Forward #32 – Opposing Austerity
The new issue of Forward focuses on Austerity and its impact on communities, and how we can overcome this to build alternatives centred on dual power.
Read more
Women: Takers of Shit
“Have you ever heard of the “Warm Bath Theory”? It was an idea published by Talcott Parsons, a sociologist who created this idea that the nuclear family prevents its adult members from behaving in dysfunctional ways and encourages them to conform to social norms. The warm bath theory suggests that a man could come home from a stressful day at work and relax into his family/wife, like a warm bath, relieving his stress.
However, as communists, we know that this theory is outdated and quite frankly, full of shit. Fran Ansley, a Marxist-Feminist rephrased it as women being “takers of shit”, in other words when men come home and try to relieve their stress from working in a capitalist system, they do so by taking their frustrations out on their wives.”
Read more
Porn and Power: A Feminist Analysis of Porn and its Effect on Women
Porn is not feminist, and no reforms or measures are ever going to change that. Not porn made by women, not porn that’s paid for, nothing. This is because nothing will ever change who is hurt by porn, and who benefits. Overwhelmingly women are the ones hurt by porn, either directly by starring in it, or indirectly by experiencing abuse that men have learned from excessive porn consumption and men benefit (sexually and financially). Content made to satisfy men at the expense of all women is not feminist, even if the women are smiling in the thumbnail.
Read more
Fighting Deprivation: An Interview With Amanda Spencer
A sports club can serve multiple purposes. It actively provides a better way of life for young people stuck for options and promotes a healthier way of life. This is not just on a physical level, but also on an emotional and psychological one. Sports often teach mutual respect and break down barriers and stereotypes. They are community pillars that serve all of us in many ways – this interview and call out for continued donations is one small way the Connolly Youth Movement extends its support for this community pillar.
Read more
Letters from Afar: An Interview with Anakbayan
“Anakbayan (Children of the People) is the comprehensive national-democratic mass organisation of the Filipino youth, organising from all different sectors of the youth, from the communities, students, workers, women, LGBTQ+, national minorities and all other concentrations of youth in the Philippines. It is one of the most steadfast organisations in waging forward the national democratic struggle of the Filipino people against US imperialism and domestic feudalism… Its role in the national-democratic struggle is an important one because without a comprehensive youth organisation, the struggle would die out as there would be no new blood there to carry out its tasks towards its victory.”
Read more
The Palestinian Cause is a Cause for Every Revolutionary
Rather than being something unique and otherwordly, something beyond our comprehension due to its age and complexity, the Palestinian struggle is not exceptional. It is one of a broad tapestry of anti-imperialist and anti-colonial struggles. By insisting on their exceptional nature, they are condemned to a suspended animation: endlessly admired and supported for their resistance, but lacking the ability to draw on the successful struggles of others to inform their own. They are however, not alone, but are supported by a pantheon of peoples that understand their struggle and show solidarity out of experience.
Read more
Capitalism and the Deep State: Part Two
In this piece Donald Trump’s Presidency and its relationship to the deep-state will be elaborated on further as many of his supporters still cling to the idea that the deep-state is a structure that is almost exclusively anti-Trump. This conception is too narrow, and like other attempts at dissecting the history of the deep-state it cannot explain where it came from. By focusing their arguments around a figure like Trump the right reduces what are broader political discussions into simplistic word salads that lack the required historical perspective.
Read more
Capitalism and the Deep State: Part One
The deep-state, as described by the far-right, is one that functions independently of the will of the people and whose purpose it is to instigate and oversee political agendas that are, by design, malign, nefarious, and anti-Trump… As with most issues co-opted by the far-right their obsession with the shadowy cabal running Washington is too narrow and as we will see lacks the type of analysis necessary to properly elucidate important political subjects like the deep-state and what its purpose came to be as it evolved as a phenomenon peculiar to the American capitalist system.
Read more
Capitalism and Conspiracies
When conspiracy theorists try to boil power relations down to one or two individuals who control daily events, Marxists instead point to the economic structure which produces these roles and how they function in a class dynamic which allows political control to be maintained. With power over the process of wealth accumulation via the exploitation of labour playing a key part in how this is achieved. This is contrasted with the rather story-like narrative that conspiracies tend to weave. The convenience that conspiracy theorists enjoy is in not having to engage in a radical critique of society but instead to use an almost atavistic fear to whip the public into a frenzy.
Read more
Peadar O’Donnell: Writer, Republican, Socialist
Today, we commemorate the passing of Peadar O’Donnell, a man who dedicated his life to the cause of socialist-republicanism. While there is far too much to cover in such a short space, we will try to touch on the highlights.
Read more
Reasonably Revolting: The “Socialism” of Jacobin
Jacobin is not a socialist paper. It exists because the US capitalist media allows it. Their ideology is characterised by their inability to see beyond electoral politics even in the face of persistent failure, and their role as a mouthpiece of US imperialism. Despite their aesthetic, the “Brooklyn Socialism” of Jacobin amounts to little more than the same meek demands of democratic socialism, but in radical dress.
Read more