Marxism and the state

There is no doubt that the Chinese revolution, led by Mao, is one of the greatest events in human history. It freed China from the shackles of imperialism after a heroic, decades-long struggle. In this talk, Daniel Morley from the RCP Executive Committee discusses Mao’s life, legacy and limits. This revolution was the fruit of the tremendous determination and spirit of sacrifice of the Chinese masses. And at the head of this movement was Mao Zedong. Since Mao’s death, capitalism in China has been gradually restored by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) bureaucracy. Mao is seen to have led a […]

“Let there be no blinking the question. These are not the times to be nice about mere words: the fact is that there is but one mode of obtaining the Charter, and that is by insurrection.” George Julian Harney. In this talk given at the London Marxist School, Rob Sewell draws out the lessons of the Chartist movement. Chartism was the first time ever that British workers fixed their eyes on the seizure of political power: in 1839, 1842 and again in 1848. In this struggle, they conducted a class war that at different times involved general strikes, battles with […]

The Easter Rising of 1916 is one of the most inspiring events in Irish revolutionary history. The rising saw Europe’s first Red Army, the Irish Citizen’s Army, fight the forces of British Imperialism on the streets of Dublin and sacrifice their lives for the cause of a free Ireland for the Irish workers and poor. When Lenin got news of the Rising, he criticised those who wrote it off as a ‘putsch’ saying ‘Whoever expects a ‘pure’ social revolution will never live to see it. Such a person pays lip-service to revolution without understanding what revolution is.’ These comments still […]