"Across the world working class people are being slaughtered, from endless battles in the Ukraine, to mass murder in Israel, to ethnic cleansing in Gaza. The USA and EU are making one military bloc, and China, Russia and Iran are moving to make another. As the working class becomes increasingly impoverished and many of us can now barely afford to eat or heat our homes – and as environmental disaster approaches ever-closer on the horizon – the future looks bleak. The answer cannot be support for cross-class alliances in the mistaken belief that national liberation equals self-determination and a progressive step forward."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-10-26/no-war-but-the-class-war-statement-from-nwbcw-tyne-wear
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-10-26/no-war-but-the-class-war-statement-from-nwbcw-tyne-wear
Leftcom
No War but the Class War: Statement from NWBCW Tyne & Wear
(We publish here the founding statement of _NWBCW Tyne & Wear_ (https://libcom.org/article/no-war-class-war-tyne-wear). You can follow their activities: _@NWBCWTyne&Wear_ (https://twitter.com/NWBCWTyne_Wear).) == RESIST THE GLOBAL MARCH TO SLAUGHTER Across…
"The wars that capitalism is now unleashing, and the ones yet to come, are a product of the imperialist epoch. Our understanding of what imperialism means is based on more than a century of experience and reflection. Much of that we owe to revolutionaries who came before us, and in that spirit we have translated the piece below, drafted in the midst of the First World War."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-10-29/radek-s-theses-on-imperialism-1915
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-10-29/radek-s-theses-on-imperialism-1915
Leftcom
Radek's Theses on Imperialism (1915)
The wars that capitalism is now unleashing, and the ones yet to come, are a product of the imperialist epoch. Our understanding of what imperialism means is based on more than a century of experience and reflection. Much of that we owe to revolutionaries…
"As the death toll in Gaza grows, many of the victims children, the double standards of imperialist realpolitik are laid bare. For our ruling classes, some lives are worth more than others. It is economic, political and military alliances which decide what atrocities get talked about and where."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-10-30/imperialist-hypocrisy-in-the-east-and-west
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-10-30/imperialist-hypocrisy-in-the-east-and-west
Leftcom
Imperialist Hypocrisy in the East and West
As the death toll in Gaza grows, many of the victims children, the double standards of imperialist _realpolitik_ are laid bare. For our ruling classes, some lives are worth more than others. It is economic, political and military alliances which decide what…
"In short, governments attack the living standards of the workers at home with repression and austerity policies that gut social spending, justifying their assaults in the name of so-called “national defense”, which has always been the defense of the bosses’ political and economic regime, while they attack our working-class brothers and sisters in other countries with bullets and bombs! Experiencing such constant attacks on their living conditions, workers can only respond as they have so far: through class struggle. But this revival in workers’ combativity is quickly coming up against the institutions of the system, whose function in this situation is to prevent open class struggle from breaking out."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-11-09/usa-renewal-of-workers-initiative-is-real
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-11-09/usa-renewal-of-workers-initiative-is-real
Leftcom
USA: Renewal of Workers' Initiative is Real
The working class stirs back into action the world over. In China, factory workers’ resist their confinement in dormitories by employers, while workers push back in France against pension reforms. More recently in the US, labor actions in the logistical,…
"Despite the obstacles, class unity of all sectors of the working class regardless of national origin is the only route out of the upswing of wars which our rulers are already imposing on us, and which are a prelude to a wider conflagration that would engulf the world. This alone is the basis for a fight of the global working class for a new system of production where we stop fighting each other, abolish national borders and start producing collectively for human need instead of profit."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-11-13/workers-have-no-country-no-to-nationalism-yes-to-class-unity
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-11-13/workers-have-no-country-no-to-nationalism-yes-to-class-unity
Leftcom
Workers Have No Country: No to Nationalism, Yes to Class Unity!
