May 09 2013

What do we hope will come out of the May 11 Left Unity conference? Following Nick Wrack’s speech at the April 27 London Communist Forum, Jack Conrad replied for the CPGB. This is an edited version of his response

April 18 2013

Jack Conrad explores the conditions which created Margaret Thatcher and takes issue with the ‘great person’ version of history

February 21 2013

Opportunists require mushy politics and meaningless phrases when they set out to deceive. Jack Conrad argues in favour of a mass working class party and the kind of principles and politics outlined in the Communist manifesto, the Erfurt programme and the programme of the Parti Ouvrier

February 14 2013

Is the so-called transitional method the road to revolution? Jack Conrad argues against the economism of the Socialist Workers Party

January 24 2013

Why does SWP Online insist on carrying anti-Marxist nonsense? Jack Conrad shows why root-and-branch change is long overdue

January 17 2013

Third-period Blairism and the necessity of demystifying Bolshevism, Jack Conrad continues his analysis of Cliff and the SWP's politics

January 10 2013

The Soviet Union question, by Jack Conrad (pdf available here)

October 18 2012

Capitalism is in terminal decline. So why, asks Jack Conrad, do so many on the left advocate not socialism, but increased government spending, deficit financing and Keynesian solutions?

June 29 2012

Greenism is hobbled by two fundamental faults. It cannot tame capitalism, nor does it offer a realistic way of superseding capitalism. Jack Conrad explores its limitations

June 21 2012

Voting for the Muslim Brotherhood was a vote for a party of counterrevolution, not the revolution. Jack Conrad examines MB's origins, ideas and evolution

May 10 2012

Comrades in London are beginning their collective study of Marx's Capital. Jack Conrad introduces what is still an unequalled work

November 24 2011

Jack Conrad suggests many elementary lessons that need to be relearnt

November 24 2011

Jack Conrad continues with post-1848 general strike calls

November 03 2011

Jack Conrad takes issue with the attempt to recruit Lenin to the CPB nationalist camp

July 21 2011

With the sovereign debt contagion spreading, the euro facing existential crisis, the possibility of a US default and gold prices hitting record highs there is a real possibility that capitalism is heading for a further sharp downturn. But, asks Jack Conrad, does Keynesianism offer a way out?

May 26 2011

Jack Conrad examines Marx and Engels and their criticism of passive materialism, theological atheism and religion

May 26 2011

Jack Conrad continues his examination of Marx and Engels and their criticism of passive materialism, theological atheism and religion

March 24 2011

The economic crisis is far from over. But does Keynesianism offer a way out? No, argues Jack Conrad. Keynesianism is thoroughly elitist, anti-working class and pro-capitalist

February 24 2011

Women's oppression, class, organised religion, war, and private property are not natural, writes Jack Conrad

February 24 2011

Women's oppression, class, organised religion, war, and private property are not natural, writes Jack Conrad

September 23 2010

Jack Conrad concludes his discussion of the CPGB's Draft programme by looking at socialism and the dictatorship of the proletariat

September 16 2010

Jack Conrad answers criticisms of the CPGB's Draft programme in the second of a three-part article

September 09 2010

In an opening article, Jack Conrad picks out and assesses various criticisms of and alternatives to the CPGB's Draft programme

August 05 2010

Jack Conrad concludes his survey of Ancient Israel (supplement III)

July 29 2010

Jack Conrad continues his survey of Ancient Israel in Supplement II

July 22 2010

Jack Conrad examines Ancient Israel (supplement)

July 08 2010

Why is the SWP commitment to ecological thinking doubted? Jack Conrad looks at the 'What the Socialist Workers Party stands for' column which appears every week in Socialist Worker

December 17 2009

Jack Conrad gives his assessment of some of the main theories and asks what apes can teach us

December 17 2009

Jack Conrad gives his assessment of some of the main theories and asks what apes can teach us

March 12 2009

Jack Conrad defends Lenin and Trotsky, and issues a health warning about Arthur Scargill, George Galloway, Robert Griffiths and others who want to forget, belittle or maintain silence over the crimes of Stalin

February 07 2008

Is it a matter of principle that communists should attempt to deny organisations of the extreme right a platform? Jack Conrad provides historical background in support of his motion to be put to the February 9 CPGB aggregate

