As Britain seems to be sleep-walking into a racist capitalist corporate state, I recommend all to read Kate Clark's wonderful memoir Chile In My Heart (Bannister Publications).

Forty years ago Chile had a progressive government led by Salvador Allende that communists Kate and her partner Ricardo heartily embraced. But Uncle Sam didn't want this strategic Latin American country to escape its control, first fomenting industrial strife and then arming a fascist coup.

The massacres that followed drove out or wiped out the cream of the left. It is a lesson in fascist tactics and needs to be understood by all countries moving towards an anti-capitalist government.

I have returned to reading British anti-fascist writing prior to WWI of which Letters Of Red, published in 1938 by Michael Joseph, is a prime example.

If you read these articles and poems by leading artists and intellectuals of the day the similarity to our present times is striking.

The whole of Europe, Africa and the Middle East is once again in turmoil with the villains this time round being Britain, France, Germany, the US and the rich Arab oil states. Get a copy of it if you can track it down

If you are concerned with the issue of capitalist expansion into eastern Europe following the dismantling of the Soviet Union David Lane's new book The Capitalist Transformation Of State Socialism (Routledge) is an essential read.

He rejects the adjective "totalitarian," a term created by Carl Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzezinski, to describe the Soviet Union and argues that the socialist state fulfilled many important objectives in terms of human progress.

Lane lays the blame for the collapse of the Soviet Union on the dissatisfied intellectuals and Gorbachov's rejection of the leading role of the CPSU while dabbling in disastrous political and economic reforms. Analysing the results of a return to capitalism in Russia and eastern Europe, he indicates that the majority of their populations feel worse off under their current capitalist regimes.

Most importantly, the author debates the pros and cons of so-called market socialism as developed in China and emphasises the need for a ruling communist party to retain overall state control.

Jean Turner