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Desperate to maintain Britain’s relevance, successive governments have pledged to ramp up military spending – a promise that British capitalism cannot afford. The Iran war is now exposing that Britain has no independent military role to play on the world stage.
Today, we are witnessing the relative decline of US imperialism. This crucial subject is outlined in John Peterson’s fantastic book ‘Colossus: The Rise and Decline of US Imperialism’. Here, we reproduce extracts from the book alongside a review from a reader.
This month marks the 250th anniversary of ‘The Wealth of Nations’ – the seminal work by bourgeois economist Adam Smith. Despite the denials of today’s liberals and free-marketeers, Smith’s theories paved the way for the revolutionary ideas of Marxism.
On 28 March, a coalition of trade unions, campaign groups, and celebrities will rally against racism and the right. The politics of this demo are hollow, however. The RCP is mobilising with a clear message: to fight racism, we must fight capitalism.
Growing support and success for the Greens is leading to greater scrutiny of their proposals. Leader Zack Polanski has suggested that the ideas of Modern Monetary Theory could offer a way forward. But is this reformist approach really a solution?
Fatalistic, teleological, class reductionist, Messianic… there’s no end to the high-sounding mutilations that Marx’s ideas receive at the hands of their adversaries. In this podcast, Jack Tye Wilson combats these attacks, and uncovers Marx and Engels’ rich insights into the historical process.
A question many of us have asked is how Jeffrey Epstein and his associates morally defend their crimes. Daniel Morley explores this question and explains how “morality is nothing more than an expression of the real relations of society”.
In yet another setback for Starmer’s beleaguered government, the High Court has ruled that Labour’s proscription of Palestine Action is “disproportionate” and “unlawful”. This is a victory for the Palestine movement, and exposes the crisis of the ruling regime.
We continue our ‘Under a False Flag’ series – exposing the crimes of Stalinism, and defending genuine communism. During the Second World War, the CPGB became strikebreakers-in-chief, cheerleading the imperialist British government.
Wobbles on the stock market are intensifying fears that the bubble around AI could burst at any moment, with cataclysmic consequences for the whole world economy. To end this casino capitalism, we need a revolution against the billionaires.
Home secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced a raft of ‘law-and-order’ reforms to British policing. But beneath the blustering bravado about forces being made ‘match fit’, these measures are pathetically inadequate to solve the establishment’s problems.
Left-wing MP Zarah Sultana recently spoke in favour of “nationalising the entire economy”. Unlike the cynical ‘left’ naysayers who pour scorn on the idea, Communists welcome Sultana’s bold calls for nationalisation. But how can we achieve it?
History shows us that the limited rights the working class enjoys today were won through bitter class struggle and revolution. ‘Resistance’, a recent photography exhibition in Edinburgh, aptly showcased this in documenting a century of struggle against the British state.
While the liars, hypocrites and thieves in Westminster cynically hope for the downfall of the Iranian regime for their own aims, we look at the real history of British imperialism in Iran. Starmer and co. are no friends of Iranian “freedom”: hands off Iran!
Prisons are overcrowded, probation services are chronically understaffed, and crimes from burglary to violent offences are on the rise. Despite successive governments’ promises to be ‘tough on crime’, Britain’s repressive institutions are falling apart.
2026 has started with an almighty imperialist bang. Given the current actions of US imperialism, kidnapping the president of Venezuela and threatening the rest of Latin America and Greenland, it is clear that imperialism is something communists must understand.
What is Christianity, and where did it come from? Alan Woods, theoretical leader of the RCI, discusses the origins of Christianity, from its early radical start, through to the bureaucratisation of the Church, and how the faith was used to colonise the world.
From this year’s Revolution Festival, Peter Kwasiborski, introduces Shostakovich.
A popular myth is that the British working class is too weak to carry out a revolution. Yet by examining the concrete facts, we find working class Britons are highly proletarianised and have taken the path of struggle many times in the past years. Will Collins examines this question further.
425 years ago this month, the East India Company was founded in London. This “empire within an empire” soon ruled almost the entirety of the Indian subcontinent, bleeding its people dry – and laying down the foundations for the development of British imperialism.
Fifty years ago, Australia’s democratically-elected, left-reformist Labor government was forcibly dissolved – by the British monarchy. This detail, which remained hidden for decades, demonstrates the necessity of breaking with these oppressive ruling class institutions once and for all.
Stravinsky captured the spirit of the modernist movement. The Rite of Spring ballet, published in 1913, was decried as ‘childish barbarity’ by its bourgeois critics at the time. In reality, it only refracted the horrors that would unfold in the next four years of world war.
Recently, reformists like Zack Polanski and Jeremy Corbyn have been putting forward the idea of a wealth tax. They claim this could easily raise billions in tax revenue. While their proposals are certainly popular, do they truly offer a way forward?
On the eve of the Autumn Budget, the bond markets – the investors who bankroll the British state – are getting jittery. The capitalists are losing faith in Labour’s ability to carry out the necessary cuts to ‘balance the books’. But what alternatives do they have?
Tech corporations and governments are pouring trillions into the ‘AI arms race’. But warning signs are flashing that this is all a massive speculative bubble, waiting to burst. This anarchic speculation is set to have a catastrophic impacts on the world economy.
After two centuries, Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ remains one of the most enduring works of Romantic and Gothic literature, defining much of modern science-fiction. Now, Del Toro’s excellent new adaptation shows it still has room to be developed and reinterpreted.
The BBC is a key component of the ruling class’ carefully-built state machinery. So, when two of its leading figures are forced to resign, this suggests that a hidden war is going on in the murky depths of the state, and paints a picture of an establishment in crisis.
Anton Chekhov’s influence on modern literature endures to this day. While best known for his dramatic works, Chekhov’s short stories masterfully portray the lives of ordinary people in 19th-century Russia – where seismic social transformations were taking place.
Zarah Sultana has come out forcefully against the institutions and allies of western imperialism, denouncing NATO and Zelensky. Such welcome words must be given flesh and blood, by mobilising workers against the warmongers in London and Washington.
This week, the warmongers in Starmer’s Westminster cabinet have been hysterically accusing the SNP-led government in Scotland of being a “threat to national security”. But are the SNP’s anti-imperialist credentials really what they are made out to be?
108 years ago today, Lenin and the Bolsheviks achieved the impossible: they led millions of workers and peasants in a successful socialist revolution. But which events, struggles, and ideas led to that victory? How did Lenin become Lenin?
At ‘Surviving Spycops’, a recent exhibition organised by women activists who were deceived into long-term relationships by undercover police officers, we caught up with communist artist and RCP activist Nicholas Baldion about his latest piece, ‘Police Spies Ruin Lives’.
Militancy and international solidarity, as seen across Europe recently, is not alien to the labour movement here in Britain. British workers have taken strike action to halt the imperialists’ war machine before: in the 1920 Jolly George cargo vessel incident.
The rule of the bourgeoisie was born in revolution against the feudal order, falsifying the preaching of gradualism and its supposed omnipotence. This epoch demonstrates just as the bourgeois order arose through violent upheaval, so too will its inevitable downfall.
This Saturday, the far-right political organisation UKIP had intended to march on Whitechapel. The police have just announced a Public Order Act banning the assembly in Tower Hamlets, but they remain a threat. The working class can only rely on its own strength!
The real content of Trotskyism does not lie in opposing Stalinism, but in what it positively puts forward. Any consideration of Trotskyism must therefore proceed from the essential principles that defined Trotsky’s life as a revolutionary.
Capitalism is built upon free speech, open debate, and the ‘marketplace of ideas’; communists, meanwhile, want to take away this cherished democratic right. Everyone has heard capitalism’s defenders repeat this myth. So what’s the communist response?
Not content with supporting arch-bureaucrat Christina McAnea in Unison’s elections, the misnamed ‘Communist Party’ of Britain have backed Starmer’s favourite Bridget Phillipson in Labour’s deputy leader challenge.
“The bourgeois like to think that they alone are born with the right to dominate culture. But every human being has the potential to appreciate the arts, and to excel in all of them. This artistic potential of the masses will be unleashed when they move to change society.”
Hundreds of new recruits have joined the RCP in the past few months, taking the first steps on their journey towards mastering Marxism. Here, the RCP education team provides a brief guide for where to get started with your communist studies.
Is artificial intelligence truly conscious or is it just hype? At Revolution Festival 2024, Daniel Morley applied the Marxist method to cut through the illusions surrounding AI.
Leon Trotsky’s Transitional Programme is one of those rare texts, reading as more applicable today than when it was written. Trotsky outlines the method of Marxism in a time of crisis. For a new generation of revolutionaries, the lessons have never been more timely.
Stalin’s bureaucracy waged a campaign of hate against artists who defied their narrow doctrine of ‘Socialist Realism’. Dmitri Shostakovich’s ‘Anti-formalist Rayok’ lambasts these cultural crimes, and defends the spirit of cultural freedom unleashed by the October Revolution.
From Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kenya to Bangladesh, a revolutionary wave has blown across countries dominated by imperialism. Ben Curry analyses the meaning of this wave and the generalised lessons to be taken by revolutionaries.
The rise and fall of the Fourth International is one of the most important lessons for communists today. At the World Congress of the Revolutionary Communist International, Rob Sewell explains how the degeneration of the leadership of the Fourth International left the working class without a revolutionary party. Ted Grant’s sharp criticisms of the opportunism and sectarianism of the leadership are more relevant than ever for revolutionaries seeking to rebuild genuine Marxism.
Next month, ballots open for the general secretary election in Unison, Britain’s largest trade union. Scandalously, the so-called ‘Communist’ Party of Britain is supporting right-wing incumbent and arch-bureaucrat Christina McAnea against left candidate Andrea Egan.
This week marked 158 years since the publication of Karl Marx’s Capital – a monumental work uncovering the inner workings and contradictions of the capitalist system. Here, we republish Adam Booth’s preface to the newly-released third edition of Understanding Marx’s Capital.
The monster ‘Unite the Kingdom’ demonstration on Saturday 13 September marks a turning point. This was an embarrassing defeat for the left. The blame lies at the feet of the reformist left leaders, and the so-called ‘Marxist’ Socialist Workers Party.
In this episode of Marxist Voice, Nelson Wan explains Ted Grant’s article ‘Will there be a slump?’, and how the Marxist method allows us to understand capitalist crisis today.
On this day 86 years ago, the Nazi-Soviet pact was signed, which shocked the world communist movement. We continue our series ‘Under a False Flag’, to expose the historic crimes of Stalinism, and defend the ideas and legacy of genuine Marxism and Leninism.
In this excerpt from the ‘New Course’ – which was the opening shot in the Left Opposition’s struggle against Stalinism – Trotsky takes up the question of the Leninist method of understanding the world. This advice retains its full relevance for communists today.
On this day 85 years ago, Leon Trotsky was brutally attacked by a Stalinist assassin. He died the following day. This short obituary summarises the breadth of Trotsky’s marvellous contributions to humanity: as a theoretician, as a journalist, and as a working-class fighter.
In this episode of Marxist Voice, Joe Russell discusses Marx’s completion of the Labour Theory of Value.
Marxism is not a checklist of policies or slogans for us to repeat mindlessly. It is a scientific method, which requires serious study. In this introduction, taken from an upcoming pamphlet on dialectical materialism, Nye Shaw explains the fundamentals of Marxist philosophy.
On this day in 1977, the fascist National Front marched through Lewisham, protected by thousands of police. Local black youth, workers, and socialists mobilised to physically block the fascists. Here, Alex Gassem draws a balance sheet of these events.
In the latest issue of The Communist, we answer a question from a reader in Sussex: are religion and communism mutually exclusive? And do communists believe religion needs to be eradicated in order for communism to work?
‘A Nation of Shopkeepers’, by academic Dan Evans, argues that the working class has shrunk, giving way to a ‘new petty bourgeoisie’. He does this by changing the definition of class to a set of cultural values, abandoning the Marxist standpoint altogether.
Since launching a call for a new left party, over 600,000 have signed up, illustrating a burning desire for change. In turn, we republish Lenin’s advice on how Communists should orientate towards mass workers parties to win them over to a communist programme.
After WWII, the Soviet bureaucracy abolished capitalism and set up Stalinist regimes across Eastern Europe. In Yugoslavia, Tito broke from Moscow while maintaining a planned economy. During intense debates within the Fourth International, Ted Grant masterfully analysed these processes.
This weekend, RCP members will gather for our annual summer camp, where we will focus on the immense theoretical contributions made by Ted Grant, who kept the flame of genuine Marxism burning through to the 21st century, laying the foundations for our International.
Recently, figures such as Zohran Mamdani to a new left party in Britain have garnered widespread support. So it is timely that the In Defence of Marxism magazine, with articles themed around reformism and revolution, has launched today! We reproduce the editorial here.
Across the Empire, British imperialism enacted and perfected the policy of ‘divide and conquer’ – whipping up ethnic and religious sectarianism to hold back mass struggles. In this article, Sarah Vedrovitch presents the examples of India, Ireland, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka.
With the recent rise of artificial intelligence, the capitalist press has gone into overdrive, peddling wild fantasies about the future of work. But are the bots coming for white-collar jobs? And what does this all mean for the class struggle?
As part of their austerity agenda, Labour is pushing disabled people into work. In reality, capitalism creates and exacerbates disabilities. Communists fight for a society that can harness the full potential of all, and cater to everyone’s needs.
Palestine Action activists, ‘The Filton 18’, have been held under anti-terrorism legislation for months on end without a trial. Yesterday, our comrades in Woolwich joined those protesting their detention, and explained how this reflects the British state’s growing weakness.
With his sledgehammer approach to the political and economic status quo, President Trump is unleashing chaos upon the world order. In this article, Adam Booth analyses the decline of the dollar as the world’s currency, and its implications for capitalism as a whole.
Forged in the social upheavals during and after WWI, Dadaism was a radical school of art aimed at the capitalist establishment. Its initial inclination towards nonsensical absurdism developed into an open embrace of communism – reflecting an age of revolution.
The Transitional Programme by Trotsky is a prime example of the method by which Marxists can connect with the struggles of today and raise workers’ sights to the ultimate goal of socialist revolution. In this podcast, we discuss how communists can connect with the demands of the day.
We sat down with Fiona Lali, leading member of the Revolutionary Communist Party, to discuss the launch of her pamphlet ‘Why You Should be a Communist’. We also publish an extract from the pamphlet, which will play a key role in the RCP’s summer recruitment drive.
In his masterpiece ‘Imperialism’, Lenin explained how the monopolies and banks rule over us, engendering conflict, chaos, and crisis. Today’s tumultuous situation is proof of this analysis. We need a revolution to expropriate the billionaires.
Announced yesterday, mainstream media have been going gaga for new pope Leo XIV. Yet the Church remains full of scandals, crises, and is riven with factionalism. A changing of the guard at the top offers no solutions, as the reign of Pope Francis illustrates.
“I recently read the RCP’s article on Just Stop Oil and Youth Demand. It resonated with me as someone who has made the journey from Just Stop Oil and getting arrested for direct action, to revolutionary communism and class struggle.”
Across Europe, governments are hiking up ‘defence’ spending, whilst carrying out cuts and attacks on workers to pay for it. Rob Sewell explains the economics behind this ‘military Keynesianism’, and why it provides no way out for the capitalist system.
Just Stop Oil are ditching direct action. Youth Demand are ‘shutting down London’ in protest over Gaza and the climate. The RCP would like to open up a dialogue with activists about the programme, strategies, and tactics needed to overthrow the billionaire’s system.
Trump is set to announce a barrage of new tariffs, in an attempt to stem the decline of US capitalism. Here, Niklas Albin Svensson outlines the Marxist position on the ‘free trade vs protectionism’ debate, and how tariffs will impact the world economy.
The notion of ‘degrowth’ – which advocates cutting down production to save the planet – has gained popularity within the climate movement. But there’s nothing radical about these academic, reformist ideas. Here, Lubna Badi provides a Marxist response to ‘degrowth’.
Britain’s failed invasion of Egypt in 1956 symbolised the end of Britain’s role as a major world power. With British imperialism facing another ‘Suez moment’ in Ukraine, we republish here our analysis of this ‘forgotten war’, written to mark the 60th anniversary in 2016.
Since coming to power, there has been enormous mystery about what Donald Trump’s presidency means. Author and Marxist theoretician Alan Woods cuts through the confusion to clearly explain the phenomena of Trumpism, what his rule means and where he is going.
Under the guise of ‘maintaining peace’, imperialist governments are racing to rearm. The jingoistic establishment insists that workers and the poor should shoulder the costs, through savage cuts to social spending. We must fight militarism with socialist revolution!
A recent study has provided significant evidence of women holding prestigious positions in Iron Age Britain. These findings substantiate the Marxist understanding of the origins of women’s oppression – and put a spanner in the bourgeois historian’s propaganda machine.
