The revolutionary wave of 1848 began with a joyous struggle for democracy. But it ended with violent struggles between workers and capitalists, liberals and socialists, revolutionaries and reformers. The experience was a decisive influence on the development of Marx's theory of revolution.
In the wake of the First World War and the Russian Revolution, Italy was swept by a militant workers' movement that inspired and challenged Marxist theorists like Antonio Gramsci. This article, the first in a two-part series, explores how the factory council movement emerged.
In the late 1960s, militant Black workers in Detroit's auto industry tried to combine radical socialist politics with rank-and-file union activism, to "take the uprising into the factories". The result was DRUM: the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement.
Why have the powers of the police expanded over decades, while funding for vital social services shrinks? Laissez-faire capitalism goes hand-in-hand with brutal coercion.
Journalists and policy researchers daydream about a new, more ethical and sustainable post-coronavirus world. But powerful forces will fight to stop a better world emerging, as they always have.
