The magnificent movement of the workers and youth of Turkey is an inspiration to the whole world. What began as a peaceful protest against the cutting down of trees in a park to pave the way for the construction of a shopping mall has turned into a tidal wave of mass protests against the vicious and reactionary Erdogan regime, which has acquired insurrectionary dimensions.
In 1949, Ted Grant, founder of the Militant Tendency and Socialist Appeal, wrote a polemical response to Tony Cliff on the class nature of the Soviet Union, arguing against Cliff’s theory of “State Capitalism”. Ted’s response provides an in-depth Marxist analysis on a range of questions, from the transition from capitalism to socialism, to the key issues of the state and the nature of Stalinism.
On Saturday, 1st of June the facist Scottish Defence League (SDL) held a static protest outside the parliament in Edinburgh in response to the killing of Drummer Lee Rigby in London. Corrie Knight of the Edinburgh Marxists reports on the SDL’s arrival in Edinburgh.
GMB delegates met this week in Plymouth for its annual conference. A motion in favour of a general strike – moved by Socialist Appeal supporter Ben Kirkham – was passed unaimously.
On Tuesday 4th June, around 1000 people rallied in Trafalgur Square, London, in solidarity with the movement in Turkey. The majority were from London’s huge Turkish community, with hundreds of Turkish youth present. They gave the protest an explicitly Communist and revolutionary message, with hundreds of red flags and revolutionary chanting.
The latest In Defence of Marxism magazine is out now. This summer 2013 edition contains articles on “Marxism and the Theory of Long Waves” by Alan Woods and “The Curve of Capitalist Development” by Leon Trotsky. Subscribe today to get the four editions of the magazine sent to you over the next year.
What started as a small scale protest against the destruction of Gezi Park that stands next to Taksim Square in Istanbul has now developed into a nationwide movement demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Erdogan, of the AK Party. Jorge Martin looks at the mass movement in Turkey and the tasks facing workers and youth.
Two major UK charities, Church Action on Poverty and Oxfam, recently published a report entitled ‘Walking the Breadline: the scandal of food poverty in 21st century Britain’. The report says that the last five years of violent cuts by the UK government have led to “destitution, hardship and hunger on a large scale”.