Marxist. Trade Unionist. Socialist-feminist. Author. Poet. Speaker. Tutor. RMT ex-Exec. Workers' Liberty. Autie. Bi. PUFC fan.
Theoretical articles, notes and events from the perspective of working-class self-emancipation.
FEBRUARY On Thursday, the women cried Bread, Peace and Land On Friday, the workers walked out, joined their stand On Saturday, more marched, a whole city spanned On Sunday, the Tsar made the Duma disband By Monday, Provisional and Soviet … Read more
When the shepherd can’t whistle and the sheep will not herd The alarm couldn’t sound and when nobody stirred When the owner growls Sit! and the dog won’t stay The conductor drops the baton and the orchestra won’t play That’s … Read more
It was the best of times and the worst of times And the north of the borough gets the worst Because of accidents of birth and because that’s just the way it works And yes, you guessed, The south gets … Read more
… or ‘The Lumpen Proletariat’ … Over recent decades, UK cancer death rates have fallen significantly. They began falling in the late 1980s, and by 2006 had fallen by 17%. More people than ever before are surviving cancer, with 78% … Read more
Some notes from recent discussions on Marxism and autism (two meetings and some online exchanges): There is a capitalist market in products aimed at autistic people and their families. These range from useful resources through to fake and even abusive … Read more
Published in Solidairty 434, 29 March 2017: Can Marxism can help us to understand autistic experience in modern capitalism? How might Marxism inform our struggles for equality and liberation? There are different approaches to understanding autism. Perhaps the dominant … Read more
Janine introduces a discussion on Marxism and Autism. Can Marxism help explain the autistic experience under capitalism, and contribute to our fight against oppression? Venue: Broadacre House, Market Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE1 6HQ
After my breast cancer surgery, the factors which indicate whether I would benefit from chemotherapy were inconclusive. There was one further test available. The Oncotype DX test examines the activity of 21 genes in the tumour tissue of patients with … Read more
Janine introduces a discussion on Marxism and Autism. Can Marxism help explain the autistic experience under capitalism, and contribute to our fight against oppression? Packhorse pub, Woodhouse Lane.
A 20-minute PowerPoint presentation discussing whether Marxism can help us to understand autistic experience in modern capitalism, and how it might inform our struggles for liberation.
In a pub somewhere near the Lovell Park Autism Hub. Meet outside the Hub at 7pm or text 07957-217639 to find out where we are! Janine will give a take about Marxism and Autism, then we’ll chat about it. Can … Read more
Preamble As public understanding of autism grows, there are different approaches to understanding it. * A medical approach, which sees autism as a disease or a tragedy, that we are broken and need fixing * A more progressive approach that … Read more
Janine read through the notes from the previous meeting, and reported on the process to draw up a Labour Party autism/neurodiversity manifesto. Discussion followed, and included: Capitalism and autism – capitalism makes problems and pressures for us – capitalism is … Read more
As part of Workers’ Liberty’s annual Ideas For Freedom event, Janine and Dr Dinah Murray will introduce a discussion on Marxism and autism. How can Marxism explain the autistic experience in modern capitalism? What is the political economy of the … Read more
Without us nothing’s moved nor made No building and no bricks Without us no foundations laid And nothing broken fixed Without our labour they’ve no purpose No profits, only losses The bosses always need the workers But workers don’t need bosses … Read more
This article was published in Solidarity 365, 20 May 2015 As we wage the fight of our lives against Tory government attacks on disabled people, it may seem that discussing “models” of disability is an irrelevance, a distraction, a waste … Read more
The fourth in a series of articles about the German socialist women’s movement 1890-1914, written in 2005, originally published here: Laws against women’s organisation After Bismarck’s Anti-Socialist Law lapsed in 1890, laws remained which restricted women’s political activity. The 1851 … Read more
The second section of the Workers’ Liberty pamphlet ‘Comrades and Sisters’ looks at women’s situation today. Domestic work, (badly-)paid work, the vast gulf between working-class and ruling-class women. Women in communities, and women in the welfare state. Religious fundamentalism, the … Read more
In February 2013, homeless man Daniel Gauntlett died of hypothermia on the doorstep of an empty bungalow in Aylesford, Kent. Homeless man dies frozen on steps of empty bungalow Man named Daniel Gauntlett Headline of Kent local paper Just words … Read more
from the Workers’ Liberty pamphlet Radical Chains: Sexuality and Class Politics, published in 1999. “a class with radical chains … which can only redeem itself by a total redemption of humanity” “The emancipation of the working class is also the … Read more