Illustration by Mark Winter.
Overdue! A just transition for Scotland
As convergent crises confront the North Sea oil and gas industry with its rapid demise, the need for a just transition for Scottish workers is more urgent than ever.
British Steel: workers’ rights disregarded
The return of a Tory MP from Redcar, whose steel plant closed in 2017, is a symptom of a feeling of abandonment in many former industrial communities. Brian Parkin looks at the prospect for resistance in what remains of the British steel industry
revolutionary reflections | Portugal’s revolution portrayed
Raquel Varela’s new history of the Portuguese revolution is essential reading for revolutionary socialists, argues Brian Parkin.
revolutionary reflections | Endgames of US petro-imperialism?
Brian Parkin explains some of the contradictions of the energy markets and the process of US imperial decline in an era of climate catastrophe
Harland and Wolff: occupying for nationalisation, jobs and the climate
Workers at Belfast's Harland and Wolff shipyard are fighting to save their jobs and demanding nationalisation as the employer goes into administration.
Latest articles
‘We have a right to stop’: interview with a socialist nurse
Whereas the first wave of Covid-19 was an occasion for government-sponsored jingoism, the second wave is seeing health workers abandoned and left to manage the unmanageable.
France’s authoritarian turn: Islamophobia and the security state
Macron has backtracked after hundreds of thousands of people protested against the Comprehensive Security Law that would ban filming police officers.
Unemployment and class power: the example of Portugal
Worker organising in Britain will have to change to take account of rising mass unemployment. We can learn from how workers in Southern Europe faced the wave of austerity after the last economic crisis.
Unearthing hidden histories: an interview with Ian Birchall
An interview with socialist historian Ian Birchall. Ian's work has has involved researching and reevaluating lesser-known revolutionaries and activists from the Global South.
The antisemitism of Sir Keir Starmer
The Labour leadership treats British Jews as pawns in its factional war against the left. Meanwhile, its so-called 'Zero Tolerance' approach contributes nothing to any serious attempt to tackle antisemitism.
The exception as the rule: Toronto’s social reproduction organising
In Toronto, community organisers are battling Covid in the shadow of colonial racial capitalism. Mutual aid, rent strikes and community organising have emerged as crucial initiatives for survival and solidarity.
Highlights
What does abolition mean in modern Britain?
The Black Lives Matter movement has sown seeds of hope worldwide for the abolition of police. But policing in the UK goes far beyond the bodies of armed men in uniform.
Fortress Europe after Moria
After Moria burned to the ground, a new camp was quickly built to replace it. We interviewed Chloe Haralambous and Michalis Poulimas about events on the ground and what they mean for the EU border regime.
Global fever
The Covid-19 pandemic is a foretaste of the approaching climate catastrophe. Andreas Malm's electrifying new book looks at both these crises and asks what we'll need to do to face them down.
Interview: Organised and disorganised labour in the Belarus uprising
Siarhei Biareishyk speaks to rs21 about the uprising in Belarus following the falsified re-election of Aliaksandr Lukashenka on 9 August 2020.
Interview: Beirut blast exposed a global system
Rima Majed spoke to rs21 about the blast that devastated Beirut in the context of an existing political and economic crisis.
Review: Fortunes of Feminism
Leslie Cunningham reviews Fortunes of Feminism by Nancy Fraser, a critical account of changes in feminist thought in the era of neo-liberalism.