Books published by The Merlin Press Ltd

A study of essential philosophical categories in Marxism.

Shedding light on one of the most remarkable and original figures among German Marxist thinkers, this volume presents a selection of engaging writings by Rosa Luxemburg. Revealing how Luxemburg was one of the earliest victims of fascism and was murdered in Berlin in 1919 for her beliefs, this compilation includes rare pieces previously unavailable in English. Annotated and placed in context, these writings illustrate Luxemburg's aversion to splits in the Labor movement--particularly in Germany and Russia--and examine her thinking about culture, nationalism, and women's rights. Reviews and documentation on the history of the Left are also included.

Can knowledge workers of the world unite? This question becomes ever more urgent as telecommunications technology shrinks the world and as more and more work is based on creating, processing and transporting information. Communications, information and cultural workers hold together the new global value chains that characterise more and more industries. But, with employers responding to global crisis by exerting ever-greater pressure on wages and working conditions, will these workers be able to overcome national and language differences and the divisions between occupational groups to unite against them? This important collection brings together articles from around the world to assess the state of play. From striking IT workers in China to screenwriters in Hollywood, from postal workers to cartoonists, from librarians to logistics workers, what these workers have in common is that their work is not only embedded in global value chains but also necessary for modern communication to function. This includes communication among workers and the organisations that represent them. The message: knowledge workers can learn a lot from each other about how to understand - and resist - the global forces that are shaping their lives. Volume 4, number 2 of the innovative interdisciplinary journal Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation will be of interest to anyone studying the new international division of labour whether this is from the perspective of labour sociology, management theory, economic geography or industrial relations.

Volume 6 Number 1 of the international interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal 'Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation focuses on gender in the international division of labour. The new global division of labour is bringing about huge changes in who does what work, how, when and where. But this dynamic new landscape is shaped by some very old forces. The gender division of labour in the home still, directly or indirectly, plays a dominant role in determining the very different experiences of women and men in this new global labour market, although it faces multiple new contradictions and stresses in a context of rising female employment and mass migration: clashes between traditional and modern values; shifting boundaries between work that is paid and unpaid, formal and informal; and a situation where the time pressures on one group of women may only be resolved through the 'grey' labour of others, often migrants. Drawing on research in Asia, Africa, Europe and America, this issue explores and analyses some of these dilemmas and describes how women are addressing them in their daily lives, in the process raising new questions for future research.

This is Volume 4 No 1 of the international interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal, Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation. When the irresistible force of globalisation meets the immovable object of specific national labour laws, industrial relations and working practices, as the song goes, 'something's gotta give'. This issue explores what gives when work is reshaped in this encounter. Pummeled between the rock of global market forces on the one hand and national laws, traditions and cultures on the other, how is work being reshaped in different industries and countries and what price is being paid by workers in their daily lives? How are national policies and trade union strategies able to resist the impact of global forces? And what other factors are shaping the experience of work in the 21st century?

Call centres illustrate the consequences of globalisation for labour perhaps more clearly than any other form of employment. Call-centre workers sit at the interface between the global and the local, having to transcend the limitations of local time zones, cultures and speech patterns. They are also at the interface between companies and their customers, having to absorb the impact of anger, incomprehension, confusion and racist abuse whilst still meeting exacting productivity targets and staying calm and friendly. Finally, they take the brunt of the conflict at the contested interface between production and consumption, having to deal in their personal lives with the conflicts between the demands of paid and unpaid work. Drawing, amongst others, on organisational theory, sociology, communications studies, industrial relations, economic geography, gender theory and political economy, this important collection brings together survey evidence from around the world with case studies and vivid first-hand accounts of life in call centres from Asia, North and South America, Western and Eastern Europe. In the process it reveals many similarities but also demonstrates that national industrial relations traditions and workers' ability to negotiate can make a significant difference to the quality of working life in call centres.

For many years, farm workers fought to rescue themselves from bleak, soul-destroying poverty.Their victories and their bitterest defeats, from the cruel treatment of the Tolpuddle Martyrs to the false dawn of the Second World War are recounted in Sharpen the Sickle.'It is the history of the awakening of the exploited rural poor. It shows us the times, the way workers and their families lived. Every page brings alive, the privation and bitterness that made farm workers among the first to organize themselves into a Union and to take on their exploiters. And it does not hesitate to criticize the men who led them and the decisions taken.' Jack Boddy, General Secretary of the National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers.Reg Groves (1908-1988) was a lifelong socialist from a rural background. He was the author of several books, including A History of the Chartist Movement, The Peasants Revolt 1381, Conrad Noel and the Thaxted Movement and Seed Time and Harvest.

Communism aims at putting working people in charge of their lives. A multiplicity of Councils, rather than a big state bureaucracy is needed to empower working people and to focus control over society. Mattick develops a theory of a council communism through his survey of the history of the left in Germany and Russia. He challenges Bolshevik politics: especially their perspectives on questions of Party and Class, and the role of Trade Unions. Mattick argues that a The revolutions which succeeded, first of all, in Russia and China, were not proletarian revolutions in the Marxist sense, leading to the a association of free and equal producersa, but state-capitalist revolutions, which were objectively unable to issue into socialism. Marxism served here as a mere ideology to justify the rise of modified capitalist systems, which were no longer determined by market competition but controlled by way of the authoritarian state. Based on the peasantry, but designed with accelerated industrialisation to create an industrial proletariat, they were ready to abolish the traditional bourgeoisie but not capital as a social relationship.This type of capitalism had not been foreseen by Marx and the early Marxists, even though they advocated the capture of state-power to overthrow the bourgeoisie a but only in order to abolish the state itself.a

Provides a summary of the history of New Left Review and its political development starting from 1962. This book traces NLR's attempts to develop socialist politics, through the old Labour of Harold Wilson, through heady days in 1968, through new Marxist theory, through the Cold War years and into the era of contemporary capitalist globalisation.

There was a general rejoicing when the regime of Tsar Nicholas II fell in February 1917, a new era of liberty dawned. But what would come next?

Have we now reached 'the end of history' with the triumph of capitalist liberal democracy? Is socialism an enemy of democracy? Or could socialism develop, expand and enhance democracy?

This book aims to challenge and change unhelpful attitudes to those who suffer traumatic reactions, to show that they are not signs of weakness or a personality disorder and that there is understanding and help available for those who suffer.

What is the meaning of revolution in the twenty-first century? One hundred years ago 'October 1917' was a unique event inspiring socialists and oppressed peoples and became an inevitable point of reference for 20th century politics. Today the left needs both come to terms with this legacy and to transcend it, through a critical reappraisal of its

Britain in 1946 witnessed extraordinary episodes of direct action. Tens of thousands of families walked into empty army camps and took them over as places to live. A nationwide squatters' movement was born and it was the first challenge to the 1945 Labour government to come 'from below'.