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Author

Stephen Shenfield

I grew up in Muswell Hill, north London, and joined the Socialist Party of Great Britain at age 16. After studying mathematics and statistics, I worked as a government statistician in the 1970s before entering Soviet Studies at the University of Birmingham. I was active in the nuclear disarmament movement. In 1989 I moved with my family to Providence, Rhode Island, USA to take up a position on the faculty of Brown University, where I taught International Relations. After leaving Brown in 2000, I worked mainly as a translator from Russian. I rejoined the World Socialist Movement about 2005 and am currently general secretary of the World Socialist Party of the United States. I have written two books: The Nuclear Predicament: Explorations in Soviet Ideology (Routledge, 1987) and Russian Fascism: Traditions, Tendencies, Movements (M.E. Sharpe, 2001) and more articles, papers, and book chapters that I care to recall.

Environment, International relations, Science, Socialism

Viewing Earth From Space

There was an interesting discussion recently on the Quora website. It’s about what Earth looks like from space and the impact that seeing Earth from space has ...

3 min read

media, Politics

In Defense of Free Speech

In Defense of Free Speech The World Socialist Movement is in favor of free speech. Free expression of opinion is essential to any genuine democracy, while democracy ...

5 min read

healthcare, News, Science

The Right to Life Ends at Birth

The Supreme Court has been throwing its weight around lately. Not content with sabotaging legislative attempts to restrict access to mass-murder weapons, it has now overturned Roe ...

2 min read

International relations, War

War in Ukraine — Enough!

The war in Ukraine seems to be moving toward a stalemate. A ceasefire is needed without delay. Prolongation of hostilities can only bring more devastation to Ukraine and increase the risk of escalation to nuclear Armageddon.

2 min read

Climate, Environment, International relations

The Heat To Come

Is climate change approaching a turning point? Heatwaves in the US, Europe and South Asia impel us to ask where is the threshold to human survival, when will that threshold be crossed, and what will happen to the victims.

5 min read

History, International relations, police, Politics

A Cold War Enigma: Who Began East Europe’s Stalinist Purges?

From 1948—1954, a paranoid Stalin oversaw massive purges in Eastern Europe's Soviet-bloc countries. But did the CIA exploit his paranoia to 'weaken communism'?

4 min read

War

Ukraine War: Resistance Continues

Russia Number of people arrested so far for participating in antiwar protests = 15,442 (including 100 indicted on criminal charges) Number of people subjected to administrative penalties ...

1 min read

Capitalism, Work

Accidents Will Happen — And That Is No Accident

Accidents will happen. Under any social system. People are imperfect. They make mistakes and those mistakes sometimes cause accidents. Some accidents may be a matter of pure ...

2 min read

Book Review, Class, History, Socialism

Classless Cities

Marx and Engels thought that some time before the dawn of recorded history there took place several closely interrelated transitions that transformed human life – from wandering ...

2 min read

Politics, War

Ukraine — The War Escalates

In recent days the war in Ukraine has escalated. The situation now is more alarming than ever.  Hostilities are no longer confined to Ukrainian territory. There have ...

3 min read