"Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a clear outgrowth of a decaying economic system, whose ever frequent crises oblige states to seek out scarce profits by going to war. Predictably, the ruling class has mobilized all its media and other propaganda apparatuses to drag workers the whole world over into a bloody conflict from which we have nothing to gain and everything to lose. Whether in Russia, or in Ukraine and NATO member countries, our exploiters—those who eat and live luxuriously off the wealth that our work creates—expect us to hurl ourselves into the meatgrinder of war for their personal benefit."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-04-08/no-war-but-the-class-war-statement-from-nwbcw-miami
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-04-08/no-war-but-the-class-war-statement-from-nwbcw-miami
Leftcom
No War but the Class War: Statement from NWBCW Miami
(We publish here the founding statement of _NWBCW Miami_ (https://nwbcwmiami.wordpress.com/). You can follow their activities: _@MiamiNwbcw_ (https://twitter.com/MiamiNwbcw).) Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a clear outgrowth of a decaying economic system…
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"The uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, which broke out on 19 April 1943, was a response to the final push to deport the remaining Jews to the death camps. The suppression of the ghetto lasted a month during which some 13,000 died as a result of the fighting. Most of the survivors were then deported. In this context, we present below a translation of a document written by a socialist participant of the uprising. It does not draw any political conclusions, but as an eye-witness report it is of historical interest for its presentation of the events."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-04-11/warsaw-ghetto-and-the-real-cost-of-imperialist-war
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-04-11/warsaw-ghetto-and-the-real-cost-of-imperialist-war
Leftcom
Warsaw Ghetto and the Real Cost of Imperialist War
In September 1939 Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany from the West and Stalinist Russia from the East. Warsaw – a city with a large Jewish population which was further swelled by Jewish refugees fleeing or being expelled from other cities and towns – came…
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"Over the decades, decent, affordable housing has been promised by successive governments and delivered by none. Housing policies have either been totally ineffectual or have made the problem worse. There isn’t a simple ‘get the Tories out’ solution to this. It’s a systemic problem and goes right to the heart of capitalism itself."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-04-14/the-death-of-sheila-seleoane-another-capitalist-housing-scandal
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-04-14/the-death-of-sheila-seleoane-another-capitalist-housing-scandal
Leftcom
The Death of Sheila Seleoane: Another Capitalist Housing Scandal
The tragic death of Sheila Seleoane tells us a lot about modern capitalism. Sheila was a medical secretary who lived alone in a housing association flat. She was an agency worker, so when she died, sometime in 2019, she wasn’t missed at work. In fact the…
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"The cleanup and coverup had as its only priority to get the freight rolling again. There is a military aspect in keeping rail freight running as surely as there was during Wilson's nationalization of the rails. The same reason that last year the federal government forced a settlement to avoid a rail strike is the same reason that Norfolk Southern incinerated the toxic mess left in the wake of the train crash. Disasters like these are recurring reminders of why capitalism must be overthrown."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-04-21/east-palestine-chemical-disaster-capitalism-goes-off-the-rails
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-04-21/east-palestine-chemical-disaster-capitalism-goes-off-the-rails
Leftcom
East Palestine Chemical Disaster: Capitalism Goes Off the Rails
Years of deregulation, decaying transportation infrastructure and increasingly unsafe working conditions led to the conditions that created the East Palestine chemical spill. The means used to clean up the spill initially involved burning the chemicals off.…
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"Each year, about 1 million workers in France are victims of work-related accidents. The media’s silence on the question is deafening. France counts the most work deaths in Europe, with 3.25 deaths for every 100,000 workers. In 2019, there were 804 deaths, double that of Germany and the EU average. France is the only EU country where the number of deaths is increasing, currently at 1,200 work-related deaths (including from work-related diseases) per year. Precarious work, negligent job training, use of temp workers, subcontracting, the gig economy, companies dodging judicial responsibility and the degradation of working conditions are to blame."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-04-23/the-invisible-slaughter-study-on-work-related-deaths-in-france
