This blog is produced by Marcus Halaby and Richard Brenner.
We are Marxist activists and writers based in South London.
Richard is an activist in networks of trade unionists and former Labour Party members looking to create a new political party. His activity goes back to the miners’ strike and the Anti Poll tax movement in the 1980s, and includes the anti-globalisation/anticapitalist movement of the 90s and early 2000s and the Corbyn movement of 2015-19. Richard lived in East Germany in the period 1989-90 and takes a keen interest in debates about the nature and collapse of the Eastern Bloc. He has written widely on questions of strategy, tactics, programme and political perspectives including economics, history, philosophy and questions of organisation.
Marcus is an Marxist of Syrian origin who has been active on the British and international left since the high point of the anti-poll tax movement in 1990. He travelled to Tuzla during the Bosnian war in 1994, and to Gaza during the Second Intifada in 2002. He has written extensively on war, imperialism and the national question, with a particular focus on Syria, Palestine, the Balkans and the Middle East.