The raid by Hamas militants which overran two military bases and various Israeli municipalities killing soldiers and civilians and taking hostages, has set off the predictable response from the Israeli ruling class: the murder of Palestinian civilians by…
"Capitalism is guilty for the climate crisis. It is a decadent, oppressive social system that lives thanks to not only the exploitation of the working class, but also thanks to the pillaging of the world's resources and destruction of its environments."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-11-15/capitalism-promises-annihilation-by-climate-catastrophe
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-11-15/capitalism-promises-annihilation-by-climate-catastrophe
Leftcom
Capitalism Promises Annihilation by Climate Catastrophe
Capitalism is killing the planet. July 2023 was the hottest month ever recorded, and the following months each set records as the hottest-ever August, September, etc. 2023 is on track to be the hottest year since records began, which fits the pattern of the…
"This year’s COP, the annual UN climate change conference where emissions targets are debated and set, is being held in the UAE. That this is one of the world’s largest oil producers, is an excellent example of the blatant hypocrisy of the international political and economic ruling class. Oil and gas companies have an outsized presence at the COP events in order to show that the petrochemical giants take the problem seriously – and also to ensure that no resolutions are taken which could seriously affect their bottom lines."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-11-17/green-capitalism-is-a-myth
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-11-17/green-capitalism-is-a-myth
Leftcom
Green Capitalism is a Myth
After the hottest September on record, the government of Rishi Sunak has recently announced broad reductions of the already tepid climate policies they inherited from the previous government. These include: pushing back the phasing out of petrol and diesel…
"Wage cuts, precarious jobs, collapsing health service, school buildings falling down, inflation, widespread poverty and deprivation experienced by large swathes of the country – that’s the state we are in. Of course, the government is not interested in solving these issues. Both parties have become too lazy or incompetent to even pretend to help, preferring instead to compete over idiotic culture-war issues while calamities pile up around them. The crooks who run our water companies are dumping sewage into our waterways while they line their pockets with public money, decades of neglect have left our schools at a literal risk of collapse, and now even basic goods are becoming unaffordable."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-11-18/cost-of-living-crisis-capitalist-crisis
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-11-18/cost-of-living-crisis-capitalist-crisis
Leftcom
Cost of Living Crisis = Capitalist Crisis
Wage cuts, precarious jobs, collapsing health service, school buildings falling down, inflation, widespread poverty and deprivation experienced by large swathes of the country – that’s the state we are in. Of course, the government is not interested in solving…
"Any successful fightback will have to unite workers not only in their own workplaces but across industries and ultimately across national borders, as a global working class with the same interests and conditions. But as long as capitalism exists, any concessions won will only be temporary. Unions will never support the abolition of wage labour or the struggle for communist society and no change in leadership will change that. The only thing that can truly end the horror of capitalism is the overthrow of the capitalist class and the creation of a new society, based on production for human need. Resisting the attacks on our standard of living, taking our struggles into our own hands beyond the union framework, is the first step in the struggles to come."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-11-19/lessons-from-the-strike-wave
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-11-19/lessons-from-the-strike-wave
Leftcom
Lessons from the Strike Wave
The wave of strikes which erupted in Britain in June last year have mostly ended in defeat overseen by the unions. Trade union membership continues to decline and it’s easy to see why. Although consecutive governments have attacked the rights of workers to…
"November 1943 saw the birth of the Internationalist Communist Party (PCInt) whilst in December 1983 the International Bureau for the Revolutionary Party (IBRP), the forerunner of our Internationalist Communist Tendency (ICT), was founded. To acknowledge these anniversaries we have updated this introduction to our history."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-11-29/introduction-to-our-history
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-11-29/introduction-to-our-history
Internationalism is never more crucial than during wartime. In this meeting, we'll give an overview of internationalism and what it means to communists; we'll provide a history of the relation between Marxism, our tendency, and nationalist war; we will bring this context to today's situation and the current imperialist proxy wars; and we'll discuss what can be done by internationalists in the face of these wars.
In 2023 we published 94 articles on the English section of our website. Here’s a rundown of the 5 most read ones.
1. Capitalism Takes One More Step Towards Our Extinction
2. The Latest Butchery in the Middle East is Part of the March to Generalised War
3. The Tasks of Revolutionaries in the Face of Capitalism's Drive to War
4. The Descent from Fantasy to Reality in the "Arab-Israeli Conflict"
5. May Day 2023: There is no "Right Side" in an Imperialist War, No War but the Class War!
1. Capitalism Takes One More Step Towards Our Extinction
2. The Latest Butchery in the Middle East is Part of the March to Generalised War
3. The Tasks of Revolutionaries in the Face of Capitalism's Drive to War
4. The Descent from Fantasy to Reality in the "Arab-Israeli Conflict"
5. May Day 2023: There is no "Right Side" in an Imperialist War, No War but the Class War!
"As 2024 begins, the world seems a terrible place. Centre stage of course is the carnage in Gaza, where the brutal assault by Hamas on Israel on 7 October 2023, and Israel’s massive and pitiless retaliation, have left tens of thousands dead at time of writing, possibly at a ratio of 20:1 in terms of Palestinian to Israeli dead."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-01-09/the-challenges-of-2024
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-01-09/the-challenges-of-2024
Leftcom
The Challenges of 2024
(Editorial for _Revolutionary Perspectives 23_ (https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-01-08/revolutionary-perspectives-23) (Series 4).) As 2024 begins, the world seems a terrible place. Centre stage of course is the carnage in Gaza, where the brutal assault…
