Socialism is workers’ control over production. That’s it.

Come do a Masters Course in Germany, for trade unionists! Application period: 1 December 2025 – 31 March 2026 Questions? Email [email protected] (or ask me, happy to help) More info here: global-labour-university.org/studying/mas...

The Most Serene Republic of Venice lasted over 1,100 years, making it the longest lasting and most stable republic in history. The United States, for comparison, is only 250 years old.

Capitalism is not markets, and socialism is not planning. In fact, capitalism can be highly planned, and socialism can utilize free markets. E.g. market socialism, with a system of worker cooperatives participating in a genuinely free market. The difference is who owns the means of production.

This is very, very interesting.

Ian Mikardo. Labour MP for Reading from 1950, pushed for the implementation of widespread employee ownership and worker self-management as part of the Attlee Government's nationalisation programme. A reminder of the party's transformative, more socialist tradition. He'd probably be expelled today.

The left should talk more about power redistribution than wealth redistribution.

They let me into the US!, a pleasure to meet great comrades at Rutgers' Labor Education Center 🇺🇸

The trade union is the pathway to socialism

India now has its first ever worker owned taxi company. This is good news.

The problem with libertarianism is that you eventually run out of other people's money

The UK Conservative Party is the most successful political party in human history. Its sudden collapse signifies a fundamental shift in class relations. The landed gentry (still beholden to feudal notions of duty) are losing out to totalitarian capitalists - two factions it used to hold together.

The island of Capri, where Emperor Tiberius spent much of his later rule in seclusion, engaging in debauchery so profound it influenced the course of history itself

Italy is beautiful too

For all interested, applications are now open for the Global Labour University Engage South Africa course 2026, at Witts University in Johannesburg. Find more details below, or feel free to each out to me for more information.

Call for Abstracts - 2026 GLU International Conference. Look forward to seeing many of you there! More information about the conference can be found on the conference website: global-labour-university.org/events/glu-c...

Towards the cooperative commonwealth!

One wonders what the radicals of the eighteenth century like Paine or Blake would make of the fact that, in our time, most Popes have proved to be more progressive than most presidents of the United States

It was an honour to work on this survey, and write on what role the GLU alumni could play in the wider labour movement ✊🏻

A cooperative alternative, FairBnB, which is not only democratic but returns 50% of its profits to the communities in which it operates. I've personally used it when traveling around Europe, and highly recommend it to others. fairbnb.coop

Switzerland isn't ugly

I like Corbyn (and voted for him twice), but he presents himself as a sort of atheist Anglican Vicar. His message isn't about power, it's about 'niceness' - playing into all the worst stereotypes of a lefty. Socialism is not when magic grandpa spends lots of money. It's about workers' control.

"The gentry must come down, and the poor shall wear the crown" - Published in "the Levellers' Standard", 1649

The Platform Coop Consortium is building a movement focused on transparency and common ownership of the platform economy. Their next conference is coming up in Nov, and I highly recommend getting involved - especially trade unionists less familiar with tech/coops. See you in Istanbul ✊🏻

Taxi drivers and trade unionists in NYC set up a cooperative worker-owned alternative to Uber and Lyft. It pays its drivers a higher faire while charging customers less, built on the principles of democracy and ownership. If you're in NYC, please support them, use the app or recommend to others ✊🏻

One of the best cures for burnout is not rest but victory. Seeing that the left can win, and having had a part in achieving it, is the biggest morale boost. Abstract "big picture" goals are usually unobtainable and therefore demoralizing. Try to set up campaigns with a beginning middle and end.

For any trade union strategists out there, I'd highly recommend looking at the 'Power Resources Approach', partly developed by the FES. If you're unfamiliar, here's a concise overview; youtu.be/B3zRCVs7tXM?...

It was a pleasure to speak at the Global Labour University Alumni Workshop this weekend, exploring how our network of over 1,000 labour scholars from around the world can play a pivotal role in strengthening organized labour and democracy

"Wrong in principle, and tactically self-destructive. When we move to the arena of violence, the most brutal guys win – that’s the worst outcome (and, incidentally, it’s not us). The right response is to use the opportunity for education and exposure, not to give a gift to the hard right" Chomsky

Labour is entitled to all it creates

Union membership continues to fall, in the UK and globally. Will unions accept defeat and linger on as bureaucractic managers of a declining status quo? Or take a pragmatic and transformative view of trade unionism as the movement for industrial democracy?

"The great appear great because we are on our knees. Let us rise!" - Jim Larkin 🇮🇪 🚩

"Our cultural core is not whether we fish or hunt or forage to subsist, but how our norms permit some people to hold power over others. If you want to understand a society, including your own, look at how people are exploited."

Profit is unpaid wages.

In case any of you are in marketing. Interrupting my YouTube video with your ad actively makes me hate your company and want to avoid buying from it.

The problem with centrist pundits like Rory Stuart is that they can't conceptualize politics outside of the establishment system. They just don't get the role militant mass movements played in shaping democracy and winning substantive gains for working people. This is a fatal liberal blind spot.

Unite invited a far-right, anti-union politician from Reform UK to speak at a rally in Grimsby against the closure of a refinery. Let's be clear: Reform wants to crush trade unions utterly and annihilate workers' rights, creating an even greater tyranny of the bosses. They are not our friends.

The prize for the greatest trade union name of all time belongs to: The International Association of Marble, Slate and Stone Polishers, Rubbers and Sawyers, Tile and Marble Setters' Helpers and Marble Mosaic and Terrazzo Workers' Helpers (IAMSSPRSTMSHMMTWH) Incredible.

Slavery was ended in the British Empire through the state paying compensation to slaveowners, on loan, which was only paid off in 2015. An injustice in and of itself as the slaves received nothing. But one can imagine a similar mechanism being used to end capitalist ownership of industry.

Landlords produce wealth the same way mosquitoes produce blood

In 2009 the United Steelworkers (USW) developed a template 'union-coop' model in which trade union representation works alongside the usual cooperative democratic structures. Far from stepping on eachothers toes, unions and coops can support and strengthen each other.

Triangle cut sandwiches taste better. I don't know the physics behind this, but it's true.

What is the function of the "integrationsrat" in Germany? Is it like a powerless 'runner up' democracy for foreigners? Doesn't sound very integrationy.

If social democrats concede to the immigration debate, it becomes a game of "who is toughest on immigration" and the right will win. We need to change the conversation entirely.

Cheers

In 2020, workers at a German steel smelter saved their jobs by buying the workplace themselves. It's now a fully unionised employee owned firm. IG Metall, and other DGB unions should learn from this remarkable local success in resisting job losses. jacobin.com/2021/02/work...

The constitution of the 1649 Republic banned hereditary rule in the name of "liberty" and classed any efforts to restore it as "null and void" acts of treason. Based on this is think its fair to say that the restoration was legally "treason", and can be safely dismissed as such.

Let's get real, unions in the west made a mistake when they gave up addressing questions of ownership in the post war period.

For those interested, the Global Labour University also offers free online certified courses through its online academy. glu.iversity.org/en/courses/j...

Buddhist wisdom