"The collapse of living standards felt more or less acutely by the working class across the globe is being met by the only solution the state can rely on, concentrating more and more misery on a growing surplus population while grinding down the remaining ‘productive’ sections of our class. Shifting demographics and nativist anxieties may obscure this fact, but the working class in all countries is being bled by the same common oppressor and only our united action can fight back against it."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-05-10/rwanda-plan-capitalism-offers-no-asylum
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-05-10/rwanda-plan-capitalism-offers-no-asylum
Leftcom
Rwanda Plan: Capitalism Offers No Asylum
On 23 April the ‘Safety of Rwanda’ bill was passed in the House of Lords giving the go ahead for the British state to deport any and all asylum seekers who come to the UK to Rwanda for claims processing. When asked on BBC Question Time about what would happen…
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"The letter unsurprisingly does not contain any groundbreaking new information, but illustrates Marx’s thoughts, which we analyse below, on world revolution and the necessity for workers to organise themselves as a party prior to said revolution. The first thing that leaps from the letter is Marx’s conception of revolution as an international affair, in contrast to, in the words of Rosa Luxemburg, the “domestic affair” Karl Kautsky and his epigones would reduce it to. After all, it had always been clear to Marx and Engels that communist revolution could not take place in one country alone."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-05-28/marx-s-newly-unearthed-letter-reaffirms-the-necessity-of-internationalism-and
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-05-28/marx-s-newly-unearthed-letter-reaffirms-the-necessity-of-internationalism-and
Leftcom
Marx's Newly Unearthed Letter Reaffirms the Necessity of Internationalism and the Party
A letter in French by Karl Marx to Jules Guesde was recently unearthed, which we translate here: "10th of May 1879 41 Maitland Park Road London NW _ Dear Citizen Guesde, _ No French refugee who has any relation to me would have any doubt about the deep sympathy…
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"In preparation for a public debate they are organising, the Péntek esti kísértetjárás collective in Hungary has sent us a set of question about revolutionary defeatism. We share our answers here, as they are a concise elaboration of our perspectives for today."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-06-13/revolutionary-defeatism-today-some-questions-answered
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-06-13/revolutionary-defeatism-today-some-questions-answered
Leftcom
Revolutionary Defeatism Today: Some Questions Answered
(In preparation for a public debate they are organising, the _Péntek esti kísértetjárás_ (https://www.facebook.com/pentek.esti.kisertetjaras) collective in Hungary has sent us a set of question about revolutionary defeatism. We share our answers here, as…
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"It’s election fever! Following on from South Africa, India, and the EU, this year will also see the parliamentary pantomime play out in France, Iran, the UK and the USA. With the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and a refugee crisis in the background, it is issues of “national security” which will dominate the headlines. The “choice” is, as always, which capitalist party is best suited to represent the capitalist interests of “our” capitalist state."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-06-21/voting-changes-nothing-not-voting-is-not-enough-for-the-resumption-of-the-class
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-06-21/voting-changes-nothing-not-voting-is-not-enough-for-the-resumption-of-the-class
Leftcom
Voting Changes Nothing, Not Voting is Not Enough: For the Resumption of the Class Struggle!
It’s election fever! Following on from South Africa, India, and the EU, this year will also see the parliamentary pantomime play out in France, Iran, the UK and the USA. With the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and a refugee crisis in the background, it is issues…
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"The French government’s rout at the last elections has brought the political impasse of the bourgeoisie to light. Since the announcement of the dissolution of the National Assembly, electoral manoeuvring is in full swing. Macron sings once more the praises of “the Republic’s values”, which can barely hide the system’s sinister reality: social regression across the board, rise of nationalism and anti-immigrant laws, and finally march to war and militarisation of society. The far-right is already largely surpassed by the parties that govern us! On the left, the ghost of the 1936 Popular Front is deployed to offer an alternative in defence of “democracy”."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-06-23/popular-front-in-france-a-deception-in-1936-a-deception-in-2024
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-06-23/popular-front-in-france-a-deception-in-1936-a-deception-in-2024
Leftcom
Popular Front in France: A Deception in 1936, A Deception in 2024
== We can't counter capitalism's attacks by voting for parties that claim to manage it! We counter them through class struggle and internationalism! The French government’s rout at the last elections has brought the political impasse of the bourgeoisie to…
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"Strikes among nurses and in the health sector in general are unusual in Sweden and the dispute has received a lot of public attention and support, perhaps because it was fuelled by the slogan "save healthcare" – the conditions of those working in the health sector will ultimately be the conditions of all those in need of care. However, when an agreement was finally reached and the strike was called off on Friday 28 June, the results were meagre."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-07-07/the-healthcare-strike-in-sweden-unions-never-fight-for-real
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-07-07/the-healthcare-strike-in-sweden-unions-never-fight-for-real
Leftcom
The Healthcare Strike in Sweden: Unions NEVER Fight for Real!