December 20 2007

Even in the 21st century Jesus is still a much prized figure. In this the second chapter of his new book Jack Conrad shows how Jesus has been used and abused by almost every political persuasion

December 20 2007

The struggle to equip the working class with a Communist Party has been long, arduous but absolutely necessary. The theme of a talk given by John Bridge at Communist University 2007

December 06 2007

Jack Conrad defends dialectical materialism against positivist critics

November 22 2007

The Campaign for a Marxist Party holds its reconvened conference this weekend. Jack Conrad looks at the main motions, amendments and political issues

October 25 2007

October 04 2007

The CPGB has been much criticised over its willingness to use the enemy's media and its insistence on defending free speech. Jack Conrad explains why communists should stand against censorship and strive to expose opportunism

September 27 2007

The CMP's national committee clearly lacks legitimacy. Despite that, because of that, it decided to pre-empt our national conference and appoint a Bonapartist chair. A panic measure. John Bridge reports

September 20 2007

How should communists respond to any upsurge in industrial action? Last month's POA dispute offers some useful lessons. Jack Conrad examines the arguments

August 30 2007

Sadly Marxism must be defended against some who claim to be Marxists, or at least sympathetic to Marxism. Jack Conrad shows that this is especially the case when it comes to attacks on Frederick Engels and his work on the dialectic of nature

July 05 2007

The SWP leadership has jumped on the 'stop climate change' bandwagon. But, argues Jack Conrad, if they want to be taken seriously the first thing for them to do is to reformulate their proposition one

May 10 2007

Jack Conrad offers an alternative to the Socialist Party's method and its programme in the run-up to this Saturday's conference of the Campaign for a New Workers' Party

March 08 2007

Going to the moon and space travel and are back in the news, writes Jack Conrad. But the left would be daft to fall for the sci-fi hype

January 04 2007

Did events force Lenin to jettison his 'democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry' formulation after the fall of tsarism? Or was this formulation concretised in the republic of workers', peasants' and soldiers' soviets? Jack Conrad continues his study of the communist programme

December 14 2006

What were the differences, strengths and similarities? Jack Conrad investigates

December 14 2006

Religion is back with a vengeance. George Bush and the US christian right, holy Tony Blair and Britain's islamophobia, Russia's reinstalled orthodox church and India's saffron communalism, the toxic evangelicalism sweeping Africa and Latin America, Saudi Arabia's puritanical wahhabism and al Qa'eda's terrorism of spectacle, the Iranian theocracy and everywhere, it seems, the escape into the trench warfare of religious identity. But what is religion? In this extract from the introduction to his new book, Jack Conrad shows that the answer is not as straightforward as it might first appear

December 07 2006

As Jack Conrad shows, the Marx-Engels theory of permanent revolution does not preclude the workers' party participating in government

November 30 2006

Like German social democracy, Bolshevism had a minimum-maximum party programme. It was their DNA. But, asks Jack Conrad, was their programme irretrievably flawed, as argued by Tony Cliff and the SWP?

November 23 2006

For too long the left has dismissed minimum-maximum programmes. Jack Conrad argues that as well as shortcomings, gaps and faults there is much that can positively be learnt from them

November 16 2006

Is Leon Trotsky's Transitional programme the last word when it comes to the Marxist programme? Or does it represent regression in Marxist terms? Jack Conrad argues against Trotskyite economism

November 09 2006

Why do communists give their programme such importance and go to such pains to develop, guard and enrich it? Jack Conrad begins a short series by examining the background to the CPGB's Draft programme

November 02 2006

No to market solutions. Jack Conrad explains why capitalism is the problem

October 26 2006

Iraq shows the limits of US power and underlines the fact that it is in relative decline, says Jack Conrad

October 26 2006

Green politics have caught on in a big way. Jack Conrad explores their contours, limitations and contradictions

September 21 2006

There is more to the pope's Regensburg speech than a crude attack on islam. Jack Conrad investigates

September 07 2006

Jack Conrad draws parallels between 'proletarian nationalism' and the SSP and Solidarity in Scotland today

August 31 2006

Jack Conrad discusses strategy and contrasts Scottish national socialism with the communist demand for national self-determination

August 10 2006

National consciousness is complex. As Jack Conrad shows, British national consciousness is particularly complex, being at the same time English, Scottish and Welsh. It also involves class and class struggle

