Victor Osprey

Greek social democracy (PASOK) really went through a phase like this in its 70s-80s international outlook, and it isn’t talked about enough in English language accounts about social democracy of that era.

On this day in 1890, the great Claude McKay was born.

(My currrent project, with Liminal Waterway Countercultures @liminalwater.bsky.social, is on his post-WWI years between the East End docks & Marseille, including his decolonial ethnography of black & migrant Britain and left communist activism.

Sotsprof proved not to be such a vehicle in the 90s - in fact, sometimes the very opposite - yet all that effort by various organisations to simultaneously make something better and not suffer a worse future was swept away like tears in the rain.

One of the saddest elements of the breakup of the USSR was the crushing of this ephemeral, hopeful moment between one system and the next, where people & workers on the ground took a stand to ensure the outcome would be democratic & socialist.

Revolutionary Roads and Marxism Today. Interview with Kevin Anderson – 9 July 2025 leftrenewal.org/interviews-e...

Tasmanian election results show anger at business as usual Tasmanians saw through the major parties' spin and neither achieved a majority. Solomon Doyle argues it is clear people want systemic solutions to the worsening housing, healthcare and ecological dest...

Tasmanians saw through the major parties' spin and neither achieved a majority. It is clear people want systemic solutions to the worsening housing, healthcare and ecological destruction crises. www.greenleft.org.au/content/tasm...

Palestine: One state versus two states? Nadia Refaei, co-president of Tasmanian Palestine Advocacy Network, told the recent national day of protest for Palestine that Labor’s decision to recognise Palestine is an an empty gesture, offering ...

Nadia Refaei, co-president of Tasmanian Palestine Advocacy Network, believes Labor’s decision to recognise Palestine is an an empty gesture, offering the appearance of progress without changing material conditions. www.greenleft.org.au/content/pale...

⚡ The Russian shelling caused a blackout in mines in Donetsk Oblast.
On August 26, Russian shelling in Donetsk Oblast caused a power outage in several mines. As a result, 148 miners remain trapped underground, according to Mykhailo Volynets, head of the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine.

‘The Barricades in Roubaix’ by A. Bénier from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 11 No. 33. June 25, 1931. A report from the barricades erected as police attempt to smash the mass textile strike in Roubaix, France in the summer of 1931. ‘The Barricades in Roubaix’ by A. Bénier from International Press C…

‘The Barricades in Roubaix’ by A. Bénier from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 11 No. 33. June 25, 1931.  

A report from the barricades erected as police attempt to smash the mass textile strike in Roubaix, France in the summer of 1931.

revolutionsnewsstand.com/2025/08/22/8...

The rise and fall of union power in the Pilbara Trade unionist, academic and socialist activist Alexis Vassiley tracks the rise and fall of union power in Western Australia's mining region his new book. Alex Salmon reviews.

Trade unionist, academic and socialist activist Alexis Vassiley tracks the rise and fall of union power in Western Australia's mining region his new book. www.greenleft.org.au/content/rise...

Why raising productivity means increased exploitation The corporate media, economists and employers are complaining that productivity in Australia is too low. Some describe it as a national disaster. But is it even a problem, asks Mary Merkenich?

The corporate media, economists and employers are complaining that productivity in Australia is too low. Some describe it as a national disaster. But is it even a problem? www.greenleft.org.au/content/why-...

The standing of Westminster politicians has been permanently shrunk. Don't let anyone away with the spin that Nigel Farage is popular. He is unpopular; only less so than most of the other senior WM figures.

"For my part, I lay little stress on the distinction, whether a man is an anarchist or a socialist, because it seems to me that too much weight is attributed to this difference."

Joseph Dietzgen - German socialist, original & early dialectical materialist philosopher, tannery worker & journalist.

One of the funniest things about Tolstoy’s anti-Tsarist Christian philosophy is along with the rejection of war, military service, serfdom, slavery, capital punishment etc there is a wholesale rejection of divorce + second marriages, as if that was just as bad as the rest lol

“My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool; it gives me all the world, and exiles me from it.” ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

Speaking of left-wing alternatives to the British Labour Party, here is my article on The Red Front, the short-lived attempt by the Revolutionary Communist Party to build a left alliance in 1987.

DM me if you don’t have access.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Front cover of People's Voice, No. 1, November 1968. A meek character is saying, "I'm not interested in politics because I don't eat, wear clothes, breathe air or live in a house. I'm incurable and when I die I'll bury myself." Underneath is written, Workers: Awaken to your power!

"I'm not interested in politics because I don't eat, wear clothes, breathe air or live in a house. I'm incurable and when I die I'll bury myself."

The first issue of *People's Voice*, produced by Saor Éire in Cork.

www.leftarchive.ie/document/2405/

#Ireland #Politics #SaorÉire

A poster reading: Civil divorce is a civil right / Vote Yes! / The Workers Party

#OnThisDay, 26th June 1986, a referendum was held in Ireland to remove the prohibition of divorce.

The referendum was unsuccessful, with divorce remaining prohibited until 1995.

www.leftarchive.ie/subject/2225/

We won’t be silenced on Palestine
Green Left 1434 out now
Read it here 👉 www.greenleft.org.au/issue/1434

Excepts lifted from this book on the history of the Tasmanian Labor Party

Do wish Tasmanian Labor would adopt ‘complete socialisation’ as a policy however, as they once almost did.

Then they really would earn my vote 🗳️ 🚩🫡

The opponents of the Australian Labor Party always make it sound way cooler than it actually was.

Evergreen pamphlet title

Perhaps no one elucidated the content of ‘critical communism’ so well as the Italian Marxist Antonio Labriola.

Retains its force into the present.

Excerpt from ‘In Memory of the Communist Manifesto’, the first chapter of ‘Essays on the Materialistic Conception of History’

Decarbonisation as a path to demilitarisation in Europe, as opposed to the false promise of security supposedly generated by military Keynesianism.

(Grace Blakeley in the Spring 2025 issue of Tribune)

Good point by Juliano Fiori in Tribune about the function of nationalism, and the place rising English nationalism fills, drawing on the work of Tom Nairn.

Putin’s war, the far right and solidarity with Ukraine In the second part of our interview, Green Left’s Victor Osprey speaks to left-wing Ukrainian Andriy Movchan about the state of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the far right’s influence and the challenge...

Left-wing Ukrainian Andriy Movchan looks at the state of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the far right’s influence, and the challenges Ukraine’s left faces in building solidarity with their struggles. www.greenleft.org.au/content/puti...

Millennial smugly tells Zoomer that WMD propaganda was way better back when they were a teen

"They just don't make the fear campaigns like they used to."

Read more: chaser.com.au/general-news...

How China is helping to facilitate Israel's illegal settlements - Lausan China's proclamations of support for Palestine cover up its complicity in Israeli settlement building

Read this research from Palestinian scholar Razan Shawamreh that critically unpacks the disconnect between Chinese politicians' lofty rhetoric on Palestinian sovereignty and Chinese corporations' ongoing assistance in expanding illegal Israeli settlements. lausancollective.com/2025/china-a...

Sometimes it feels as if contemporary Australian unionism is simply a wing of superannuation capital masquerading as a ‘movement’, all while the state pension is neglected and becomes more miserly.