The strike by the Vårdförbundet (Swedish Association of Health Professionals) is over. However, the nurses, biomedical analysts and midwives have no reason to celebrate. The conflict has been going on since April and has escalated in several stages: first…
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"The New Popular Front, a coalition of centre-left and left-wing parties, has won the largest number of seats in the French National Assembly. But, as this article published by our comrades in France in the run up to the election shows, there is nothing to celebrate."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-07-08/france-at-the-elections-capitalism-always-wins
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-07-08/france-at-the-elections-capitalism-always-wins
Leftcom
France: At the Elections, Capitalism Always Wins!
(The New Popular Front, a coalition of centre-left and left-wing parties, has won the largest number of seats in the French National Assembly. But, as this article published by our comrades in France in the run up to the election shows, there is nothing to…
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Imperialist proxy wars are raging in Ukraine, the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere. Behind these wars stand the major imperialist powers who threaten to extend the conflicts into a global confrontation – a new world war. The capitalist class worldwide are screaming ever louder for nationalism and demanding sacrifices. The truth is that the atrocities we see today are the true face of capitalism. They are a preview of what is to come if capitalism is not overthrown. What stance should workers and revolutionaries take on these wars and the drift towards global war? Come to a public meeting to discuss these issues.
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"It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our comrade Olivier, which took place on July 3rd. Only mortal illness was able to crush the generosity, passion and tenacity of a true revolutionary militant, who for more than fifty years fought to radically change this world, the inhuman world of the bourgeoisie, a world which has long outlived its usefulness."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-07-17/in-memory-of-olivier
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-07-17/in-memory-of-olivier
Leftcom
In Memory of Olivier
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our comrade Olivier, which took place on July 3rd. Only mortal illness was able to crush the generosity, passion and tenacity of a true revolutionary militant, who for more than fifty years fought to…
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"The war in Ukraine has commenced a new stage in the worldwide drive to war, in which the ongoing slaughter in Gaza is another escalation. In times like these, it is helpful to look to the past, to see how it can inform our perspectives today. We have previously written about the 1943 uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto and the activities of Polish socialists unsuccessfully trying to chart an independent political course under the occupation. 1 August marks the 80th anniversary of yet another historical juncture – the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. This tragic episode, which now forms a key element in Polish nationalist mythology, provides an insight into our understanding of the difference between national uprisings and revolutionary class struggle."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-08-01/warsaw-1944-a-lesson-from-history
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-08-01/warsaw-1944-a-lesson-from-history
Leftcom
Warsaw 1944: A Lesson From History
"Those who gave the first order to fight _ let them now count our corpses. _ Let them go through the streets _ that are not there _ through the city _ that is not there _ let them count for weeks for months _ let them count our corpses _ till death.(1)" The…
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"As the Secretary General of the United Nations said in February, the world is now entering “an age of chaos” where war means “a dangerous and unpredictable free-for-all with total impunity”. He even went so far as to say that unlike during the Cold War, when “well-established mechanisms helped manage superpower relations”, those mechanisms are missing “in today’s multipolar world”. His observations are incontestable but his solution, of course, was simply to suggest making the UN more effective, ignoring the fact that far from being a body for peace it has always been just another forum for acting out inter-imperialist rivalry. To understand the current drift to a more generalised war we have to look elsewhere."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-08-10/an-age-of-chaos-or-of-deepening-capitalist-crisis
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-08-10/an-age-of-chaos-or-of-deepening-capitalist-crisis
Leftcom
An "Age of Chaos" or of Deepening Capitalist Crisis?