New revelations from the Undercover Policing Inquiry have exposed the horrifying scale to which undercover police officers manipulated and abused women to spy on left-wing groups. We can have no faith in the rotten British state to deliver justice.
A new drama about the life of fascist leader Benito Mussolini masterfully illustrates the rise of fascism in Italy. Rather than focussing on individual psychology and ambition, this series depicts the process of revolution, counter-revolution, and opportunist betrayals.
The deepening crisis of world capitalism is resulting in imperialist conflict, war, and genocide. To end this hell on earth, we need to get rid of the capitalist system itself. In this talk from last year’s Revolution Festival, Lotta Angantyr discusses how to fight imperialism.
The Bolshevik party was the only party in history which was able to lead the working class in a successful socialist revolution. In this episode, leading RCP member Rob Sewell explains how Lenin built this force, and the lessons to guide us in the struggle for revolution today.
Filmmaker David Lynch, who passed away last week, was a singular artist whose works were surreal and unsettling. Although not a ‘political person’, his films and TV shows explored alienation and the absurdity of everyday life under capitalism.
Throughout history, mankind’s ability to advance its knowledge has been shaped by material and social forces. As Ben Curry explains in this episode, it is not simply individual geniuses that help science progress, but revolutionary changes in society.
Anger at the crisis of capitalism is surfacing in many ways, including the fascist riots of last summer, and the rise in far-right parties across Europe. In this episode, Joe Russell looks to the history of the fight against fascism, and the relevant lessons for today.
On Saturday, the Metropolitan Police launched a massive crackdown on the national Palestine demonstration, with 77 arrested. These measures are a sign of weakness, not strength. The burning anger against western imperialism has not gone away.
Issue 48 of In Defence of Marxism magazine – the quarterly theoretical journal of the Revolutionary Communist International – is out now! Alan Woods’ editorial, which we republish, takes up the central question of whether we can truly know and understand the world around us, which is a theme throughout this issue.
While the collapse of the British Empire is often portrayed as the result of benevolence, this could not be further from the truth. This article, from a new RCP booklet, examines the real role of British imperialism during the 1948-60 Malayan “Emergency”.
Marxists have always stood for materialism, in opposition to all forms of idealism – including religion. But as Lenin explained, the communist approach to religion requires tact and sensitivity. Our task is to achieve a ‘paradise’ in this world.
In this episode, leading RCI member Alan Woods outlines the perspectives for the coming period: one of rising geopolitical tensions, turbulence, and revolutionary explosions.
The Syrian regime has collapsed. The resulting power vacuum is being filled by local militias and warlords, backed by various imperialist powers seeking to redivide the country and the region. The Syrian masses can only rely on their own strength.
On this day 140 years ago, the European powers gathered at the Berlin Conference carved up the African continent. This article from the RCP’s new booklet ‘The Crimes of British Imperialism’ lays bare the bloody role played by British capitalism.
We are proud to announce the release of a new booklet, ‘The Crimes of British Imperialism’’. We publish here the introduction, which explains how British imperialism went from being an empire that ruled the waves, to its role today.
One of the outstanding achievements of the Soviet planned economy was its space programme, which took man (and dog) to space for the first time. Only socialism can wrest space travel from the billionaires, and take humanity to the stars.
Issue 47 of In Defence on Marxism is out now! We publish here Alan Woods’ editorial on the lessons of the international communist movement from Marx and Engels to today, and the enduring revolutionary struggle against imperialism and war.
During our autumn growth campaign, the Party has received various questions about Marxist theory, revolutionary history, and communist tactics. In our first instalment of Ask The Communist, we cover Stalinism, the USSR, Mao, and the vanguard party.
The Revolutionary Communist Party is undertaking its autumn offensive: a campaign to recruit and educate a new generation of young activists. RCP national organiser Lotta Angantyr explains why, if you’re a communist, you need to join the party.
In this latest episode of Marxist Voice, Ben Gliniecki outlines the economic basis of British imperialism and militarism today, and how communists can fight to overthrow imperialism.
Starmer’s Labour are trying to distance themselves from the genocide in Gaza, with a partial ban of arms exports to Israel. But the truth is that they, and the entire British establishment, have blood on their hands. Overthrow these war criminals!
In 1948, the Israeli state was founded, and millions of Palestinians were expelled from their homeland. Scandalously, the Stalinist bureaucracy supported the creation of Israel – a move which had a disastrous impact on the world communist movement.
50 years ago, after the long postwar boom, the world economy experienced its first truly global crisis. Falling output and spiralling inflation combined to devastate the working class. Today, capitalism faces similar turmoil. It must be overthrown.
In this podcast, Jack Tye Wilson explains Lenin and the Bolsheviks’ approach to the national question, the colonial revolutions, and the national question today, outlining the need for an internationalist class programme.
On 20 August 1940, Leon Trotsky was mortally wounded by one of Stalin’s agents, in an attempt to extinguish the flame of genuine Marxism that he represented. But you cannot kill an idea. We defend and maintain this revolutionary heritage today.
Poor countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America are facing an intolerable debt crisis. The imperialist powers are demanding their pound of flesh, leading to a backlash of protests against austerity. The only path forward is socialist revolution.
Tensions between the major powers are heightening worldwide. Conflict is intensifying. And the ruling classes are responding with greater militarism. We call on workers and youth to join us in an international campaign against imperialism and war.
The general election results, and the social turmoil since, highlight the complete vacuum on the left. Murmurings are growing about the need for a new political force in Britain. This must be based on clear class policies, methods, and perspectives.
This weekend saw another round of large-scale mobilisations against the far right across the country. This shows the way forward in the fight against the racists and fascists. Workers and youth must mobilise to overthrow this entire rotten system.
Thousands have mobilised across the country in recent days to force the far-right off the streets. But a larger, stronger movement will be needed to crush this reactionary menace for good. Here we discuss what the role of Marxists should be in this fight against fascism and racism.
Keir Starmer claims to be a champion of liberty and an opponent of racism. Yet he cites Winston Churchill as an inspiration – the embodiment of imperialist oppression and bigotry. Rob Sewell tells the truth about Britain’s reactionary former leader.
Issue 46 of In Defence of Marxism, the quarterly theoretical journal of the Revolutionary Communist International, is now available for purchase! Get your copy today!
Fiona Lali’s election campaign shows that revolutionary ideas can connect with wide layers of people. In this episode, we sit down with Daniel Morley to discuss elections, parliaments, and broader questions around communist methods and tactics.
The success of Fiona Lali’s election campaign demonstrates the widespread impact that revolutionary ideas can have, if raised boldly and skillfully. But it also raises questions about communist methods and tactics – an art that Marxists must master.
We’re told we live in a democracy, but whether we vote for Starmer or Sunak, we’re going to get pretty much the same thing. In this episode, Ben Gliniecki will explain that behind capitalist ‘democracy’ is the dictatorship of the rich.
The USSR was the most progressive state in history, yet within ten years it had transformed into a bureaucratic regime. In this episode of Marxist Voice, Rob Sewell will discuss the main processes that led to the degeneration of the Russian revolution.
Continuing our series on the historic crimes of Stalinism, and in defence of the genuine ideas of communism, Rob Sewell examines the Moscow Trials of the 1930s – a kangaroo court, through which the bureaucracy drowned Bolshevism in blood.
Continuing our series on the historic crimes of Stalinism, and in defence of the genuine ideas of communism, Rob Sewell examines the disastrous ‘Popular Front’ policy in the 1930s, which consigned the revolutionary working class to defeat.
Thanks to the planned economy, the Soviet Union saw remarkable advances in science, technology, and culture. And musical innovation was no exception. The life and inventions of Leon Theremin are a testament to these achievements.
Across Britain, industry is going to the wall. Steelworkers in Port Talbot are being thrown on the scrapheap. Automation threatens to destroy swathes of jobs. To protect our lives and livelihoods, we need socialist planning and workers’ control.
On this day in 1917, Lenin returned to Russia, arriving into Petrograd’s famous Finland Station. This was the beginning of his one-man struggle to politically reorient the Bolshevik Party – a vital stepping stone towards the October Revolution.
Writing for the latest issue of the ‘In Defence of Marxism’ magazine, with the upcoming launch of the Revolutionary Communist International, Alan Woods discusses the history of Marxist internationalism, and the lessons for communists today.
In June, we are launching the Revolutionary Communist International. In this episode, Fred Weston explains the historic importance of the original Communist International led by Lenin and Trotsky, and the lessons we can apply today.
In response to the crisis of the capitalist system, some have turned to the methods of direct action. In this podcast Joe Russell will explain the limits of this approach and the revolutionary communist alternative.
This June sees the launch of the Revolutionary Communist International. We publish here a synopsis of the RCI Manifesto, outlining the communist programme that we are fighting for. Join us today, and help build the forces of communism worldwide.
The Shut Down Rafael campaign aims to shut down an Israeli-owned arms factory in Newcastle. Our comrades, who have been involved in the campaign, offer a critique of its methods, underscoring the need for a revolutionary, class-based approach.
Continuing our ‘sailing under a false flag’ series, exposing the historic crimes of Stalinism, and defending the genuine ideas of communism, Rob Sewell examines the infamous ‘Third Period’, when fatal mistakes allowed Hitler to come to power.
141 years ago this week, Karl Marx – the founder of scientific socialism and one of the greatest revolutionaries in history – died. In this episode, Josh Holroyd explores the theories and events that inspired and shaped the young Karl Marx.
With the western imperialists facing defeat in Ukraine, their boastful jingoism has turned into its opposite. In this episode, Hamid Alizadeh explains what forces lie behind the conflict, and why Communists must take a revolutionary, internationalist position.
This June, communists from across the globe will be meeting at the IMT’s World School of Communism: a six-day school of Marxist ideas, where we will also found the Revolutionary Communist International. Find out more about the exciting talks on offer.
The Enlightenment was an enormous conquest for human thought which was characterised by intellectual honesty and bold materialism. In this episode, Ben Curry will explain the value these ideas hold for Communists today.
Israel’s war on Gaza has exposed the hypocrisy of the western ‘rules-based order’, and demonstrated the impotence of the United Nations and the international laws it adjudicates. In reality, the UN is nothing more than a tool of imperialism.
We are proud to defend the ideas of genuine communism, and to establish a new revolutionary paper and party on these foundations. It is necessary to answer any myths and lies, however, and explain the real methods and traditions that we uphold.
We are proud to commemorate the centenary of Lenin’s death by publishing a book defending his life and ideas, and by launching The Communist and the RCP. The ‘Communist’ Party of Britain, by contrast, is promoting articles on Lenin that only mislead and sow confusion.
Some on the left say that rallying around the national flag is the best way to appeal to workers. In this episode, Jack Tye Wilson argues why communists must reject siren calls for ‘progressive’ patriotism, in favour of proletarian internationalism.
Experienced trade unionist John McInally introduces Wellred Books’ latest publication: a fascinating biography examining Lenin’s life and ideas by Rob Sewell and Alan Woods. With support for communism on the rise today, we say: Lenin lives!
This week both marks the centenary of the death of Lenin, and sees the launch of The Communist – a new paper produced by the Marxists in Britain. James Kilby ties these threads together, discussing the history of the revolutionary press.
We publish here the editorial from the latest – Lenin themed – issue of our quarterly theoretical magazine, ‘In Defence of Marxism’, in which Rob Sewell discusses the life and ideas of the great revolutionary leader, a century after his death.
Journalist and documentary-maker John Pilger sadly died recently. For decades, he dedicated his work to uncovering the crimes of western imperialism. We pay tribute to his tireless efforts, and strive to continue this legacy of struggle today.
In this podcast, Nelson Wan discusses the artistic and creative emancipation unleashed by the October Revolution, which saw individual geniuses rise to prominence, and gave ordinary people access to the world of art and culture.
Sunday 21 January marks 100 years since the death of history’s greatest revolutionary. Join Alan Woods and Rob Sewell, authors of the upcoming biography ‘In Defence of Lenin’, at the launch of a global campaign to commemorate Lenin’s life and works.
In this podcast, Josh Holroyd explains the seismic events unfolding in West Africa, as well as the revolutionary way forward: the masses can’t be duped by the cynical Chinese and Russian imperialists, but must rely on their own forces.
Activists across Britain have blockaded arms factories supplying the Israeli regime. Trade union leaders have failed to give a lead. To escalate the movement, workers inside the factories must be convinced to take solidarity action themselves.
In this talk, Adam Booth uncovers the dynamics and laws of the early Soviet economy, providing insight into the potential of economic planning today, and a glimpse of what a future communist society might look like.
Benjamin Zephaniah (1958-2023), an acclaimed British poet and political activist, passed away yesterday. Through his work, he shone a light on the injustices of capitalist society, calling for united struggle against oppression and exploitation.
Across the world, with workers and youth rising up, the ruling class is restricting democratic rights – curbing freedom of speech, banning protests, and tightening anti-union laws. Communists must link the fightback to the struggle for socialism.
In this episode, Alan Woods discusses the unprecedented crisis of capitalism, the bankruptcy of the reformist leaders, and why only the ideas of revolutionary communism can offer a way forward.
In contrast to their hue and cry about ‘democracy’ and ‘self-determination’ in Ukraine, the western powers have given Israel the go-ahead to raze Gaza to the ground. Once again ‘international law’ and the ‘rules based order’ are exposed as a hypocritical cover for the iron heel of imperialism.
One hundred years ago, Leon Trotsky and his supporters founded the Left Opposition, in order to defend the revolutionary traditions of Lenin and the Bolsheviks, and the ideas of genuine Marxism. Today, we stand on the shoulders of these giants.
The explosive conflict in Israel-Palestine is the latest flashpoint in the crisis-ridden capitalist system. The profit-hungry imperialists are to blame for the wars ravaging society. The alternative facing humanity is socialism or barbarism.
The apologists of capitalism constantly assert the myth that ‘the working class no longer exists’; that ‘we are all middle class now’. In fact, the working class has never been stronger. What is missing is revolutionary leadership.
Socialist Appeal comrade Nicholas Baldion is amongst the contenders for this year’s John Moores Painting Prize – the winner of which will be announced later this week. We spoke to Nicholas about his artistic work and his communist politics.
In this episode of Marxist Voice, Sarah Vedrovitch discusses the United Front, a tactic adopted by the Communist International to connect the communists to the broader working class.
In this talk, Jack Tye Wilson provides a Marxist response to Stalin’s “theory” of ‘socialism in one country’, and outlines the disastrous consequences of the Comintern’s abandonment of internationalism.
21 August marks the anniversary of Leon Trotsky’s death, following an attack by a Stalinist agent. This article by Alan Woods, originally published in 2000, commemorates this revolutionary titan who preserved the authentic traditions of Marxism and Bolshevism for future generations.
As part of his unfinished notes on the Dialectics of Nature, Friedrich Engels wrote an insightful analysis of the material factors that drove the evolutionary development of mankind. We publish here an introduction to this fascinating text.
An ongoing inquiry into accusations of extrajudicial murders by British Special Forces in Afghanistan shines a light on the crimes of western imperialism. The fight for justice must be a fight to overthrow this entire barbaric system.
Critics of Marxism often suggest that scientific socialism paints a mechanical view of history, without any role for individuality or free will. Daniel Morley discusses the question of necessity and chance, and the need for revolutionary leadership.
In the third part of our podcast series on the lessons of the Communist International, Thomas Soud covers the ultra-left mistakes made by the young forces of communism, and how Lenin and the Comintern corrected this “infantile disorder”.
Based on the tragic events of the 1925-27 Chinese revolution, Bertolt Brecht’s ‘The Decision’ provides a powerful commentary on the betrayals of Stalinism and the idea of revolutionary sacrifice – something that liberal critics cannot understand.
The 2023 Defence Command Paper promised a root-and-branch transformation of the British Armed Forces. Instead, it provides further proof that the British military is in a state of terminal decline, along with the rest of the crumbling establishment.
Today marks 70 years since the truce that brought a stop to the Korean War and divided the peninsula. Events surrounding the conflict revealed both the brutality and cynicism of US imperialism, and the crimes of Stalinism, leaving a historic scar.
To kick off our six-part series on the lessons of the Communist International, Fiona Lali outlines the rich history of Marxist internationalism, stretching from Marx and Engels’ efforts to build the First International, through to Trotsky’s Fourth International.
Today marks 130 years since the birth of Vladimir Mayakovsky, the Russian artist and poet, whose works have been a consistent source of inspiration for communists. We look back at the life, ideas, and contributions of this revolutionary artist.
The Spanish Civil War began on this date in 1936 with the beginning of the coup by General Franco. The fascist forces could have been defeated, with the working class rising up and fighting back. But their heroism was betrayed by the Stalinists.