August 03 2006

Was Scotland subject to a takeover by England in 1707? Does Scotland suffer from English cultural imperialism? Jack Conrad questions some more left nationalist myths and assumptions

July 27 2006

Jack Conrad argues against the Scottish Socialist Party's claim that Scotland is an oppressed nation, an English colony. Prior to the 1707 Act of Union Scotland was not a nation

July 20 2006

Jack Conrad begins an extensive reply to Bob Goupillot with an examination of the principle of 'one state, one party' and its history

June 29 2006

Jack Conrad questions the romantic image of prehistory presented by green thinkers

June 22 2006

Is working class unity helped by a separate Scottish Socialist Party and the strategy for an 'independent socialist Scotland'? The following exchange took place recently on the Socialist Alliance internet discussion list between Bob Goupillot - a member of the Republican Communist Network (Scotland), one of the SSP's smaller platforms - and Jack Conrad. Things kicked off when comrade Goupillot defended the SSP after a posting by Jim Gilbert

June 15 2006

Jack Conrad concludes his series of articles on the general strike

June 01 2006

Climate change is nothing new. Nor can we stop it. What we need, insists Jack Conrad, is a society that can cope with sudden change

May 25 2006

Jack Conrad pays tribute to the role of the CPGB in 1926. But as well as heroism there were limitations

May 18 2006

Jack Conrad shows that, while the Tory government assiduously and ruthlessly prepared for the 1926 general strike, the TUC was content to pass left-sounding resolutions

May 11 2006

In the second article on the general strike and its turbulent background Jack Conrad looks at the delayed birth of the CPGB and the course of events from black Friday to red Friday

April 20 2006

Jack Conrad questions the romantic images presented by green primitives and cautions against the seductive lures of ecofascism

April 06 2006

In the first of three articles Jack Conrad argues that the global ecological crisis cannot be explained by crude overpopulation theories. Each social formation has its own laws, including laws of population

February 16 2006

Jack Conrad argues in defence of thesis 19

January 19 2006

Technological Prometheanism and capitalism's profit-driven degradation of nature: Jack Conrad puts the case for revolutionary Prometheanism and sustainability

December 15 2005

Why does the CPGB accuse the Socialist Workers Party of economism? Jack Conrad explains with a look at the 'where we stand column' in Socialist Worker and the comrades' attitude to nature, ecology and global warming

December 01 2005

Jack Conrad looks at climate change and the programme that communists should advance

November 17 2005

Respect purports to have something for everyone. In terms of programme, argues Jack Conrad, that means the attempt face two ways at the same time

March 31 2005

On the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Communist Manifesto: Jack Conrad of the Communist Party of Great Britain

August 05 2004

Jack Conrad argues that the left is crippled by its flattery of economic struggles - and the constant downplaying of the primacy of the political

July 29 2004

Peter Mandelson's nomination as Britain's EU commissioner sheds light on the undemocratic nature of the EU. Jack Conrad examines how communists should challenge this institution - to build a truly democratic Europe from below

January 08 2004

December 18 2003

Jack Conrad looks at archaeological wars and bible myths

November 20 2003

George Bush’s four-day state visit to the United Kingdom has provoked a storm of brilliant protests and tells us something about the state of imperialism, says Jack Conrad

November 12 2003

Jack Conrad explains the communist vision

October 30 2003

Paul Burrell's book 'A royal duty' has unleashed yet another crisis for the beleaguered British Royal family. Jack Conrad comments

October 23 2003

Jack Conrad takes a closer look at the new Peace and justice campaign

August 21 2003

Jack Conrad continues the debate on revolutionary organisation following discussion at the CPGB's Communist University

May 01 2003

Jack Conrad discusses the problems of the left when it comes to opposition to an attack on Iraq

March 13 2003

Many on the left entertain an agenda - overt or covert - of defending the Ba'athist regime of Saddam Hussein. Jack Conrad takes them to task

March 06 2003

The 50th anniversary of Joseph Stalin's death on March 5 1953 has been used as an occasion to revisit the massive terror he personally ordered and presided over from the late 1920s onwards. Jack Conrad investigates the legacy of 'the man of steel'

February 06 2003

Jack Conrad discusses Marxist strategy and tactics

October 31 2002

In the seventh and concluding article in his series Jack Conrad peers into the future

October 24 2002

In the sixth part of his series of articles Jack Conrad discusses the debate between Lenin, Trotsky and Kautsky

