Month: February 2023

To mark 10,000 streams, this week’s special episode of International Marxist Radio (IMR) features a gem from the archives: a rare recording of a 1974 speech by Ted Grant – celebrated Marxist theoretician and founder of what was to become the International Marxist Tendency.

This fascinating speech on the world political situation came at a key juncture in history, when the decades of postwar capitalist upswing were drawing to a close – marking the beginning of a new world crisis, and revolutionary developments in one country after another.

Included amongst these developments were revolutionary movements in Europe, such as the Portuguese revolution of 1974 – which, as Ted points out, had the potential to spark an all-Iberian, all-European and possibly even world revolution, given the right leadership.

Although not every detail of this speech was borne out by events, the general thrust is remarkably prescient, offering comrades a valuable example of the Marxist method in practice, which, as Trotsky once said, provides us with “the advantage of foresight over astonishment”.

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This week’s episode of International Marxist Radio (IMR) features marxist.com writer and editor Ben Curry speaking about the current crisis in cosmology, which has been intensified by the first images released by the James Webb Space Telescope.

These stunning images, which are the most far-reaching ever obtained by humanity, pose serious problems for some well-established theories in modern physics – most notably the Big Bang Theory.

As Ben explains, such mystical theories are a consequence of the influence of idealist philosophy in the natural sciences – which, as a means of explaining the material world, must base themselves on materialist philosophy if they are to ever truly expand human knowledge.

This discussion is based on an article from issue 39 of ‘In Defence of Marxism’ magazine.

Purchase and subscribe to the magazine here: https://www.marxist.com/magazine.htm

Read the article online here: https://www.marxist.com/the-james-webb-telescope-an-eye-onto-a-universe-infinite-in-time-and-space.htm

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This week’s episode of International Marxist Radio (IMR) features presenter Joe Attard speaking to Socialist Appeal writer Ben Gliniecki about the crisis of liberalism – and specifically about whether this crisis is now abating, as some bourgeois commentators have claimed. This is merely wishful thinking.

Events in recent years – such as the reelection of Macron in France, the imposing of Sunak in Britain, the election of Biden in the US among others – point to an uptick in fortunes for the institutions of liberal capitalism, or so the argument goes.

But as Ben explains, these examples demonstrate nothing of the sort; rather, it is only the absence of a convincing alternative on the left that allows this ailing system to go on at all.

Disclaimer: this discussion was recorded at the end of 2022. We are publishing it as it is still relevant now, despite some of the particulars having moved on somewhat.

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This week’s episode of International Marxist Radio (IMR) features presenter Joe Attard speaking to socialist.net editor Adam Booth about the world economy – in particular, about the latest annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) held in Davos, Switzerland.

Whilst some attendees attempted to highlight a few ‘green shoots of hope’, the overall tone of the event was sombre. ‘Polycrisis’ was this year’s buzzword, with everything going wrong all at once from the perspective of global capitalism.

Will interest rate hikes save the world economy? Protectionism? China? One thing seems certain: whichever path the ruling class takes from now on will be the wrong one. It is high time they were relieved of their duties.

Read Adam’s article on Davos here: https://www.marxist.com/davos-2023-capitalism-s-polycrisis-strikes-fear-into-the-ruling-class-hearts.htm

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