Communist Dissidents in early Soviet Russia

Five documents translated and introduced by Simon Pirani.

This book, published in 2023, gives voice to Russian communists who participated in the 1917 revolution, but found themselves at odds with the Communist party as it consolidated its rule in the early 1920s. One Red army veteran demands action against corrupt officials; another mourns the dashed hopes of 1917 and the loss of friendship and solidarity. A “collectivist” group aspires to new cultural and technological revolutions; other oppositionists denounce material inequalities, the return of workplace exploitation and creeping state authoritarianism. The five documents in the book are published in English for the first time, with an introduction and notes.

Copies can be ordered from the publisher here. A PDF version, free to download, is now available here.

Ukraine: war makes just energy transition more urgent

While powerful interests are pushing Kyiv to invest in fossil fuels and nuclear energy, a movement is taking shape in former mining communities to develop decentralised renewables. An article published by Foreign Policy in Focus

We need social change, not miracles

A review of No Miracles Needed: how today’s technology can save our climate and clean our air, by MarkJacobson, published by The Ecologist

Governments are reinforcing fossil fuels’ power. We need to build alliances against it

An article based on an on-line talk I gave on 4July at the Humanitas Unisinos Institute (IHU) of the University of Vale do Riodos Sinos, Brazil. (A video, in Portuguese only, is here.)

Corporate pressure versus climate action

Breathe by Sadiq Khan offers a glimpse into the London Mayor's “internal struggle between action on climate and corporate interests”. Published in The Ecologist