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Against the Stream

Gaza, Ukraine and world relations

On the 11 October, comrades Jorge Martín and Hamid Alizadeh of the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International recorded a special podcast episode on Gaza, Ukraine and world relations. Instead of our regular format, this one addresses the burning questions of the day in a slightly different format.

Click here to listen now on Twitter Spaces.

The comrades have taken a selection of articles from mainstream newspapers, in order to pick apart the real interests and processes at play in an increasingly stormy world situation.

These include: a piece exposing the barbarism that imperialism has created in Gaza from the New York Times, a rarity on account of the self-censorship of the western press; an insane inversion of reality in the Middle East from the Daily Telegraph, in which Iran is made out to be the aggressors in the region and an existential threat to mankind, whilst Israel and the West are painted as doves; and figures from the Ukrainian outlet Strana that reveal, despite all the propaganda from the Zelensky regime and the West, that the Ukrainian forces are on the brink of collapse.

This podcast was streamed via Twitter Spaces, and at this stage is something of an experiment. Since the launch of the Spectre of Communism podcast and the readers’ survey in the summer, we’ve had a lot of enthusiastic feedback about our audio-visual content. Further feedback on this type of more conversational podcast by our readers and listeners would be most welcome.

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Spectre of Communism

What is ‘woke’? Culture war vs. class war

Around the world, the capitalist establishment is increasingly obsessed with the so-called ‘Culture War’, with conservative journalists and politicians scaremongering about the ‘woke agenda’, while liberals drape rainbow flags on war and austerity and call it ‘liberation’. How can communists cut through this reactionary nonsense and get to the heart of the issues facing us today?

To answer this question, this week’s episode of Spectre of Communism Podcast welcomes Yola Kipcak, a leading member of Der Funke, the Austrian section of the Revolutionary Communist International. Yola explains why communists oppose the toxic division sown by identity politics, and instead fight for a class-based approach to fighting for the liberation of humanity.

For more from Yola on how communists should fight for liberation, read her article “Marxism vs Queer Theory” here: https://marxist.com/marxism-vs-queer-theory.htm

For a longer read on this topic, we recommend the Revolutionary Communist International’s document from 2018, “Marxism vs Identity Politics”: https://marxist.com/marxist-theory-and-the-struggle-against-alien-class-ideas.htm

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Spectre of Communism

Israel invades Lebanon: fight war, fight imperialism!

The situation in the Middle East is escalating dramatically. Israel’s current invasion of Lebanon has sent shockwaves throughout the region and represents a further step towards the outbreak of a region-wide conflict, risking open war with Iran. As the Middle East grows more unstable, communists need a clear understanding of these events and what we can do to fight against militarism and imperialism wherever we are.

This week’s episode of Spectre of Communism Podcast welcomes Fred Weston, from the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International. Fred discusses recent events in Israel’s escalating military campaign, and explains the need for communists to fight for the real interests of workers and youth, which has nothing to do with the hypocritical warmongering of the ruling class internationally.

For further reading on Israel’s war on Lebanon, we recommend this article published on 1 October: https://www.marxist.com/israel-invasion-of-lebanon-starts-fight-war-fight-imperialism.htm

For more from Fred on recent events in the Middle East, we recommend his latest article on the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah: https://www.marxist.com/the-killing-of-nasrallah-netanyahu-is-provoking-iran-to-enter-war.htm

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Spectre of Communism

State surveillance, fake boyfriends and blacklisting: police infiltration exposed – feat. SpyCops Info Podcast

For decades, undercover police officers with Britain’s Metropolitan Police systematically infiltrated numerous political organisations, posing as activists. These SpyCops not only gathered information on supposed enemies of the state, but went as far as entering romantic relationships and even having children with political activists, in order to maintain their cover.

A public inquiry into the outrageous and despicable behaviour of these Spy Cops has been underway since 2015, revealing the depths that the British state is willing to sink to, in order to defend its interests.

This episode of Spectre of Communism Podcast welcomes Tom Fowler, presenter of The Spycops Info Podcast, as well as Jorge Martin from marxist.com’s editorial board, to discuss the details of the case and what it shows about the role of the police in the capitalist state.

For more on the ongoing SpyCops inquiry, check out Spycops Info Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Ro2fbJDChepIcpCgz48x5 

Also on Twitter: @SpyCopsInfo

Follow Tom Fowler on twitter: @tombfowler

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Spectre of Communism

Israel, Ukraine and the threat of World War Three

Are we on the edge of a third World War? The Spectre of Communism podcast is back for a new season. Our first episode welcomes Hamid Alizadeh, a leading comrade of the Revolutionary Communist International (RCI), to discuss the two central conflicts in the world today: the Middle East and Ukraine, and the madmen driving them forward.

