Focus
CBI • Lord Denning • Fitzgerald's Crusade

Bob Rowthorn
The Past Strikes Back
Britain's postwar decline is, by any standards, remarkable. The result has been growing political volatility. Bob Rowthorn, a member of our Editorial Board, discusses the causes o the process and what the SDP/Liberal Alliance might mean.

Monty Johnstone and Andreas Westphal
The Polish Crisis: is there a way out ?
For 18 months, Poland has been in a state of deep crisis. The authors examine its causes and possible scenarios. See also p5 for latest developments.

Interview with Jack Adams
The BL workforce has suffered one defeat after another. Jack Adams, convenor at BL Longbridge, argues that now, with the latest wage dispute, there has been a big change in the atmosphere.

Henry Patterson
Paisley and Protestant Politics
Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party is on the offensive. Henry Patterson, author of Class Conflict and Sectarianism looks at the changes in Protestant politics.

Channel Five
Black actors — Anton Phillips
Channel 4 — Stuart Hood
Karpov v. Korchnoi — Graham Taylor

Discussion
Robin Blackburn
Can Labour Succeed?
The author argues that Labour must be transformed into a socialist party.

Reviews
Marian Sling — Socialism and Democracy in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1948

Notes

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Going Private • Nicaragua • Crisis in the Prisons

Chris Husbands
The Politics of Confusion
The two-party system is under greater threat than at anytime since 1945. Chris Husbands, a lecturer in sociology at the London School of Economics, traces the growth in political volatility culminating in the present challenge from the SDP/Liberal Alliance

Monty Johnstone
Poland's Military Crackdown
On December 13 a 'state of war' was declared in Poland. Monty Johnstone assesses the significance of the military takeover and its implications.

Vic Allen
The Miners on the Move
The miners have been the scourge of British governments for over a decade. Now, in Arthur Scargill, they have a militant president. Vic Allen, author of The Militancy of British Miners, examines the radicalisation of the miners.

Outlook for the Socialist Economies
A roundtable discussion with Wlodzimierz Brus, Julian Cooper, Michael Ellman and Mario Nuti.
The prospects for the capitalist world in the eighties look bleak. But the economic outlook for the socialist countries is not much better.

John Griffith
The Law Lords and the GLC
The Law Lords have stunned the Left. Here John Griffith, author of The Politics of the Judiciary, examines the reasoning of the Law Lords and some of its implications.

Channel Five
Interview with David Puttnam
St Valentines Day — Cath Jackson
What Chance Popular Theatre ? — John McGrath

Reviews
Tamara Deutscher — Solidarity: Poland's Independent Trade Union -- Poland: The State of the Republic
Vicky Seddon — Subject Women

Notes

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Focus
Namibia • The Bristol City Eight • Yamal Gas Pipeline • Change on the Ultra-Right
Features

Interview with John Alderson
Policing in the Eighties
Last summer's riots have made policing a major political issue. Here John Alderson, the radically minded Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall, discusses the role of the police.

Sam Aaronovitch
Recipe for Defeat
The Labour Left have made extraordinary advances in the Labour Party. But is that
progress now threatened by the Left's political weaknesses?

Robert M Young
The Darwin Debate
The recent Arkansas case renewed the century-old debate on Darwin's theory of evolution. The creationists lost, but the left should not be drawn into blanket support for the scientific establishment.

Christian Tyler
Tebbit's Law: A Tory Dream Come True?
The Tories have taken another lunge at the unions. If successful, the consequences for trade unionism wouldbe drastic. The stakes are, indeed, high.

Paul Bew
The Irish Election
The result of the recent Irish election was another cliff-hanger. The author looks at the background to the present stalemate in Irish politics.

Channel Five 32
Urban Cowboys — Mary Harron
Reclaiming Fashion — Caroline Holder
The Stuff that Dreams are made of— Kevin Gough-Yates
Snooker — Sheila Capstick

Discussion
Geoff Bell Paisley and Protestant Politics
The author looks at the position of the Protestants

Reviews
Ralph Miliband — The Forward March of Labour Halted?
John Fantham — Triumph of the People. Nicaragua: the Sandinista Revolution
Tess Woodcraft — Girls, Wives, Factory Lives. Women, where are your jobs going?

