Miserable thing -- article has nothing going for it (6)
I believe the answer is:
abject
'miserable' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'article has nothing going for it' is the wordplay.
'article' becomes 'object' (both can mean a thing or item).
'has nothing' becomes 'o' (I've seen this in other clues).
'going' is a deletion indicator.
'for' means one lot of letters go next to another (I've seen this in other clues).
'it' becomes 'a' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'object' with 'o' taken away is 'bject'.
'bject' after 'a' is 'ABJECT'.
'thing' acts as a link.
This may not be correct. It may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for abject that I've seen before include "This apology shows humility" , "Without pride or dignity, self-abasing" , "base" , "woeful" , "Wretched, worthless" .)