By the early nineteenth century, Manchester was England’s second largest city and world’s first industrial city. But it was run like a mediaeval market town with no real democracy and brutal poverty for the working class.

A mass movement developed among working-class and middle-class people, for universal manhood suffrage, annual parliaments and ‘the ballot’ i.e. a secret vote. The working-class part of this movement saw winning democratic rights as part of the struggle for better living and working conditions.

The huge demonstration on St Peter’s Fields on the 16 August 1819 was the high point of the working-class part of this movement. Estimates of the turnout vary up to 150,000 but academia is agreed that there were over 60,000 people. In a population of 400,000, there were up to half the adults on the march.

Women and Irish migrant workers were prominent on the demonstration as all sections of the working class poured out on protest in the world’s first mass working-class movement. The ruling class used army regiments and volunteer soldiers to smash the demonstration, killing 15 and wounding hundreds.

This new pamphlet, produced by the Socialist Party north-west region, brings together four new articles about “The Massacre,” “Revolution, War and Struggle,” “The run-up to Peterloo,” and “After Peterloo,” together with previously published material on the Pentrich Uprising and the Great French Revolution.

Outselling the Communist Manifesto in its day, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific remains invaluable in showing that Marxist ideas are key to transforming society. Engels explains in a clear manner how socialist ideas were shaped by events. Looking at the philosophical ideas of Marxism, Engels explains how they can guide the movement to change the world.

This edition contains a new introduction examining the re­emergence of utopian socialist ideas today. Extensive new footnotes will assist the new reader of Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, making it an essential read for those interested in socialism and Marxism.

'The vessel drove before her bows two billows of liquid phosphorus...'

A selection of Darwin's extraordinary adventures during the voyage of the Beagle

- Publisher's description

In the recent mass movements against austerity and the capitalist establishment in Chile, the demand for a constituent assembly has arisen. This demand has also surfaced in similar movements worldwide.

What is a constituent assembly and what role can it play in a struggle to transform society?

Tony Saunois, secretary of the CWI, who was in Chile last year, answers these questions.

Since the financial crisis of 2007-08, many different movements have developed against oppression, austerity, neoliberalism and capitalism – with mixed success. In a complicated situation, Marxists must take stock, analyse what is going on and why, and present a way forwards.

In 2018-19, a dispute broke out over exactly these questions within the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI), the world socialist organisation which includes the Socialist Party in England and Wales.

‘In Defence of Trotskyism’ is a new book bringing together many of the key documents produced to defend a working-class, Trotskyist CWI; a process which culminated in the CWI’s re-foundation.

The focus of this debate included the questions of socialism and ‘identity politics’; the role of the trade unions and the working-class movement; the national question; and under what programme and how should Marxists organise internationally and domestically.

Internationalist in form and content, In Defence of Trotskyism collects contributions from across the world, bringing together the collective experience of working-class fighters to weigh on these important questions.

This book is much more than a record of an internal debate. It is a restatement of Marxist principles, and a living example of their application in today’s world. In Defence of Trotskyism will be invaluable to all those fighting for socialism.

This is a political autobiography of a working class man who came to be a leading figure within the Militant organisation in Liverpool: it examines his personal trajectory, his time as a printer, seafarer, cabinet maker, car worker, the changes in his political development and the issues and individuals he met and dealt with along the way.

Celebrated film maker and playwright Jimmy McGovern says "This is just not one man's story. It's the story of Liverpool, beautiful, bolshie, passionate Liverpool. I couldn't put it down."

Read the review in the Socialist no 1060

May-June 1968. Brutal police repression of student demonstrations. Within days, 10 million French workers were on strike. Factories were occupied, red flags flown and the Internationale heard in the streets of Paris. Even the armed forces were infected by the revolutionary mood. The future of French capitalism hung in the balance. Worker and student action committees constantly discussed what should happen next, yet within weeks the strikes were over and 'order' was restored.

Clare Doyle's, Month of Revolution (first published in May 1988), looks at what caused this mighty explosion of workers' and students' anger and why it did not succeed in overturning capitalism. She argues that the French working class had power in its hands. With a far-sighted, revolutionary leadership, capitalism could have been abolished, and a truly representative socialist government brought to power. World history could have taken a very different course.

In a new introduction, the author also looks at the post-68 class struggles in France and internationally. As anger against capitalism and imperialism grows today, and as a new generation of workers and young people search for an alternative, the events described in Month of Revolution serve as a timely inspiration - a reminder of how a socialist revolution can unfold, in the heart of Europe or in any other country of the globe.

Accounts of the struggle against the poll tax across Kent compiled by Eric Segal, a leading figure in the anti-poll tax struggle who was imprisoned for his refusal to pay.

"Whilst a definitive history of the great battle against the Poll Tax is yet to be written, the invaluable importance of this book lies in the oral history of personal reminiscences and the contemporous minutes of those in the front line of the struggle and the lessons it contains for the battles yet to come." Dave Nellist, from the introduction.

The thirteenth edition of Reclaim the Game, this March 2019 edition includes updates on the financing of football, women's footbal, fights fight back, VAR and the question of a breakaway European League