Alex Callinicos | Substack

Jun 14

Tehran signals that it is going to strike Israel for having violated Iran's red line by striking Beirut.

The question is whether the strike will be more performative because of potential concessions Trump will offer Iran to refrain from a full response.

[x.com\ \ خبرگزاری تسنیم (@Tasnimnews_Fa) on X\ \ ولایتی مشاور رهبر معظم انقلاب اسلامی: ساعت صفر فرارسیده و پرتابگرها آماده می‌شوند\ \ خطای محاسباتی در بیروت، صبر را به پایان رساند و فرمان صادر شد\ \ حزب‌الله پاره تن محور مقاومت است\ \

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Jun 13

So they tried to deport me…

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Alex Callinicos Jun 13

Excellent article by Richard Donnelly on Tommy Robinson’s recalibration of British fascism.

[isj.org.uk\ \ “We are the counter-revolution”: Tommy Robinson and the remaking of British fascism • International Socialism\ \ On 13 September 2025, Britain saw the largest far-right rally in its history.1 Around 110,000 people marched through central London, dwarfing all previous mobilisations, including the British Union of Fascists’ (BUF) infamous Olympia rally of June 1934.2 The march was… Continue Reading →\ \

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Ben Sellers Jun 13

Tayab Ali is head of international law & a partner at Bindmans LLP. I think we need to understand this: what has happened to the Filton Four & their sentencing is a corruption of terrorist legislation to achieve political ends. That’s a very, very serious matter in any country, never mind one that styles itself as a democracy. It is not …

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Paul Krugman

Jun 12

Paul Krugman

Elon Musk, Human Ponzi Scheme

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Jun 10

At no point since the ceasefire went into effect in April have expectations that a new round of war - not just fighting - been this high on both sides.

But unclear if either side can change the underlying power balance that both believe has midwifed the diplomatic stalemate.

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Jun 8

Iran only needs about a dozen Khorramshahr 4 hypersonic missiles with 1800 kg warheads to end Israel by striking the desalination plants and the Dimona reactor.\ \ Iran only needs about a dozen Khorramshahr 4 hypersonic missiles with 1800 kg warheads to end Israel by striking the desalination plants and the Dimona reactor.\ \ Tuomas Malinen

Did Iran establish a new equation in the Middle East through its attacks on Israel?

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Policy Tensor

Jun 8

Alex Callinicos Jun 8

My latest column, on the pickle Trump has got himself into with Iran and Israel.

[socialistworker.co.uk\ \ Trump hesitates as risk of war heightens\ \ The US president is trying to get out of the war he and Netanyahu started in February. But Israel’s playing a spoiler role.\ \

Alex Callinicos Jun 4

I’m posting an old article of mine on the Holocaust. I think the Marxist interpretation it offers stands up quite well. But my reason for reposting it now is that it makes the case for refusing to treat the Shoah as something incomparable, ‘outside history’ - an ideological device now used to dismiss comparisons between the Holocaust and…

marxists.org\ \ Alex Callinicos: Plumbing the Depths - Marxism and the Holocaust (2001)\ \ Alex Callinicos: Plumbing the Depths - Marxism and the Holocaust (2001)

Alex Callinicos May 29

A slightly updated version of my article

Geopolitical Fractures and the Marxist Critique of Imperialism (Version 4)

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Dylan Riley

May 27

One thing that should never be forgotten is that Hegel came after Kant and possesses a much more developed account of consciousness.

Alex CallinicosMay 27

Slobodian and Tarnoff, Muskism: Some Brief Comments

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May 25

A new regional logic? If Israel strikes Lebanon, Iran strikes back at the UAE

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May 23

Warmongers in meltdown as Trump heralds Iran deal

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May 22

Are we on the verge of a US-Iran deal?

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Tim Barker

May 22

“Given the difficulties of the [post-Soviet] transition, one almost would like to move the populations of these countries to a vacation hotel for a few years while the old system is torn down and rebuilt from scratch.” - Alan Greenspan, 1993

Alex Callinicos May 21

My article on Geopolitical Fractures translated into Arabic.

[revoleftsyria.org\ \ التصدعات الجيوسياسية ونقد الإمبريالية من منظور ماركسي | الخط الأمامي\ \ يُنظر على نطاق واسع إلى جائحة كوفيد-19 على أنها دشّنت مرحلة جديدة تواجه فيها الدول وغيرها من الفاعلين الاجتماعيين ما وُصف بـ”حالات الطوارئ المتداخلة”. ومن\ \

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Dylan Riley

May 20

An article appearing in “Real Clear Investigations” on May 19 2026 by Vince Bielski, celebrated as “interesting” by various leading lights of the Make Sociology Great Again movement well exemplifies the confusions and bad faith of those who wrap their hard right politics in the banner of science. The piece recapitulates all the confusions and lazy argumentation typical of the neo-positivist brand, among which are the following:

There was a time when sociology was non-political and now it has…

Alex Callinicos May 19

My latest column, on Trump the petitioner in Beijing.