(Editorial for _Revolutionary Perspectives 24_ (https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-07-18/revolutionary-perspectives-24) (Series 4).) Since we began preparing this issue, Russian missiles have struck a paediatric hospital and Israeli bombs have flattened…
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"This is not just a problem of bigoted ‘Little Englanders’. All over the world workers are being manipulated to turn on each other as capitalism’s drive for profit fuels worldwide economic crisis, environmental catastrophe and barbaric warfare and colossal inequality of wealth. All this has inevitably led to more migration which ignorant racists and ruthless politicians define as the problem. But the real problem is capitalism and the ruthless sacrifice of everything human and humane for the benefit of an increasingly rich few."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-08-11/uk-riots-racist-right-in-the-service-of-capitalism
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-08-11/uk-riots-racist-right-in-the-service-of-capitalism
Leftcom
UK Riots: Racist Right in the Service of Capitalism
Following the horrendous knife attacks on a children’s dance class in Southport, riots and arson attacks targeting Muslim living areas and places sheltering migrants have broken out. Undoubtedly they are fuelled by ‘social’ media-driven rumours and calls…
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"The geo-political situation is sharpening and capitalism’s warmongers are changing the game. National flags are flying everywhere. Too much is at stake not to attempt talking to others who share some of our perspectives but not all. We do not know how long we have before capitalism embarks irrevocably into world war but, however long that is, the discussions between internationalists need to begin in earnest."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-08-13/internationalist-initiatives-against-war-and-capitalism
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-08-13/internationalist-initiatives-against-war-and-capitalism
Leftcom
Internationalist Initiatives Against War and Capitalism
The world capitalist system has been in crisis for decades. The end of the post-war boom has led to all kinds of expedients in the richest capitalist countries as we have highlighted in our series on the economic foundations (the latest contribution to which…
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"It’s not surprising that only one in two adults voted in this election, as confidence in our politicians and parliament is at an all-time low, with only 12% of adults saying they trust political parties, and it’s easy to see why. Public services have been decimated in the face of austerity to pay for bailing out the banks in 2008, during which time wages adjusted for inflation have fallen between 8-10% for the average worker, all while British politicians have been implicated in scandal after scandal. While at the same time the capitalist class have enriched themselves and the inequality in society increases."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-08-19/labour-wins-but-it-s-no-victory-for-the-working-class
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-08-19/labour-wins-but-it-s-no-victory-for-the-working-class
Leftcom
Labour Wins But It's No Victory for the Working Class
After fourteen years of Conservative rule, with five different prime ministers who have spent their time floundering from one crisis to another, a new Labour government has been formed, on the promise that they will change Britain. Although Labour has won…
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"At least 50 wars are raging around the world. These are all, in one way or another, a result of the contradictions of the capitalist system which lead directly to imperialism and to war. The two major wars, those in Ukraine and Gaza, provide a panorama of barbaric butchery and cruelty on a scale our rulers cannot hide. All the talk about human rights, rules-based order and the fight of democracy against dictatorship is shown to be hypocritical nonsense. Every day social media shows us what is really going on. The murder and suffering in Ukraine and Gaza represent the true face of capitalism today, but, horrific though these wars are, there is likely worse to come."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-08-21/can-global-war-be-prevented
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-08-21/can-global-war-be-prevented
Leftcom
Can Global War Be Prevented?
At least 50 wars are raging around the world. These are all, in one way or another, a result of the contradictions of the capitalist system which lead directly to imperialism and to war. The two major wars, those in Ukraine and Gaza, provide a panorama of…
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"The concern of the article here, written by Damen reflecting on a crucial political situation which he himself had lived through as a revolutionary militant, is not so much the details of the Matteotti affair itself, but rather its repercussions in terms of missed opportunities for a revival of the working class political struggle in Italy."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-08-29/the-murder-of-giacomo-matteotti-100-years-on
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-08-29/the-murder-of-giacomo-matteotti-100-years-on
Leftcom
The Murder of Giacomo Matteotti: 100 Years On
History has a way of coming back to haunt the present. For Giorgia Meloni and her neo-fascist Brothers of Italy party whose logo contains a flame symbolising “the spirit of Mussolini”, the centenary of the murder of socialist parliamentary deputy, Giacomo…
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"Antonie (or Anton) Pannekoek (1873-1960) lived through an epoch of tremendous highs and lows in the workers’ movement but especially the revolutionary wave that brought an end to the First World War. The consequences of its subsequent defeat still live with us today. One was to alert the capitalists of the danger to their existence should the international working class ever get so organised again. The second has been the monstrous rise of totalitarian states along Stalinist lines claiming to be “socialist”. Their very existence has been enough to discredit the original liberating aim of Marxism and thus make the prospects for the appearance of a new class movement all the more difficult. As the capitalist system is once again leading the world down the road towards a new imperialist war, an attempt to draw what we can from that revolutionary past is as urgent as ever."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-09-19/anton-pannekoek-as-a-revolutionary-marxist-a-review-article
