Manifesto Press

18/11/2015

02/10/2015

Bob Cooney (1907-1984) was a prominent anti-fascist and communist in Aberdeen who joined the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39. Published for the first time, “Proud Journey” is his memoir of those turbulent times. It takes us from street clashes with Blackshirts to the battlefields of Spain and the heroism and sacrifice of Cooney and his comrades facing the forces of Franco, Hi**er and Mussolini. Written in 1944 and with the Second World War as a backdrop, this is a rousing personal account of one man’s part in the long and bloody fight against fascism that helped define this key period of twentieth century history. Cooney paints an action-packed and politically-charged picture of struggle, solidarity, comradeship – and hope.

http://manifestopress.org.uk/index.php/14-our-books/40-proud-journey-a-spanish-civil-war-memoir

01/10/2015

The imperialist urge, rooted in the dynamics of the world economy, continues to cast a long shadow. Andrew Murray subjects the leading pro-imperial historians, including Niall Ferguson, to a withering analysis. He presents an alternative reading of the record of the British Empire, and of other colonial powers, “… the better to develop an understanding as to why the last thing the great majority of the world wants to see is a repetition, however dressed up.”

http://manifestopress.org.uk/index.php/publications2/1-the-imperial-controversy

01/10/2015

The singular successes of the Cuban education system are treated to a deep, comprehensive and fraternal analysis by Dr MacDonald, a world authority on human rights, a sharp critic of contemporary imperialism.
The book covers with great authority the full range of Cuba’s innovative education system, from pr-school and primary education, through the secondary and tertiary sectors, the experiences of the pioneering literacy programs and the comprehensive nature of adult education. He locates the children’s Pioneer movement, the day care system, school and community relations and specialist, technical and vocational education in the framework of Cuba’s distinctive pedagogy.

http://manifestopress.org.uk/index.php/publications2/2-the-education-revolution

01/10/2015

The 1911 railway strike in south Wales raised important questions about power and class consciousness and the direction of the working class movement in the early years of the last century. An earlier version of this book was first published in 1986, in Welsh as Streic! Streic! Streic! This new edition corrects and extends that work, while remaining in essence an English language translation of it.

http://manifestopress.org.uk/index.php/publications2/3-killing-no-murder

01/10/2015

This special new booklet published in association with the Communist Party History Group to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the defeat of fascism in Europe is a celebration of that victory and also a warning of the continuing dangers posed by fascism and the attempts to re-write history.

It includes a number of previously unpublished and well known images (courtesy of the Marx Memorial Library photographic archive) displaying N**i atrocities and the popular resistance to them in Britain and across Europe.

http://manifestopress.org.uk/index.php/publications2/12-freedom-from-tyranny

01/10/2015

he striking continuity between Cameron’s ‘big society’ and New Labour’s ‘neo-liberal’ project for governance gives a special relevance to Peter Latham’s study The state and local government. Beneath the rhetoric of devolution and empowerment real power is evacuated to the central state and displaced to corporate capital. Proceeding from the famous dictum of Marx; ‘All science would be superfluous if the outward appearance and the essence of things directly coincided’ Latham demonstrates the foundation – in the particular neo-liberal forms assumed by ‘state monopoly capitalism’ – of the local governance in Britain and other countries. Theoretically, the study is located firmly in a rigorous address of Marxist theories of the state and argues that “superstructural” readings, which exclude political economy, misrepresent Antonio Gramsci.

http://manifestopress.org.uk/index.php/publications2/26-the-state-and-local-government

01/10/2015

The post-war Labour government was the defining event in the life of John Kotz. Leaving school as Labour took office he lived the positive changes that it wrought in the lives of working people. His early recollections contrast an East End childhood, defined by the delights and despairs of the family and working life of the Jewish working class, with wartime evacuation to the English countryside – for which he retains a deep affection.

http://manifestopress.org.uk/index.php/publications2/27-vintage-red

01/10/2015

This book challenges the consensus that has confined political economy to the options that the banks and big business will accept. Based on the policy agenda that Britain's trade union and labour movement have begun to shape it analyses what is wrong with the British economy, arguing that the country's productive base is too small, that the economy has become too financialised and that power has become concentrated on a narrow economic fraction based in the City.

http://manifestopress.org.uk/index.php/publications2/34-building-an-economy-for-the-people

01/10/2015

Mercia MacDermott’s latest book, Lone red poppy, is the first substantial and authoritative account in English of the life of Dimiter Blagoev, founder of the first marxist circle in Russia and of the Bulgarian Communist Party.

The book traces his personal and family story against the background of Bulgaria’s struggle for a popular sovereignty and the rising workers’ and revolutionary movements.

http://manifestopress.org.uk/index.php/publications2/37-lone-red-poppy

01/10/2015

This pioneering new biography tells the story of Phil Piratin, elected Communist MP for Stepney Mile End in the post-war General Election that swept Labour to office on a radical manifesto.
The book reprises the commanding role that Piratin played in the 1936 Battle of Cable Street against the fascist Blackshirts. For the first time in print, it shows how he sent a mole into the British Union of Fascists on that day who provided Piratin with invaluable information.

http://manifestopress.org.uk/index.php/publications2/35-granite-and-honey