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-04-23/the-invisible-slaughter-study-on-work-related-deaths-in-france
Leftcom
The Invisible Slaughter: Study on Work-Related Deaths in France
(Review of Matthieu Lépine's book, L’Hécatombe invisible : Enquête sur les morts au travail, by a CWO sympathiser.) It is often said by people disconnected from reality in the UK that ‘we are not in a Dickens novel’. The saying in France is that ‘we are not…
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"We reproduce here an appeal from Gondolkodó Antikvárium, an internationalist bookshop and archive in Budapest, which is being evicted from its current premises."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-04-24/gondolkod%C3%B3-antikv%C3%A1rium-solidarity-call-for-aid
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-04-24/gondolkod%C3%B3-antikv%C3%A1rium-solidarity-call-for-aid
Leftcom
Gondolkodó Antikvárium: Solidarity Call for Aid
(We reproduce here an appeal from Gondolkodó Antikvárium, an internationalist bookshop and archive in Budapest, which is being evicted from its current premises.) For comrades, sympathisers, capitalist haters, revolutionaries, proletarians, working class…
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"The balance sheet below is an initial reflection on the wave of struggles against the pension reform introduced by the government. It may, on first reading, come across as pessimistic. However, while on the one hand only the truth is revolutionary, and that’s what we describe, on the other hand, given the movement’s size and the anger it has demonstrated against the current living conditions imposed by the capitalist crisis, it remains necessary to draw positive lessons from it, lessons such as how to struggle, and how to build a balance of forces."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-04-25/pension-reform-in-france
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-04-25/pension-reform-in-france
Leftcom
Pension Reform in France
The balance sheet below is an initial reflection(1) on the wave of struggles against the pension reform introduced by the government. It may, on first reading, come across as pessimistic. However, while on the one hand only the truth is revolutionary, and…
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The UK is experiencing the biggest wave of strikes for a generation. Hit by inflation over 10%, cuts in the social wage and precarious employment, large sectors of workers had enough and started to fight. However, the unions are keeping the strikes separate from each other when a united strike would be the start of a real fight. Instead, the unions recommend bosses’ offers below the rate of inflation. What is the way forward for the working class’ struggles? Come to a public meeting to discuss this.
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"What is above all impressive and important about this strike is the degree of self-organization where, at a general assembly on Friday, April 14, they elected their own strike committee and prepared the strike. As we see it, it is imperative that we organize our own struggle outside the unions. We can only rely on our own strength. This is obviously also how the train drivers see it, and that is why they have developed such an impressive degree of self-organization."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-04-28/sweden-the-wildcat-strike-on-the-commuter-trains-shows-the-way-forward
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-04-28/sweden-the-wildcat-strike-on-the-commuter-trains-shows-the-way-forward
Leftcom
Sweden: The Wildcat Strike on the Commuter Trains Shows the Way Forward
On Monday, April 17, the train drivers on the commuter trains in Stockholm went on a wildcat strike. The strike was already announced on the Saturday before, where it was also announced that it would last until midnight on Wednesday 19 April. The goal of…
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"Whilst they are stepping up their violence at home and abroad, we have to step up the resistance. Whilst their weapons are tear gas, batons, bombs and missiles, ours are consciousness that a new world is yet possible, and our collective organisation. The latter involves not only creating organisations of struggle wherever wage workers live and work but also an international political organisation to coordinate and guide that struggle against not just this or that state but the entire global system."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-04-30/may-day-2023-there-is-no-right-side-in-an-imperialist-war-no-war-but-the-class
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-04-30/may-day-2023-there-is-no-right-side-in-an-imperialist-war-no-war-but-the-class
Leftcom
May Day 2023: There is no "Right Side" in an Imperialist War, No War but the Class War!
