Author: Joe Attard

This week’s episode welcomes back Niklas Albin Svensson, a leading member of the International Marxist Tendency, to discuss the ongoing turmoil in the global banking system.

A few weeks ago, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed, but the failure of SVB was not the end of the story. Rather, what we have seen is a sudden flurry of bank collapses, which has so far culminated in the forced merger of Credit Suisse into UBS and the dramatic fall in Deutsche Bank’s share price.

While a total collapse of the banking system has so far been avoided, this does not mean that the situation is stable. In reality, crises like this are inevitable under the capitalist system, and the ruling class have only managed to temporarily alleviate the worst of this crisis by laying the grounds for a deeper one.

Read Niklas’ latest on the banking crisis:

https://www.marxist.com/banking-system-on-the-brink.htm 
https://www.marxist.com/the-svb-collapse-shows-the-fragility-of-the-capitalist-economy.htm

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This week’s episode discusses the perspectives for class struggle in Germany, with Alex Kalabekow, a leading comrade of Der Funke, the German section of the International Marxist Tendency. 

Note: this podcast was recorded before the 27 March ‘Mega-Strike’ which brought hundreds of thousands of transport workers onto the streets in the largest strike in Germany since 1992. While this turning point in the class struggle is not discussed directly, Alex points towards the growth of the unions, and the beginning of an uptick in strike action this year, which foreshadowed the explosive movement we are now seeing. 

In a period of so-called ‘polycrisis’ impacting all of Europe, Germany stands out as a nation that has rapidly gone from a pillar of stability to a centre of social turmoil. Traditionally the main political and economic power in the EU, years of pandemic, war and economic crisis, have turned Germany’s strengths into their opposite.

Crushed economically and politically between the USA and China, Germany has recently sought to assert itself as an independent imperialist power by massively expanding military expenditure. As Alex explains, however, the contradictions of capitalism both in Germany and on a world scale mean that there is no way out for the German ruling class.

Read the following by our German comrades, published shortly before the ‘mega-strike’: https://www.marxist.com/germany-mega-strike-on-27-march-all-wheels-stand-still-fully-enforce-wage-demands.htm

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This week’s episode welcomes Jules Legendre, a leading comrade of Révolution, the French section of the International Marxist Tendency, to discuss the developing situation in France concerning Macron’s hated pension reforms.

Having bypassed the National Assembly and forced through a rise in the retirement age from 62 to 64, this week Macron narrowly survived a no-confidence vote in the French parliament. While Macron still barely clings on to power in the National Assembly, the masses have taken to the streets to express their anger.

After two months of strike action and countless demonstrations involving all the major cities across the country, the anger of the masses is going nowhere. With the mass movement beginning to challenge Macron’s position, it is vital that the mobilisations do not simply act to end the pension reform, but bring down the whole government with it. 

Jules explains the current situation in France, as well as the events leading up to this critical moment, and provides a Marxist perspective on how the labour movement can carry the struggle forward – to bring down the pension reform, bring down Macron and bring down the capitalist system.

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This week’s episode welcomes Niklas Albin Svensson, a leading comrade of the International Marxist Tendency, to discuss the legacy of Stalinism, 70 years after the death of Joseph Stalin in March 1953.

While many associate Stalin and his crimes with socialism or communism, this could not be further from the truth. As Niklas explains, Stalinism is nothing else but a bloody caricature of the genuine traditions of Marxism, which are done an infinite disservice by their association with Stalin. Rather than a continuation of the ideas of Marxism, Stalinism was an expression of the bureaucratic degeneration of the Soviet Union – which undermined and ultimately destroyed the accomplishments of the planned economy.

We would also like to draw readers’ attention to Leon Trotsky’s biography of Stalin, the definitive edition of which was published by Wellred Books in 2016. This edition was painstakingly put together over a period of ten years, using the source material from the Harvard Archives. Containing 86,000 more words than the original 1946 edition, the comrades who contributed to this edition have restored Trotsky’s masterful analysis to its rightful condition.

Get your copy of Trotsky’s Stalin from Wellred Books here: https://wellred-books.com/stalin/ 

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This week’s episode of International Marxist Radio welcomes Ylva Vinberg, leading comrade of Revolution, the Swedish section of the International Marxist Tendency, and Fred Weston, co-author of Wellred Books’ latest publication, Women, Family and the Russian Revolution – available to pre-order now: https://wellred-books.com/women-family-and-the-russian-revolution/

To mark International Working Women’s Day, this episode focuses on the Marxist position on the struggle for women’s liberation, and the positive example embodied by the tremendous advances accomplished by the Russian Revolution.

Rather than ignoring the question of women’s liberation, or delaying it until some distant time after the revolution, Marxists take an active interest in fighting for emancipation. Combatting women’s oppression, therefore, is not a secondary issue, but rather forms a vital part of the class struggle.

We would also like to draw readers’ and listeners’ attention to Women, Family and the Russian Revolution by John Roberts and Fred Weston, which is now available from Wellred Books. This book provides fascinating insights into the radical measures taken by the Bolsheviks to emancipate women after the Russian Revolution. These measures transformed women’s access to abortions, healthcare, education and many other basic rights that are yet to be generalised even 100 years later under capitalism.

Pre-order your copy of Women, Family and the Russian Revolution now: https://wellred-books.com/women-family-and-the-russian-revolution/

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This week’s episode of International Marxist Radio (IMR) welcomes back Jorge Martin – this time to speak about the continuing war in Ukraine, which recently passed the one-year anniversary mark.

The war has caused untold misery, not just for people caught in the conflict, but also for millions of workers around the world, as energy and food prices have shot up to intolerable levels, under a capitalist crisis aggravated by the war.

The deluge of propaganda from the ruling class has been deafening, with many on the so-called left falling shamefully behind their respective imperialist camps

As Jorge explains, the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) has maintained an internationalist position from the beginning, opposing this war and supporting the independent struggle of the working class against the warmongers.

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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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