We publish here the editorial by Alan Woods from the latest issue of the International Marxist Tendency’s quarterly theoretical journal, ‘In Defence of Marxism’. Subscribe today to get your copy of this vital weapon of Marxist theory.
Contradictions are mounting for capitalism. The system is being thrown from one crisis to the next. Inflation, debt, and financial instability all threaten the world economy. A new slump looms. The only way out of this impasse is through revolution.
Countries, businesses, and households across the world are drowning in debt. As interest rates rise, the danger of default looms. To avoid a catastrophe, calls for debt cancellation are not enough. Instead, we must fight for revolution.
In 1920s Italy, all of the objective conditions were ripe for socialist revolution. But instead, this period saw the triumph of Mussolini’s fascists. In this talk, Fred Weston discusses how this happened, and the lessons for today.
Liberal supporters of Ukraine have recently attacked the IMT for openly defending our position on the war. While some ‘lefts’ happily side with their own ruling class, we proudly stand in the Marxist tradition of class-based internationalism.
Under capitalism, an ocean of talent is left untapped: creativity is crushed by the profit motive; and culture sector workers endure exploitation and oppression. In this talk, Joe Attard discusses the links between art, culture, and revolution.
In this episode of Marxist Voice, Khaled Malachi defends the scientific status of Marxism, and reveals the faults in Karl Popper’s one-sided approach to both science and history.
In ‘The Revolution Betrayed’ Leon Trotsky uncovers the main processes that led to the degeneration of the Russian Revolution, and the transformation of the Soviet Union into a Stalinist bureaucratic regime.
Having unleashed the monster of inflation through their reckless policies, the ruling class are struggling to bring prices back down. Meanwhile, big business is raking in record profits. The blame for this chaos and crisis lies with capitalism.
In this episode of Marxist Voice, Jack Tye Wilson explains the role of the monarchy from a Marxist perspective, pointing out its key role as a reserve weapon to be deployed in defence of capitalism.
A major exhibition of self-proclaimed communist artist Alice Neel is currently on show at the Barbican Centre in London. Neel’s politically conscious portraits brilliantly bring to life the hidden history of the American working class and oppressed.
In this podcast, Ben Curry mounts a defence of materialism: against idealist interpretations of quantum mechanics, mystical theories of consciousness, Big Bang creationism, and many other examples of mysticism.
We publish here the editorial by Alan Woods from the latest issue of the International Marxist Tendency’s quarterly theoretical journal, ‘In Defence of Marxism’. Subscribe today to get your copy of this vital weapon of Marxist theory.
In this episode of Marxist Voice, Adam Booth explains the real causes behind inflation – from the reckless Keynesian policies of the ruling class, to the anarchy and chaos of capitalism – and presents a revolutionary alternative to the crisis of capitalism.
A leak of confidential material from the Pentagon, first shared by a group of video gamers, has caused embarrassment for Washington. These latest revelations once again expose the hypocrisy and cynical motivations of western imperialism.
From Xi Jinping to Putin, to Stalin and Hitler, strong-men and dictators appear throughout history. In this episode of Marxist Voice, Ben Gliniecki explains the Marxist concept of Bonapartism, and its relevance in understanding political regimes today.
This week marks the 74th anniversary of the founding of NATO. In this talk, Lotta Angantyr explains the real role and history of this tool of Western imperialism, and why Marxists are irreconcilably opposed to NATO.
A new release from Wellred Books looks at the gains made by-and-for women thanks to the Bolshevik Revolution. Natasha Sorrell provides a valuable summary of this process, discussing how communists can fight for the emancipation of women today.
Yesterday marked 70 years since the death of Stalin. In recognition of this anniversary, Keelan Kellegher discusses why the Russian Revolution degenerated, the role of the Stalinist bureaucracy, and the reactionary legacy it left behind.
In this discussion, Jorge Martin discusses the war in Ukraine and how it connects to the national question.
Recent TV thriller series ¡García!, available on HBO, explores Spain’s dark fascist past. But the show’s political message is confused from start to end. Only the revolutionary struggle of workers and youth can bury Francoism one and for all.
In this discussion, Josh Holroyd discusses how war and imperialism are the product of a capitalist system!.
In this discussion, Daniel Morley talks through the 1925-27 revolution in China.
In this discussion, James Kilby talks about the 1930s depression, looking at the similarities and differences to todays’ crisis.
90 years ago, on 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany, paving the way for the dictatorship of the Nazis. In this extract, Ted Grant analyses and explains the events that enabled the fascists to come to power.
In this talk, Niklas Albin Svensson discusses globalisation and the fracturing world economy.
Revelations from Prince Harry’s autobiography, ‘Spare’, have provided the public with a few laughs at the monarchy’s expense. But the ruling class is increasingly worried that the royal permacrisis is causing wider damage to their system.
The latest census figures have revealed a drop in support for Christianity, highlighting the diminishing influence of the Church. This has important implications for the class struggle, representing a blow to the capitalist establishment.
Keelan Kellegher discusses the Stalinist degeneration of the USSR that led to its demise.
Today marks the centenary of Lenin’s ‘Testament’, in which he took up the struggle against Stalin and the bureaucratisation of the Soviet state. His Testament – suppressed for decades – dispels the slander that Stalinism was the continuation of Leninism.
The capitalist system worldwide has been in crisis for years. But why has there not been a successful socialist revolution? Alan Woods explains how consciousness is transformed on the basis of events, and the need for revolutionary leadership.
Workers everywhere are struggling to maintain living standards in the face of soaring prices. The ruling class, meanwhile, is looking to curb inflation by provoking a slump. But what are the real causes behind inflation? And how do we fight it?
Jack Halinski-Fitzpatrick discusses the Marxist view of religion.
Promoted by some activists as a means of combating oppression, identity politics is increasingly being used by the establishment to attack the left and the labour movement. Workers and youth must fight back with revolutionary class struggle.
From activists gluing themselves to trains, to throwing soup at paintings: recent years have seen numerous groups employing ‘direct action’ tactics to achieve their aims. Instead, Marxists call for mass organised struggle by workers and youth.
Investors are calling time on cryptocurrencies, following the downfall of the FTX exchange and its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried. But this episode is only the latest speculative bubble – a symptom of the insanity of capitalism.
Nelson Wan discusses the ludicrous casino of capitalism.
Some ‘lefts’ have thrown their weight behind western imperialism, joining the chauvinistic chorus which demands that more weapons be sent to support Ukraine. Scandalously, these muddleheads justify their position by quoting Trotsky.
Interest in the ideas of Leon Trotsky is growing, as workers and youth look for a revolutionary solution to capitalism’s crises. But some on the left have muddied the waters in regards to ‘Trotskyism’. It is important we set the record straight.
Mysticism and idealism is increasingly creeping into modern science, undermining the materialist outlook required to understand the world around us. And popular journal New Scientist is a particularly guilty offender of this pernicious trend.
Josh Holroyd explains why we need Marxist ideas to guide the struggle for communism.
Dozens of activists were arrested at the weekend, protesting against the meat and fossil fuel industries. Small-scale actions are not enough. To end environmental destruction, we need mass struggle to overturn the profit system.
We publish here the editorial by Alan Woods from the latest issue of the International Marxist Tendency’s quarterly theoretical journal, In Defence of Marxism. Subscribe today to get your copy of this vital weapon of Marxist theory.
Defenders of the free market look towards libertarians such as Hayek and Mises – and their assertion of an ‘economic calculation problem’ – in order to attack socialism. But in truth, Marxists answered these reactionary arguments long ago.
Shaun Morris explains how Marxists approach the national question.
As the class struggle erupts across the world, workers’ anger towards capitalism and the bosses is increasingly finding a reflection in mainstream films and TV. But only freed from the shackles of profit can culture and creativity truly thrive.
Fiona Lali discusses the origins of the state, and refutes the views of the reformists and anarchists on this question.
Daniel Morley outlines what imperialism is, how it emerged, and how revolutionaries must approach inter-imperialist conflicts.
Rob Sewell explains why we need to build a revolutionary leadership on the model of the Bolsheviks.
Drawn in by its name, a new layer of revolutionary activists are joining the Young Communist League. But instead of educating members in Marxism, the YCL focusses its energies on stunts. We need to steel ourselves in the genuine ideas of Lenin.
Ben Curry explores the road to genuine knowledge that was paved by the Enlightenment.
In recent months, investors have poured money into NFTs – ‘non-fungible tokens’ – and other speculative digital assets. This is a symptom of the sickness of capitalism, and of how corrupted and commodified art has become under the profit system.
In this episode of Marxist Voice, Olivia Ruadh will explore how the state developed, how it is maintained, and how to fight against it.
After rising to dizzying heights as part of an orgy of speculation, the price of cryptocurrencies has come crashing down in recent weeks, with investors seeking a safe haven. This is a harbinger of a deeper, wider crisis to come for capitalism.
Ben Gliniecki answers the vital question of how we can build revolutionary leadership today
There are many myths surrounding Lenin and the Bolsheviks – particularly regarding the origins of the revolutionary party in Russia. Rob Sewell examines an important chapter from the history of Bolshevism, and the lessons for Marxists today.
Ellen Morton discusses the role of morality in class society, and what values Marxists believe in.
Jorge Martin discusses the revolutionary history of Afghanistan, and how we can fight against imperialist aggression.
Nat Arkwright outlines the philosophy of Marxism – dialectical materialism.
Self-proclaimed ‘Marxist’ Paul Mason provides a stark case study in where the left ends up if it abandons an independent class position. Instead of this apologism for western imperialism, we must aim our fire at our own jingoistic ruling class.
We publish here the editorial by Alan Woods from the latest issue of the International Marxist Tendency’s quarterly theoretical journal, In Defence of Marxism. Subscribe today to get your copy of this vital weapon of Marxist theory.
As ever, the outbreak of war has led to all manner of hypocrisy and propaganda from the agents of imperialism. Marxists must cut through this fog, and point out the real class interests at play. To end the horrors of war, we must end capitalism.
Jorge Martin explains the nature of the conflict in Ukraine, and why Marxists must stand for an independent class position.
Ben Gliniecki outlines the possibility of a Third World War in our current day.
Andrea Patane explains the differences between Marxism and anarchism, and how we can fight against our common enemy in the form of capitalism and the capitalist state.
Yola Kipcak combats the reactionary ideas of postmodernism, which rejects the possibility of understanding the world, emphasises the need for a rational, scientific approach in the form of Marxism.
Hamid Alizadeh traces the development of the dialectical method, and how Marx placed the systematic approach of Hegel on a materialist basis in order to trace the development of human history.
The decline of capitalism finds its reflection in the decline of philosophy. Nowhere is this clearer than with the intellectual trend that is postmodernism. Instead of this philosophical dead-end, we need the revolutionary ideas of Marxism.
Rob Sewell discusses the life and ideas of Vladimir Lenin, and what revolutionary Marxists can learn from them.
Marie Frederiksen dispells the myths surrounding Rosa Luxemburg, and defends the revolutionary legacy she left behind.
We publish here Alan Woods’ editorial from the new issue of our theoretical magazine, In Defence of Marxism, which is out now, with fantastic newly-published articles on economics, Lenin, and Luxemburg. Subscribe today to get your copy!
This weekend, Wellred Books is launching a new publication on the life and ideas of Rosa Luxemburg. In this article from the latest issue of our theoretical magazine, comrades respond to the lies and distortions surrounding this great revolutionary.
Steve Jones discusses the role of cinema in capitalist society, and how socialism can develop this form of art to its full potential.
This month marks the 30th anniversary of the collapse of the USSR. The most powerful deformed workers’ state was collapsing into chaos as supposed communists were looting the state and its assets. The workers of the Soviet Union had to pay the price.
Laurie O’Connel traces the origins of class society, the role it plays in history and how we can fight against in the struggle for a communist society.
James Kilby discusses why the capitalist economy is in crisis, and how the only way forward is a socialist revolution.
There is a renewed interest today in the economic ideas of John Maynard Keynes, as governments across the world prop up the capitalist system with state spending. But only Marxism can explain the real cause of the crisis – and offer a way out.
In this talk, Alan Woods outlines the history of philosophical ideas, and how they have laid the basis for philosophy of Marxism – dialectical materialism.
In this extract from Wellred’s upcoming title ‘The History of Philosophy: A Marxist Perspective’, Alan Woods explains why Marxists must study the history of philosophy, and the enormous debt that Marxism owes to earlier thinkers.
Our latest educational series ‘The ABCs of Marxist philosophy’ is available now on podcast and YouTube. This unique resource is perfect for anyone who’s looking to get stuck into Marxist theory. Start listening and watching today!
The latest title from Wellred Books, The History of Philosophy: A Marxist Perspective, is out soon. This book is vital reading for any revolutionary who wishes to arm themselves with clear philosophical ideas that can change the world.
Is there such a thing as good and evil? Who decides, and why? Why is there so much suffering and cruelty in our society, and how can we end this? Daniel Morley will discuss all of these questions in the final episode of the series.
The 2008 crash and coronavirus crisis have revived interest in the theories of J.M. Keynes, the liberal English economist. But a look at Keynes’ life and ideas show that he was no friend of the working class. We need socialism, not Keynesianism.
What is causation? Is the universe determined and predictable? And where does that leave humanity, with its notions of free will and moral responsibility? And how does this affect our role as revolutionaries?
Thought is inherently about generalisation and universals. It takes us beyond the immediacy of the here and now, and links things. This contradiction – between part and whole, individual and type – is at the heart of philosophy’s deepest problems.
How does matter move itself? How and why does development take place in nature? Daniel Morley will answer all of these questions in this week’s episode of the ABCs of Marxist philosophy.
Marxist logic is dialectical, not formal. That means its starting point is change and contradiction – all truths become untruths because all that exists will perish. But how do we use logic to understand change? How do things change?
Logic is usually seen as a dry, boring discipline suitable only for pedants. This is because it is traditionally seen as having no relation to the real world of objects, and is instead a self-contained system of rules for thought. Marxism completely rejects this formalism and seeks to find the basis for our logic in this real world.
In the third part of this series on Marxist philosophy, Daniel Morley talks about the Marxist view on human nature.
In the second part of this series on Marxist philosophy, Daniel Morley talks about the nature of knowledge.
In the first part of this series on Marxist philosophy, Daniel Morley talks about materialism.
In this podcast, Adam Booth discusses the demand for a universal basic income.
We are proud to announce the relaunch of our theoretical magazine. As Lenin said, without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement. Subscribe today and join the fight for socialism!
Daniel Morley discusses the idea of workers’ democracy and workers’ control of the economy.
Today is the 80th anniversary of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in World War Two. This bloody catastrophe, which claimed the lives of almost 5m Soviet troops and saw the Nazis plunge deep into Soviet territory, was facilitated by the wrecking behaviour of Stalin and the bureaucracy.
In this podcast, Ben Curry provides an in-depth history of the contrasting philosophies of idealism and materialism – two fundamental trends in philosophy, which have re-appeared in various forms throughout the history of human thought.
Ben Curry gives an overview of the development of scientific theories and the philosophical ideas that lie behind some of the biggest scientific revolutions in history.
Daniel Morley looks at the question of consciousness from a Marxist perspective.
In this podcast, Daniel Morley discusses the accusations of ‘fatalism’ levelled at Marxism by its enemies.
In this podcast, Hamid Alizadeh of In Defence of Marxism explains why postmodernist philosophy is wrong and reactionary; and how the ‘old’ ideas of Marxism are far more relevant.
In his podcast, Alan Woods mounts a defence of materialism against the trends of subjective idealism, such as positivism and postmodernism.
In this podcast, Niklas Albin Svensson sets out a Marxist analysis of the history and nature of fascism: what it is; what it isn’t; and how the labour movement can smash fascist and far-right groups wherever they emerge.
In this podcast, Ben Curry explains the Marxist understanding of the role played by individuals in history – and the role that we must play today.
In the midst of the pandemic, some parts of the economy are booming. Speculative investments are continuing in a frenzied fashion. The latest celebrity-driven fads, NFTs and SPACs, are among the insane expressions of this whirlpool of speculation.
100 years ago, the ultra-left leaders of the German Communist Party prematurely launched a revolutionary offensive. This proved to be a fiasco, wrecking the authority of the party. The 1921 ‘March Action’ contains important lessons for today.
How do we acquire knowledge? Is there a real world beyond our senses? And if so, what is our relation to it? In this important theoretical contribution, Alan Woods mounts a defence of materialism against idealism and the obscurantist, postmodernist subjectivism popular on university campuses today.
To celebrate the 150th birthday of Rosa Luxemburg, we publish an extract from the introduction to ‘The Revolutionary Heritage of Rosa Luxemburg’, a new book analysing the life and ideas of this great revolutionary Marxist.