(2023 May Day Statement of the Internationalist Communist Tendency) The continued existence of capitalism demands an increasingly higher price. Whether through rapidly rising living costs, rising interest rates, collapsing banks, environmental disasters,…
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"In short, all attempts which push the workers and their organs towards identifying with the current state of affairs ideologically through reformism and throwing support behind this or that capitalist—or even “anti-capitalist”—politician are to be combatted. Historically this sort of parliamentary cretinism has only resulted in defeat and capitulation, alongside attracting all sorts of non-socialist, revisionist forces to the party that are merely interested in self-gain."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-05-04/reformism-and-its-discontents
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-05-04/reformism-and-its-discontents
Leftcom
Reformism and its Discontents
"Parliamentary cretinism, a disorder which penetrates its unfortunate victims with the solemn conviction that the whole world, its history and future, are governed and determined by a majority of votes in that particular representative body which has the…
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"The failure to unite the struggles and strikes, the usual practice of the so-called base unions (not to mention the traditional unions ...), is evidence enough of this tendency of trade unionism to fragment the proletariat. For them the fight against the common class enemy takes second place to the a numerous manoeuvres to strengthen their own organisation, with a political perspective, therefore, which does not go beyond the now innate opportunism of the unionised form of class struggle."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-05-06/base-unionism-political-struggle-or-struggle-against-politicians
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-05-06/base-unionism-political-struggle-or-struggle-against-politicians
Leftcom
Base Unionism: Political Struggle or Struggle Against Politicians?
In continuing our analysis of "alternative" trade unionism(1), we take our latest cue from the _open letter_ (http://sicobas.org/2023/04/07/lettera-lettera-aperta-per-un-primo-maggio-di-lotta-internazionalista-contro-guerra-carovita-e-salari-da-fame/) by…
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"Teaching strikes in Scotland and Wales have already ended with below inflation pay rises of 7% and 8% respectively as across the board what started as a huge strike wave is fizzling out, a series of compromises between a government unwilling to pay and union leaders unwilling to fight. For any strike to succeed it must be led by the workers themselves, organised across workplaces and able to freely discuss their concerns, put forward their own demands and keep up pressure against management instead of surrendering its autonomy to a middle-man, only interested in getting them back to work. Can you afford to wait for the next round of balloting?"
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-05-08/education-funding-crisis-or-structural-crisis
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-05-08/education-funding-crisis-or-structural-crisis
Leftcom
Education: Funding Crisis or Structural Crisis?
== Our education system is on its knees but will more money be enough to save it? Teaching is being abandoned in droves. Each year more and more staff leave the profession for an easier career or early retirement. Less than half of secondary school teacher…
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"In the book Evans attempts to show that anarchist resistance to this process of state reconstruction was more widespread and serious than generally assumed. To this end, over the 200 or so pages we are presented with a chronological overview of the struggle between the oppositional and collaborationist currents within the Spanish anarchist movement that took place between the years 1931 and 1939. It is worth summarising that history before we comment on some of its political implications."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-05-11/revolution-and-the-state-anarchism-in-the-spanish-civil-war
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-05-11/revolution-and-the-state-anarchism-in-the-spanish-civil-war
Leftcom
Revolution and the State: Anarchism in the Spanish Civil War
(Review of Revolution and the State: Anarchism in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 by Danny Evans.) This book by Danny Evans, a lecturer in Modern European History and co-host of a radical history podcast(1), originally started as a PhD thesis which was expanded…
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"Elections are often touted as the cornerstone of democracy, the means by which people exercise their political power and shape the future of their society. However, under capitalism, the realities are far from this idealistic image. The working class will not see its own emancipation on the ballot paper, but only the parties and representatives of various bourgeois factions that are candidates for our exploitation."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-05-14/turkish-elections-the-crisis-of-capitalism-will-not-be-resolved-at-the-ballot
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-05-14/turkish-elections-the-crisis-of-capitalism-will-not-be-resolved-at-the-ballot
Leftcom
Turkish Elections: The Crisis of Capitalism will not be Resolved at the Ballot Box
Elections are often touted as the cornerstone of democracy, the means by which people exercise their political power and shape the future of their society. However, under capitalism, the realities are far from this idealistic image. The working class will…
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"The strike is yours! Decide on these tactics together, union mandated or not. Your greatest strength is your solidarity which cannot be reduced to the union. The generalized assault on our class requires a generalized struggle! While the prospect may seem far-off, nobody is going to initiate it for us."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-05-16/montreal-why-are-the-banq-workers-on-strike
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-05-16/montreal-why-are-the-banq-workers-on-strike
Leftcom
Montreal: Why are the BAnQ Workers on Strike?
