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Today marks the 75th anniversary of the coming to power of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party in Germany. Read here chapter 7 of Rob Sewell's 
In April and May of 1797 the British ruling
class was horrified when two naval mutinies broke out; the first was at
Spithead, close to Portsmouth; the second at the Nore which marks the seaward
approach to the Thames Estuary.
When socialists today revisit past struggles and movements, we do not
do so for nostalgic or romantic reasons. There is a need to study
historical events in order to be aware of the battles of our ancestors;
to take pride in those struggles, but, most of all, to arm ourselves
with insight and examine the lessons. The Peasants Revolt of 1381-82
was a fight for social justice and the very first time that a large
section of English people fought for the idea that 'all men are equal'.
This demonstration of people power struck fear into the hearts of the
ruling class.
As part of the build up to the festive season Socialist Appeal is issuing some articles by Marxists looking at the role of religion in the labour movement. This article written in
1945 analyses the relationship between the Soviet state and the
Russian Orthodox Church. There was a clear dividing line between
Lenin's approach to this question and the zig-zag policy later
adopted by Stalin. First published in 
The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle. That is all written history. For the majority of human history man did not live in a class society. The development of technique allowed for the production of a surplus of wealth over and above the means of subsistence. This produced a flourish of art, science and philosophy as part of the population was freed for the first time from the toil of everyday labour. Mick Brooks talks on the application of Marxist philosophy to the development of society.
In the build up to Christmas, Socialist Appeal is contributing to the festive spirit by issuing some articles by Marxists on the origins and significance of Christianity, which in its early period was a revolutionary movement of the oppressed. This article deals with the person of Christ and the historical evidence for his existence, which is taken from the first chapter of the 'Foundations of Christianity' by Karl Kautsky.
Over 150 years ago Ireland lost a staggering 13% of
its population to death by disease and starvation. How could it be that Britain, which
was still the richest and most powerful country in the world, could not prevent
this horrific death toll? The answer is simple ‑ the British ruling-classes did
not want to minimize the death toll, on the contrary, they welcomed it!
At the University of East Anglia recently Rob Sewell of the Socialist Appeal gave a talk on the Miners strike in Britain 1984-5. The strike was a culmination of the inevitable build up of tension between the ruling and working class. In the post-war period the decline of British imperialism had occured. The Tories of the 1980s were a rabid reaction to that phenomenon, determined to destroy the organised labour movement by taking on its most militant section, the National Union of Miners.
In the autumn of 1916 the Industrial Workers of the World, better known
as the Wobblies, were trying to organise lumber workers near Everett,
Washington in the USA. A series of attempts to organise by the workers
had lead to a murderous response from the employers. Charles Ashleigh was appointed to run the Wobblies defence campaign - this article is in memory of him, a soldier of the proletariat.
"The October revolution laid the foundation of a new
culture, taking everybody into consideration, and for that very reason
immediately acquiring international significance. Even supposing for a
moment that owing to unfavourable circumstances and hostile blows the
Soviet regime should be temporarily overthrown, the inexpungable
imprint of the October revolution would nevertheless remain upon the
whole future development of mankind." 
Wellred Books at 
After the Crimea conference, the British Communist Party leaders came
out with a position advocating a National unity government with the
Tories for the post-war period. This policy of class collaboration was
denounced by Ted Grant, who wrote in 1945
that, "to support Churchill is to support monopoly capitalism. To
support the capitalists, the interests of the working class must be
betrayed. It has taken the advanced British workers the experience of
50 years to realise that the Liberal and Tory Parties are parties of
capitalism."
In the period of intense and bitter struggles described in Part 1, the
massacre at Peterloo in August 1819 was just the most extreme example.
Arthur Thistlewood was able to gather around him a mixed collection of
other individuals equally impatient to bring matters to a head and have
it out with the country's political leaders. They believed that violent
direct action was the answer.
Those who do not learn from the mistakes of history are
doomed to repeat them. For this reason, socialists take the study of the past
struggles of working people very seriously. In 1820 six men, convicted of treason, were publicly hanged
and then beheaded outside Newgate Prison in the City of London. The crime of
which they had been convicted was plotting to assassinate the entire Cabinet as
it sat enjoying a working dinner. This attempt at a violent coup d'etat is now
largely forgotten, tucked away as a footnote in the history books. It deserves
to be better known.