[socialistworker.co.uk\ \ Alex Callinicos: Has the curtain closed for Trump in China?\ \ There’s a famous opera by John Adams and Alice Goodman called Nixon in China. It’s about the historic visit US president Richard Nixon paid to Beijing.\ \

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The Unrecovered CountryMay 18

The Unrecovered Country

Down but not out: Robinson dealt major blow in London humiliation

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May 17

My review of Sven Beckert’s Capitalism: A Global History \ \ In the June issue of The Nation, I have a review of Sven Beckert's Capitalism: A Global History. It's a long review, in part because it’s a long book. While I wound up being quite critical of the book, I’m more than mindful of what it takes to write such a book. I thought I owed the book, and Beckert, the courtesy of giving it its due. Hence the length.\ \ Corey Robin

Is Trump poised to restart the Iran war?

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Corey Robin

May 11

Alex Callinicos May 15

Very interesting by Adam Tooze on the Bank of England’s part in rising gilts yields.

Chartbook 449: Voldemort on Threadneedle street. The Bank of England and the "haunted house" of English politics.

Alex Callinicos May 14

My latest column, on the sinking Starmer’s resort to Gordon Brown

[socialistworker.co.uk\ \ Alex Callinicos: Sinking Starmer grasps Brown’s failed policies\ \ Everyone knows Keir Starmer is inept, unpleasant and right wing. It’s symbolic that his first reaction to Labour’s devastating defeat.\ \

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May 9

Pakistan steps up to mediate peace between the US and Iran, and the UAE - the close Israeli ally who claims to be a force for peace and a force against sectarianism - punishes Pakistan for its peacemaking by expelling Shia Pakistani workers.

nytimes.com/2026/05/08/…

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May 6

A @WashPost investigation shows that Iranian airstrikes have damaged or destroyed at least 228 structures or pieces of equipment at U.S. military sites across the region - far larger damage than what has been acknowledged by the USG.

washingtonpost.com/inve…

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Alex Callinicos May 4

My latest column, which helps to explain why Iran is targeting UAE.

[socialistworker.co.uk\ \ Cracks in the system widen after UAE’s Opec exit\ \ We don’t know how the Iran War will be settled. But it is already evident that it is an event of world-historic significance.\ \

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Dylan Riley

May 3

ft.com/content/08aba5e4… I seem to remember that this was tried before, with really remarkable results in 2007–2008.

Alex Callinicos May 2

newleftreview.org/issues/ii158/articles/nancy-f…

May 2

This piece by Nancy Fraser in the new issue of New Left Review is very timely. This isn’t just because of the relevance of her reflections on the meaning of being Jewish after Gaza to the latest antisemitism panic in Britain. Fraser’s argument that the Gaza genocide is a ‘world event’ marking a moral crisis for US hegemony is pertinent t…

Alex Callinicos May 2

[newleftreview.org\ \ Nancy Fraser, Gaza as World Event, NLR 158, March–April 2026\ \ The global reverberations of Israel’s destruction of Gaza, understood as world event—an epochal turning point which serves to reveal the changing nature of the times. Philosophical reflections on the rise of a new-era McCarthyism in Germany and the US.\ \

Alex CallinicosApr 30

In its most fundamental features, the world economy before 1914 conformed to classical economics - capital flowed “downhill” from capital-rich to capital-poor regions. The world of the 21st century and the structure of American power today is much stranger than that.\ \ Adam Tooze

Geopolitical Fractures and the Marxist Critique of Imperialism (Version 4)

Alex Callinicos Apr 26

Very interesting analysis of the economic differences between British and US hegemony by Adam Tooze.

Chartbook 443 Hard-working hegemon? Why 21st-century America is not like Edwardian Britain.

Alex CallinicosApr 25

Geopolitical Fractures and the Marxist Critique of Imperialism (updated version)

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Apr 19

Due to poor discipline, Trump ends up prioritizing the optics of victory over actually getting a deal. Instead of using deescalatory signals from Iran to get closer to a deal, he declares victory and seeks Iran's humiliation, and by that he undermines his own diplomacy.

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Adam Tooze

Apr 17

Chartbook 441 The Two-Faced Present - A conversation about the “short twentieth century” – and the paradoxical twenty-first with Wang Hui (in collaboration with Equator magazine)

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Alex CallinicosApr 17

WHO IS THE REVOLUTIONARY SUBJECT TODAY?

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Adam Tooze

Apr 15