Today marks the 75th anniversary of when HMT Empire Windrush landed on Britain’s shores, marking the beginning of the postwar wave of immigration from across the Commonwealth. Then, as now, the ruling class whipped up racism against migrants.
Today marks the anniversary of the Irish Rebellion – a mass revolt against landlordism and colonialism, which began on the dawn of 24 May 1798. Revolutionaries in Ireland, Britain, and beyond should study the lessons of these inspiring events.
Flag-waving Tory chauvinists are increasingly attempting to whitewash the brutal history of the British Empire. But recent studies have exposed this shameless falsification and revealed the true extent of colonialism’s horrific, murderous crimes.
In 1965, reactionary military generals in Indonesia began an anti-communist massacre, slaughtering up to two million members and supporters of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) in one of the 20th century’s worst mass murders.
The Black Lives Matter movement has helped to shine a light on Britain’s own racist, colonial history. Fiona Lali looks at the origins of British capitalism, which came into being – in the words of Marx – with “blood dripping from every pore”.
In this talk from Revolution Festival 2019, Hamid Alizadeh – editor of In Defence of Marxism – discusses the fight against imperialism and colonialism.
Tomorrow, 13th April, marks the 100th anniversary of the brutal suppression by British imperialism of a protest in colonial Punjab, India. To this day, no British government has ever offered a formal apology for this bloody crime.
15th August 2017 marks the 70th anniversary since Indian independence from British colonial rule. Mahatha Gandhi is often portrayed as an anti-imperialist and non-violent leader of the Indian independence movement. But, as Ravi Mistry explains, the truth is that Gandhi betrayed as many as he inspired, playing a role that ultimately led to the disaster of partition.
The British establishment normally grabs every chance to mark the anniversary of any military event. One such anniversary, however, will pass largely unnoticed this year: the invasion of Suez; the so-called “forgotten war” that would become a symbol of the death of the British Empire and the end of “Great” Britain as a major world power.
Friday 17th January 2014 marked the 53rd anniversary of the assassination of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s first democratically elected Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, who after being beaten and tortured for days, was finally shot. Nelson Wan of the QMUL Marxists looks back at the life and revolutionary ideas of this historic Congolese leader.
To celebrate Ted Grant’s centenary this year, we are re-publishing his article from 1978 on the question of the revolutions in the ex-colonial countries, including those that took place in China, Cuba, and many other places, in which Ted provides a Marxist explanation for the particular way in which the revolutions in these countries developed. For more information on this subject, come to the Marxist Summer School, where John Pickard – former editor of the Militant – will be giving a lead off on this topic.
The Arab world, from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf and from North
Africa to the heart of Sudan, is in flames as one revolutionary movement
after another unfolds. Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, Libya, Algeria,
Sudan, Bahrain, Kuwait and Morocco have all seen demonstrations for
democracy and social reforms.