We are in a period of wars, revolutions and counter-revolutions. As we release this episode, Israel has unleashed a mass terror attack in Lebanon in an attempt to drag the US into a wider Middle Eastern war. Zelensky is also trying to get the US involved in a direct clash with nuclear-armed Russia. 

The main imperialist powers could stop both of these wars tomorrow by withdrawing their support. They don’t really want an all-out clash: it would be bad for business. And yet, they drag us closer and closer to the brink. How are we to explain the insanity of the ruling class? As Hamid explains, their actions are symptoms of a senile system, which must be put to an end.

At the same time trillions of dollars are wasted on the arms industry, countless people are condemned to poverty and starvation. Capitalism is squandering the world’s plentiful resources on tools for death and destruction. This is why the RCI has launched a new campaign against imperialism and militarism, because only a war against the billionaires and the bosses can ensure a real, lasting peace for the masses. 

Read the RCI’s statement launching this campaign here: https://www.marxist.com/fight-imperialism-and-war-workers-of-the-world-unite-rci-statement.htm

#BooksNotBombs #CommunismPodcast

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School of Communism

Building the revolutionary party

Our International has made huge advances in the past year. From our tremendously successful ‘Are You A Communist’ campaign, to our bold work in the Palestine solidarity movement, to comrade Fiona Lali’s massively successful election campaign in Britain. 

On top of that, we have swelled our ranks, and are founding Revolutionary Communist Parties all over the world. We can truly say that the communists have arrived!

In this episode, the culmination of our founding conference, Hamid Alizadeh from our global leadership gives an inspiring report of our work in the last period, before formally announcing the founding of the Revolutionary Communist International!

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School of Communism

How can the communists conquer the masses?

Communists place a great deal of importance on education and theoretical study, but that doesn’t mean we confine ourselves to small reading groups.

The question of building the revolutionary party is central. Once a small revolutionary organisation has grown to the size necessary to become a factor in the class struggle, how can the revolutionary party win over the most advanced layer of the youth and the working class? Furthermore, what is a revolutionary crisis, and how can the party conquer the leadership of the working class? Above all, in order to lead the revolution to victory, how can it conquer the support of the masses?

The Revolutionary Communist International aims to organise the most advanced, revolutionary-oriented youth and workers, and train them as communist cadres. While we do so we need to steel all our members with an understanding of how to approach these questions. 

If we succeed in this task, we will be building powerful communist parties around the world.

As Francesco Merli from our international leadership explains in this talk, we must understand the method of Lenin and the Bolsheviks if we want to find a route to the working class, in order to offer direction and a programme when revolutionary struggles eventually, inevitably erupt.

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School of Communism

World revolution or socialism in one country?

Ever since the days of Marx and Engels, communists have understood that the struggle to overthrow capitalism is inherently international.

This reflects the fact that capitalism is a global system, and that the power of the world market can only be overthrown by the planned cooperation of at least several countries, operating on the basis of the most advanced productive forces developed under capitalism.

It was with this in mind that Lenin describes the Russian Revolution as only the start of the world proletarian revolution.

However, after Lenin’s death in 1924, Stalin put forward the idea of ‘socialism in one country’, which marked a fundamental departure not only from the internationalism of Lenin, but from Marxism itself.

In this talk, Josh Holroyd from the RCI’s international leadership will explain why socialism in one country is impossible, and how the adoption of this false idea contributed to some of the worst catastrophes ever suffered by the world workers’ movement.

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School of Communism

Why we need a theory of history

We communists have set ourselves the task of changing the course of world history. For that we need a theory of history, how it develops and changes and what role we, as communists, can play in bringing about that change. 

The saying popularly attributed to Henry Ford, that history is “just one damn thing after another” sums up the bourgeois attitude to historical events. Rather than any process or logic, things simply ‘happen’ randomly, or at the whim of a handful of ‘Great Men’. 

By contrast, communists are historical materialists. We see history as driven by the struggle between classes, progressing to higher stages as production methods, culture and thought become increasingly sophisticated. When senile and stagnant societies refuse to change, revolution becomes necessary to break the impasse and move humanity to the next rung. 

As Marie Fredericksen, a leading Danish communist, explains in this talk, we need a scientific understanding of history to draw lessons from the past that can be applied to our struggle for a socialist future. 

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School of Communism

What is imperialism?

As capitalism developed, rich and powerful nations rushed to plunder and carve up the world into markets, colonies, and spheres of influence. In the process, they subjected countless billions to war, enslavement and misery that continues to this day.

Lenin wrote the defining work on the subject, explaining that imperialism represents the highest stage of capitalist development, with the rise of monopolies, finance capital, and the export of capital as defining features.

With a special focus on the rise and relative of decline of US imperialism, John Peterson, a leading communist from the USA, explains these and other features of imperialism – and how it can be dismantled through revolutionary struggle.

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