Recent redundancy announcements in Belgium have provoked a very militant response from workers. The case of the InBev brewery workers is one example, as is that at Carrefour. Also a spontaneous strike on the railways after the recent fatal rail accident reveals the real mood within the Belgian working class.
The crisis of capitalism is creating an unstable social and political situation in Germany. Tensions are emerging within the coalition government, elected only last year. Most interestingly, this is having a radicalising effect inside DIE LINKE, which is being pulled both left and right, with some of the leaders attracted by coalition politics while the more radical ranks react against and seek an alternative to the left.
On February 13 German neo-Nazis tried to exploit the commemoration of the death of 25,000 civilians in Dresden during heavy Allied carpet bombing. However, the reaction of German workers, youth, trade unionists, left activists was swift and massive. Huge numbers turned out and with skilful use of modern communication techniques thwarted the attempt of the fascists to march through the town, in spite of the clear unwillingness of the police to do anything serious to stop them.
We are publishing here a speech given by Phil Mitchinson at the 2005 International Marxist school in Barcelona. Dealing with the history of the centuries old struggle for freedom in Ireland, and the part played in that history by republicanism and socialism, as well as the political developments that have led to the current impasse. Phil, who died tragically in 2006 at the age of 38 would have celebrated his 42nd Birthday on 25th February. His commitment to the revolutionary ideas of Marxism and his boundless optimism were an inspiration to the lucky few who knew him well. Phil needs no monument, his ideas and his spirit are testament enough. Phil was instrumental in the pioneering work that made this website possible and for that we are eternally grateful. We will finish what he started.
While many active trade unionists across the country will be pleased to hear that IMPACT and SIPTU among others are planning to escalate the wave of partial actions across the public sector, and that they will be pushing for escalation at the ICTU meeting on March 8th; at the same time they will be acutely aware of the need to demonstrate to their members that the action is having an affect on the government. We welcome Jack O’Connor’s remarks that workers need to be prepared to escalate the action, but we also recognise that the responsibility for coordinating the action and providing a national focus to the campaign lies firmly in the hands of the ICTU leaders.
An important strike wave erupted recently in the Burmese textile industry. The workers have been resisting the brutal response of the military regime.
The Cuban Revolution is one of the great events of human history. The small island was completely dominated by US imperialism until the revolution of 1959 shattered the Batista dictatorship and introduced a nationalised planned economy in the years following the revolution. Since then impressive achievements in health care and education have been met with loud shouts of "dictatorship" from the bourgeois press. What was the background to the revolution and why did it develop in the way that it did? Where is Cuba going today?
Yesterday Greece was shaken by a massive 24 hour general strike. In some sectors there was a total walk out, and in industry as a whole 70% of the workers came out. This is the answer of the Greek working class to the government’s severe austerity measures. The task now is to build on this and keep up the pressure to get the whole package withdrawn.
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Una debilidad notoria del campo obrero y popular en nuestro país es la enorme dispersión organizativa de los sectores más activos, conscientes y avanzados de la clase obrera. Esta es una capa amplísima que incluye a decenas y cientos de miles de trabajadores que actúan y participan activamente en diferentes espacios y frentes de masas (sindicales, políticos, barriales), en un campo ideológico que abarca desde el peronismo de izquierda (aun aquellos que simpatizan con determinadas políticas del kirchnerismo) hasta el marxismo revolucionario, lugar donde se ubica la Corriente Socialista El Militante.
A las 8 de la mañana del pasado miércoles 17 de febrero agencias de prensa bolivianas como la Red ERBOL anunciaban el ingreso del fiscal en el Alto Mando de las FFAA para investigar los archivos secretos de la dictadura. Se trataba de la aplicación de una resolución ministerial (0316 del 2009) que tiene como objetivo facilitar el acceso a familiares de las víctimas, autoridades que investigan el caso y personas que demuestren su interés legítimo para acceder a la información militar. Una hora y media después la noticia que el Comandante en Jefe del Alto Mando Militar ha negado el acceso al fiscal y a la Defensora del Pueblo. Anuncian que ellos mismos, los mandos militares, entregaran la información. Hoy (23/2) la noticia que los archivos serán filtrados y no serán hechos públicos. Un balde de agua fría para los familiares de la victimas y el pueblo boliviano que espera desde hace 40 años justicia.
Hemos recibido esta denuncia de activistas hondureños del FNRP contra la represión del gobierno de Porfirio Lobo, quien fue puesto en el gobierno por unas elecciones fraudulentas organizadas por los golpistas y donde las masas mostraron su rechazo con una abstención enorme pese a las presiones enormes por parte del gobierno de Micheletti. Esta actitud represiva del gobierno de Porfirio Lobo echa abajo la careta democrática que quiere presumir. La CMI declara su profunda solidaridad con los jóvenes y trabajadores hondureños que están sufriendo de persecución, represión e incluso asesinatos.