Organised on Reddit, a movement of amateur stock traders has taken on the big hedge funds, exposing how rigged and rotten the whole system is. Capitalism is a casino. We need socialism, not speculation.
Adam Booth uses the method of Marxism to dispel the economic fantasies of right-wing libertarians, which boil down to a defense of the ruthlessness of the free market and capitalism.
We are proud to launch our new online education hub – a one-stop shop for Marxist theory, with structured reading plans, video and audio talks, and a wealth of amazing resources.
The present crisis is a stark vindication of the ideas of Karl Marx, who long explained that capitalism produces an accumulation of wealth at one pole, and an accumulation of misery at the other. This rotten system must be overthrown.
Cultural institutions and venues are facing an existential threat. But the Tories have shown only callousness and contempt towards artists and the arts. Capitalism is killing our culture. We need a socialist fightback to save it.
In search of a magic formula to win over the working class, some ‘Marxist’ commentators have called for the left to pander to patriotism. The labour movement must ignore these siren calls and fight for socialist internationalism.
Modern Monetary Theory has become in vogue on the left, as a supposed answer to the austerity agenda pursued by big business politicians. But the limits of a new book by a leading MMT proponent show why we need the ideas of Marxism.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was born 250 years ago on 27 August 1770 in the German city of Stuttgart. A towering genius with an encyclopaedic mind, Hegel revolutionised every field that he dedicated himself to. The impact of Hegel’s ideas cannot be underestimated. As Marxists, we owe him a tremendous debt.
Cinephiles are hoping that the release of the new Christopher Nolan blockbuster ‘Tenet’ will save cinemas across the country. But the industry’s future remains uncertain. The demand for public ownership has never been so relevant.
Today marks the 80th anniversary since the assassination of Leon Trotsky by a Stalinist agent. Trotsky dedicated his life to defending the ideas of genuine Marxism. Join us for our online rally today to pay homage to this inspiring revolutionary.
Our recent critique has drawn the ire of ‘left-wing’ journalist Paul Mason, who said that our “mouldering” organisation needs to abandon its outdated worldview. Mason’s post-modernism, however, is no substitute for the science of Marxism.
In a recent lengthy article, journalist Paul Mason offers up a supposed strategy for the left. But his focus on ‘culture wars’, ‘values’, and ‘new narratives’ are a dead end for the movement. Socialists must reject this apology for liberalism.
In this video from Revolution Festival 2019, Ben Gliniecki – writer for Socialist Appeal – discusses the beginnings of the Communist Party of Great Britain, which was founded 100 years ago on 31 July 1920.
David Harvey recently came out as openly anti-revolutionary in the clearest terms, claiming that capitalism is “too big to fail” and revolution would result in catastrophe. Jorge Martin explains the bankruptcy of so called “academic Marxism.”
The First Five Years of the Communist International, consisting of Trotsky’s writings and speeches on building the Third International, is a must-read for all revolutionaries. Get your copy from Wellred Books today.
Artist Nicholas Baldion explains how the art community is depicting the lives of those on the frontline in the fight against the pandemic, paying homage to workers in the NHS and elsewhere.
Revelations that Dominic Cummings sat on the government’s scientific advisory committee have raised question marks over just how ‘impartial’ expert advice is. Under capitalism, science will never be truly objective or independent.
Today is Marx’s birthday. To celebrate, Socialist Appeal is premiering a new documentary on Marx’s life in London. Join us to watch this online at 6pm – and join us to help build the forces of Marxism.
Governments everywhere are pumping money into the world economy to keep it on life support. Subscribers to Keynesian economic ideas – of government stimulus and demand-side management – feel vindicated. But only Marxism offers a solution.
Today is the anniversary of the Communist Manifesto. This monumental work is one of the most read texts in history, containing a wealth of ideas. It is also a rallying call to the working class – even more powerful today than when it was written.
In this talk from last year’s Revolution Festival, Daniel Morley (writer for Socialist Appeal) looks back at the events leading up to the 1949 Chinese Revolution, explaining why the revolution played out as it did, and discussing the process that has unfolded since: from revolution to Tiananmen to capitalism.
An exhibition of William Blake’s work has opened at the Tate. Blake was a political radical in his own time. Though limited by his bourgeois outlook, his work captured the horror and indignity of the emerging capitalist mode of production.
Yesterday was the 160th anniversary of Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species’. Albeit unconsciously, Darwin’s theory of evolution revealed how nature operates dialectically. This radically challenged the ideology of the ruling class.
In this talk from the recent Revolution Festival, Marie Frederiksen – editor of the Danish Marxist paper ‘Revolution’ – discusses the impact of the Berlin Wall, which was broken apart 30 years ago, on 9th November 1989.
Tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, portrayed as capitalism’s victory over Communism. In reality, it marked the end of a bankrupt Stalinist regime. Decades on, workers are turning to genuine Marxist ideas.
Today marks the 70th anniversary of the 1949 Chinese Revolution – when millions of peasants and workers rose up to overthrow the landlords and capitalists. This inspiring revolutionary movement provides many important lessons for today.
The Monarchy calls itself a neutral observer, but this illusion was shattered when Johnson used the Queen to force through his programme. This casts light on the real role of the Monarchy, a reserve of reaction. We say abolish this feudal relic!
Labour-led Sheffield City Council recently announced that they would support a trial of Universal Basic Income. This is being championed as a victory for the left. But just how radical is the demand for a UBI?
Far from fuelling scientific progress, the profit motive and capitalist competition have become an enormous barrier to advancing humanity’s understanding of nature. Only a socialist plan can free science from these chains.
We are frequently told that capitalism equals ‘freedom’; that it is the organic product of ‘human nature’. But far from arising naturally, the birth of the ‘free’ market is built on violence, dispossession, and enslavement.
MMT has created a buzz on the left recently, with its supporters citing it as an answer to all our economic woes. Instead of trendy new ideas, however, we need the clear scientific analysis of capitalism that Marxism provides.
On 4th June 1989, the mass movement of students and workers in Tiananmen Square that had shaken the Chinese regime was repressed into submission. Daniel Morley looks at the lessons of these titanic events.
Religious fundamentalism of all types is on the rise across the world, leading to barbaric terrorist attacks like those seen in New Zealand and Sri Lanka. This growing extremism is another reflection of capitalism’s impasse.
Across the world, demands for national independence are coming to the fore once again, as workers and youth look for a way out of the crisis. It is vital for Marxists to have a clear position on these national questions.
In this video from the 2018 Revolution Festival, Francesco Merli of In Defence of Marxism (www.marxist.com) discusses the events and lessons of the 1968 Prague Spring – a revolt against the Stalinist bureaucracy that was put down by Moscow.
Rob Sewell takes up some of the ‘new’ ideas that have been put forward on the left regarding alternative forms of ownership and control. What we need is a socialist plan of production and workers’ power.
Under capitalism, the ruling class maintains its privileges and power through a bureaucratic state apparatus, in which members of the rich elite move freely between government and big business. We must put an end to this ‘revolving door’.
Friedrich Engels contributions to Marxism remain as important as ever. Adam Booth discusses the key role that Engels played in developing the ideas of scientific socialism – ideas that we continue to fight for today.
The Socialist Party and its international organisation are facing a deep political crisis. This is the product of decades of incorrect methods and perspectives. It is important for Marxists to draw out the lessons of these events.
At best, humanitarian fundraisers are a sticking plaster over a festering wound. At worst, they are an active distraction from the real reasons behind global inequality and the need to radically transform society.
Several controversies have arisen in recent weeks around how key historical figures are popularly remembered. These controversies reveal that historical memory cannot be separated from contemporary class struggles.
One century ago, on 2-6th March 1919, the first congress of the Third International took place in Moscow. This marked the birth of the Communist International, which became a vital school of revolutionary ideas and strategy.
A letter written by Leon Trotsky has recently been discovered which provides an unbroken thread from Trotsky to the present day Marxists internationally. This is the birth certificate of our tendency.
The issue of immigration has been central to the Brexit debate. Unfortunately, some on the left have pandered to anti-immigration sentiments. Marxists must call for workers’ unity, organisation, and internationalism.
100 years ago today, Rosa Luxemburg, the founder of the German Communist Party, was murdered in cold blood, beheading the German Revolution of its leadership. One century on, we remember Luxemburg, her life, and her ideas.
On the anniversary of Leon Trotsky’s assassination, we commemorate the life and ideas of this inspiring revolutionary, theoretician, and leader.
With a left-wing Labour government on the horizon, the debate around workers’ control has been re-opened. Rob Sewell explains what this could – and should – look like.
5th May marks the 200th birthday of the most influential and important thinker of modern history: Karl Marx.
135 years ago today, on 14th March 1883, Karl Marx passed away. This year also marks the 200th anniversary of Marx’s birth. We are commemorating Marx’s life and ideas with our upcoming “Marx in a Day” event.
“All individual beings must perish, but the wonderful diversity of the material universe in all its myriad manifestations is eternal and indestructible. Life arises, passes away, and arises again and again. Thus it has been. Thus it will ever be.”
To mark the 170th anniversary of the Communist Manifesto, we republish here an article by Alan Woods from 20 years ago, which discusses the relevance of Marxism and the validity of the Manifesto in the modern world.
To mark the 170th anniversary of the first publication of the Communist Manifesto, we republish here extended extracts from an article by Leon Trotsky, written for the 90th anniversary in 1938.
Martin Swayne reviews ‘Lost Connections’, an illuminating new book that examines the social factors and material causes behind the prevalence of mental health issues in modern day capitalist society.
Adam Booth looks at the speculative mania developing around Bitcoin and other digital currencies, which is a reflection of the general crisis of capitalism.
Sam Tollitt discusses the definition of neoliberalism and explains what relationship this ideology and programme has with the wider capitalist system.
Ravi Mistry explores the origins of racism within class society and explains the way forward in the fight against oppression and discrimination.
We publish here the second part of Adam Booth’s article about the role of the individual in history. In this second half, Adam examines the pivotal role played by Lenin and Trotsky in the 1917 Russian Revolution, and the dialectical relationship between leaders and the masses. The real lesson of history is that a revolutionary leadership is vital in order to transform society.
Ben Gliniecki reviews the late Mark Fisher’s influential and acclaimed – but ultimately confused and overly-academic – book, “Capitalist Realism”: a confused jumble of academic jargon which barely manages to describe phenomena first explained by Marx over 170 years ago.
100 years ago, the masses in Russia took power. This revolutionary event, however, would not have been possible without the bold leadership of Lenin and Trotsky. In this sense, the role of the individual at certain points in history is vital. Adam Booth explores the Marxist view of history and the role of individuals in determining the course of historical events.
In this recent video from the October Revolution festival, Daniel Morley (of the Socialist Appeal Editorial Board) discusses the theoretical differences between the philosophies of Marxism and postmodernism.
The “Red Star Over Russia” exhibition, which opened at the Tate Modern earlier this month, is the latest in a number of exhibitions marking the 1917 Russian Revolution centenary. Ben Curry reviews the fascinating collection of artwork, photography, and propoganda contained within this latest showcase.
In 1988, Alan Woods interviewed Esteban Volkov – Leon Trotsky’s grandson – in the Trotsky Museum in Coyoacan, Mexico, which Volkov is the director of. To commemorate the centenary of the October Revolution, we publish here extracts from the full interview, where Esteban presents a strong defence of both Trotsky and the 1917 Russian Revolution.
To mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution, we present this original documentary by the IMT celebrating the life and accomplishments of one of the revolution’s main leaders: Leon Trotsky.
In the final video from our Capital in a Day series, commemorating the 150th anniversary of Karl Marx’s Das Kapital, Ben Curry looks at the question of accumulation and inequality within capitalism.
With his latest film, the Death of Stalin, British director and comic writer Armando Iannucci continues with his recurring motif of the cynicism and self-interest of the professional political class. This time, however, the incompetent politicians being lambasted are not those of the Western establishment, but of the Stalinist bureaucracy.
Capitalism is in its deepest crisis in its history. It is an economic, social and political crisis, which is now expressing itself in political turmoil and growing class struggle across the globe. While the ruling class attempts to bury Marxism, it has in fact never been so relevant as it is today. In this updated article, Alan Woods explains the essence of Marxism and its role today.
In part three from our “Capital in a Day” series, Natasha Sorrell – a teacher in Sheffield – discusses where profits come from within capitalism: the unpaid labour of the working class.
In this video from our recent “Capital in a Day” event, Ben Gliniecki discusses the origins, societal role, and future of money.
In this first of a series of videos from Socialist Appeal’s recent “Capital in Day” event – held to celebrate the 150th anniversary of volume one of Karl Marx’s Capital – James Kilby discusses the concept of the commodity.
In this latest video from the Marxist Student Federation’s Myths of Marxism series, Lilly from the Sheffield Marxists explains the causes behind sexism and women’s oppression and discusses how the fight for the liberation and emancipation of women is linked to the fight for socialism.
This month marks the 100th anniversary of the writing of Lenin’s great work The State and Revolution, written in the midst of the Russian Revolution to prepare the working class for taking power. To mark this important anniversary we reproduce here key extracts from an introduction of a new edition of this pamphlet, written by Alan Woods.
On Saturday 16th September, over 80 students, workers, and activists from across the country gathered for “Capital in a Day”: an event hosted by Socialist Appeal and the Marxist Student Federation to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Karl Marx’s Capital. The day’s event demonstrated the importance of theory and the relevance of Marx’s ideas in this epoch of capitalist crisis.
Rob Sewell provides another contribution on the debate about the way forward for the unions and the Left in the fight against the Blairites, the Tories, and the cuts. The position of Socialist Appeal is clear: all forces on the Left should get organised, support Corbyn, and fight to transform the Labour Party into a genuinely socialist party.
Marxists are commonly accused of wishing to crush individuality, wanting to enforce homogeneity and put everyone into the same grey, uniform box. In this video from our “Myths of Marxism” series, Kevin Chang dispells this misconception, arguing that it is in fact the profit system that restricts each and every individual from fulfilling their full potential.
So-called “pragmatists” often say that it is unrealistic to struggle for socialism. Even if we had a successful revolution in Britain, for example, it is clear that an island of socialism could not survive in a sea of capitalism. But is it realistic to expect revolution to spread internationally?
The crimes of Stalin and Mao are frequently held up to demonstrate the apparent failure of socialism and communism; to invalidate the ideas of Marxism. But what failed in the Soviet Union and China, as Maciej of the Swansea Marxists explains in this latest video from the Myths of Marxism series, was not socialism or communism, but a bureaucratically controlled society – a caricature of Marxism.
77 years ago, on 20th August 1940, Leon Trotsky – the great Marxist, international socialist, and Russian revolutionary – was struck down by a Stalinist agent in his home in Mexico. He died the following day. To commemorate Trotsky’s life and ideas, we republish this article by Alan Woods, originally written in January 2000.
We publish here the fourth part in a series by Alan Woods looking at the theoretical differences between Marxism and anarchism. In this fourth and final part, Alan discusses the question of revolutionary violence and looks at the inspiring example of the Russian Revolution as historical proof of the need for a workers’ state.
We publish here extracts from Alan Woods’ introduction to the new Wellred Books’ edition of Ted Grant’s Russia: from Revolution to Counter-revolution, republished this year to celebrate the centenary of the 1917 Russian Revolution. In this intro, Alan discusses the enormous gains of the revolution – and how they were destroyed by Stalinist degeneration.
We publish here the third part in a series by Alan Woods looking at the theoretical differences between Marxism and anarchism. In this part, Alan discusses the role of the state within class society and examines the historical limitations of anarchism and spontaneity, as shown by the Spanish Revolution and Egyptian Revolution respectively.
In the latest video from the Marxist Student Federation’s Myths of Marxism series, Stephen Agnew of the Sheffield Marxists examines whether capitalism – based on the market, competition, private ownership and production for profit – really is the most efficient economic system possible for society.
In amongst all the confusion and panic of the capitalist class, a handful of extreme right-wing economists have begun arguing for a return to the gold standard as a way of solving the economic crisis. The reality is that the contradictions of capitalism cannot be solved by measures taken within the capitalist system.
We continue here Alan Woods’ series looking at the theoretical differences between Marxism and anarchism. In this second part, Alan examines the role of leadership, the relationship between Marxists and the mass organisations, the origins of bureaucracy, and how political consciousness develops and changes.
Jessica Cassell of Fightback in Canada explores the ideas of Marxism and intersectionality, contrasting the different views between these theories on where oppression comes from and how we can fight for an end to sexism, racism, and all other forms of oppression.
We publish here a series by Alan Woods looking at the theoretical differences between Marxism and anarchism. In this first part, Alan explores the vital questions of “spontaneity vs organisation” and “reform or revolution”, looking at the role of the revolutionary party and its relationship to the end goal of a communist society.
