Month: July 2023

The Roman Republic was a society characterised by great social and political upheaval. This is a period of well-documented and important class struggle, which has many parallels with the situation today. If we are to avoid making the mistakes of history, a close study of the past is absolutely crucial for all Marxists.

This week’s episode of International Marxist Radio welcomes Alan Woods, writer, theoretician and leading member of the International Marxist Tendency, to discuss his latest book, Class Struggle in the Roman Republic. 

This text, the first complete Marxist history of the Roman Republic, is an invaluable contribution to our understanding of a period that spanned over one thousand years. The book tackles the key processes that led to the eventual demise of the Republic and the birth of the Roman Empire. 

Class Struggle in the Roman Republic is available to buy now!

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The Spanish Revolution and Civil War (which began this week in 1936) represent a profoundly heroic period of struggle by the Spanish working class and peasantry. The masses gave their all in the fight against Franco, only to be failed by their leadership. Both the anarchists and the Stalinists at the head of the fight against fascism failed to lead the workers and peasants to victory. Especially the latter consciously sold out the revolution, ushering in a period of reaction and dictatorship that would last for decades.

This week’s episode of International Marxist Radio welcomes Arturo Rodriguez, a Spanish member of the International Marxist Tendency, based in Portugal. Arturo discusses the role of both the theoretical confusion of the anarchists and the counter-revolutionary policy of the Stalinists in the ultimate defeat of the Spanish Revolution.

For more on the role of Stalinism in particular during the Civil War, we recommend Arturo’s latest article, published on socialist.net.

Listeners interested in the topic of this podcast should keep an eye out for Arturo’s forthcoming article on the role of anarchism in the Spanish Civil War.

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David Graeber and David Wengrow’s anthropological opus, The Dawn of Everything, claims to offer an entirely new, radical view of the development of human society (implicitly: one that knocks down Marx and Engels’ historical materialism). This is no small task, but is the book as earth-shattering as the immodest title suggests?

Despite making waves in certain left-wing circles, the book offers a thin gruel. By fetishising the ‘creative’ potential of human ‘free will’, Graeber and Wengrow ignore the material conditions underlying the development of specific forms of society. In doing so, they defend an abstract idealism that has nothing to offer in terms of explaining our past, nor advancing the class struggle to end oppression and exploitation today.

This week’s episode of International Marxist Radio features Joel Bergman, a leading member of Fightback/La Riposte Socialiste, the Canadian section of the International Marxist Tendency. 

The discussion is based on Joel’s recent article in the latest edition of In Defence of Marxism magazine, which is available to pre-order now! http://www.marxist.com/magazine.htm

*Note: at the end of the episode, we incorrectly say that Joel’s article appears in issue 41 of the IDoM magazine, whereas it will actually be in issue 42, themed around The State. Apologies for the confusion!

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Last week, a French policeman shot an unarmed French-Algerian teenager (Nahel M.) in the chest after a traffic stop. Before pulling the trigger, Nahel was told “I will lodge a bullet in your head”. A video of the brutal slaying was uploaded to social media, resulting in a massive outpouring of rage that swept the country.

Police violence in France is the worst in Western Europe, and this latest outrage occurs at a time when President Macron’s government is already weak and despised, fresh off the back of a powerful struggle against his unpopular pensions ‘reform’. 

The tremendous tensions in French society are ready to brim over at any moment: all that is needed is for the workers’ movement and the left to connect the masses’ disparate struggles into a political programme to overthrow Macron, along with the rotten capitalist regime he represents.

Jules from Révolution, French section of the IMT, joins us once again to discuss the situation in the country, and perspectives going forward. You can read the French comrades’ latest statement on these developing events here: https://www.marxist.com/france-teenager-murdered-by-police-the-workers-movement-must-intervene.htm 

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