Notes

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Focus
The Times • South African National Party • When is a Trespass not a Trespass

Features
Tony Benn - Democracy and Marxism: A Mutual Challenge Marxism has changed the world. Here Tony Benn, in the full text of the Marx Memorial Lecture, printed exclusively in Marxism Today, argues that British democracy needs Marxism and Marxism needs democracy.

Keith Dixon and Daniel Perraud - The French Experiment The Mitterand government is one year old. It is already the boldest Left experiment in Western
Europe since the war. But what is it - and will it last?

Michael Pentz - Opportunity or Opportunism? Both Reagan and Brezhnev have recently come up with new disarmament initiatives. But do they offer the peace movement anything?

Bob Rowthorn - Britain and Western Europe The Left has been strongly anti-EEC. Yet Britain's integration with Western Europe is an irreversible and growing reality. How should the Left respond to this process?

Frankie Rickford - The Hidden Victims
Public transport has become a major political issue. But the plight of those most dependent on it remains neglected.

Channel Five
Interview with Sheila Hancock
Sound Barriers - Sue Steward
Shakespeare's Sisters - Cathy Itzin
Movie Roles - Mandy Rose

Discussion
Charles Clarke and David Griffiths Recipe for Defeat Labour needs to become a popular, campaigning party.

Reviews
David Edgar - Every Sweet Thing
Elizabeth Wilson - Sex, Politics and Society
Chantal Mouffe - The Long March of the French Left

Letters
Notes

Focus
OPEC US Peace Movement Information Technology

Features

Brian Pollitt
From El Salvador to the Falklands:
A strategy in disarray
From the moment of taking office, Reagan was determined to roll back progressive change in Latin America. The events of 1982, from El Salvador to the Falklands, suggest that strategy is now in disarray.

Raymond Williams
Democracy and Parliament
'Parliamentary democracy' has moved to the centre of political debate. But parliamentary democracy has many meanings — and it is not what it seems. Yet this is no reason for the Left
to be complacent.

Interview with Herbert McCabe OP
The Polish Pope and the Catholic Church
John Paul II has introduced a very new style of papacy. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church in Britain has been going through some big changes.

Jon Bloomfield
Between The Blocs: Europe's third road to peace
The new cold war has given rise to a European-wide peace movement. Unlike previously, it has a distinctively European perspective.

Lee Bridges and Paul Gilroy
Striking Back
The recent use by the Metropolitan Police of race in crime statistics must be seen in a wider political context.

Channel Five
Diana Ross — Richard Dyer
Wimbledon Styles — Dave Berry
Indian Art — Charles Ashleigh

Discussion
Mick Costello
Tebbit's Law: A Tory dream come true
What is it, and how can it be defeated?

Reviews
Steve Gooch — A Good Night Out
Grazia Ietto Gillies — The New International Division of Labour

Letters
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Focus
Adman and Eve - Arms Trade -
Red Brigades - The Politics of Handicap

Features
Robert Gray - The Falklands Factor
Thatcher has exploited the Falklands issue to the full. And the Left has found itself on the defensive and divided.

Tom Nairn - Britain's Living Legacy The Falklands crisis has proved an extraordinary and unpredictable episode. It
is a reminder of the power of Britain's
imperial legacy.

Miguel del Campo - Malvinas Crisis: What Next in Argentina? The Argentinian invasion of the Malvinas has unleashed unpredictable forces in Argentina itself. Can the junta survive?

John Harrison - Thatcherism: is it working? The Treasury is now claiming that the economy has turned the corner. Thatcherism is beginning to work — or is it?

Melvyn Bragg - Writers and War
The hero of war has historically been the hero of the novel. From the First World War, that tradition began to change. But the change is far from complete.

John Mcllroy - Anatomy of a Redundancy Struggle The fight to defend jobs at the Laurence Scott factory in Manchester became national news.
It lasted many months and won wide support, but in the end it was defeated. What can we learn?

Channel Five
The World Cup — Stan Levenson
Post-War Craft — Peter Dormer
British Cinema in Europe — Ian Christie
Where have all the books gone? — John Vincent

Discussion
Ben Ramelson Britain and Western Europe
The case for withdrawal from the EEC is as strong as ever.