One hundred years ago Europe was in the middle of a bloody world war. With tensions rising in the Middle East, the Korean peninsula, and the South China Sea – and given whose fingers are on red buttons all over the world – should we be worried about the possibility of a similar situation today?
Countries like Sweden, Denmark, Norway are frequently held up by figures on the Left, such as Bernie Sanders, as an example of Scandinavian-style “socialism” and an alternative to “neoliberal” capitalism. Lotta Angantyr, from the Revolution newspaper in Sweden, sets the record straight.
In the first video from a series by the Marxist Student Federation examining the myths about Marxism, Fiona Lali of the SOAS Marxists looks at the question of “human nature”, which is commonly used as an argument for the impossibility of socialism.
During this election campaign, the Tory press have attempted to attack Corbyn and McDonnell on the basis of their supposedly Marxist views. But the Labour leaders should not be embarrassed by any influence of Marx on their ideas. As Rob Sewell discusses, Marxism has played a significant role throughout the history of the Labour Party.
Today, in numerous areas, from automation to green energy to information technology, we are seeing a validation of Marx’s assertion: that society’s productive forces at a certain stage come into conflict with the way in which society is organised. These “economic singularities”, as Adam Booth discusses, demonstrate clearly that the system has broken.
The election of Donald Trump in the US and the rise of Marine Le Pen in the French presidential elections has naturally been received with alarm by millions of people around the world. Some have even warned of a new rise of fascism. Rob Sewell – editor of Socialist Appeal – asks: what is fascism? And does it pose an imminent threat today?
Every Easter, millions of people tuck into inadvisable quantities of chocolate eggs. But crack the yummy surface and you’ll find a gooey core of brutality underlying the history of the sugar and cocoa trade. As Joe Attard of the KCL Marxists explains, those who desire guilt-free guilty pleasures need to support the revolutionary cause!
The board game Monopoly is a useful tool for understanding the transformation of ‘free market’ capitalism into monopoly capitalism. Under socialism, the monopolies can be nationalised and run for the benefit of the whole of society – not a tiny handful of capitalists.
Joe Attard of the KCL Marxists discusses the new Royal Academy of the Arts exhibition on Russian Art: 1917-1932, and responds to Guardian art critic, Jonathan Jones, and his hypocritical tirade against the Russian Revolution, Lenin, and the Bolsheviks.
Universal basic income (or UBI), an unconditional payment to all citizens, has become part of the economic zeitgeist in recent times, embraced by advocates on both the Left and the Right as a solution to the symptoms and sores of the crisis-ridden capitalist system. But who is actually raising the proposal – and in whose interest?
We are now in an era that many imagined would be a period of prosperity for all. And yet, far from living in the technological utopia once imagined, we are increasingly living in a dystopian nightmare of eye-watering inequality and poverty amidst plenty. Hugo Robles looks at the contradictions of automation and machinery under capitalism.
In this video from the recent REVOLUTION! Marxist festival, hosted by Socialist Appeal in London on 21-23 October, Esteban Volkov (Trotsky’s grandson), Alan Woods (editor of In Defence of Marxism), and Rob Sewell (editor of Socialist Appeal) introduce the new Wellred edition of Leon Trotsky’s Marxist masterpiece – his biography of Joseph Stalin.
In the final part of his series commemorating the life and ideas of the Bard, Alan Woods looks at Shakespeare’s poetic genius and examines the revolutionary role played by the writer in terms of the development of the English language.
In the third and penultimate part of his series commemorating the life and ideas of the Bard, Alan Woods looks at the central role of politics, plots, and intrigues in Shakespeare’s plays, and – in particular – his attitude towards the idea of social revolution.
Today’s global economy is full of dangers, one of the most precarious being the Silicon Valley tech sector; in particular, the impending stampede of “unicorns”. This term has come to describe the primary threat facing the tech sector, with the possibility of a cataclysmic repetition of the 1999 dot-com bubble.
We publish here the second of a four-part series by Alan Woods, commemorating the life and ideas of the Bard, 400 years since his death. In this part, Alan discusses the role of religion in Shakespeare’s plays and examines the transitory social conditions of the time in England, which had such a profound impact on this literary giant.
Shakespeare transformed English literature, reaching heights that before were unheard of and which have not been reached subsequently. His impact on world literature was arguably greater than any other writer. In the first of a four-part series, Alan Woods commemorates the life and ideas of the Bard, 400 years since his death.
Alan Woods, editor of In Defence of Marxism, discusses the release of the most complete edition ever published of Leon Trotsky’s biography of Stalin. The video is recorded at Leon Trotsky’s house in Mexico, where he was assassinated and which today is the Leon Trotsky Museum.
Today, 4th October, marks the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street, a momentous event in which the working people of London united to deliver a decisive blow against the menace of British fascism.
In the final part of his series on the history and development of money, Adam Booth explores how monetary theories and systems have changed over time in response crises, and looks at the “solutions” proposed to overcome the contradictions facing the money system today. How do we break the spell of the so-called “root of all evil” and free ourselves from these “chains of gold”.
In the fourth part of his series on the history and development of money, Adam Booth examines the factors lying behind inflation and explores the role of gold as the basis for an international monetary system. As the collapse of the gold standard – and more recently the European single currency – demonstrate, the contradictions of capitalism will eventually always come to the fore.
In the third part of his series on the history of money, Adam Booth looks at the growth of finance, the development of banking, and the role of credit within capitalism. As Adam stresses, the economic problems we face today lie not with an overbloated finance sector, greedy bankers, or a lack of credit, but with the anarchic, chaotic, and crisis-ridden capitalist system.
The new and completed edition of Stalin, the critical biography Trotsky was working on at the time of his death, was officially launched last Saturday at the Museo Casa de León Trotsky (Leon Trotsky House Museum) in Mexico City by the IMT with presentations by Esteban Volkov, Trotsky’s grandson, and Alan Woods, the editor of the new edition of the book.
This weekend marks the 76 anniversary of the death of Leon Trotsky, who was brutally attacked by a Stalinist agent on 20th August 1940. To celebrate the life of the heroic Russian revolutionary, the launch of his great unfinished work Stalin will be launched in Mexico tomorrow by Alan Woods and Trotsky’s grandson, Esteban Volkov.
In the second part of his series looking at the role of money within capitalist society, Adam Booth explores the questions of value, alienation, and profit in order to develop a more in-depth understanding about the nature of money.
The capitalist press has been busy stirring up a hullaballoo about Trotskyist infiltration into the Labour Party. Tom Watson, Labour’s Deputy Leader, has raised his concerns about Trotskyist “entryists”, and even produced a dodgy dossier. But who was Trotsky? And what is Trotskyism?
In the first of a five-part series analysing the role of money within capitalist society, Adam Booth looks at the origins and evolution of money. By applying the Marxist method to this question, we can strip away the mysticism of this seemingly omnipotent power – “the root of all kinds of evil” – and understand the solution to removing its grip over us.
We publish here two pieces written by Leon Trotsky – in 1917 and 1923 respectively – on the question of the “United States of Europe”. As Trotsky stresses, the only way forward for the working class of Europe is along the lines of a European-wide socialist revolution. As the capitalist European project unravels today, Trotsky’s analysis remains as relevant as ever.
In these videos, Alan Woods and Rob Sewell discuss Leon Trotsky’s great unfinished work, Stalin, which is being published this year by Wellred Books. Make a pledge today and help raise the money needed to finish this revolutionary project!
Alan Woods discusses Trotsky’s great unfinished work, Stalin: a unique piece of Marxist literature that attempts to explain some of the most decisive events of the 20th century, not just in terms of epoch-making economic and social transformations, but in the individual psychology of those who appear as protagonists in a great historical drama. Support the publication of Trotsky’s Stalin by Wellred Books by making a pledge today.
Wellred Books proudly presents a work eighty years in the making: Leon Trotsky’s unfinished biography of Stalin. We publish here the story behind the publication of this book – the most extensive edition of the book ever, completed from the original archive material – as told by Rob Sewell, editor of Socialist Appeal. Make a pledge today and help raise the money needed to finish this project!
Earlier this year we marked the centenary of the Easter Rising – an historic episode of class struggle in Ireland. Today we commemorate the centenary of the death of James Connolly, the great revolutionary leader and Marxist, who was murdered by the British state on 12th May 1916 for his part in the Easter Rising in Dublin.
Rob Turnbull looks at the rise and fall of the Vikings – a civilisation of seafarers, merchants and traders. But, just as the Vikings had their day, so capitalism has had its. The system has reached its limits. It is time for it to be overthrown and replaced with a socialist society.
Karl Marx, the great revolutionary theoretician, philosopher, and fighter, was born on this day 198 years ago, on 5th May 1818. To commemorate the life of Karl Marx, we publish here a biography by the late Phil Mitchinson, originally written in 2003, along with links to a variety of recommended articles, videos, and audios about Marx and his revolutionary ideas.
In the fifth and final part of his series looking at the Marxist view of history, Alan Woods explains the significance of the Russian Revolution as the first attempt of humanity to break free from class society, and outlines the possible futures for society: socialism or barbarism.
In this fourth – and penultimate – part of his series on the Marxist conception of history, Alan Woods – editor of In Defence of Marxism – traces the history of feudalism from its rise to its inevitable downfall in the age of the bourgeois revolutions.
In the second part of his introduction to the Marxist – that is, materialist – view of history, Alan Woods discusses the early stages of humanity and society, and discusses how class society and private property emerged on the basis of the development of the productive forces.
We publish here the first part in a serialisation of a new work by Alan Woods, which explains the Marxist method of analysing history. The ultimate cause of all social change is to be found, not in the human brain, but in changes in the mode of production.
With the recent debates in Parliament about the bombing of Syria, as well as the upcoming EU referendum and the waves of protest internationally, the question of what a socialist foreign policy could look like are high on the agenda. What kind of policies should a Corbyn-led Labour Party be putting forward?
At the recent Red October 2015 event, Alan Woods – editor of In Defence of Marxism – gave a talk on Marxism and Art. We publish here some thoughts on the topic by Kit MacDougall of the Glasgow Marxists, based on the discussion at Red October.
Lenin once remarked that, “Capitalist society is and has always been horror without end.” It is a feeling unconsciously shared by millions and reflected in the popularity of the horror genre since the very beginning of cinema, demonstrating the anxieties and fears in the society of the times.
Since the 1930s a dominant trend has existed within the scientific community that explains quantum mechanics with all kinds of idealistic and mystical interpretations. Now, however, unexpected discoveries in the field of fluid mechanics has the potential to reaffirm a dialectical and materialist explanation for these scientific phenomena.
In 1215, King John I of England signed a document known as the Great Charter – Magna Carta. As a legal document, it has attained a near-legendary status as a symbol of the supposed power of the rule of law. Ben Glineicki looks at the significance of this 800-year-old document and examines the history of the law and class society.
100 years ago, on 5th September 1915, a small group of international socialists gathered in the tiny Swiss village of Zimmerwald. This was the first attempt to unite those socialists – such as Lenin and Luxemburg – who were opposed to the War, and was the embryo of the Communist International. Alan Woods explains the historical significance of Zimmerwald.
In the final part of his series on the rise of the sharing economy, Adam Booth reviews Paul Mason’s new book, PostCapitalism, about the impact of information technology and its contradictory contribution within the crisis-ridden capitalism system. How can we truly utilise the abundance of technology and wealth we see around us today?
In the second part of his article on the rise of the sharing economy, Adam Booth examines the impact that new technologies and business models will have on the nature of work and jobs. The trend under capitalism is towards more precarious employment and rising inequality.
We are surrounded by a wealth of technology and innovation. We are promised a world of plenty; a super-efficient system of production and distribution; and a life of leisure. And yet the reality is ecological crises, “secular stagnation”, and eye-watering inequality. In the first of a three-part article, Adam Booth examines the rise of the sharing economy.
Continuing our commemoration marking the 75th anniversary of the death of Leon Trotsky, we publish here an introduction by Alan Woods to Trotsky’s masterpiece: the Revolution Betrayed.
Next week we will mark the 80th anniversary of the assassination of Leon Trotsky with an international online rally. We republish here an article by Alan Woods reflecting on the incredible life of this revolutionary giant.
Today marks the anniversary of Leon Trotsky’s assassination. Struck down 75 years ago by an ice-pick to the head from a cowardly Stalinist assassin, he soon fell into a coma and died the following day, on 21st August 1940. To commemorate the life and ideas of the great revolutionary leader, we are re-publishing an article here by Rob Sewell, written in 2012.
We publish here a letter from a comrade in West Yorkshire, who highlights Jeremy Corbyn’s programme for culture and the arts. Rather than simply protecting funding for the arts, socialists should be arguing for a revolution in how art is created, displayed, and distributed – and, in turn, for a revolution in how society is run and organised.
For many today, it is clear what we are fighting against: corruption, crisis and austerity. But it can be harder to articulate or even picture exactly what we are fighting for. Ben Gliniecki examines: how might a new society work? In what way would our individual lives be affected? What will socialism look like?
In the final part of his series on Marx’s Capital, Adam Booth tries to answer the question of how capitalism initially arose. In what way was an initial disparity and inequality created to allow for the laws of capitalism to set in? It is this issue of “primitive accumulation” that Marx turns to in chapters 26-33.
Adam Booth contrasts the economic theories of Thomas Piketty with those of Karl Marx.
In the final part of his series on the crisis of cosmology, Adam Booth looks at the more recent attempts to take the field of theoretical physics forward and explains the role that Marxism and the philosophy of dialectical materialism can play in guiding scientific research.
Continuing his series on the crisis of cosmology, Adam Booth analyses the philosophical problems at the heart of quantum mechanics and explains the problems facings scientists who are attempting to reconcile this theory with Einstein’s theory of General Relativity to create a “Theory of Everything”.
For many years now, storm clouds have been amassing on the horizon in the field of theoretical physics, with an accumulation of evidence and inconsistencies that bring the current cosmological models into question. In this article, Adam Booth explores and analyses the crisis in modern science from a Marxist perspective.
We continue here our series on Marx’s Capital, looking at the question of accumulation. Capital is dynamic. “Money never sleeps”. For capital to act as capital, it must continuously be in motion – continually seeking to create value from value. It is this overall dynamic of capital towards which Marx now turns his attention in chapters 23-25.
In this recent talk to the UCLU Marxist Society, Alan Woods explains the main concepts behind the ideas of Marxism, including dialectical materialism – the philosophy of Marxism – and Marx’s economic analysis.
Rosa Luxemburg was one of the most important figures in the history of the international workers’ movement.Reform or Revolution was one of the most important of her early writings. Written in 1899, it provides a devastating demolition of the theoretical and practical basis of reformism. It was completely valid at the time when it was written and it remains completely valid today.
On 28th September 1864, delegates from different countries gathered in St. Martin’s Hall in London. This was the most serious attempt yet to unite the advanced layers of the working class on an international scale. Alan Woods looks at the history of international revolutionary organisation and the need for a Marxist International today.
One hundred and fifty years ago, on 28th September 1864, the International Working Men’s Association, more commonly known as the First International, was born. This first international proletarian organisation paved the way for the growth of working class organisation and spread of Marxism worldwide. Rob Sewell looks at the history of the First International, 150 years on.
We continue our series looking at Marx’s Capital by discussing chapters 16-22, in which Marx delves further into the question of surplus-value and looks also at the issue of wages. The conclusion is clear: within the capitalist system – a system of wage labour and capital – the benefits of scientific, technological, and industrial progress will always overwhelmingly flow towards the capitalists.
The events of the Russian Revolution1917 are the greatest in all of human history. For the first time in history, the exploited masses fought back and won. And yet within 10 years, the Soviet Union had degenerated into a bureaucratic and totalitarian regime, with Stalin at its head. How did this process occur? And what is Stalinism?
We continue our series looking at Marx’s Capital. Having discussed how the capitalists are able to increase profits by improving productivity through the application of new organisational means within the workplace, Marx now turns his attention towards the most revolutionary of developments within capitalism: the machine.
In this article, first published in 2004, Rob Sewell deals with the important contribution Lenin made on the national question and how such a correct stand on this issue guaranteed the success of the Bolshevik Party in October 1917. The national question remains a key issue for Marxists in the current epoch of capitalist crisis.
Matthew Wood reviews Guns, Germs, and Steel, the 1997 Pulitzer prize winning book by geographer and anthropologist Jared Diamond, which provides a materialist analysis of the development of humanity from hunter-gatherers societies to agriculture.
We continue our series on Marx’s Capital with an analysis of Chapters 12-14. Having demonstrated how the capitalists squeeze greater profits from workers by extending the hours of the working day, Marx now turns his attention towards how the capitalists increase their profits by increasing the productivity of workers through the division of labour and co-operation within the workplace.
