Britain

More than one-hundred years since the first International Working Women’s day on 8th March 1911, what is the situation for women in Britain in today? Seven years after the onslaught of the financial crisis, working class women remain oppressed due to their gender and exploited due to their class.

“The British public has become deeply cynical about the political class at Westminster”, states a recent Financial Times editorial (11/2/15). This is what is called an understatement. Contempt and anger towards bankers, property speculators, hedge fund bosses and politicians is widespread.

On February 17th Peter Oborne, one of the UK's most respected journalists, resigned from the Daily Telegraph and publicly condemned its practice of placing advertisers interests above those of the truth. As a conservative liberal, Peter Oborne is concerned that our famed and cherished 'freedom of speech' is being undermined by business interests. Freedom of expression is routinely and uncritically heralded as our society's proudest achievement to be defended at all costs. It is always assumed that, essentially, we possess this freedom, and it is only necessary to preserve it in one way or another. In truth, under capitalism there is no such thing as free expression nor a free press, for

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This week revelations on BBC’s Panorama have sparked an explosive scandal: HSBC, the UK’s largest – and the world’s second largest – bank, has been caught facilitating industrial-scale tax evasion, committed by some of its wealthiest clients. Thousands of leaked bank account files obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the BBC, The Guardian and others show that between 2005 and 2007 the bank’s Swiss arm colluded with clients to conceal money and whole bank accounts from their respective domestic tax authorities, whilst also marketing aggressive tax avoidance schemes for its wealthiest customers. The accounts involved were worth an estimated $119bn.

On Saturday 14 February delegates from all over Britain will be joined in London by international visitors for the 2nd Marxist Student Federation conference at SOAS. As well as discussing the international student movement across the world, students will be discussing on the perspectives and tasks for the Marxist students in Britain (See below the agenda).

When Russell Brand was living his high-profile drug and party-fuelled life just a few years ago, the moralists in media and government had relatively little to say about him. Now that he has written a book calling for anti-capitalist revolution, bourgeois critics are lining up to insult, patronise and demonise Brand for daring to demand an alternative to the current system. This says a lot about the Establishment’s idea of what makes a good celebrity role-model.

A crisis has taken hold of the political establishment in Britain in recent months. Its latest episode was played out last week in the Rochester and Strood by-election. The UK Independence Party emerged to claim their second parliamentary seat at the expense of the ruling Conservative Party.

Solidarity with the Anti-fascist Resistance in Ukraine (SARU) held a supporters’ meeting on the 11th of November at the Marx Memorial Library in Clerkenwell, London. A packed room heard a series of speakers discuss the current situation in Ukraine and the way forward for the campaign.

It seems a little strange to think that when Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Classwas released in 2011, its author was then relatively unheard of. Three years down the line and you couldn't be faulted for thinking that Owen Jones is the media's go-to-guy for left-wing opinions. As well as being a columnist for The Guardian, he can often be spotted on television, making appearances on shows spanning from BBC Question Time to The Alan Titchmarsh Show. He is also an activist however, being a key figure in the People's Assembly movement and the think tank CLASS, as well as regularly speaking at various public events.

A new official report from Credit Suisse paints a grim picture of the growing divide in the UK between the rich and the poor.

The Referendum campaign has transformed the political landscape in Scotland. It was a defining moment. This seismic shift has sent shock waves through the British capitalist establishment. Below is a statement which was first published as part of IMT's Scottish special, 'Revolution'.

With banners, fists and voices raised high, the Marxist Student Federationrallied the largest number of student Marxists yet to join our voices with those of increasingly disgruntled workers at the national TUC demonstration ‘Britain Needs a Pay Rise’ on 20th October.  With students present from Leeds to Sussex, from Sheffield to Southampton as well as a strong presence from London and elsewhere, there was a sea of new revolutionary faces that had joined Marxist societies in the last few weeks, eager to raise the Marxist Student banners with those of the trade unions.

As the new academic term gets underway, the has been at 29 universities, signing up hundreds of students who are interested in building an organisation capable of fighting for socialist policies within the student movement. Furthermore thousands of people signed up to hear more about our activities. Below are reports from some of our interventions.