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-09-19/anton-pannekoek-as-a-revolutionary-marxist-a-review-article
Leftcom
Anton Pannekoek as a Revolutionary Marxist: A Review Article
(Anton Pannekoek, The Workers’ Way to Freedom & Other Council Communist Writings (1935-1954), edited and introduced by Robyn K. Winters (PM Press/Working Class History), 2024 (303 pp. $24.95)) "The future belongs to the workers, but most of them still do…
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"In light of the imminent social attacks, it is only logical that the German bourgeoisie is playing the racist card and trying to make refugees and migrants scapegoats for the social crisis, for the lack of housing and daycare places, for dilapidated schools and low wages. This propaganda takes hold in a social climate characterised by isolation and fears of social decline. According to the latest surveys, 77% of respondents are in favour of a more restrictive asylum policy. As long as this continues, defeats in the next social conflicts are inevitable. It would be a grave error in this situation to seek salvation in broad-church alliances for the defence of democracy, which position themselves as a moral authority against “any extremism” and thus claim to outdo the right-wing hegemony. The massive demonstrations of the spring have shown all too clearly how quickly a movement can fizzle out if it fails to establish points of reference to everyday social life and its conflicts, an essential condition if they hope to counter the right-wing narratives."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-09-22/the-success-of-the-afd-in-east-germany-an-expression-and-springboard-for-an
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-09-22/the-success-of-the-afd-in-east-germany-an-expression-and-springboard-for-an
Leftcom
The Success of the AfD in East Germany: An Expression and Springboard for an Authoritarian Formation
“It is a historic victory,” scribbled Björn Höcke immediately after the announcement of the first election results in Saxony and Thuringia. And he wasn’t far off. In Thuringia, the Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD) made gains of 9.4%…
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"So there it is: the fruit of capitalist globalisation. Not a peaceful world of plenty where everyone can enjoy the bounties of the wealth they help to create but an increasingly fractured world where the rich are squabbling over how to get a bigger slice of the pie. For sure it is a pie of dubious value but one they are already telling us it is worth our fighting over."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-10-01/capitalism-s-economic-foundations-part-v
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-10-01/capitalism-s-economic-foundations-part-v
Leftcom
Capitalism's Economic Foundations (Part V)
(_Part I_ (https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2022-08-31/capitalism-s-economic-foundations-part-i) – _Part II_ (https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023-02-28/capitalism-s-economic-foundations-part-ii) – _Part III_ (https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2023…
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"The historical record shows that national self-determination does not lead to liberation. It is only the prelude to ever new horrors in the grips of an imperialist world-system. The development of Zionism is a clear example of this. The modern Zionist far-right, represented in the governing coalition, is currently calling for the expulsion of Palestinians, the further expansion of Jewish settlements into the West Bank and Gaza, and the establishment of a “Greater Israel”. In the widening of the current conflict, some of them see an opportunity to “change the face of the Middle East”. This messianic irredentism may be a far cry from what Herzl originally intended, but it is the natural endpoint of the “reactionary utopia” of all national self-determination projects."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-10-07/zionism-a-prime-example-of-national-liberation-as-a-dead-end
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-10-07/zionism-a-prime-example-of-national-liberation-as-a-dead-end
Leftcom
Zionism: A Prime Example of National Liberation as a Dead End
More than 40,000 dead and counting, many among them children, whole districts razed, millions displaced, and the conflict spiralling into a wider war engulfing the Middle East – this is what Israel's "right to self-defence", invoked since Hamas' dramatic…
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"Both Beijing and Washington know very well that the war crises currently underway are important, but they also know that the game of Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific will be played with violent determination on both sides. It is here that the opposing interests of the two imperialisms, with their respective ranks of allies, co-interested or exploited, could explode, giving rise to a more immediate conflict with frightening consequences for the whole of humanity."
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-10-12/news-from-a-world-in-turmoil-chinese-imperialism-in-africa-and-the-mediterranean
https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-10-12/news-from-a-world-in-turmoil-chinese-imperialism-in-africa-and-the-mediterranean
Leftcom
News from a World in Turmoil: Chinese Imperialism in Africa and the Mediterranean
(When capitalism is in crisis, when profit rates are falling, when the GDP growth of the most advanced countries is at minimal or zero levels, when states can barely survive under the weight of increasingly unsustainable national debt, when capital flies…
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