October 17 2002

In the fifth part of his series of articles Jack Conrad discusses the contradictory impact of the October Revolution

October 10 2002

In the fourth of his series of articles Jack Conrad examines the background to Lenin's use of the word 'dictatorship' and the role played by the Mensheviks

October 03 2002

In the third of his articles discussing peaceful and violent revolution Jack Conrad examines the use of the term 'dictator-ship of the proletariat' after Marx an Engels

September 26 2002

Jack Conrad continues his reply to those who have attacked the recently updated 'What we fight for' column as a move to the right

September 19 2002

Jack Conrad begins a series on peaceful revolution

May 17 2001

Electorally we are mounting one of the biggest leftwing challenges to the Labour-Tory political establishment ever. Operation Red Flag.

March 29 2001

Undoubtedly the Socialist Alliance has moved ahead in leaps and bounds in the couple of years since the Socialist Workers Party made its welcome turn towards elections. True, things began rather badly. The SWP decided to lift its siege mentality and embrace the Socialist Alliance ... but then momentarily and disastrously recoiled from the consequences. Fear conquered audacity.

March 15 2001

Inevitably the main underlying theme of the Socialist Alliance's March 10 conference concerned the period after the general election. Each and every debate at Birmingham was haunted by its attendant ghost of things to come.

March 08 2001

Over recent months Weekly Worker reporters and correspondents have repeatedly shown how the Socialist Alliance majority - in particular the Socialist Workers Party - have fallen in behind the separatist agenda of Scottish and Welsh left nationalists. Whereas our main enemy is tightly, effectively and malevolently organised across the whole of the United Kingdom state, we have irresponsibly divided and thereby weakened our fragile and meagre forces. A self-inflicted disunity that will do more than rob us of an all-Britain joint political broadcast. The wound runs far deeper...

March 01 2001

Examining the 'priority pledge' submissions to the Socialist Alliance's March 10 Birmingham conference is sadly instructive. Before us we have on parade economism lined up in neat regimented rows. An army of misguided innocence (see 'Our principles' Weekly Worker February 22).

February 08 2001

For the first time since 1920 there is the distinct chance of uniting all serious revolutionaries in Britain in a single organisation and thereby starting the historically necessary process of building a viable mass working class party. The CPGB is absolutely clear, however, that as an aim we are against any and all centrist halfway houses, attempts to revive old Labourism, an artificial Labour Representation Committee, etc.

January 18 2001

We should not only be protesting against General Motors on January 20. Anger must be focused squarely on the government and UK state. The Luton Vauxhall crisis highlights New Labour's obscene worship of the market and the inhuman values of capital. According to Tony Blair, issues such as the closure of Vauxhall are purely "commercial". His government is therefore committed not to intervene. Blair's government is afraid of jeopardising Britain's reputation - won through Thatcher's assault on trade union rights and power - that this country is dedicated to the accumulation of profit.

October 05 2000

Two unions, three rooms and three trends

September 28 2000

New Labour no longer rides high in opinion polls. Yet tragically there exists no viable, all-United Kingdom, leftwing alternative. It is the Tories who have benefited from discontent and staged something of a mid-term recovery...

September 21 2000

A decade after the self-collapse of bureaucratic socialism in the USSR and eastern Europe the world's big bankers and the pampered representatives of global capital meet over September 26-28. It is the IMF-World Bank's 55th annual conference and is being held in Prague with much fanfare - not least in order to mark the acceptance of the Czech Republic by the 'international community'.

September 21 2000

September 14 2000

New Labour confronts its gravest crisis. There can be no doubting the seriousness of the situation triggered by the current wave of protests. Not only have petrol pumps run dry, but the government has assumed emergency powers to ensure deliveries of fuel...

July 13 2000

Neil Davidson The origins of Scottish nationhood Pluto Press, London 2000, pp264, pbk, £14.99

June 22 2000

Neil Davidson The origins of Scottish nationhood Pluto Press, London 2000, pp264, pbk, £14.99

June 08 2000

Neil Davidson The origins of Scottish nationhood Pluto Press, London 2000, pp264, pbk, £14.99

June 01 2000

Neil Davidson The origins of Scottish nationhood Pluto Press, London 2000, pp264, pbk, £14.99

February 24 2000

Marxists start their immediate programme not with nations, but the enemy state, says Jack Conrad

January 13 2000