In their desperate search for profitable fields of investment, the capitalist class, especially the financial oligarchy, has presided over an explosive growth of unproductive expenditure that today threatens to undermine the very edifice of capitalism. Rob Sewell examines the qualitative difference between productive and unproductive labour within capitalism.
We continue our series on Marx’s Capital by looking at Chapters 9-11, in which Marx looks at the question of exploitation and the issue of the working day, opening up the roof of the factory and peering in to examine the conditions inside. What we see when we peek behind this magician’s curtain is a brutal history of exploitation and class struggle.
We continue our series looking at Marx’s Capital. Having charted the historical development of commodity production and money in previous chapters, in chapters 4-8 Marx now turns his attention to the question that had stumped the classical economists: what is the source of profit within capitalism?
Capital in the 21st Century, by the French economist Thomas Piketty, has hit the stands and has been making waves in the national and international press, not least among economic commentators. John Pickard looks at Piketty’s work, which has caused a sensation amongst both the left and the right for its analysis of the inequalities under capitalism.
The decision of Lawrence & Wishart to demand that the Marxist Internet Archive (marxists.org) take down the collected works of Marx and Engels from their website has sparked justified outrage across the internet. Such works should not be a source of profit for publishers, but a freely available source of revolutionary education for workers and youth.
We continue our series of articles on Marx’s Capital by looking at Chapters 2-3, in which Marx turned his attention to the question of money, explaining the various roles and functions that money plays in commodity production and exchange, and the relationship between money, commodities, and value.
Karl Marx’s Capital is an undeniable masterpiece of political economy. Marx’s magnum opus, however, remains a dense and difficult book to penetrate and absorb. To help guide readers through the pages of Capital we are publishing a series of articles that give a chapter by chapter analysis of this great Marxist classic. We begin with Volume One, Chapter One, in which Marx discusses the concept of the commodity and the question of value.
The epoch of world growth fueled by globalisation is over. Two giant free trade deals are being thrashed out which would place the United States at the centre of its own strategically drawn up domain. But far from being a means to open up the world to a further intensification of trade and to liberate capitalism from its own fetters, these deals, engineered by US imperialism, represent protectionism masquerading as free trade.
Marxism attaches great importance to the question of science. Here we see both the potential for human advance and the destructive grip of capitalism. In this article, adapted from the 2002 introduction to the German edition of Reason in Revolt, Alan Woods looks at how the ideas of Marxism relate to the most recent scientific developments and the crisis of capitalism.
This article provides an overview of Marx’s explanation of why capitalism goes into crisis, discussing the inherent contradictions within the capitalism system, and posing the only alternative: a socialist plan of production.
Centuries of scientific research and investigation have helped to propel society forwards and improve the lives of millions. But, as with all other areas of society, the senility and decay of capitalism is now being reflected in the question of science also, and many are starting to worry about the reliability of research.
The digital currency Bitcoin has hit the headlines in recent times for its novelty, as well as for its phenomenal rise in price over the past few years. Ben Gliniecki looks at the hype and reality of the Bitcoin sensation.
Karl Marx has been decried by mainstream economists and news outlets as dead, irrelevant and outdated. A new study published by the world’s most reputed scholarly journal, Nature, once again shows that, despite the hue and cry of naysayers and those who would revise history, his spectre cannot be exorcised.
Ninety years ago, on 21st January 1924, Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Russian Revolution, died from complications arising from an earlier assassin’s bullet. Rob Sewell looks back at the life and ideas of Lenin, the great Marxist and revolutionary leader.
What is value? This question has perplexed the human mind for more than 2,000 years. The classical bourgeois economists grappled with the question, as did Marx. Rob Sewell looks at Marx’s Labour Theory of Value and provides a defence of these economic ideas against attacks from modern day critics.
Recent statements from Boris Johnson regarding “Cornflakes“ rising to the top of the packet with regard to natural intelligence are as stupid as claiming that you have a “Divine Right” to rule over the lower orders. Andy Fenwick examines the age-old debate about “nature” vs “nurture”; genes vs environment.
In this article, originally published in the London Progressive Journal, Tomasz Pierscionek looks back at a number of conspiracy theories in history and discusses how such extraordinary hypotheses are often used to distract from the actual role of certain individuals and the reality of events within the wider picture of class society and capitalism.
Quantum physics occupies a fascinating place at the cutting edge of modern scientific research, allowing today’s scientists to plumb new depths when it comes to matter and motion. Ben Gliniecki looks at a new book, Quantum Social Science, which argues that applying the logic of quantum theory to social systems can take our understanding of human society to a whole new level. Without realising it, these scientists are following in the footsteps of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, who developed the ideas of dialectical materialism.
Adam Booth explains the Marxist theory of the state, and how these are different from anarchist and reformist theories.
Marxism is often referred to as ‘scientific socialism’, as it is based upon a materialist analysis of history and society, looking at social and economic systems in their historical development. This materialist understanding of capitalism underlines why socialism isn’t just a nice idea or an ‘alternative’ to capitalism, but is actually an essential solution to the problems inherent in the capitalist system. Michael Allan of the Glasgow Marxists explains the contradictions of capitalism highlights the potential for a socialist society that is free of such contradictions.
“It sounds good on paper, but socialism will never work, because if everybody gets everything they need whether they work or not, then there is no incentive to work at all!” This is one of the most typical and caricatured arguments against socialism. Dana Cooper from Socialist Appeal USA, looks at the nature of work under capitalism and how it could be radically transformed in a socialist society.
Slavoj Zizek has built up a reputation as a respected “Marxist” academic and is seen as somewhat of a “rock star” on the left. However, his recent attempts to translate his theories into concrete policies for a possible future SYRIZA government in Greece reveal that there is nothing revolutionary in his thinking. He is in fact providing academic credibility to a modern reformist current and has become an apologist for the shift to the right on the part of the leadership of SYRIZA.
20th August 2013 marks the 73rd anniversary of the assassination of Leon Trotsky. To remember the life of this heroic revolutionary, we are republishing Trotsky’s speech entitled “I Stake My Life!”, an address made for the opening event of the Dewey Commission on the Moscow Trials on 9th February 1937.
In this recording from the Marxist Summer School 2013, Jorge Martin, writer for www.marxist.com and International Secretary for Hands Off Venezuela, discusses the contributions made by Ted Grant – founder of the Militant Tendency – towards the Marxist theory of the state and the analysis of the Stalinist regimes in Russia and Eastern Europe after the Second World War, primarily based on Ted Grant’s excellent document “Against the Theory of State Capitalism”.
Silvio Berlusconi, the former Prime Minister of Italy, has, after numerous trials for countless crimes, finally been convicted. This wealthy politicians and businessman has protested about being the victim of a politicised judiciary. Such an accusation raises an important question: is the judiciary under capitalism “political”? Ben Gliniecki looks at the role of judges and the law in capitalist society.
5th August marks the anniversary of the death of Frederick Engels, lifelong friend and collaborator with Karl Marx, and one of the most important figures in the development of Marxist ideas. To commemorate this anniversary, we are publishing an article by Lenin on the death of Engels.
In this video Alan Woods explains the roots of the crisis from a Marxist perspective and the revolutionary way out of the impasse.
2013 marks the 130 anniversary of the death of Karl Marx. Despite the many decades that have passed since his death, the ideas of Marx have never been more relevant than they are today. This is reflected in the thirst for Marxist theory at the present time. In this article, Alan Woods deals with the main ideas of Karl Marx and their relevance to the crisis we’re passing through today.
Today, 9th July, marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ted Grant, the founder of Socialist Appeal and the Militant Tendency. Rob Sewell, editor of Socialist Appeal, outlines the important role played by Ted in building the forces of Marxism during his lifetime and discusses the legacy of Ted for Marxists today.
At the recent Marxist summer school, Alan Woods – author of Bolshevism: The Road to Revolution and editor of In Defence of Marxism – explores the ideas of Leninism, Trotskyism, and the Bolshevism, and discusses the vital role of Lenin and Trotsky in the Russian Revolution of 1917.
To celebrate Ted Grant’s centenary year, we are re-publishing this chapter from the book ‘Reason in Revolt’ by Ted Grant and Alan Woods, which examines the role of philosophy in society and compares the materialist method of Marxism with the idealism of religion and other philosophy.
To celebrate the centenary of Ted Grant, founder of the Militant Tendency and Socialist Appeal, we are re-publishing Ted’s article entitled “Will There Be a Slump?”. Written in 1960 in the middle of the post-war boom, when many others on the Left had accepted Keynesian economic ideas, Ted explained the fundamental causes behind the boom and how these would eventually lead to crisis. For more information on this topic, come along to the Marxist Summer School, where Adam Booth will be speaking on the subject.
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.
To celebrate this year’s centenary of Ted Grant, founder of the Militant Tendency and Socialist Appeal, we are re-publishing a series of Ted’s key writings. We begin with Ted’s pamphlet “The Rise and Fall of the Communist International”, which analyses the founding of the Third International and its decline under Stalin.
Alan Woods examines the revolutionary advances made by Marx in the field of philosophy.
There has never been a more important time for a study of the social, economic, and political origins of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the three important world religions that share a common root. Thanks to Marxist author and Socialist Appeal supporter, John Pickard, those interested in learning about these religions can read Behind the Myths: The Foundations of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in order to discover more.
We present here a video recording of the book launch of Ted Grant: The Permanent Revolutionary, in which Alan Woods gives an account of Ted’s struggle for and his contribution to the ideas of Marxism.
What is moral and what is amoral in the struggle for the transformation of society? 75 years ago Leon Trotsky wrote his masterpiece Their Morals and Ours, in which he explained that morality is one of the key ideological components in the class struggle. Marie Frederiksen explores the question of Marxism and morality.
The following article was originally published in the summer issue of our theoretical magazine In Defence of Marxism. In a previous article from the IDOM magazine, we polemicised against the theory of “under-consumption” as an explanation of capitalist crisis. In this article, we wish to look at Marx’s law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall and explore the wider question of how to approach economics in a dialectical manner.
This year marks the centenary of Ted Grant, founder of the Militant Tendency and Socialist Appeal, who was born in 1913. To celebrate this centenary, we are pleased to announce the publication of a new biography of Ted Grant, written by his friend and collaborator for more than 50 years, Alan Woods. Here we provide a review of the book by Rob Sewell, editor of Socialist Appeal.
In this video from the IMT Winter School in February, Fred Weston – editor of “In Defence of Marxism”, www.marxist.com – provides a history of the International Workers’ Association, often referred to as the First International, and examines the role of Karl Marx and his ideas within this international socialist organisation.
There is a tendency amongst the leaders of the labour movement to draw a distinction between the ‘parasitic’, ‘irresponsible’ financial sector of the economy and ‘productive’, ‘responsible’ manufacturing. But is it useful to draw this distinction between financial and industrial capitalism? In this history of finance capital, Luke Wilson discusses how such a distinction is artificial: the growth of industrial capitalism was intimately bound up with the growth of finance capital.
How many times have we heard that Marx was wrong and that although he had some insights in to the workings of capitalism he failed to see the dynamism of the capitalist system and its ability to recover from crises and move ever forward? However, in the past few years, every now and then we hear commentators pointing out that Marx was right. The latest is an article published by Time magazine, called “Marx’s Revenge: How Class Struggle Is Shaping the World”.
Adam Booth, writer for www.socialist.net, discusses the Marxist conception of history, based on the dialectical materialist method. Adam contrasts the materialist method of historical analysis against the idealist view of history, and explores questions such as the role of the individual history.
We present here a video of the opening speech from this year’s Winter School of the International Marxist Tendency, hosted by the UCLU Marxist Society and Socialist Appeal in London, in which Alan Woods – editor of www.marxist.com – discusses the relevance of Marxism today.
In this speech to the ULCU Marxist Society, Alan Woods – Marxist author and editor of www.marxist.com – explores the question of art from a Marxist perspective, looking at the history of art from a materialist perspective – from the early art of cave drawings, through to the revolutionary paintings of Pablo Picasso. In doing so, Alan Woods touches on questions such as “what is art?” and discusses what would be possible in terms of art under a socialist society.
To mark the 130th anniversary of the death of Karl Marx we are republishing here a revised version of an article by the late Phil Mitchinson.
The last few years have seen a number of Hollywood film companies marking their centenary anniversaries. Marxists see film, as with other art forms, as providing a reflection of class society and its structures. Bob Stothard looks over the long history of film and what it can tell us.
Alan Woods, editor of the In Defence of Marxism website, speaks about the history of philosophy at the UCLU Marxist Society in London, giving an overview of philosophical thought from the early Greeks, through the British empiricists and the German romantics, to the revolutionary ideas of Marx, Engels, and dialectical materialism.
This article by Alan Woods – published in the second edition of the In Defence of Marxism magazine – deals with barbarism and the development of human society. In post-modern writing, history appears as an essentially meaningless and inexplicable series of random events or accidents. It is governed by no laws that we can comprehend. This denial of progress in history is characteristic of the psychology of the bourgeoisie in the phase of capitalist decline.
Rob Sewell discusses Engels’ famous text on the ‘Origins of the Family’ – a powerful example of the Marxist method of historical materialism, which traces the beginnings of the family, women’s oppression, and class society.
As with the sites of production of other commodities, the sites of media production are simultaneously sites of struggle. Journalists and other media workers can and must struggle against the domination of capital over their professions and over humankind.
John Pickard, former editor of the British Marxist newspaper “Militant”, speaks at the ULU Marxist Summer School 2012 on the role played by labour in the transition from ape to man and the Marxist analysis of human evolution.
Perhaps nothing elicits more disagreement and debate among Marxists and other left activists than a discussion about the media. There is no doubt that the mass media is omnipresent, mediating every aspect of our lives. How one relates to and interprets the world is largely colored by how the media informs us. On the eve of the release of the Leveson report, we publish this Marxist analysis of the media from a correspondent in the USA.
The Moscow Trials, which lasted from 1936 to 1938 will go down as the greatest frame-up in history. Their aim was to liquidate the entire
remaining Bolshevik old guard and act as the means by which Stalin
could consolidate his power as head of the bureaucratic caste that ruled the Soviet Union. Seventy-five years on, Jim Brookshaw – a former member of the British Communist Party – looks back at what happened and asks: why?
The effects of the capitalist crisis are being felt at every level of society. As reported in a Time
magazine article in April, this also includes the preservation of
historical sites. As the cash-strapped European states race to cut
public spending and slash budgets, the historical achievements of
mankind crumble under paltry allotments for cultural preservation.
We will deal with the tendency of the rate of profit to fall in a future article, but for now it is sufficient to observe that the views expressed in Anti-Dühring represent the standpoint of both Marx and Engels, which, despite all the efforts of the revisionists to misrepresent them, was identical.
The theory of evolution represented a major revolution in modern science, forever changing how we view the natural world and our place within it. In this article, we look at how the theory of evolution has been developed since Darwin’s time, and the insights offered by the philosophy of Marxism.
“What did Marx mean by the contradictions of capitalism?” asks Samuel Brittan, the right-wing economist writing in the Financial Times. “Basically, that the system produced an ever-expanding flow of goods and services, which an impoverished proletarianised population could not afford to buy. Some 20 years ago, following the crumbling of the Soviet system, this would have seemed outmoded. But it needs another look, following the increase in the concentration of wealth and income.”
I learned of the death of Arthur Deane
last Saturday, as I was on my way to the National Conference of
Socialist Appeal. It was a sad moment for me and brought back many
memories of my early days in the Trotskyist Movement.
Modern scientific research has
identified the major physiological, neurological, and genetic
differences between humans and our biological ancestors. In particular,
it has been found that the human brain is qualitatively different in
terms of the development of the parts of the brain that control abstract
reasoning, social behaviour, and manual abilities.
One of the great classics of Marxism
is the book by Frederick Engels entitled ‘The Origins of the Family,
Private Property and the State’. Engels applies the method of historical
materialism to this earliest period of pre-history to uncover the past.
As a contribution to International Women’s Day, we are republishing in
two parts an article by Mary Hansen and Rob Sewell which examines this
question.
Alan Woods contrasts the ideas and methods of Marxism with those of anarchism, focussing on questions like revolutionary leadership, spontaneity, and the state.
The crisis of capitalism is
accompanied by a crisis of bourgeois thought: philosophy, economics,
morality – all are in a state of ferment. In place of the earlier
optimism that stated confidently that capitalism had solved all its
problems, there is an all-pervading mood of gloom. Not so long ago,
Gordon Brown confidently proclaimed “the end of boom and bust”. After
the crash of 2008 he was forced to eat his words.
Five years ago today comrade Phil
Mitchinson passed away tragically at the age of 38. Phil was an
outstanding Marxist and a leader of the International Marxist Tendency.
