"The Hague Congress of the International Workingmen’s Association (aka the First International) took place in September 1872. After a tumultuous session, Bakunin was expelled by a majority vote and from then on, the red and black tendencies of the workers’ movement went their separate ways. Or so it is said. 150 years on from that event we can look back with fresh eyes at what exactly happened and at the disagreements which continue to divide revolutionaries to this day."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-09-02/150-years-on-the-split-in-the-first-international

"Imperialist war clearly afflicts workers everywhere. We don’t just mean the obvious threat of famine or higher prices (which are products of the same economic crisis that is pushing the great powers to war) but in the way it imposes a war agenda on workers. Most absurd of all, is that both sides claim to be against “fascism” whilst making fascist thugs heroes in their cause. The fact is that ‘patriotism’, nationalism of all kinds, is the stock response of the capitalist class when workers try to resist wage cuts, job losses and increasing repression."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-09-06/the-ukraine-war-is-a-war-against-workers-everywhere

"Across the board, the working class finds itself struggling with declining real wages as the prices of food, housing, and fuel skyrocket. The price of food in Quebec has increased by 10% in just one year, whereas the rents of traditionally working-class neighbourhoods such as Verdun have gone up by as much as 20%. Workers across Montreal and across the world are striking to defend their basic necessities. With such inflation, the point is bluntly clear: the losses faced during the pandemic and exacerbated by the war are being unloaded onto our class. We are being forced to pay for our bosses' crisis."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-09-08/don-t-let-them-deal-you-a-bad-hand

"Often the dynamics of war lead to results that are diametrically opposed to the objectives pursued by the contenders; the conflict in Ukraine, instigated by the Russian Federation mainly to hinder NATO's expansion into Eastern Europe, has in fact accelerated the enlargement of the Atlantic Alliance in an extremely important region from a geopolitical point of view, Northern Europe. On the other hand, the ongoing war of "attrition", thanks to the fundamental Western – primarily US – support for Ukraine, risks "handing over" an extremely weakened Russia into the hands of China."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-09-09/sweden-and-finland-entering-nato

"We reproduce the following article in solidarity with Assembly, an anarchist group based in Kharkiv which has been reporting on workers’ struggles in Ukraine on both sides of the front line. In a recent interview, they said of themselves: “we give useful information for workers in their daily confrontation with bosses or officials, and our position with the condemnation of both warring states … is quite close to those who have nothing to defend in this bleak hole with no clear future.” They also criticise those anarchists who in the face of imperialist war “immediately merged with the ruling class in a single nationalist impulse”. Despite our political differences, it is clear that Assembly tries to chart an internationalist course in the most difficult of circumstances. Such critical voices are important as they demonstrate that class war does not stop, even under imperialist war. They also give lie to the claims of certain anarchists in the West who have made “listening to voices from Ukraine” synonymous with the defence of the Ukrainian state."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-09-10/a-report-on-socio-economic-unrest-in-ukraine

"Workers’ councils have a prominent place in our agitation. Recently we have received a number of questions regarding what we mean by workers’ councils, what we think is the relationship between political organisations and workers’ councils, and what might workers’ councils look like today. Our answers to these questions are, as always, informed by the experience of the class struggles of the past."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-09-12/the-meaning-of-workers-councils-in-the-21st-century

"The following article is our translation of a critique of Juche by the group Internationalist Communist Perspective in South Korea. We publish it here as a contribution to the analysis of a Stalinist legacy which still “weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living” (Marx)."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-09-15/juche-stalinism-and-maoism-with-feudal-characteristics

So far this year the CWO has had stalls at five radical/anarchist bookfairs around the UK (Glasgow, Liverpool, Newcastle, Bradford, London). Peterborough and Manchester still to go!

In each case we tried to put across our internationalist message, to stress the gravity of the situation that the world working class finds itself in. Thanks to everyone who engaged with us at these events and to the organisers for giving us a space.

We now have our own Linktree page which contains links to our website and all our social media.

"More than six months have passed since the war in Ukraine was moved from the level of "frozen" civil war (with 14,000 deaths between 2014 and early 2022) to full-blown imperialist proxy conflict between the US and NATO on the one hand and Russia on the other. In that time the US has reasserted itself, after its humiliating defeat in Afghanistan last year, as the leader of the NATO imperialist alliance in Europe. The US is now effectively setting the agenda for NATO's policy with regards to the war in Ukraine."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-09-27/war-in-ukraine-no-war-but-the-class-war

"Across Russia, the announcement of the mobilisation was met with spontaneous demonstrations throughout the day in 39 cities, notably including Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, and at least 1,332 people were arrested on Wednesday. It was one of the most important protests in the country since those that followed the announcement of the offensive on Ukraine."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-09-28/demonstrations-against-the-mobilisation-great-getting-rid-of-capitalism-that

"We will deal with the political aspects of the protests in Iran in our next article, but for now, we publish translations of three statements, from the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Workers’ Syndicate, the Council for Organising Protests by Oil Contract Workers and the Coordinating Council of Trade Union Organisations of Iranian Teachers."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-09-29/workers-voices-on-the-protests-in-iran