Reviews
Fran Bennett — Sweet Freedom: the Struggle for Women's Liberation
Michael Barratt Brown — Britain in Decline
Nicholas Blake — Conspiracy: Law, Class and Society

Letters
Notes

Focus
Free Newspapers • The Democrats' New Dawn • Hard Luck, Hard Rock

Features

Tony Lane
The Unions: Caught on an Ebb Tide
The trade union movement is in difficulties — and it's not just because of Thatcherism and unemployment.

Mihir Bose
Sport and South Africa
The sporting boycott of South Africa will not bring apartheid down, but it matters in more ways than is usually recognised.

RoyMedvedev
USSR After Brezhnev
The ascendancy of Lenin, Stalin, Khruschov and Brezhnev have marked distinctive phases in Soviet history. How should we view the Brezhnev era and what is likely to succeed it?

Alan Walker
Why We Need a Social Strategy
The welfare state has proved strikingly vulnerable to the Thatcherite offensive. There is no simple going back — so where do we go?

Ron Ayers
Militarism in the Third World
The alternative to arms supplies from the advanced countries is not indigenous arms manufacture.

Channel Five
Interview with Ngugi wa Thiong'o -
Silly Hats and the Navy: The Last Night of the Proms — Malcolm Barry and Olivia Harris
Ambiguities of the Estate — Robin Evans

Discussion
Jenny Warren
Britain and Western Europe
The EEC is not the answer.

Reviews
Alan Hunt — Law and Order: Arguments for Socialism
Rosalind Brunt — The Culture Gap. Popular Culture: Past and Present

Letters

Notes

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Focus
Joseph's Education Strategy • Assembly Elections in Northern Ireland • The Tories
and the Foreign Office

Features

Eric Hobsbawm
The State of the Left in Western Europe
The Right is weaker than a decade ago and the Left has made advances. But thepicture is uneven and insecure.

Kenneth Leech
Is the Church of England Really Moving to the Left?
The Falklands service, the national anthem, disarmament: the Right is accusing the Church of England of going to the left. What is actually happening?

Andre Gunder Frank
The Atlantic Alliance in Disarray
The alliance between the United States and the Western Europe has been the centrepiece of Western politics since the war. Now it is racked by feuding and tension.

Steve Iliffe
Health Care — a headache for the Left?
The NHS is under attack from the Tories. But the problems of health care are also long term and deep seated.

Peter Hain
Prospects for Labour
What kind of Labour Party is emerging from the post-1979 internal struggles?

Channel Five
Interview with Hugh Jenkins
Wren's Reputation — Nick Rowling

Reviews
Gregor McLennan — Main Currents of Marxism. Is There a Future for Marxism? A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialsm.
Bill Schwarz — Missing. Assassination on Embassy Row.

Letters

Notes

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Crash of '83? • US-Cuba Relations • Payment for Debt

Features

Interview with Rodney Bickerstaffe
Going Public
The health workers' dispute has emerged as one of the most potent challenges to the Thatcher government's economic policies.

Anthony Barnett
Shackleton's Dream Island
The Tories have won the war: but what are they going to do with the spoils?

Stuart Hall
A Long Haul
The labour movement has been on the defensive since 1979 and the causes are long term and profound.

Robert Gray
Left Holding the Flag
'God Save the Queen', the Union Jack; how does the Left relate to Britain as a nation? It isn't easy — but a way must be found.

John Fairley
The Great Training Robbery
The Tories are transforming the face of training. And we haven't got much to say about it.

Discussion
Dave Priscott, Pete Carter, Andrew Clarke The Unions: Caught on the Ebb Tide.
Tony Lane's article in the September issue has caused considerable controversy. Here are three responses.

Channel Five

Women command the Flagship -
Lesley Hilton

Festival of Lights -
Zareer Masani

A Train Stopped in Moscow -
John Birch

French broadcasting -
Suszi Benghiat

Reviews
Jack Jones — Engineers at War 1939-45
Lionel Cliffe — The Ethiopian Revolution
John Hoffman — Communism and Philosophy: Marxism and the Methodologies of History

Letters

Notes

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