[page 8]
Militant Labour launches new magazine -
Socialism Today
HIS WILL be the last issue of Militant International
Review after 26 years of publication. MIR will be
replaced in September with a new monthly magazine,
Socialism Today - an important step forward for Militant Labour, allowing us to deepen discussion on the theoretical, analytical and strategic questions facing socialists today.
This is a vital and urgent task. The past decade has been a period of accelerating social and political change worldwide. The collapse of Stalinism - 'explained' by capitalist politicians and their echos in the labour movement as the 'end of socialism' - opened up a new historical era. The world order which emerged from the second world war has been radically transformed. Yet events in the first half of the '90s have shown that the ideas of genuine socialism not its Stalinist caricature - are more revelant than ever.
While the restoration of capitalism in the ex-USSR and eastern Europe has brought with it new wars, mass poverty and ethnic conflicts, the advanced capitalist countries have miserably failed to emerge from their long-term crisis - dragging huge sections of the 'third world' into anarchy and collapse. Working people internationally have been the victims of successive waves of attack, bringing in their wake not just major changes to capitalist institutions, but also recomposing the working class itself.
These changes have shaken up the labour movement in country after country. The Stalinist parties have either collapsed or been gravely weakened, while the Labour and Social Democratic parties internationally have prostrated themselves before free market ideology - none more so than Tony Blair's 'New Labour'. On the other hand, significant new formations have emerged internationally: in Europe, for example, the Party of Democratic Socialism in Germany; the United Left in Spain and the Party of Communist Refoundation in Italy.
In such circumstances the ideological defence of Marxism, of genuine socialism, could not be more urgent: not just the defence of fundamentals like social ownership, but also an analysis of new developments, social, economic and political, cultural and scientific. The name of our new magazine, Socialism Today, summarises this task - to apply socialist ideas afresh to today's new world.
Many workers and young people who are disgusted and outraged by Tory Britain and have no confidence in Tony Blair's New Labour, can be won to the socialist alternative in this period. The tens of thousands of people who voted for Militant Labour and Scottish Militant Labour in the recent local elections are proof of that. Our newspaper Militant, sold weekly in workplaces, the labour movement, council estates and on the streets, is the indispensable tool
for reaching out to these new forces. A monthly magazine, alongside the Militant, will be able to go into more detail and deepen the analysis contained in our paper.
In an era of sweeping global change, developing socialist theory is not a simple matter. It means debate, serious research and an openness to new ideas. We want a magazine which is useful to all those who continue to stand up for socialism. Our readers can help by sending us their ideas and comments, and of course by helping us to extend our circulation.
Most of all our supporters and sympathisers can help us by taking out a subscription to Socialism Today, to meet the launch costs of the new magazine. A subscription will also be the best way to get your copy of Socialism Today. Subscribers will be sent their copy as soon as the magazine comes off the press, with dispatch priority, and will save money - the cover price of Socialism Today will be £1.50 while a yearly subscription (10 issues) costs just £13. So please write to us today and help us get off to a flying start.
Subscription rates for one year:
Britain and Ireland - £ 13;
Europe - £18; Outside Europe - £25.
Cheques and postal orders, in sterling
only, payable to Socialism Today.
Send with your name, address and postcode to: Socialism Today, 3/13 Hepscott Road, London, E9 5HB.
Socialism Today • 7
[page 9]