"The article which follows is a translation from Battaglia Comunista, paper of our sister organisation in Italy. Its title refers to the slogan that Giorgia Meloni, leader of the ultra-right Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d'Italia) party, repeated throughout the electoral campaign: “I am Giorgia, I am a woman, I am a mother, I am a Christian”. She will now become Italy’s first female prime minister but has hardly had a resounding victory."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-10-06/italian-elections-bring-far-right-to-power

"Because the path to the Third World War goes through the progressive impoverishment of the working population, the way to oppose this march to the slaughterhouse is to resolutely advance our needs as a class. Today, the priority need for workers everywhere is higher wages. The cost of living is shooting through the roof. The price of rent is outrageously high in Toronto and the surrounding area. Food and energy costs have increased. These are issues that affect the entire working class. The only way to push back this assault from the capitalists against the working class is for us to unify as a class, across all divisions, be they industrial sector or identity."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-10-08/no-war-but-the-class-war-statement-from-nwbcw-toronto

"In the coming days, we will likely see more protests, however the repression will certainly continue with more violence and more arrests. The announcement and call of the teachers' coordinating council on the eleventh day of the protests had a positive effect and brought more students to the square. The idea of a general strike among militants is floating about. As we are writing, social activists are distributing flyers to "link strikes to protests". A large number of worker-leaders and activists are in prison, a new chapter has begun, political Islam has been hit by protesters, the scope of this assault can cover not only all of Iran but the entire region. And it has the potential to fuel the class struggle, as this movement progresses and develops, or on the contrary, as it declines and recedes."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-10-11/iran-on-the-hijab-as-labour-discipline-and-the-slogan-of-woman-life-freedom

"The claims about the revolutionary nature of what has been happening in Northern Syria are essentially based on two assertions: 1) the progressive political agenda of the authorities, and 2) the existence of a grassroots social movement on the ground. The Communist Left has from the very beginning been highly critical of attempts to portray Rojava as some kind of alternative to capitalism. However, after 10 years of existence, there is now enough information out there to test the claims of the believers against reality and answer the question of what kind of society actually exists in Rojava."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-10-12/rojava-the-myths-and-the-reality

"Empty are the capitalists’ slogans of democracy, national self-determination, rule of law, and peace between nations. What do these abstract ideals mean in reality except as an excuse for food shortages in Africa, the coming cold winter in Berlin, cities reduced to rubble in Ukraine, and mass refugees? Empty are all the capitalist slogans of national unity and social peace when it is only the working class at the forefront of this suffering, as we clearly see here in Montreal and is apparent all around the world. Empty are the Russian slogans of “de-nazification,” equal partnership, and sovereignty next to civilian bombings, energy profiteering, and the slaughter of a generation of young Russian and Ukrainian workers."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-10-19/no-war-but-the-class-war-statement-from-nwbcw-montreal

"As we get to grips with the destruction that capitalism is capable of inflicting on the world and humanity, and which it looks increasingly likely to turn towards, as militant internationalists we must not fall into the pessimism of saying that all is lost and waits for the final collapse. We must not go down the road that some have taken, which says that the working class has lost its ability to fight, ignoring the growing evidence to the contrary."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-10-22/russia-s-annexations-in-ukraine-are-another-step-towards-global-imperialist-war

"As the protest movement in Iran develops, we publish here a few more translations of recent statements from the Council for Organising Protests by Oil Contract Workers and the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Workers’ Syndicate. Their decision to go on strike has inevitably been met with repression by the regime. Despite this, as they say themselves, they remain hopeful that workers "can play their historical role in directing and uniting the street protests, in order to herald emancipation from oppression and exploitation.”"

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-10-27/as-protests-continue-workers-strike-in-iran

"Facing its own deep crisis, the capitalist class has one message to the world working class: tighten your belts and forward march! Offloading their losses onto workers and imperialist rivalry are the two solutions to the crisis the ruling class has formulated."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-10-28/tighten-your-belts-and-forward-march

"As the war progresses, the intensity of the bosses’ attacks at the workers becomes more frequent and severe. Ukrainian courts have recently pushed through Law 2136 and Law 5371, enabling employers to bypass national labour laws entirely. The Ukrainian state makes it clear that even when workers are not marched off to the front, they remain disposable pawns for capital. Russian workers are also crushed under the same double conflict. A spontaneous strike broke out in June at the Ural Compressor Plant in Yekaterinburg, led by hundreds of workers over more than 20 million roubles in unpaid wages. The recent partial mobilisation and the size of post-sanction fossil fuel windfalls reaped by the Russian state spells urgent danger for workers on both sides of the conflict. The ‘Achema’ strike offers us a snapshot of the need for workers’ struggle by their own means and to oppose imperialist war on that basis."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-10-29/business-as-per-emergency-bill-strike-at-achema-plant-in-lithuania