*A Guardian Book of the Day*The defeat of socialist firebrand Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Leader in 2019 confirmed Tony Benn’s famous retort 'the Labour party has never been a socialist party, although there have always been socialists in it.'For over a hundred years, the British Labour Party has been a bastion for working class organisation and struggle. However, has it ever truly been on the side of the workers? Where do its interests really lie? And can we rely on i...

Simon Hannah argues that faced with the existential crisis of environmental decay, a universal concept of human freedom is essential to consider the future of life on the Earth, and that we must start from the belief that humanity is worth fighting for. Hannah is the author of books including Reclaiming the Future (Pluto); A Party with Socialists In It - a History of the Labour Left (Pluto), and Why we need anticapitalist resistance (Resistance B...

‘A convincing case for socialist democratic planning as the only way to meet the needs of billions of humans without destroying the planet’ Michael Roberts, economist and author of Capitalism in the 21st Century‘An engaging assessment of the most urgent problem of our generation: how to transcend capitalism in order to build a real democracy’ Alfredo Saad-Filho, University of Johannesburg, South Africa, and LUT University, Finland

Thirty years ago, a social movement helped bring down one of the most powerful British Prime Ministers of the 20th Century. For the 30th anniversary of the Poll Tax rebellion, Simon Hannah looks back on those tumultuous days of resistance, telling the story of the people that beat the bailiffs, rioted for their rights and defied a government.Starting in Scotland where the 'Community Charge' was first trialled, Can't Pay, Won't Pay immerses the reader in the gritty history ...

The economic and political growth of China and its transformation into a capitalist world power is one of the defining features of the modern age. It has shifted economic relations and the balance of power. With hundreds of millions of workers in China - the world's largest working-class population - they hold the future of the world in their hands. What China is and how it is developing is not an academic matter. This book is a contribution to the debate on China.

The world is facing an unprecedented crisis with the pandemic, climate disaster and an economic crash. Resistance is occurring on every continent against the capitalist system. The vision of Karl Marx for a new society is still relevant today. Simon Hannah gives an outline of Marxism and how it can help us to free people from exploitation and save the planet.

The history of Britain in the last thirty years, under both Conservative and Labour governments, has been dominated by one figure - Margaret Thatcher. Her election marked a decisive break with the past and her premiership transformed not just her country, but the nature of democratic leadership. In his 'argued history' Simon Jenkins analyses this revolution from its beginnings in the turmoil of the 1970s through the social and economic changes of the 1980s. Was Thatcherism a mere medicine ...

Britain's first female prime minister remains a political figure of almost mythical proportions. Margaret Thatcher divided a political nation, became a cultural icon, and was the longest-serving prime minister of the twentieth century. Her period in government coincided with extraordinary changes in British society and in Britain's place in the world.Thatcher's Britaintells the story of Thatcherism for a generation with no personal memories of the 80s, as well as for those who want...

This year marks the centenary of Harold Wilson's birth, the fiftieth anniversary of his most impressive general election victory and forty years since his dramatic resignation as Prime Minister. He was one of the longest-serving premiers of the twentieth century, having won a staggering four general elections, yet, despite this monumental record, his place in Labour's history remains somewhat ambiguous.By the end of his two periods in power, both the left and right of the party were...

On 5 June 1975, voters went to the polls in Britain's first national referendum to decide whether the UK should remain in the European Community. As in 2016, the campaign shattered old political allegiances and triggered a far-reaching debate on Britain's place in the world. The campaign to stay in stretched from the Conservative Party - under its new leader, Margaret Thatcher - to the Labour government, the farming unions and the Confederation of British Industry. Those fighting to 'Get B...

This history of Britain since 1945 confronts two themes that have dominated British consciousness during the post-war era: the myth of decline and the pervasiveness of American influence. The political narrative is about the struggle to maintain a power that was illusory and, from 1960 on, to reverse an economic decline that was nearly as illusory. The British economy had its problems, which are fully analyzed; however, they were counterbalanced by an unparalleled prosperity. At the same t...

Over Britain’s first century of mass democracy, politics has lurched from crisis to crisis. How does this history of political agony illuminate our current age of upheaval?To find out, journalist Phil Tinline takes us back to two past eras when the ruling consensus broke down, and the future filled with ominous possibilities – until, finally, a new settlement was born. How did the Great Depression’s spectres of fascism, bombing and mass unemployment force politicians to think the u...