Author: alanjjohnstone
The State and its abolition
The State and its abolition From the Spring 1985 issue of the World Socialist (Part 1) Introduction The establishment of world socialism will involve the abolition of the state, but this must be achieved by first gaining control of the entire powers and machinery of governments, including the armed forces. The practical question involved in…
The WSM and the Guesdists
From the La Bataille socialiste blog When the Socialist Party of Great Britain was being founded in 1904, as a breakaway from the Social Democratic Federation which had pioneered Marx’s ideas in Britain, the main issue confronting the international Social Democratic movement was “Ministerialism”, or whether or not Socialists should participate in a “bourgeois government”. In 1899…
James Connolly and the Easter Rising
The Irish Citizens Army was was formed on 23rd November as a self-defence militia. It arose out of the Lockout of 1913 to protect the strikers from the Dublin police who had killed two and injured many hundreds with their brutality. Under the command of James Connolly the ICA evolved into military unit dedicated to the creating an Irish socialist republic. Alongside the nationalist Irish…
God and the WSM
The quest for the supernatural does not stem from an excessive imagination but from a limited one constrained by years of exploitation and oppression. Being opposed to religion is not the same as trying to prevent people from practising religion. We’re not interested in setting up an enlightened dictatorship. Socialists don’t want to police peoples…
The Most Dangerous Song in The World
A Rewrite From the September 2006 issue of the Industrial Worker, paper of the Industrial Workers of the World. The author of the piece, Len Wallace, is a IWW member and well known radical musician, as well as a long standing member of the Socialist Party of Canada, who became a supporter of the now defunct World in Common group. The International (originally L’Internationale) is…
Imagining the Impossible
Now that the American election is all over, it should be the time to debate our future political activity. The Left insisted that Trump was the anti-Christ and that working people should vote for a lesser evil, the saintly figure of Joe Biden. But now with Biden in the White House they are telling us…
Tussy
Tussy – Eleanor Marx and the Early Socialist Movement in Great Britain In January, 1855, Karl and Jenny Marx, their daughters, Jenny and Laura, and their son, Edgar, were living in two rooms at 28 Dean St. Soho Square, London. In 1851, a third daughter had been born, but only lived for one year. But…
A Revolutionary Socialist
by Adam Buick At the beginning of his socialist activity William Morris was a strong opponent of socialists involving themselves in election and parliamentary activities. By the end of his life, however, he had become convinced that his earlier attitude was mistaken and that socialists should fight for ‘palliatives’, or reforms, as well as for political power for…
GENERAL IMMUNITY SERUM (short story)
By Richard Montague Who invented the wheel? Was it the person who first discerned that a tree trunk, shorn of its branches, would facilitate the movement of other branchless tree trunks? Or was it the person who conceived of an axle carrying at either end circular pieces cut from a tree trunk? Or was it… ?…
The Economy of Freedom
Our ideas are shared by others even though we may not agree on everything and sometimes different words are preferred. This article shows the overlap that exists. The Economy of Freedom The collapse of the state-capitalist dictatorships in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union proved that any attempts to combine a just social ideal with…