Alan Woods was invited to speak at Eton, the
most prestigious private school in Britain (known as a “public” school in
English), by the school’s Orwell Society. Alan gave a very clear explanation of
why society needs to be changed and why the only direction in can go in is
socialism. We believe the points raised and the answers given provide a very
good outline of what Marxism stands for today.
We are now due another flu pandemic. This is nothing to do with some
evil ‘Spooks’ style conspiracy but a fact of life. Every 37 years or
so, the flu virus mutates or morphs into a new strain that humans
haven’t suffered before. A dilemma for the State – they have spent the past decade whipping us into work, regardless of how ill we were.
The date is the
second of November 2007. Trade unionists from the Sinaltrainal food industry union walk into the central
cafeteria of the Universidad Pontificia, to find an envelope addressed to them from the Black Eagles’ Front of the
AUC, the supposedly disbanded right-wing paramilitary organization. The
contents of this letter were as follows…
British Gas delared record £571m profits this year. Regulator Ofgem has
claimed the energy giants are making £9 billion in windfall profits. As
soon as the government talks about a windfall profits tax or even
suggests these monster companies do something about ‘fuel poverty’ they
threaten to cut investment in clean energy. As Julia Finch (Guardian
5th March) says "Their audacity knows no bounds." Do we control them or
do they control us and the government? The case is overwhelming. We need
to take back the fuel companies into public ownership. Then we’ll pocket
the profits
British Library (BL) staff are still waiting for
the outcome of their 2007 pay deal which is now over six months late. Funding
was in place in August for a 1 year deal but management (without consulting the
unions) decided to delay all pay talks until the outcome of the government’s
Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR). The unions asked for a meeting with
management in order to express staff concerns at the continuing delay and were
told that such a meeting "is not justified."
The government has finally been forced to nationalise Northern Rock after months of dithering. They have wasted more than £55 billion of our money – to no purpose. The ‘geniuses’ who ran the Rock as a capitalist bank made a total hash of it and lost billions of pounds of other people’s money. It’s not just the bank’s management who stand indicted. The whole capitalist system is shown to be based on swindling and gambling.
An analysis of the growing political and social turbulence in Europe,
the United States, Latin America with an emphasis on Venezuela, the
Middle East and Asia with particular emphasis on the explosive
situation in Pakistan and ends with an appeal to help build the
International Marxist Tendency in all countries. At this stage it is a
discussion document.
The management at the University of Sussex in Brighton is attempting
to restructure the entire academic institution to make it fit for ‘the market’. The proposed ‘reforms’, which would change
the entire culture and tradition of the university, are part of a broader
process that is currently taking place in higher education in Britain and
around the world: the marketisation and privatization of education.
The magnificent wave of industrial action in
Egypt, which started over a year ago, is continuing. And it continues to be
ignored by the media. Price rises are the central focus of protest. But in a
very important development, at the Ghazl al Mahalla textile company have
raised political demands for the first time.
The newly formed Islington
Trades Union Council held its AGM last week at the Town Hall,
which was an eye-opening historical tour into the fighting
past of the borough. A host of interesting speakers were present including Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, who
reminded us that Islington was once the home of Karl Marx, and Vic Turner, one of the Pentonville Five who recounted the significance of the 1972 Dockers’ strike.
Here we publish A Marxist View of the 20th Century, first shown at In Defence of Marxism in 2001.
Narrated by Alan Woods, with Lal Khan, Ted Grant and Noam Chomsky.