May 1: International Workers’ Day

This is a statement of ISA’s International Editorial Board. Workers of the World Unite Against Decaying Capitalism A revolutionary socialist alternative is needed. We call on all workers, women, youth and those who agree with us to join us in building International Socialist Alternative. International Editorial Board “The burdens of war will consume the best […]

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An Gorta Mór: The Legacy of the Irish Famine

James McCabe is a member of the Socialist Party (ISA in Ireland). This year marks 175 years since ‘Black 47’, the worst year of the devastating ‘Great Famine’ in Ireland. Every place is unique in its own way, but Ireland is one of the only parts of the world that has fewer people today than […]

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Chartism 1838–1848: Birth of the Working-Class Movement

Tom Costello is a member of Socialist Alternative (England, Wales & Scotland). The British ruling class would like to present today’s capitalist “democracy” as one that was gradual, “peaceful,” and a kind gift handed down from above. “Once the poor had no rights, and then society naturally progressed towards the great democracy we have today […]

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War Shows the Failure of Capitalism: Socialists Have an Alternative

Geert Cool is a member of Linkse Socialistiche Partij / Parti Socialiste de Lutte (ISA in Belgium). War is the continuation of politics by other means. The contradictions of capitalism lead to war. They cannot be negotiated away. Nor do they disappear through further military escalation. Wars usually end in exhaustion, defeat and destruction, or […]

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A Real Working-Class Journey to Ottawa — 1935

Now that the convoy has been cleared from Ottawa’s streets, it is worth remembering when desperate workers tried to take their protest to the federal government in Ottawa in 1935. The “On to Ottawa Trek” saw unemployed men housed in military relief camps travel by rail from Vancouver, stopping at towns along the way gaining […]

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Socialist Alternative Magazine #20

Socialist Answer to Climate Chaos Youth: Fighting for Our Future Doug Ford Hypocrisy Alberta’s Woes Continue Indigenous Struggles Against Environmental Racism Precarious Renters: Berlin Victory Life of a Precarious University Teacher Socialist Sawant Defeats Right Wing Page from History: Japanese Internment Book review: Five Little Indians by Michelle Good Workers Fight Back … and more […]

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composite photo of irish civil rights protesters gunned down by british army on bloody sunday, 1972

“Derry — This Was Murder” — 50 Years Since Bloody Sunday

Sean Burns is a member of the Socialist Party (ISA in Northern Ireland). Sunday, 30 January 1972 saw one of the bloodiest and most callous atrocities committed during the Troubles. In an event that would become known as Bloody Sunday, British paratroopers (paras) fired indiscriminate live rounds into a crowd of unarmed civil rights protesters […]

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The Unfinished Revolution — Hungary 1956

Till Ruster is a member of Sozialistische LinksPartei (ISA in Austria). Sixty-five years ago, on 23 October about 20,000 Hungarians protested in Budapest in support of a manifesto which called for Hungarian independence, democratic socialism based on land reform, public ownership and democratic rights. The Hungarian revolution had started. A captured Soviet tank is rolling […]

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Ten Years Later – The Importance of Occupy Wall Street

Leon Pinsky is a member of Socialist Alternative in the US. September saw the 10th anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, the movement which opened a new chapter in the history of social struggle in the US. A decade later, we can appreciate the importance of Occupy as the first step in developing a new left, […]

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Class Struggle: How is Change Won?

Grace Fors is a member of Socialist Alternative in the US. Is it possible to win a better future? The answer to that question is an unequivocal yes, but only if we fight for it. Today’s generation is growing up surrounded by crises. As they come of age, dead-end jobs, crushing debt, and climate destruction […]

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