Demonstrations on successive weekends in London last month shone a spotlight on major political rifts 鈥 in the major parties and in the political left.
On October 13, an extreme right-wing Democratic Football Lads Alliance (DFLA) march was out-mobilised and disrupted by anti-fascist demonstrators. One week later, about 670,000 people turned out for a 鈥淧eople鈥檚 Vote鈥 demonstration.
The far right in Britain has the wind in its sails in a way that it hasn鈥檛 since the 1930s, writes Phil Hearse.
The European Union elites have rejected British Prime Minister Theresa May鈥檚 Brexit proposals (known as the Chequers plan) on the basis that they breach the fundamental principles of the EU; i.e. the internal market and free movement. Alan Davies write that this has increased the likelihood of a disorderly (鈥渘o deal鈥) exit from the EU 鈥 and increased support for a second referendum on the issue.
From taxing tech firms to pay the license fee to creating a new British Digital Corporation (BDC), the Alternative MacTaggart Lecture by British Labour鈥檚 socialist leader Jeremy Corbyn聽 in August聽 unveiled an array of potential new Labour聽 digital policies, writes Nick Webb.
These proposals are not yet official party policy, but they give a good sense of where Labour鈥檚 leadership is headed as it develops its offering ahead of a potential Brexit-related snap election.
The British Labour Party took a radical, anti-austerity manifesto to last year鈥檚 general elections and, despite polls and media commentators expecting an unprecedented disaster, came close to winning, denying the ruling Conservatives a majority. Despite this success, attempts to attack and sabotage Labour鈥檚 socialist leader Jeremy Corbyn, and the ranks that support his vision, have continued. 惭颈肠丑补别濒听颁补濒诲别谤产补苍办聽takes a look at what took place and what it means for the party鈥檚 future.
Tory-supporting media have been portraying Britain鈥檚 socialist Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn as a Soviet fellow-traveller. Meanwhile, 贬颈濒补谤测听奥补颈苍飞谤颈驳丑迟 notes, Labour鈥檚 shadow chancellor and close Corbyn ally sets out a vision that breaks with the old bureaucratic state model.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell can usually barely breathe a word about nationalisation without setting off a media frenzy, so it鈥檚 strange that his most interesting comments yet on the subject passed with so little comment.
The latest campaign against British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn centres around the veteran anti-racist campaigner鈥檚 alleged anti-Semitism. Among the ongoing claims, Corbyn is denying allegations he laid a wreath at grave the killers of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
As well as the latest attack on Corbyn, it is clear the allegations are also aimed at demonising all solidarity with Palestine and support for a genuine peace based on justice.
The increasingly strident charges of anti-Semitism within Labour, and the widening circle of targets, have by now departed from all reality.
Populism Now! The Case for Progressive Populism
David McKnight
New South, 2018
177 pages, rrp $29.99
David McKnight鈥檚 Populism Now! catches a wave of discussion about the chances for a progressive 鈥減opulism鈥, writes Jonathan Strauss.
Also in the spray, for example, is a June Quarterly Essay piece by the Australia Institute鈥檚 Richard Denniss 鈥淒ead Right: how neoliberalism ate itself and what comes next鈥 and the previously post-whatever Chantal Mouffe鈥檚 musings on 鈥渓eft populism鈥.
Britain鈥檚 Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May is in dire trouble and likely to be voted out of office by her own MPs when parliament returns in September, writes English socialist Phil Hearse.
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn joined the mass protest against Donald Trump in London on July 13聽 where he said the message to the U.S. president was a call for a "world of justice not division."
Speaking from Trafalgar Square to an enormous crowd after hundreds of thousands marched through the streets of London, Corbyn praised those gathered for "asserting our right to free speech and our right to want a world that is not divided by misogyny, racism, and hate."
Establishment media are rife with speculation that senior Labor MP Anthony Albanese may be preparing for another tilt at opposition leader.
Albanese has stated .
But you never know what to believe in these days of revolving door leadership swaps, where pragmatism has replaced principle in both the major parties.