Wednesday 11 September marks the 51st anniversary of the 1973 coup that overthrew president Salvador Allende in Chile and installed the brutal Pinochet dictatorship. We republish here a document written in 1979 by Alan Woods, analysing the history of the Chilean labour movement and the period of the Popular Unity coalition government of Allende. Who was behind Pinochet's coup? What interests was he defending? What were the policies of the Allende government and why despite all warnings was he unable to prevent the coup?

We are publishing this appeal, signed by the Venezuelan section of the RCI amongst others, in solidarity with those arrested in protests after the official announcement of the election results. Add your signature, or that of your organisation to the appeal here.

As the 2024 election heads into its final stretch, the newly founded Revolutionary Communists of America has launched a coast-to-coast campaign to counter the cynical cesspool of bourgeois politics by injecting a much needed class-struggle perspective.

Since Kamala Harris entered the 2024 presidential race, the media has highlighted the alleged differences between her and Joe Biden’s rhetoric around Gaza, speculating about how she might differ from her current boss when it comes to the war on Gaza. They have noted a more “empathetic” tone toward Palestinians and a more “forceful” tone toward Israel.

Below, we publish a joint statement issued by Lucha de Clases(Venezuelan section of the RCI) and Junta Patriótica de Salvación, on the current political crisis in Venezuela. In this statement, we put forward a class position in the face of government authoritarianism and the false democratic disguise that the pro-imperialist right wing is trying to flaunt today.

History has produced a generation of communists in the United States. Now, a new political party has been officially founded to unite them under a common banner: the Revolutionary Communists of America.

The situation in Venezuela is developing very quickly after Sunday’s election. Monday morning dawned to the sound of cacerolazos (the banging of pots and pans) in protest against the declared victory of Nicolás Maduro. The cacerolazos in Caracas began in working-class and poor neighbourhoods; in Petare, in Catia, in 23 de Enero. Then they started to come down from the neighbourhoods la Dolorita, el Guarataro, Antímano, and the barriosto the east of Caracas.

With days to go before the presidential elections in Venezuela, the atmosphere is tense but relatively calm. These are far from normal elections. They are fraught with doubts and risks. Uncertainty is only increasing as the hours go by. The prevailing calm awaits the coming of a storm.

In yet another dramatic twist in the tragicomic soap opera of American politics, Joe Biden has ended his reelection campaign. Coming just 108 days before the election, this is the latest a one-term president has ever made such a decision. The closest historical analogy was in 1968 when Lyndon Johnson declined to seek a second term under pressure from anti-Vietnam War protests. Genocide Joe’s stay at the White House has been marked by inflation and war, and he will end his tenure with an unfavorability rating of around 56%.

The attempted assassination of Donald Trump has accelerated the polarisation of American society, as the Republican presidential candidate dodged death by the narrowest of margins. But it wasn’t just Trump who dodged a bullet. The entire country went right up to the edge of a precipice, before taking half a step back. As the title of a Financial Times article put it: “America is staring into the abyss”.

The attempt by a 20-year-old gunman to assassinate Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday has plunged American bourgeois democracy even deeper into crisis.

The country with the highest number of military coups in history suffered yet another one on Wednesday. This chaotic and short-lived episode has deepened the crisis in Bolivia. The Revolutionary Communist Nucleus (the RCI in Bolivia) made a brief statement on the day of the coup. Below, we analyse what happened, and what it means, in more detail.

“Can a man take fire to his bosom, And his clothes not be burned? Can one walk on hot coals, And his feet not be seared?”(Proverbs 6:27-29)

Following the first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, one question is on the minds of millions of ordinary Americans and the US ruling class: “How the hell are these our only options?”

In the early hours of this morning, it was announced that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will finally become a free man. This news will of course be celebrated by all those who campaigned for his release. Yet in a final injustice, Assange is currently on a plane bound for Saipan, in the American-controlled Mariana Islands, to plead guilty to an espionage charge. Thus US imperialism, which has never forgiven Assange for exposing its crimes, exacts a final measure of vengeance.