The European Union referendum has generated much debate among the British left. Over the decades of evolution of the EU institutions, the majority opinion among left-wingers has shifted from opposition to support. We must clarify our understanding of the EU and the related issues ahead of this referendum to provide a clear perspective.

Constrained by the straightjacket of their own dogmatic subservience to the invisible hand of the free market, Cameron and the Tories have shown themselves to be impotent in halting the decline and downward trajectory of British capitalism.

After a period of months following its initial formation, Momentum - the pro-Corbyn movement inside and around the Labour Party - has taken the significant step of becoming a membership based organisation. By taking steps to tighten up the organisation of Momentum, the position of the Left within the Labour Party will be strengthened. This, in turn, will serve to solidify Corbyn’s position against the right wing of the Labour Party who are set on removing him.

Following the Panama Papers leak, David Cameron has faced relentless scrutiny over his tax affairs. On top of the £30,000 worth of shares in his father’s offshore company, Cameron has also been forced to admit that he was given £200,000 by his mother as a ‘gift’ in order to avoid paying inheritance tax on the money. He has described this as “completely standard, normal behaviour”; it seems likely, however, that a worker in Britain earning an average salary of around £26,500, on which around £5,000 tax would be due, would beg to differ.

“It’s not fair on hardworking people who do the right thing and pay their taxes to see these sorts of [tax avoidance] scams taking place.” - David Cameron (2012)

Workers in Port Talbot have been shocked by the decision of Tata management to sell off its steel plant. Workers in other areas have also been affected. Despite all the sacrifice and hard work put in by the workers, they have been once again rewarded with a kick in the teeth. The pain in the community cannot be overstressed, with the century-old industry on its last legs.

The resignation of Ian Duncan Smith as Work and Pensions secretary represents the clearest example yet of the growing divisions emerging inside the Tory party. Duncan Smith, or IDS as he likes to be known as, was no disgruntled minor minister but a senior member of the Tory government cabinet and a former leader of the party.

We publish here a document written by the British Marxists of Socialist Appeal. The document analyses the explosive economic and political situation developing in Britain. In this first part, we look at the decline of British capitalism and the radicalisation taking place in society due to years of austerity.

As the crisis of capitalism deepens, all that was once solid is melting to air. The European Union, designed to strengthen European capitalism against the crushing dominance of the world market, is now unravelling at the seams.

As in Britain, millions of Americans have been battered by the economic crisis, suffering from low-paid jobs and falling living standards. As in Britain, despite the crisis, there are grotesque and rising levels of wealth and income concentrated just in the hands of America’s billionaire elite.

With the endless coverage of Labour in-fighting in the media one could be forgiven for assuming that the rest of British politics was a sea of tranquillity. But over the last few months the burgeoning split in the Tory Party over the question of the EU has burst to the surface.

Over 100 young revolutionaries gathered at SOAS in London on 13th February for the largest ever national conference of the Marxist Student Federation. Among them were delegates from all over the country, from Durham to Brighton and from Swansea to Southend, as well as a representative from the Pittsburgh Marxist Student Association in the USA.

The 2016 national conference of the Marxist Student Federation will take place on Saturday 13th February in SOAS university, London. We encourage everyone who is interested in the ideas of Marxism and who would like to meet Marxist student activists from all over Britain to attend and participate in the debates and discussions.

The Corbyn movement that began last summer represented the beginning of a political revolution inside the Labour Party. But this transformation is not yet complete. On the one hand, thanks to his enormous grassroots support, Corbyn has weathered the storm of hysteria and attacks from the Tory press and the Blairites, emerging stronger in his position as leader. On the other hand, however, the right wing of the Labour Party, residing primarily in Westminster, has not been completely routed and continues to skirmish with Corbyn in an attempt to destabilise and discredit him as leader. Corbyn has won many battles thus far; but Labour’s civil war is far from over.

George Osborne, the Tory chancellor, who only six weeks ago was boasting about the strength of the British economy, has now had to issue a bleak warning for the coming year. 2016 could mark “the beginning of the decline” for Britain unless the country swallows a large dose of austerity medicine. A culmination of weakening world growth, plummeting oil prices, and a sharp slowdown in China, amongst other things, has blown Osborne’s economic predictions out of the water. His latest talk is of “a dangerous cocktail of new threats”, which have suddenly emerged.