This post describes capitalism as: an activity, the capitalist system, the phases of capitalism through history and that there are many capitalisms. If we want to get rid of capitalism, first we need to understand what it is. Jeremy Gilbert, in his recent book Twenty-First Century Socialism, gives a good summary of what capitalism is. … Continue reading What is Capitalism? →

This post will cover the key ideas of the philosopher Karl Marx. In part 2, I will list the Marxist traditions after Marx. David Harvey, who has written many books on Marxism, describes Marxism as a mode of analysis and a critical way of thinking. He explains that when you want to understand what is … Continue reading What is Marxism Part 1: Marx’s Marxism →

In Stir It Up: Lessons in Community Organizing and Advocacy, Rinku Sen describes the important political and economic trends that need to be taken into account when doing community organising. She explains that: "If we are to shift power, our organizing has to be grounded in a clear and common understanding of how the world … Continue reading Context of struggle →

This post lists 9 Revolutionary moments and periods in Britain since 1381. This is a broad overview so I will look at the details and patterns of these moments and periods in future posts. Following on from the previous post about learning from history, there has been a long tradition of the working class struggling … Continue reading Revolutionary moments and periods in Britain →

George Lawson writes in Anatomies of Revolution about two common but unhelpful ways that revolutions are viewed. Either as everywhere – on the streets in the Middle East, to describe new technology, in films and also to describe political leaders. The second is that they are minor disturbances and "irrelevant to a world in which … Continue reading What are revolutions? →

Social movements are important because when collective action spreads across an entire society it leads to a cycle of struggle or contention. When such a cycle is organised around opposed or multiple classes or interest groups then this can lead to revolutions [1]. This is simplistic as there are many causes and factors that lead … Continue reading What are social movements? →

Writing about history is important for this project, but why is that? I took for granted how important learning from history is without really thinking about why. When I read How Change Happens by Duncan Green, he clarified things. This got me thinking about wanting to understand learning from history better to then write about … Continue reading Learning from history →