International Socialism # 133

The new issue of International Socialism is now online - articles include Charlie Kimber on the 30 November mass strike in Britain, Megan Trudell on 'The Occupy movement and class politics in the US', an interview with Costas Lapavitsas on the Eurozone crisis, plus articles on 'China's capitalism and the crisis', 'The Egyptian workers’ movement and the 25 January Revolution', 'Libya at the crossroads'. The only things I have read so far include an article on 'the Beat Generation' by Through the Scary Door's Adam Marks and a piece by Roland Boer on 'Engels’s contradictions: a reply to Tristram Hunt'. As a blog, Histomat in general was rather overly harsh on Hunt's Engels biography before I had the time to actually read it, and having now read it I think I was a little bit unfair to Hunt - it is actually a good introduction to Engels's life - well as good as it was ever likely to be given it is written by someone who is not a Marxist themselves - so slight apologies to Tristram on that one. Boer's article does in a sophisticated manner address nonetheless some of the issues around the personal and political contradictions in Engels' life that were raised by Hunt but not satisfactorily resolved by him. While I am here, I might as well point people to an interesting recent post by Scott Hamilton on 'the future of blogging' that is not in International Socialism but of doubtless interest to bloggers and those who read blogs nonetheless - see also Scott's fine analysis of the late Christopher Hitchens ...