Marxist Theory

Materialism and Empirio-criticism: introduction by Alan Woods

Wellred Books proudly presents a new edition of Lenin’s Materialism and Empirio-criticism. This edition contains a new introduction by Alan Woods, which is presented here. The book is available to buy now! It is also available in ebook format.

Georgia: political crisis intensifies as opposition leader arrested

A crisis is escalating in Georgia following years of political and social rot. None of the mainstream parties have anything to offer the Georgian masses, who must fight to build a genuine alternative.

Georgia

Revolution — the locomotive of history

Ancient history
The history of the ancient world is ripe with lessons about the development of class society and the heroic struggle of the early oppressed classes against their masters.
English Revolution
The Civil War in England was a revolutionary clash by the rising bourgeois class of English merchants and bankers, led by Oliver Cromwell, against the rotten feudal regime of Charles I.

French Revolution
In the Great French Revolution of 1789, the revolutionary bourgeoisie and popular masses overthrew the decrepit Ancien Regime, creating an earthquake that shook the world.

Paris Commune
For a tragically brief period in 1871, the workers of Paris began the tremendous task of replacing the capitalist state with the dictatorship of the proletariat.

First International
The first international proletarian organisation, with the participation of Marx and Engels, paved the way for the development of organised working-class struggle worldwide.
Second International
The Second International was a formidable bastion of working-class internationalism until it descended into national chauvinism and opportunism. Its history is rich with lessons.

World War I
To understand the causes of the great slaughter, it is necessary to lay bare the real mainspring of war in the modern epoch: the contradiction between the interests of different capitalist states.
German Revolution
After the Russian Revolution, the German proletariat entered the scene of history and brought an end to WW1 - but their revolution was sadly defeated.

Third International
The Third (Communist) International was a vital school of revolutionary ideas and strategy, which degenerated with the rise of Stalinism.

Fourth International
The history of the Fourth International was a struggle (led by Leon Trotsky) to keep the genuine traditions of Bolshevism alive, against colossal odds.

Spanish Revolution
The Spanish masses strived towards socialist revolution in the 1930s, but were strangled by the class collaboration of their leadership, paving the road to fascist victory.
World War II
Although WW2 is often portrayed in the history books as a clash between ‘democracy’ and Hitler’s Germany, the war was mostly a titanic struggle between fascism and the USSR in which the latter triumphed.

Chinese Revolution
The Chinese Revolution saw the heroic masses throwing off the yoke of imperialism, although the revolution degenerated along Stalinist lines, culminating in capitalist restoration.
Cuban Revolution
On 1 January 1959, the brutal Cuban dictator Batista fell to the guerrillas of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Within three years, capitalism had been abolished on the island.

Colonial Revolution
In the colonial and ex-colonial countries, the post-war period saw unprecedented upheaval, characterised by famine, social unrest, wars, revolution and counter-revolution.

Revolutionary 1968
The year 1968 saw one revolutionary eruption after another worldwide, including the greatest general strike in the post-war period in France, which almost toppled Charles de Gaulle.

Ireland & Republicanism
The national struggle and the class struggle in Ireland have always been closely connected. Today, the struggle for a united Ireland is bound up with the struggle for a workers’ republic.
British Labour Movement
Despite its conservative reputation, Britain’s history is full of class struggle: from Chartism to the foundation of the Labour Party, to the general strike of 1926, to the Miners’ Strike of the 1980s.

Class Struggle in the USA
The history of the class struggle in the United States illustrates that the ideas of Marxism, socialism and communism aren't at all alien to "the land of opportunity."
Black Struggle
Racism is hardwired into the capitalist system, serving as a convenient weapon of divide and rule to keep the exploited masses from uniting against their shared oppressors.

Deformed Workers' States
A revolutionary wave swept Europe after the Red Army’s victory over fascism in WW2, but the new regimes established were deformed workers’ states modelled on Stalinist Russia.

Arab Revolution
In 2011, a tremendous revolutionary tsunami swept the Arab world, bringing down multiple dictatorships. Sadly, a lack of revolutionary leadership opened the door for counter-revolution.

Venezuelan Revolution
The Bolivarian Revolution led by Hugo Chavez defied imperialism and carried out huge reforms for the workers and poor, but its failure to break with capitalism led to compromise and crisis.
Perspectives
The purpose of Marxist perspectives is to provide a guide to action based on scientific analysis of the main processes in society. These documents ask: where is world politics going?