The Stalin-Hitler Pact
Seventy years ago this month, the world was shocked by the
Stalin-Hitler pact. Ben Peck looks back at what happened and explains
why such an incredible event could take place – and the price that was
paid.
Marxist theory
Marxist theory is our sharpest weapon in the class struggle. Here, you can find our most recent theoretical articles. For historical articles, click here
You can also visit our education hub to find a selection of articles, books, talks and reading guides.
Leon Trotsky:1879-1940
Today marks the 69th anniversary of the assassination of Leon Trotsky. Murdered by the cowardly hands of Stalin’s henchman, Trotsky’s ideas remain as relevant today as ever. We mark this anniversary by reproducing a statement issued by Estevan Volkov, Trotsky’s grandson, ten years ago. In doing so we remember the final words from Trotsky’s testament: "Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence and enjoy it to the full."
The Living Thoughts of Karl Marx – a Nigerian point of view
Marx has been declared dead so many
times, and yet he keeps coming back again and again, the reason being
that his ideas, his theories, are the only ones that can explain the
present crisis of capitalism. Here a Nigerian Marxist gives his views
on the relevance of Marx’s ideas today.
Ted Grant (1913 – 2006)
Today is the third anniversary of the death of Ted Grant who died on July 20th 2006 aged 93. To mark this we are making available an article on Marxism from 1994.In September Wellred will be publishing the first volume of Ted Grant’s writings.
From Bolshevism to Bush – exploring the political trajectory of the Jewish people
Jews throughout the 20th century were attacked as either Communists or rich capitalists. According to this view there was some kind of conspiracy here to overthrow society as we know it. This is pure racist anti-Semitism, which Marxists utterly reject. Jews around the world, and in Israel, belong to different classes and thus have different interests. How does this affect their thinking? Walter Leon looks into the question and connects it to the ups and downs of the class struggle.
Marxism Versus New Fabianism – Part Two
The second main thread in all the New Fabian Essays is a criticism of the totalitarian regimes in Russia, China and Eastern Europe, and the identification of Marxism with Stalinism. Here it is necessary to steer between two fatal mistakes. The one typified by the mixed group who maintained long and discreet silences about the crimes of Stalinism, with only the faintest trace of ‘criticism’; and those who fail to make a distinction between the political regimes of Stalinism and the basic economic revolution on which the Stalinist bureaucracy and its satellites base themselves. Either mistake can be fatal for the developing left wing in the Labour Party.
Marxism Versus New Fabianism – Part One
After the reforms of the 1945-51 Labour government, Ted Grant considers the question as to whether capitalism had changed fundamentally. The publication of the New Fabian Essays in 1952 gave him the opportunity to take up the thinking of the Labour leadership.
Darwin’s Untimely Burial
This interesting article by Stephen Jay Gould was originally written for Natural History in October 1976.
What is financialisation?
The holy trinity of ideological concepts for the modern capitalist age
are neoliberalism, globalisation and financialisation. Of these three concepts
financialisation occupies a position akin to that of the holy ghost, as the
least understood and least discussed of the three. Financialisation is a
reality under modern capitalism. Marxists need to examine how much it has
changed capitalism, and how far the system remains fundamentally the same.
Engels and human development
In this article from 1984, John Pickard discusses the brilliant insights provided by Engels on the question of human evolutionary development, contained in his pamphlet ‘The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man’.
Darwin’s challenge
February 12th
2009 saw the 200th anniversary Charles Darwin’s birth.. The
beautifully simple idea embodied in his most famous book, Origin of the Species – evolution
by natural selection – was a revolutionary departure with profound scientific
and philosophical implications. Following the
footsteps of Copernicus and Galileo three hundred years earlier, Darwin battered an
enormous, irreparable breech in the walls of Fortress Theology and for that
reason the book has been the source of intense debate right up to the present
day. Darwin
sought and found an explanation – a mechanism – for the evolutionary changes in
species, which other scientists were beginning to suspect, using a purely materialist method, without any recourse
to God or metaphysics.
Robert Burns – Man, poet and revolutionary
Robert Burns (1759-1796) the poet needs no further introduction. But Robert Burns the revolutionary democrat is another matter. It is a matter of great regret that nowadays it seems to have become the fashion among certain left circles in Scotland to renounce Burns. To some degree this is understandable. After his death, Burns was hijacked by the Scottish Establishment, who turned him into a harmless icon. On Burns’ night each January, upper class Scotsmen in kilts (!) make use of the great man’s anniversary to eat and drink to excess, declaim poems to the haggis, and generally make fools of themselves. This grotesque parody would, of course, have had Rabbie Burns splitting his sides with laughter. His poems, his politics, his philosophy, his life and his death – all bear witness against these stage Scotsmen and hypocritical Pharisees.