I’ve considered myself a socialist since the 1970s, but with the successes of Reaganism, Thatcherism, privatization and Western warlust from the 1980s onwards, plus the collapse of the Soviet Union and apparent failure of “the Left” to maintain serious resistance to capitalist restoration worldwide, I slowly became very disillusioned with politics.

The ongoing boom and bust cycles, and downright criminality of the exploiters within the present system continue exactly as Karl Marx and subsequent Marxists predicted, but commentators on “the Left” seemed to abandon class analysis. They instead more and more focused on gender, race and other aspects of inequality, or green, nationalist, religious or “identity politics”. Groups in my area called themselves “Marxist” or “Socialist” but were not affirming working class consciousness at all.

I am firmly of the belief that it is the international proletariat who are the only ones who can—and inevitably must—take over the means of production and the levers of power from the exploitative and parasitic capitalists. The WSWS does not deviate from expressing such class analysis in a clear and intelligent manner. Their articles are a breath of fresh air. Their writers cut through the crap of conservative reaction and liberal hypocrisy.