He also edited the Socialist Appeal for a period.
“We are all Keynesians now.” So said Richard Nixon, the Republican and former President of the USA, in 1971. Forty years later, it seems that John Maynard Keynes is back in fashion, especially amongst the leaders of the British Labour movement. The reformist leaderships of the Labour Party and the trade unions cling to the Keynesian idea that the economy can simply be “stimulated” back in growing. But as the Marxists have explained before, the current economic crisis is not just part of some boom-and-slump, but is an organic crisis of capitalism, and growth cannot simply be created at will.
Whilst chatting with students at Worcester University, I was presented
with a flyer for a production of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
that night in the university, an opportunity not to miss. However my
expectation of a theatrical interpretation of this socialist classic by
just two actors was very low but this was blown away as soon as the
performance began.
The 4th October marks the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street, a momentous event in which the working people of London united to deliver a decisive blow against the menace of British fascism. In this article, Andy Southwark commemorates the brave stand of those workers who fought the Mosleyite thugs, while drawing important lessons for today’s struggles against the English Defence League and BNP.
In the
1950s, amid prosperity and a booming economy, Allen Ginsberg defied
conventions and the mainstream by openly standing forward as a
homosexual, a socialist and a sharp critic of the capitalist American
society he lived in. For this he was persecuted in a famous obscenity
trial, which he ended up winning. This is portrayed in the feature film Howl from 2010, now available here on DVD.
The Walton by-election, in Liverpool,
took place in July 1991, twenty years ago. It arose after the sudden
death of Eric Heffer, the left-wing Labour MP for Walton. At the time it
created quite a political stir. It was also a key factor in the demise
of the Militant, which had boasted it could win the seat, but
failed miserably.
In this article, Daniel Morley contrasts the ideas of Marxism and anarchism. Though sharing the same goal of a classless and stateless society, these two competing philosophies have vital differences, which must be understood by revolutionaries.
A new documentary produced by the BBC, called ‘The Secret Life of Chaos’ (it has now been taken down from iPlayer, but can still be seen here: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/secret-life-chaos/ ) has attempted, with a degree of success, to reveal how the latest developments in science through ‘chaos theory’ are finally beginning to make redundant any religious explanation of the workings of the universe and the emergence of intelligent life.
Earlier this year, it was announced by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) that inflation had risen from November to December, with the Consumer Prices Index going up from 3.3% to 3.7% and the Retail Prices Index (PRI) – which includes housing costs such as mortgage interest payments and council tax – rising from 4.7% to 4.8%. Inflation was persistently high throughout 2010, with an average RPI of 4.6% – the highest since 1991.
As the twenty-first century progresses, there has been an increasing
interest and not a small amount of debate on the role of religion in
society and particularly on advances in secularisation. Richard Dawkins’
book , ‘The God Delusion,’ was a best-seller in the UK and novels like
‘The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ’ by Richard Pullman have
touched raw nerves in Church hierarchies. Against what they see as a
growing tide of secularism, spokespersons for the Church have denounced
the ‘intolerance’ of atheism and have fought a vigorous rearguard action
to defend the special position of faith, woven as it is into the fabric
of everyday life.
Seventy years since the assassination of Leon
Trotsky bourgeois writers and historians are attempting to bury the man
again. They are constantly demonizing him and his ideas. That is because
they understand that his ideas are not dead, but very alive and have
never been so relevant as they are today, in this period of crisis of
capitalism.
On August 21, 1940 the great
revolutionary fighter, theoretician, and martyr, Leon Trotsky, died of
the wounds inflicted in a brutal attack by a Stalinist agent. To mark
the 70th anniversary of his assassination we want to bring to
the attention of our readers some of the material we published on the
www.marxist.com about the life, work and ideas of Trotsky.
Today 6th August is the 20th anniversary of the death of Marxist MP and class fighter Pat Wall. In his memory we publish a tribute to him by Rob Sewell.
Standing between the working class and the socialist transformation of society is a colossal state machine. In order to carry out this transformation, we must have a clear understanding of what the state is, and what must replace it.
Standing between the working class and the socialist transformation of society is a colossal state machine. In order to carry out this transformation, we must have a clear understanding of what the state is, and what must replace it.
Today, July 20th, is the fourth anniversary of the death of Ted Grant, Marxist, Revolutionary, defender of the banner of Trotskyism. In the next few days we will be publishing the first volume of the collected writings of Ted Grant cover the period from 1938 to 1942.
In the first of a regular
column where we look at DVDs which may be of interest to socialists, we pick up
on a DVD reissue of the classic film, Battle of Algiers.
Anarchism is a confused political creed. In fact some anarchists
take pride in the fact that it is difficult to pin their ideas down
almost as a point of principle. But their watchword has always been a
struggle against ‘authority.’ Some may find this slogan attractive,
but Engels’ brilliant essay shows that some class always wields
authority in society – the question is which one.
Copyright is in crisis. Photocopying, scanning, audio and video
recording, computers and now the internet have all made it increasingly
difficult for the owners of copyright to enforce their rights. There
has been a renewed effort, such as the Digital Economy Bill, to restore
the balance of power in favour of big business, but levies and legal
penalties only serve to patch holes in an already leaky system. The
flaw lies not in the technology, or in piracy or file-sharing, as
corporations would have us believe, but in the very notion of copyright.
The House of
Lords has just approved the Digital Economy Bill. It has caused ripples
across
the technology world, most notably because of its proposals regarding
the
suspension of repeat file sharers’ internet connections, and gives the
courts
power to issue injunctions against websites accused of hosting
copyright-infringing material. Internet freedom campaigners have reacted
with
dismay.
On Saturday, March 27, Kenny McGuigan
died after six years of fighting Motor Neurone Disease. Kenny was a
class fighter, a Marxist and a leading Scottish supporter of Socialist Appeal. We send our deepest condolences to
Kate, Paula, Laura, Cara, and all the family, and will not forget our
comrade as we continue the struggle he dedicated so much time and
energy to.
It is with great sadness that we have to report the death of comrade
Kenny McGuigan following a long struggle against an increasingly
debilitating illness. We will post a full tribute to him shortly but in
the meantime we join with many others in expressing our condolences to
his family and friends at this dificult time. He was a great and much
loved comrade, Marxist and class fighter who truly will be missed.
After the defeat of the Paris Commune
different ultra-left and
opportunist tendencies emerged within the First International, who
intrigued against the General Council and attempted to use the name of
the International for their own ends. This was finally resolved with the
expulsion of these elements with strict powers established for the
General Council and clear rules on how the International was to be run.
After the defeat of the Paris Commune
different ultra-left and
opportunist tendencies emerged within the First International, who
intrigued against the General Council and attempted to use the name of
the International for their own ends. This was finally resolved with the
expulsion of these elements with strict powers established for the
General Council and clear rules on how the International was to be run.
In 1872 in response to the intrigues
of Bakunin and his secret
society, the Hague conference of the First International adopted a
resolution prohibiting any organization with an independent programme to
function within the body of the International and proceeded to expel
Bakunin and his supporters, putting an end to the internal diatribe and
intrigues and establishing the principles upon which the organisation
would function.
In 1872 in response to the intrigues
of Bakunin and his secret
society, the Hague conference of the First International adopted a
resolution prohibiting any organization with an independent programme to
function within the body of the International and proceeded to expel
Bakunin and his supporters, putting an end to the internal diatribe and
intrigues and establishing the principles upon which the organisation
would function.
At the Hague congress of the First
International Bakunin was finally expelled, provoking the wrath of the
anarchists and like-minded people, some of which walked out of the
organisation, like the Blanquists. At the same time, the opportunists
such as the English trade union leaders lined up with the ultra-left in
demanding greater autonomy for the local sections, all of course
complaining about the authoritarianism of Marx and the General Council.
At the Hague congress of the First
International Bakunin was finally expelled, provoking the wrath of the
anarchists and like-minded people, some of which walked out of the
organisation, like the Blanquists. At the same time, the opportunists
such as the English trade union leaders lined up with the ultra-left in
demanding greater autonomy for the local sections, all of course
complaining about the authoritarianism of Marx and the General Council.
The Paris Commune put to the test the different currents inside the
First International. Its subsequent defeat created an atmosphere where
all kinds of demoralised elements thrived. Intrigue was on the order of
the day. This led to a questioning of centralised leadership, of the
very role of the leadership. Marx and Engels answered all this fully.
It is fashionable to portray Marxism
as the source of authoritarianism. This accusation is raised repeatedly
by anarchists, reformists and all kinds of opportunists. Bakunin was
one of the more famous exponents of such accusations. But the truth is
concrete and the historical facts reveal that those same elements who
raise a hue and cry about authoritarianism are themselves the worst
bureaucrats and authoritarians… where they manage to rule the roost.
Monopolisation of big
business is endemic to the capitalist system. Big business has become
wealthier and more powerful today than ever before.The revolving doors between government and industry has ensured the
continued domination of big business over parliament and state. Capitalist economists constantly argue that
privately run industry driven by pursuit of profit is the best way for
an economy to function. But, even a cursory look at the world around us
tells a very different story. Far from being efficient, capitalism is
riddled with contradictions and crisis. You could write multiple
volumes, as Karl Marx did, on the inadequacies of capitalism, but here,
in this limited space, we shall deal with just a few.
In the society in which we currently
find ourselves, class society, a small minority of the population holds
ownership and control over industry, banks and all major means for
producing wealth. Because we, the workers, do not get to enjoy this
wealth, although we create it, our lives are reduced to working for
wages that disappear when we pay the bills. How does the ruling class
keep us putting up with such a lifestyle? One way is the fact that the
ruling class’s ideology permeates contemporary culture and dominates
the media.
Marxists have
long since been conscious of the nature of the state, its industrious defence
of the capitalist class, and its prejudice against working people. But much of
the public are unaware of just how incestuous the capitalists and governments
really are. Read part two of Will Roche’s study of monopoly capitalism.
The history of the Russian Revolution is intimately associated with the names of Lenin and Trotsky, its two great leaders. They attracted all the praise and they bore all the hatred. The reason for this is not difficult to understand. The October Russian Revolution, led by the Bolshevik Party, was the greatest event in history. For the first time, the workers and peasant took power into their hands, swept aside the landlords and capitalists, and proceeded to organise a democratic workers’ Soviet Republic.
The authority of the new Soviet government rested upon a congress of soviets (workers’ committees) elected from factories and barracks.
Many of us know that the origins of Christianity have nothing to do with silent nights or wise men. So what are its true origins? John Pickard looks at the reality of how this religion came about.
There has
been no levelling off of the global economy, as economists predicted. Although
industrialisation has expanded to lesser-developed countries, it has generally
been along lines determined by global corporations based in advanced capitalist
countries. From colonialism, we have moved into the age of multinational
corporate domination. Will Roche looks at the rise of monopoly capitalism.
Today we mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall by publishing an article from the current edition of Socialist Appeal which analyses why the events of 1989 have not had the outcome which the West expected. You can also download an audio file on the subject by clicking here .
November marks
the 150th anniversary of the publication of Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. This book revolutionised
thinking about the living world because for the first time it provided an
explanation for the evolution of species, something that was long suspected by
scientists. Darwin’s
simple idea – change by natural selection
– is arguably the single most important foundation-stone upon which all modern
biology is based. The Origin of Species was
a triumph of the materialist world outlook, even if Darwin himself didn’t quite
put it that way, and for that reason its publication was celebrated by Marx and
Engels.
Comrade Bill Landles is 85 on October 26th. By
coincidence, in the old Russian calendar that is also
the date of Trotsky’s 130th birthday and the
anniversary of the Russian revolution. This is highly
appropriate because Bill has devoted the whole of his
thinking life to the cause of the October Revolution
and the ideas of Lenin and Trotsky.HAPPY BIRTHDAY BILL!
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This interesting article by Stephen Jay Gould was originally written for Natural History in October 1976.
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.
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’.
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 (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.
Alan Woods discusses the life and work of Robert Burns – Scotland’s national poet. Although he has been transformed into a harmless icon, the real Burns was a revolutionary democrat.
Why would
socialists be interested in this book? Because it is a fictionalised account of
a period in the life of one of Englands’ greatest football managers – the man
destined to be England manager, but
who never was.But not only was ‘Cloughie’ (Brian Clough) a great football
manager, he was also a man who constantly challenged and criticised the
footballing establishment; the club directors and chairmen, the FA and the
powers that be generally.
Fred Weston explains Trotsky’s role in clarifying the Marxist understanding of fascism and how to fight it.
“Art can neither escape the crisis nor partition itself off. Art cannot save itself. It will rot away inevitably — as Grecian art rotted beneath the ruins of a culture founded on slavery — unless present-day society is able to rebuild itself. This task is essentially revolutionary in character. For these reasons the function of art in our epoch is determined by its relation to the revolution.” Leon Trotsky, 1938.
We publish here the transcript of a speech by Alan Woods on the subject of the relationship between Art and the Class Struggle. The speech was given at a Marxist Summer School in Barcelona (Spain), in July 2001.
Real living examples of revolution are the test of any theory. May 1968 was such a historical example. These events reveal that defeat of the working class has not come about by such a thing as the “strong state” but by the ineptitude of the reformist and Stalinist leaders who were not prepared to mobilise the full force of the working class.
Real living examples of revolution are the test of any theory. May 1968 was such a historical example. These events reveal that defeat of the working class has not come about by such a thing as the “strong state” but by the ineptitude of the reformist and Stalinist leaders who were not prepared to mobilise the full force of the working class.
Comrade George McCartney passed away in November 2007 at the age of 90. George was active in the trade union movement and Labour movement for most of his life and it is fitting that we remember him a year after his death. We are reproducing the tribute given at his funeral service by his sons Sean and Neil in Cambridge last December.
For there to be a revolution does there have to be violence? To the sectarian mind the answer is always in the affirmative. Marxists look at the question in a more rounded out manner, looking at the many factors that come into play: the balance of class forces, the nature of the leadership of the working class, the tactics and programme adopted, and so on.
For there to be a revolution does there have to be violence? To the sectarian mind the answer is always in the affirmative. Marxists look at the question in a more rounded out manner, looking at the many factors that come into play: the balance of class forces, the nature of the leadership of the working class, the tactics and programme adopted, and so on.
The question of the State in capitalist society is of key importance for Marxists. We do not see it as an impartial arbiter standing above society. The fundamental essence of every state, with its “armed bodies of men”, police, courts and other trappings is that it serves the interests of one class in society; in the case of capitalism, the capitalist class.
The question of the State in capitalist society is of key importance for Marxists. We do not see it as an impartial arbiter standing above society. The fundamental essence of every state, with its “armed bodies of men”, police, courts and other trappings is that it serves the interests of one class in society; in the case of capitalism, the capitalist class.
On October 1, Boris Yefimov, Stalin’s loyal cartoonist, died. In his
works he followed all the twists and turns of the Stalinist regime. He
was particularly vicious in his portrayal of oppositionists and the
Trotskyists in particular.
For over a century Marxists have argued the need to take the banks and
other financial institutions into public ownership as part of the
socialist transformation of society. The founding document of
scientific socialism, the ‘Communist Manifesto’, in 1848 called for,
"Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a
national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly."
"Neoliberalism", sometimes called "market
fundamentalism", i.e. the policy of non-intervention by the state in
the economy, has been the dominant ideology of the bourgeoisie for close to
three decades, involving widespread privatisation and all the
other policies that go with it. The present economic meltdown,
however, is forcing governments to intervene, regulate, and even
nationalise firms because they have no choice. So is "neoliberalism"
dead?
This week we publish in 3 parts a history of British Trotskyism by Martin
Upham. This was a PhD thesis on the subject, and while we would not
agree with all the points raised in it, we believe it deserves a wider
audience, particularly for those interested in the history of our
movement. For a more in-depth study of the subject readers are urged to
consult Ted Grant’s book on the the History of British Trotskyism.
Together with the same author’s
‘Materialist conception of history’ this is a brilliant introduction to
historical materialism. Clearly there are limits to the ‘what if’ way of
looking at historical processes, but the reader will no doubt find Plekhanov’s
conclusion that even such over-arching figures as Napoleon or Robespierre did
not fundamentally change the broad course of historical development compelling.
After all Plekhanov is defending the basic materialist conception of history,
i.e. that progress is determined by material forces that manifest themselves in
the activities of millions of people. He explains it well. In doing so he is
illuminating the interplay of accident and necessity in history.
This week we publish in 3 parts a history of British Trotskyism by Martin
Upham. This was a PhD thesis on the subject, and while we would not
agree with all the points raised in it, we believe it deserves a wider
audience, particularly for those interested in the history of our
movement. For a more in-depth study of the subject readers are urged to
consult Ted Grant’s book on the the History of British Trotskyism.