(Leaflet distributed by NWBCW Montreal during the BAnQ and Owens Illinois strikes.) The BAnQ workers are on strike because, even prior to the current inflationary period, their wages were suppressed, without any pay increase since 2018. With generalized inflation…
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"Only once we’ve replaced our rotten system of production for profit, with a system of production for need, will increases to our standards of living become permanent. Meanwhile, in the present situation, the real gain from any struggle can only be confidence in self-organisation, greater awareness of belonging to a wider working class and wider recognition within the class of the possibility that a different world is possible."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-05-19/the-present-wave-of-strikes-and-the-way-forward-for-the-working-class
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-05-19/the-present-wave-of-strikes-and-the-way-forward-for-the-working-class
Leftcom
The Present Wave of Strikes and the Way Forward for the Working Class
(A public meeting was held on this topic in London on 6 May 2023. The presentation, which we reproduce below, was generally well received. Interventions from the floor did not dispute the main points made, most significantly the role the trade unions and…
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"Capitalism is dragging humanity into an abyss. Rampant price increases, rising interest rates, collapsing banks and ecological disasters accompany the capitalists plunder of the planet in their drive for profits. Growing numbers of refugees are fleeing from immediate hell to anywhere they can. Meanwhile the war in Ukraine is dreadful confirmation of the ‘final solution’ capital has in store for the whole world."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-05-20/a-new-world-is-still-possible-but-we-have-a-fight-on-our-hands
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-05-20/a-new-world-is-still-possible-but-we-have-a-fight-on-our-hands
Leftcom
A New World is Still Possible but We Have a Fight on Our Hands
Capitalism is dragging humanity into an abyss. Rampant price increases, rising interest rates, collapsing banks and ecological disasters accompany the capitalists plunder of the planet in their drive for profits. Growing numbers of refugees are fleeing from…
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"Both Russian and Ukrainian workers are suffering death at the fronts to defend ... what? The property and interests of their oligarchic cliques. For our rulers, defence of “the nation” makes sense since they own most of it. For the rest of the population, imperialist war means the loss of home and livelihood and for many, the loss of life itself."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-05-22/imperialist-war-or-class-war
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-05-22/imperialist-war-or-class-war
Leftcom
Imperialist War or Class War
The Ukraine war is not just about Ukraine or Russia. It is the first step on the road to a wider war. Tomorrow we will be suffering what the population of Ukraine is suffering today. Both Russian and Ukrainian workers are suffering death at the fronts to…
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"The purpose of the committees is to put internationalist nuclei in contact with one another, in order to define the rudiments of a common political intervention against the coming war, and to establish relationships with others that firmly situate themselves on internationalist terrain; relationships that will be of inordinate utility down the line, as they were in previous times."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-05-24/appeal-for-the-creation-of-a-nwbcw-committee-in-san-francisco-usa
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-05-24/appeal-for-the-creation-of-a-nwbcw-committee-in-san-francisco-usa
Leftcom
Appeal for the Creation of a NWBCW Committee in San Francisco, USA
(The appeal we publish here was sent to us by some internationalist communists in San Francisco.) == The Main Issue Today? Revolution or War "‘We are now in a wartime economy’, says France’s top military procurement official" (Le Monde, March 15) "Defense…
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"There is something suggestively symbolic about a state funeral for the decaying corpse of a corrupt and corrupting capitalist, the symbol of money that “unites and breaks faiths; blesses the accursed; makes horrid leprosy welcome; it honours thieves and gives them titles, reverence, praise in the assembly of senators” i.e. the bourgeois institutions. It truly reflects today’s decadent system."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-06-18/nunc-est-bibendum-on-the-death-and-state-funeral-of-silvio-berlusconi
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-06-18/nunc-est-bibendum-on-the-death-and-state-funeral-of-silvio-berlusconi
Leftcom
"Nunc est bibendum?" On the Death and State Funeral of Silvio Berlusconi
_Nunc est bibendum_?(1) It is possible and even highly probable that someone, somewhere, uncorked a bottle at the news of Berlusconi's death. This is in stark contrast to the attitude of sorrow and condolence assumed by all the political expressions of the…
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