History - Counterfire

Beethoven: the politics of a musical revolutionary

Marking the 250th anniversary year of Beethoven's birthday, Thomas Gibbs paints a picture of someone who loved his art and hated royalty in equal measure

Winston Churchill: he fought for his class, never ours

We repost Dominic Alexander's 2019 article documenting Churchill’s record which tells a very different story to the heroic legacy of popular myth

The Spirit of ’46: how mass occupations won the battle for homes

Rather than the ‘Dunkirk spirit’, let’s be guided by the spirit of the great 1946 housing movement, argues Alistair Cartwright

Britain in World War Two: when workers wouldn't go back to normal

The history of working-class struggle during the Second World War that transformed Britain for the better should be remembered on VE day, writes John Westmoreland

The history of May Day: an unfinished struggle

Out of the Chartist movement, the struggle against slavery and for international socialism, why the demands of May Day remain as vital as ever today

Did Lenin inevitably lead to Stalin?

There was nothing inevitable about the grotesque transformation of Russia’s fledgeling workers’ state into Stalin’s Soviet Union, explains John Westmoreland in the third of his three-part series

The hidden history of American radicalism: the campaign for the Workers' Unemployment Insurance Bill

The little-known story of working class organising for a Communist-led initiative in 1930s America challenges assumptions about US workers’ conservatism, argues Chris Wright

1917: Lenin and workers’ power

Lenin’s greatest contribution to history was his leading role in the Russian Revolution of 1917, when workers entered the stage of history, writes John Westmoreland in the second of his three-part series

Lenin and revolutionary organisation

On the 150th anniversary of Lenin's birth, John Westmoreland, in the first of a three-part series, takes on the myths and distortions to reveal the politics at the heart of the Bolshevik party up to 1917

The Paris Commune: when workers ran a city

The Paris Commune is an important milestone in our history in a number of ways, writes John Westmoreland

Tony Cliff: revolutionary theory and practice

John Rees remembers Tony Cliff’s unique contribution to the Marxist tradition

Engels on nature and humanity

In the third of our series on the revolutionary Frederick Engels, on the 200th anniversary of his birth, we repost this excerpt from an upcoming short book on Engels' contribution to Marxian political economy by Michael Roberts

Beethoven: the politics of a musical revolutionary

Marking the 250th anniversary year of Beethoven's birthday, Thomas Gibbs paints a picture of someone who loved his art and hated royalty in equal measure

Winston Churchill: he fought for his class, never ours

We repost Dominic Alexander's 2019 article documenting Churchill’s record which tells a very different story to the heroic legacy of popular myth

The Spirit of ’46: how mass occupations won the battle for homes

Rather than the ‘Dunkirk spirit’, let’s be guided by the spirit of the great 1946 housing movement, argues Alistair Cartwright

Britain in World War Two: when workers wouldn't go back to normal

The history of working-class struggle during the Second World War that transformed Britain for the better should be remembered on VE day, writes John Westmoreland

The history of May Day: an unfinished struggle

Out of the Chartist movement, the struggle against slavery and for international socialism, why the demands of May Day remain as vital as ever today

Did Lenin inevitably lead to Stalin?

There was nothing inevitable about the grotesque transformation of Russia’s fledgeling workers’ state into Stalin’s Soviet Union, explains John Westmoreland in the third of his three-part series

The hidden history of American radicalism: the campaign for the Workers' Unemployment Insurance Bill

The little-known story of working class organising for a Communist-led initiative in 1930s America challenges assumptions about US workers’ conservatism, argues Chris Wright

1917: Lenin and workers’ power

Lenin’s greatest contribution to history was his leading role in the Russian Revolution of 1917, when workers entered the stage of history, writes John Westmoreland in the second of his three-part series

Lenin and revolutionary organisation

On the 150th anniversary of Lenin's birth, John Westmoreland, in the first of a three-part series, takes on the myths and distortions to reveal the politics at the heart of the Bolshevik party up to 1917

The Paris Commune: when workers ran a city

The Paris Commune is an important milestone in our history in a number of ways, writes John Westmoreland

Tony Cliff: revolutionary theory and practice

John Rees remembers Tony Cliff’s unique contribution to the Marxist tradition

Engels on nature and humanity

In the third of our series on the revolutionary Frederick Engels, on the 200th anniversary of his birth, we repost this excerpt from an upcoming short book on Engels' contribution to Marxian political economy by Michael Roberts