Last month was the 68th anniversary of the brutal assassination of Leon
Trotsky by a Stalinist agent. We commemorate this event by publishing
the transcription of his address to the N.Y. Hippodrome Meeting. The
speech "I Stake My Life!" was delivered by telephone from Mexico City
for the opening event of the Dewey Commission on the Moscow Trials.
Today we publish in 3 parts a history of British Trotskyism by Martin Upham. This was a PhD thesis on the subject, and while we would not agree with all the points raised in it, we believe it deserves a wider audience, particularly for those interested in the history of our movement. For a more in-depth study of the subject readers are urged to consult Ted Grant’s book on the the History of British Trotskyism.
Production
is carried on for profit, not for use. There is no provision that all those
able and willing to work will always be in a position to find employment; an
“army of unemployed” almost always exists. The worker is constantly in fear of
losing his job. Since unemployed and poorly paid workers do not provide a
profitable market, the production of consumers’ goods is restricted, and great
hardship is the consequence. Technological progress frequently results in more
unemployment rather than in an easing of the burden of work for all. The profit
motive, in conjunction with competition among capitalists, is responsible for
an instability in the accumulation and utilization of capital which leads to
increasingly severe depressions. Unlimited competition leads to a huge waste of
labor, and to that crippling of the social consciousness of individuals which I
mentioned before.
Harry DeBoer wrote this pamphlet in 1987 to inspire
a new generation of trade union activists with the militant traditions of US
labour’s past. As a young man he worked in the Minneapolis coal yards and
became caught up and radicalised in the Minneapolis ‘teamster rebellion’ of
1934. As he makes clear, this was a model strike, and it was led by Marxists.
(See our review of ‘Teamster Rebellion’ by Farrell Dobbs, another Trotskyist
and strike leader.)
William Morris is probably known best today as a designer of wallpaper
and fabrics. This is a travesty. Morris was a revolutionary socialist,
a Marxist. Morris read Capital when it was only published in German,
and therefore unavailable to most British workers. Inspired, he joined the Democratic Federation, later called the
Social Democratic Federation, the first British Marxist organisation.
From that time on he was a tireless agitator for socialism till his
last days.
A reply to ‘Comrade Clifford’ is an under-rated pamphlet by Ted Grant, partly because it has been fairly inaccessible for much of the time since it was written in 1966. Another reason it may be under-appreciated is because Brendan Clifford and his little sect have long since disappeared from the political scene. But, as usual with Ted, the arguments of this Stalinist and Maoist are just the basis for a wide-ranging Marxist survey of the entire history of Stalinism and the resistance to it nationally and internationally from 1917 to the Second World War and beyond.
We republish one of Ted Grant’s most important
writings. In the years after the Second World War the Trotskyist movement had to
reorient itself to a very different situation to that envisaged by Trotsky when
he had founded the Fourth International in 1938. Rather than falling into
crisis, capitalism in Western Europe and North America was experiencing a boom
which was later described as a ‘golden age’. After the post-War revolutionary
wave was seen off in the advanced capitalist countries, this made conditions
for revolutionaries very difficult. Illusions that capitalism had solved all
its problems began to develop quite widely. Ted analysed the causes of the boom
and why it would come to an end in ‘Will there be a slump?’ in 1960.’
The intervention of Russian tanks temporarily
halted the movement in Czechoslovakia. But, as Alan Woods pointed out at the
time, "The rule of the bureaucracy now represents an absolute fetter on the
development of the planned economies of Russia and Eastern Europe. The needs of
the people can no longer be met by a system whose every pore is choked by
bureaucracy, mismanagement and waste."
Terry was a larger than life figure and a
fine representative of the Liverpool working
class. A ‘salt of the earth’ man who dedicated his efforts to the cause of the
working class. Always smiling and joking, he was always seen wearing his black
leather jacket, even in Parliament, a place he pretty much hated. He served his
time there from 1983, when he was elected along with Dave Nellist and later Pat
Wall as part of the Militant trio, until 1992. This was the culmination of
decades of work by Militant supporters in the Merseyside labour movement. They
had refused to abandon the struggle within the Labour Party.
In Part One Alan Woods analysed the
meaning of Dubcek and the reform movement
within the Czech bureaucracy.
Part Two explains why the
Russian bureaucracy
intervened and how the Czech workers
were left leaderless in
the face of military
intervention.
To mark the 40th
anniversary of the invasion of Czechoslovakia,
we are here reprinting an article by Alan Woods, first written on September 4,
1968, and published in the Winter edition of the Spark, in which he clearly
relates the momentous events that shook the Stalinist regimes and explains
their significance.
In any historical period, the dominant ideas are those of the ruling
class. In 1989 the world was treated to the words of Francis Fukuyama,
who published an essay with the title ‘The end of history?’ His
argument was not that historical events had literally stopped happening
but that the collapse of so-called ‘communism’ in the Soviet union
meant that western liberal democracy had successfully established
itself as the ultimate and ideal form of government. Marxism lay totally discredited he declared, gloatingly.
On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair, peacefully gone to sleep — but for ever.
Karl Marx was a man with a family to look after, and a revolutionary
who no country acknowledged as citizen. A giant thinker of the modern
era who transformed our outlook in philosophy, economics and political
thought, Marx’s revolutionary activity was hobbled by poverty. Steve
Higham chronicles his hardships and achievements a century and a
quarter after his death.
Marxism
is a not a moral code and is more than a set of ideas. It is a method that, if
applied correctly to the concrete situation, acts as a compass for the movement
towards the transformation of society by the working class in the interests of
humanity as a whole. Anyone can use a compass but it is still necessary to
decide whether to continue heading north or to change direction. Trotsky’s
short article, Trade Unions in the Epoch of Imperialist Decay, though unfinished, contains some vital lessons for the class conscious
workers and youth.
A
major exhibition of the photographic work of Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956) is
currently on at the Hayward Gallery in London. It is sponsored by Roman Abramovich, the
billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club and a supporter of the Moscow House
of Photography Museum whose director, Olga Sviblova, curated the show. This important Russian
artist is
considered one of the most versatile avant-garde artists to have emerged after the Russian
Revolution.
As young men, Marx and Engels came
out of the German philosophical tradition. They were at this time groping their
way to becoming revolutionary activists. In 1845 Marx and Engels set out their
revolutionary world view for the first time in a book, The German Ideology, that
settled accounts with the Hegelian tradition from which they had just emerged.
It points the way to the clear language of the Communist Manifesto, published in 1848 and addressed to the workers
of the world.
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.
Today, 25th February 2008 would have been Phil Mitchinson’s 40th
Birthday. Phil who was an outstanding Marxist and a leader of the International
Marxist Tendency died tragically in November 2006. To commemorate this
anniversay we reprint a letter by Leon Trotsky to Jack London’s daughter which
gives Trotsky’s views of London’s book The Iron Heel, one of Phil’s favourite books.
Lukacs was an important influence on what is called ‘western Marxism’.
This was seen as a ‘humanist’ alternative to the dominant stalinist
orthodoxy of the inter-War period and later. One of Lukacs’ most
significant arguments was that (contrary to Engels) there can be no
dialectics of nature. Dan Morley examines the debate and goes into the
contradictory relationship between Lukacs’ interpretation of Marxism and
Stalinism.
Tomorrow marks the 70th anniversary of the murder
of Trotsky’s eldest son – Leon Sedov -by agents of the Stalinist secret police,
the GPU. He was thirty-two years of age. This crime constituted part of the
systematic hounding and murder of Trotsky’s key supporters and family, whose
only ‘crime’ was to defend genuine Marxism against Stalin and the crimes of the
Russian bureaucracy.
Andrew Glyn died from a brain tumour on 22 December 2007. He was 64 years old. A fellow of Corpus Christi College
in Oxford since
1969, he was a leading socialist economist for all that time.
Andrew left a wealth
of important writing that analysed the development of post-war capitalism. His best-known works were British capitalism, workers and the profits
squeeze with Bob Sutcliffe in 1972; Capitalism
since 1945 with Phil Armstrong and the late John Harrison in 1984 and most
recently, Capitalism Unleashed
(2006), reviewed earlier.
Socialist Appeal’s ongoing campaign to spread the christmas spirit today publishes Lenin, who wrote in 1905 that: "Those who toil are taught by religion to be submissive and patient while here on
earth, and to take comfort in the hope of a heavenly reward. But those who live
by the labour of others are taught by religion to practise charity while on
earth, thus offering them a very cheap way of justifying their entire existence
as exploiters and selling them at a moderate price tickets to well-being in
heaven."
This article analyses the relationship between the Soviet state and the Russian Orthodox Church. There was a clear dividing line between Lenin’s approach to this question and the zig-zag policy later adopted by Stalin. First published in Workers International News, October 1945.
In the build up to Christmas, Socialist Appeal is contributing to the festive spirit by issuing some articles by Marxists on the origins and significance of Christianity, which in its early period was a revolutionary movement of the oppressed. This article deals with the person of Christ and the historical evidence for his existence, which is taken from the first chapter of the ‘Foundations of Christianity’ by Karl Kautsky.
The present Pope, Ratzinger or Benedict XVI as he has chosen to
call himself, far from being a "transitional" Pope is not only following in the
footsteps of John Paul II, he is putting his foot on the accelerator of
Christian fundamentalism. While talking of reconciliation he promotes conflict,
backs reactionary politicians of the Bush type and condemns anyone who wants to
really change the material conditions of millions of poor and working class
people.
Most current debate on multiculturalism revolves
around fundamental conflicts within liberalism. The liberal hegemony has meant
that the intense and detailed debates that accompanied the evolution of Marxist
social democracy have been relegated to the historical margins. The Marxist debate starts from a very
different perspective. Its focus is not the individual, but society as a whole.
This article is a re-examination of these debates and of
their historical interpretations in order to throw a new light on issues today.
One year ago today comrade Phil Mitchinson
died tragically of a heart attack. He was without doubt a very talented comrade
who devoted his time to editing the Socialist
Appeal and helping to build our tendency in Britain and internationally. Here
Rob Sewell remembers Phil and the role he played.
During the 1980s
and 1990s, advances in chaos and complexity theory began to demonstrate a fact
understood more than a century and a half earlier by the founders of scientific
socialism, Marx and Engels, that systems which show an apparently high degree
of complexity or “design” do not require the hand of a creator but emerge naturally
from the apparently mundane interacting and contradictory forces at play inside
the system. It may come as a surprise to many then to find that in the field of
cosmology there are respected scientists groping towards the revival of the
mystical idea of intelligent design.
Has humanity enlarged its power and freedom, improved its conditions and increased its chances of happiness? In simple terms, is social progress a fact?
Comrade Phil Lloyd has died in Swansea at the age of 74. He joined the
tendency led by Ted Grant back in the 1950s. He was a pioneer of the Marxist
tendency and played a key role in its development. Alan Woods was one of the
youth that that Phil Lloyd helped to recruit and educate. Here Alan remembers
the man and fighter.
Just before the collapse of the Berlin Wall and later the Soviet Union,
Ted Grant delivered this speech on the crisis in the USSR. To deflect
any blame, Gorbachev and co. heaped blame on Stalin and Brezhnev, even
going so far as to rehabilitate some of the victims of the purge trials
– including those accused of "Trotskyism". But Trotsky was not
rehabilitated: he was still hated by the bureaucracy because they
feared the ideas he represented.
Leon Trotsky’s murder was no accident or spontaneous action by the dictator Stalin, but
a monstrous preconceived act that was the culmination of a murder campaign against
the whole of the old Bolshevik leadership of the revolution and those who stood
by the genuine ideas of Marxism. We republish this article published in Militant in 1985.
Today is the 67th anniversary of the death of Leon Trotsky. Together
with Lenin, Trotsky was one of the great Marxist theoreticians of the
20th century, who dedicated his life to the emancipation of the working
class. Not only did he work for the overthrow of capitalism, but also
for the overthrow of Stalinism, a monstrous totalitarian regime which
held the Russian working class in submission. As a consequence, Stalin
sought during the Purge Trials to murder the entire leadership of the
Bolshevik party, and ordered the assassination of Leon Trotsky. After
the failed attempt in May 1940, Stalins assassin eventually succeeded
in murdering Trotsky on the 20th of August in Mexico city. Today we
publish Natalya Sedov Trotskys original account of the assasination.
One year ago today the Marxist theoretician Ted Grant died after more than seventy years of political activity. His death marked the end of an era, but not the end of the struggle for the ideas he always defended.
Over the Easter period Channel 4 showed the film 'The Passion of the Christ' documenting the life of Jesus Christ. Here we re-publish the original review and critique of the film by Rob Sewell, which showed the revolutionary origins of Christianity.
This is an updated version of an educational piece on Marxist economics that was produced in October 1974. It is an introduction to what often seems a complicated subject. It includes recommendations for further reading and should be read by all those interested in deepening their knowledge about Marxism.
This year is the 90th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. We celebrate this key anniversary by publishing an article on the need for young people and trade unionists to study theory. Theory, after all, is the generalised experience of past struggles. How better can we prepare for the future? By learning the lessons of the past.
It will come as a great shock to all comrades to
hear the tragic news of the premature death of comrade Phil Mitchinson, the
deputy editor of the Marxist journal Socialist
Appeal and leading member of the International Marxist Tendency.
Regrettably Phil suffered a severe heart attack late last night, was rushed to
hospital, but staff were unable to save him. He was 38 years of age.
Here we provide a four minute speech by Ted Grant in which he expressed
the confidence that by basing ourselves on the fundamental ideas of
Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky we can build a powerful international
Marxist movement. There can be no greater task than this. You can watch
the video here, here or here.
Ted Grant – the founder of Socialist Appeal and the International Marxist Tendency – dedicated his entire life to defending genuine Marxist ideas and fighting for revolution. In this obituary, Alan Woods remembers Ted Grant as a theoretician, a revolutionary, a comrade, and a friend.
Trotsky’s ‘ABC of Materialist Dialectics’ is a brilliant short explanation of Marxist philosophy. It was written as part of a defence of Marxism against a middle-class revisionist tendency in the American Trotskyist movement in the late 1930s, which attempted to challenge its basic principles. As opposed to pragmatism and empiricism, Trotsky defended dialectical materialism as a richer, fuller, more comprehensive view of society and life in general.
We republish this article on the referundum on the EEC Common Market, written by Ted Grant in 1979. The article explains that the struggle against a capitalist common market needs to be linked to the struggle of changing society on socialist lines, as the struggle against the European Constitution today must also be.
We publish this article written by Ted Grant just before the general
election in Britian in 1979. The article demonstrates that the Tory
policies were doomed to failure because of the sickness of British
capitalism and that the reforms offered in the Labour Party programme
were unattainable on a capitalist basis. The only way to carry out
these reforms and take society forward was the nationalisation of the
means of production, and the creation of a planned economy under the
democratic control of the working class.
Someone has said that one of the criteria for winning the Turner Prize is not to be understood. The philosophy behind this is: the less I am understood, the better the art. Yet the kind of art that wins the Turner competition also has merit. They have the merit of holding up a mirror to the society that produced them, and saying: “This is what you are, and this is all you are capable of producing.” These works point out to us that beneath the sleek, comfortable bourgeois surface of modern society, horrors are lurking: dead vermin, murder, death and decay.
We are publishing our second study guide on historical materialism, which forms part of the book “What is Marxism?”. Historical Materialism is the application of Marxist science to historical development. The fundamental proposition of historical materialism can be summed up in a sentence: “it is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but, on the contrary, their social existence that determines their consciousness.” (Marx, in the Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy.)
Dialectical materialism is the revolutionary philosophy of Marxism. In this article, Rob Sewell explains this fundamental aspect of the Marxist method.
Dialectical materialism is the fundamental method of Marxism: a philosophy that seeks to analyse and explain the world due to the processes and material conditions in nature; a philosophy that seeks to explain change and motion. John Pickard provides an introduction to this revolutionary philosophy at the heart of Marxism.
Phil Mitchinson explores the ideas of “direct action” associated with the groups that are often at the centre of organising recent anti-capitalist protests.
It is nearly seven years since George Bush, the then president of the US, made his famous “New World Order” speech. This was in 1991. In the build-up to the Gulf War the main imperialist power on earth promised a world without wars, without dictatorships and, of course, a world firmly under the control of a single all-powerful world policeman–the US. After the fall of Stalinism, US imperialism really thought that the world would be firmly under their command and they would be able to dictate the destiny of each and every country. All conflicts in the world were to be solved through dialogue in a kind of “Pax Americana.” Now all these dreams have been reduced to rubble.
Founded after the Russian Revolution, the Third Communist International was a mighty force in the fight for world revolution. But under Stalin, it was transformed into a tool of the Soviet bureaucracy, and then abandoned altogether in 1943.