A new study of modern Italian politics ‘First They Took Rome: How the Populist Right Conquered Italy’, looks at the desolated landscape of the country’s politics. Chris Bambery argues Italian conditions can travel.

With funding withdrawn, the axe still hovers over many third-sector provided services across Glasgow. Lauren Gilmour looks at ways to fight back.

David Broder’s new book ‘First They Took Rome: How the Populist Right Conquered Italy’, charts the rise of Italy’s nationalist right through the malaise of neoliberalism and austerity. Conter spoke to him about the lessons for socialists throughout Europe.

IKEA in Scotland have launched a savage attack on their workers’ rights and conditions in recent days. Conter spoke to trade unionists and members of the campaign to re-instate sacked Usdaw rep Richie Venton, about the continuing corporate assault.

Dozens of front-line legal aid and advice centres and refuges are at threat in Glasgow this Thursday. A law centre advisor who did not want to be named says that the cuts threaten to leave hundreds of thousands to the mercy of the DWP, and undermine social security reform plans.

In the first of two a two part essay on the problems of modern socialist though, Conter editor David Jamieson looks at major developments in the reproduction of intellectual life in the last century. In the second part he will discuss the consequences for how socialists tend to think about their world today, and an approach to overcome some of our weaknesses.

The killing of two Blakc Lives Matter protesters by a vigilante represents a new departure for violent reaction, argues Wisconsin activists Michael Billeaux.

The chaos in school grading systems across the UK has exposed educational inequality, but many of the solutions offered misunderstand the problem argues Jenny Morrison.

In his weekly column, Conter editor David Jamieson says pro-independence socialists must re-asses the national question.

In a review of the BBC’s Inside the Bruderhof, David Jamieson argues that attempts to escape capitalism are inevitable but fraught with danger.

With victories for students and teachers spreading across the UK, Michael Doyle examines the ideological and class assumptions of the post-Blairite era.

Nigel Farage and the British media have been hounding migrants in the British channel. Marty Smith argues we need to understand these events in the wider context of EU securitisation and anti-migrant politics.

In his weekly column, Conter editor David Jamieson says the school student victory confronts us with a bizarre but welcome new phenomenon – significant reform in the absence of parliamentary reformism.

Ben Wray examines a history of the banking system in Scotland, and asks what the implications of monopolisation and financialisation are for Scottish socialists.

As part of Conter’s ongoing series looking at the major political, theoretical and organisational challenges facing socialists, Paul O’Connell argues we can use the insights of Marta Harnecker to understand our predicament and the way forward.

Alfredo Saad-Filho and Ben Fine remember John Weeks a leading critic of economic orthodoxy who dedicated his life to building a better world.

After a week of anger over the SQA’s downgrading scandal, which saw working-class student stripped of their grades, students organised a demonstration in Glasgow’s George square. Conter spoke to some about how they had been treated and what they are demanding.

In his weekly column, Conter editor David Jamieson argues that Scotland’s elites have long promoted illusions in the ability of the school system to alleviate inequality.

The SQA has released its decisions on pupils grades across the country, undercutting teacher estimates aggressively for poorer students. An anonymous Scottish teacher says that the decision underlines the unjust nature of the Scottish education system.

Using insights from Belgian Marxist thinker Ernest Mandel, economist George Kerevan argues capitalism will suffer profound breakdown this century.