"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"On the night of 9 October the picket line at the gates of the Lin Weidong leather goods factory in Seano (Province of Prato) was attacked with iron bars by at least half a dozen hooded thugs. “Next time we’ll shoot you,” the attackers shouted as they ran off after the beating. Four people were injured, two workers and two members of Sudd-Cobas grassroots union which had called the “the strike days”. All needed hospital treatment. In response, workers throughout the “fashion district” which encircles Prato and Florence, spontaneously walked off the night shift."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-10-17/the-class-war-in-italy-striking-workers-attacked-in-prato

On 30 July riots broke out across the UK which targeted Muslim neighbourhoods and places sheltering migrants, following a stabbing in Southport the day before. Decades of racist propaganda from mainstream news sources, which blame immigrants for workers’ decline in their standard of living, have led to many thinking that immigration into Britain is the cause of reduced wages, homelessness, a collapsing health service, failing schools etc. rather than increased exploitation of the working class and capitalism’s economic crisis. The response to this from capitalism’s political left has been to organise against fascism, with national demonstrations of the ‘great and good’ against the riots and against racism in defence of democratic freedoms. But fascism and democracy are simply strategies of the capitalist class to continue exploiting us. We argue that only the end of capitalism can put an end to poverty, misery and racism. Come join us in a public meeting to discuss this.

"War – between nations and between classes within them – is integral to the capitalist system. Pacifism never really challenges this. In fact, it covers for it, either by serving as rhetoric for propagandists’ respective imperialisms, or defending the system itself. We cannot stop at the false hope of peace. The only answer to capitalist war, just like capitalist peace, is class war."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-10-22/peace-calls-are-part-of-the-war-game

"So why, despite knowing about the attack, did Israel let it happen? Here too, the answer is as simple as it is cynically tragic. Such a treacherous attack against defenceless civilians, massacred like animals for slaughter, presented a golden opportunity for Netanyahu to implement a military action of a “legitimate” retaliation which had already been planned: that of reorganising the balance of power in the Middle East to its advantage, without world public opinion, first and foremost the US, being able to hinder it. That golden opportunity handed the winning card of “legitimate defence” of the sacred national borders to be played against the blind barbarity of Hamas, against its Shiite allies, the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Yemeni Houthis, and the jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq. All of this is aimed against Iran, because it has been Israel’s number one enemy for decades."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-10-23/unending-barbarism-the-causes-that-led-to-the-middle-east-crisis

"In fact, it is impossible to understand the history of the last half century without understanding the essential role that entities like Macquarie play in perpetuating capitalist society in conditions of stagnating and decreasing global rates of profit through the restructuring of essential assets like Thames Water. At the same time however, poor conditions in the water industry far predate the “financialisation” of water. Therefore, we review below the evolution of water supply in the UK and trace how it has gone from private ownership to public, and then to public with reorganisation on a wider scale, and then back to private ownership in 1989. All changes have been driven by the problems of profitability which affect the capitalist system as a whole."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-11-01/thames-water-macquarie-and-the-false-choice-of-nationalisation

"Ever since the war in Ukraine, the world has seen a sharp rise in imperialist tension the world over, indicating a push towards generalized war. Lebanon is notably important in this development. The roots of this clash span almost a century, though the systemic cause remains imperialism as a condition of capitalism."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-11-07/war-in-lebanon-another-massacre-of-the-working-class

Today’s wars are not a product of ego, religion or human nature. They are a necessary feature of capitalism, along with the earth’s ruin, the poverty of the “developing” world, and our very own workplace exploitation. ‘Imperialism’ is thrown around as a leftist buzzword with confused meanings, as if it’s a behaviour performed by certain bad countries. But it's no more nor less than the final phase of capitalism. The competition of businesses has become the competition of nations, for materials and strategy, for profits and power. Imperialism is part and parcel of the global capitalist system, and no country exists outside of its reach. The devastations of imperialism will not end either with the independence of new nations or an international court of justice. Only the end of capitalism through a working-class revolution can put an end to the senseless barbarity. Come and hear more on imperialism, what it is, what it isn't and how it ends.

We now have our own Bluesky account which you can follow here.

"The 1970s were a period of political questioning and reawakening. As capitalism’s post-war boom drew to a close the working class as a whole suddenly faced economic hardship and, increasingly, unemployment. For a critical minority from a new generation of working class youth, a whole panoply of questions was raised — from the nature of the USSR to the possibility or otherwise of the overthrow of capitalism. Now the evidence that capitalism, even with state protection, was still subject to economic crisis, and the reappearance of workers battling en masse in both the East and the West, sparked a wider political rethink. The formation of Revolutionary Perspectives, forerunner of the Communist Workers’ Organisation, was part of that. The following leaflet which we distributed in Glasgow in 1974 gives a flavour of the time."

https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2024-11-21/blast-from-the-past-revolutionary-perspectives-on-strikes-in-scotland