Solid Workers

Have an interest in the far left and Trotskyism? Perhaps a member of an organisation within these traditions, have a past activist record with them, or have developed an interest with the minutiae of left wing history? And happen to be in or near the Nottingham area on Monday 1st July between 7pm and 8.30pm? Then why not join me and Evan Smith, co-editor of Against the Grain and Waiting for the Revolution , and author of British Communism and the Politics of Race for an evening discussing Trotskyana, sectariana, far left history, Evan's work, and what the rich history of labour movement struggles in the UK and Australia have to teach us today. The event is at Five Leaves , Nottingham's radical bookshop. Tickets are £4 waged, £2 student/unwaged and you can book your place via events@fiveleaves.co.uk. Hope to see you there!

It's not only Theresa May who's preparing her departure from the political scene. At the time of writing, the Socialist Party is on the verge of the most damaging split in its history. On the one side you have Peter Taaffe, the organisation's general secretary of 55 years and counting. Backing him is the majority of the membership in England and Wales, the Scottish "section" and, um, precious few others. Arrayed against the loyalists are the majority of the international organisation - the Committee for a Workers' International - including its most successful section, the Socialist Party in Ireland. And as with all splits in politics, which Change UK have recently reminded us , there are good reasons and there are real reasons. If you care to avail yourself of the leaked documents the different players have exchanged (and leaked), for Taaffe and his comrades this is the struggle between proletarian politics, as uniquely elaborated by the SP's particular b...