"1924 was a crucial year for the destiny of the Russian revolution, for the Third International and for the outcome of the not yet exhausted international revolution. It was now the seventh year of isolation for the soviets in Russia and none of the major economic and political hurdles for their revolutionary survival had been overcome. Meanwhile many other events had occurred since October 1917, first of all limiting the experience and eventually distorting its whole tactical and final objectives. Inevitably this whole process created centrifugal pressures: a whole variety of political currents and opinions which would give rise to serious oppositions."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-01-12/the-german-october-and-the-origins-of-trotsky-s-opposition
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-01-12/the-german-october-and-the-origins-of-trotsky-s-opposition
Leftcom
The "German October" and the Origins of Trotsky's Opposition
== CWO Introduction In 1923 the Weimar Republic experienced a series of crises, including hyperinflation and the occupation of the Ruhr by French and Belgian troops. The KPD (Communist Party of Germany) was under – largely Russian – pressure in the Comintern…
"It has now been 100 years since Lenin’s body was embalmed and put on public display in Moscow, a grotesque gesture from a “red” bourgeoisie which went hand in hand with the systematic distortion of Lenin’s real contribution to the socialist movement. Times have changed and the Russian state no longer considers Lenin to be its “founding father”, instead holding him personally responsible for the disintegration of its Empire, while in many countries of the former Eastern Bloc statues of Lenin are being taken down as part of “de-communisation”. As such, the centenary of Lenin’s death will hardly be a blip in the grand scheme of things. However, in today’s world of crisis and war, the idea of “communism” seems more popular than it has been for decades, particularly among the young generations. So for those who see the need for a world beyond capitalism, this equivocal anniversary is an occasion to revisit the man whose name became inescapably wrapped up with the idea of “communism”."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-01-21/lenin-and-leninism
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-01-21/lenin-and-leninism
Leftcom
Lenin and Leninism
"During the lifetime of great revolutionaries, the oppressing classes constantly hounded them, received their theories with the most savage malice, the most furious hatred and the most unscrupulous campaigns of lies and slander. After their death, attempts…
"In previous articles, we have criticised those responses of the capitalist left to the war in Ukraine which have "either been outright support for one or the other of the imperialist fronts (NATO or Russia), or a fake pacifism which hides the same positions." We argued that such positions only serve to divert the working class from the struggle for socialism, a world without war. What we haven't addressed in as much detail are those in the Trotskyist, Stalinist, and Maoist milieu who have attempted to put forward an ostensibly internationalist position."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-01-24/a-brief-critique-of-part-time-internationalism
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-01-24/a-brief-critique-of-part-time-internationalism
Leftcom
A Brief Critique of "Part-Time Internationalism"
The horrors currently being unleashed by imperialism – whether that's in Ukraine, Palestine, or any of the hundred or so other military conflicts that are taking place around the globe(1) – should serve as a wake-up call to the international working class.…
"While the international bourgeoisie write the script for an increasingly generalised imperialist conflict, which they all hope will revitalise their economy at the expense of their rivals, the consequences of the death agony of their system is suffered above all by the world’s workers. Over-exploited in times of peace, massacred in times of war, the working class alone offers the only path to the end of the nightmare."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-01-27/gaza-and-beyond-the-bitter-fruits-of-capitalism-nationalism-and-imperialism
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-01-27/gaza-and-beyond-the-bitter-fruits-of-capitalism-nationalism-and-imperialism
Leftcom
Gaza and Beyond: The Bitter Fruits of Capitalism, Nationalism and Imperialism Threaten All Humanity
"As we lined up ... four girls were ordered to accompany them to carry water for the [fighters]… Instead they took them to our empty houses and raped them. About seventy of our men were blindfolded and shot to death, one after the other in front of us. They…
"We are in the foothills of world war. What is happening to the population in Kharkiv, Kherson or Gaza today is a taste of what could be coming to a street near us in the not too distant future. Imperialist war means total war. This is not just a war between two armies or even between two states but between two imperialist interests. And those interests are the interests of the rich everywhere. It makes sense for them to fight for “the country”. After all, they own it. It makes no sense for workers who own only personal property, and their ability to work to make profits for the capitalists."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-01-30/only-the-working-class-can-prevent-world-war-three
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-01-30/only-the-working-class-can-prevent-world-war-three
Leftcom
Only the Working Class Can Prevent World War Three
Right from the start it was clear that the war in Ukraine was not just going to be any old war. It is already the first step on the road to a much wider global conflict, one in which the main victims, as in all modern imperialist wars, will be the working…
Capitalism is pushing us to war. From Ukraine to Gaza, Yemen and beyond, powers large and small are enrolling workers to kill and die in defence of the interests of capital as their system is unable to throw of its permanent economic crisis. The British state – along with other NATO partners – is now openly warning the population that a new World War is coming. Parties right and left urge us to support this or that warring faction but the interests of the workers are global not local. We have no property to defend and no nation is worth one drop of workers' blood. The only war that workers have any interest in is the class war. In this meeting, we'll give an overview of how we see the current imperialist proxy wars and how they relate to the 'crisis of capitalism', and we'll discuss what can be done by workers in the face of these wars.
"The 28th climate change summit known as Conference of the Parties (COP28) was held in December 2023 and was even more of a farce than any of the previous 27 conferences. While the world is now undeniably facing a catastrophic climate crisis, which if unchecked will lead to the collapse of civilisation or even extinction of Homo sapiens, our leaders have made clear that they are not prepared to do anything serious about this if such action threatens the profitability or the accumulation of capital."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-02-01/cop28-and-the-myth-of-green-capitalism
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-02-01/cop28-and-the-myth-of-green-capitalism
Leftcom
COP28 and the Myth of Green Capitalism
== Global heating – the product of capitalism The 28th climate change summit known as Conference of the Parties (COP28) was held in December 2023 and was even more of a farce than any of the previous 27 conferences. While the world is now undeniably facing…