En los círculos capitalistas, nadie es más despreciable que el trabajador. Para ellos es una materia prima a explotar. Lo cuando lo necesitan y lo tiran tan pronto como cesa esa necesidad. A pesar de que el trabajador es la fuente de las fortunas que amasan, los capitalistas creen – o pretenden creer- que les hacen un gran favor contratándoles. Lo presentan casi como un acto de caridad.
New from Wellred USA! The first US edition of Bolshevism: The Road to Revolution by Alan Woods. This monumental 500+ page study of the history of growth and development of Bolshevism demolishes the myths of both Stalinist and pro-capitalist historians of the Russian Revolution. Read More
The Pakistan Revolution of 1968-69 was one of the greatest revolutionary movements of the 20th century. It is rich in lessons and Lal Khan's book is an outstanding summing up of these lessons. It deserves most careful study by every revolutionary.Read More
A new book has come out recently, written by Maziar Razi of the Iranian Marxists' Revolutionary Tendency, with an Introduction by Alan Woods. It is a collection of articles on the crisis of the Iranian regime and the perspecti...
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The crisis capitalism has entered globally is having a deep impact on the real living conditions of billions of workers all over the world. With this comes a growing consciousness among ordinary working people and youth that something is seriously wrong with this system, that this cannot be the way human bei...
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This book by Alan Woods is a polemic against a well-known (in Latin American terms) intellectual Heinz Dieterich. Dieterich claims to have invented a new "Socialism of the 21st Century" and much else into the bargain. He offers a great deal of advice to those involved in the Venezuelan Revolution dressed...
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Wellred Publications is pleased to announce the publication of a new book on Trotsky's famous theory of the Permanent Revolution, written by John Roberts. This work critically analyses and compares Lenin and Trotsky's writings in relation to the theory of the Permanent Revolution and defends that theory against revi...
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This book, by Ted Grant and with a preface by Trotsky's
grandson Esteban Volkov,
covers the key developments
in Russia since the Revolution right up to the present day. It
traces the elimination of
workers' democracy, the rise of Stalinism, the advances of
planned economy and the
eventual collapse of the bureaucratic sy...
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In 1918-33 revolution and counter-revolution followed hot on each others' heels. The barbarity of the Nazis is well documented. Less well known are the events that preceeded Hitler's rise to power. Rob Sewell gives a picture of the tumultous events - the 1918 revolution, the ...
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This book by Ted Grant is a unique contribution to the history of British Trotskyism. It begins with the debate on Trotskyism in the British Communist Party in 1924 and ends with the break-up of the Revolutionary Communist Party in 1949 and the beginning of more than thir...
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There have been many books and potted histories of Russia, either written from an anti-Bolshevik perspective, or its Stalinist mirror image, which paint a false account of the rise of Bolshevism. For them, Bolshevism is either an historical "accident" or "tragedy". Or it is portraye...
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It is now more than thirty years since the publication of the first edition of this work. It was written as a reply to Monty Johnstone, who was a leading theoretician of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Johnstone had published a reappraisal of Leon Trots...
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This book represents an important contribution to our understanding of the Iranian revolution. This work will be particularly useful in the West where it is universally believed that the revolution of 1979 was a movement of Islamic fundamentalists led by the Ayatollah Khomeini to push Iran b...
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This text was originally written by Alan Woods as a part of the book Reason in Revolt: Marxist Philosophy and Modern Science, but eventually the book became too long and this part had to be left out. Therefore this history of philosophy is published here for the first time. With chapters on: Do we Need Philosophy?, The ...
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The comrades in Pakistan were just about to publish a new book on Kashmir when the devastating earthquake hit a month ago. The comrades have been hard at work on their solidarity and relief operations. Given the current crisis in Kashmir, they have decided to go ahead with the publication of the book. Over the weeks we will pu...
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There are many narrative histories of the struggles of British workers. However Rob Sewell’s book is different. The purpose of this history of British trade unionism is not only to recite the wrongs inflicted on working people, or simply to describe their heroic struggles. It is an attempt to draw out the lessons of the events that helped ...
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For over 60 years, Ted Grant has been the foremost figure of Trotskyism in Britain and internationally. In the post-war period, the effects of world boom, the policies of right wing Labour Party reformism and the degeneracy of Stalinism combined to make a massive onslaught against the ideas of Marxism. While Grant's contemporaries ...
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This book, by Ted Grant and Alan Woods published in 1995 coinciding with the centenary of Engels' death, defends the validity of the philosophical writings of Marx and Engels. It does this by showing that the scientific discoveries of the twentieth century confirm the very essence ...
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Brasil: Lutar por igualdade, combater o racismo!
Staatsbankrott bedroht Griechenland. Werfen wir den Kapitalismus über Bord!
8. marts i København: kvindekamp er et klassespørgsmål
مبارزه زنان و مبارزه طبقاتی – بخش اول
Pela emancipação das mulheres trabalhadoras!
Stoppt die Morde und die Repression gegen die revolutionäre Bewegung in Honduras!