Categories
Spectre of Communism

Peru: free Castillo! Down with Boluarte!

International Marxist Radio (IMR) will this week be covering recent developments in Peru, which in December saw democratically elected president Castillo deposed by a capitalist coup. Last week’s guest Jorge Martín returns to speak to presenter Joe Attard about the situation in the country – which has been escalating since Castillo’s removal – and what could be next for the movement.

While usurper president Dina Boluarte has doubled down on repression since introducing a state of emergency last month, the workers and peasants have also refused to back down, showing enormous bravery in resisting the illegitimate regime up to this point.

What will happen next? And what can socialists around the world do to support the masses of Peru against this barefaced attack?

Categories
Spectre of Communism

Blood and Gold: Spanish Conquest of the Americas

This week’s episode of International Marxist Radio (IMR) covers a pivotal period in the development of global capitalism: the Spanish conquest of the Americas. Presenter Joe Attard talks to America Socialista editor Jorge Martín about the brutal plunder of the continent, which began 500 years ago, and which set in motion the development of the world market, and the rise of capitalism on the global stage.

The episode also delves into the background of the conquered civilisations – their historical development, class content, and reaction to the European invaders. These included complex and powerful societies such as the Mexica and the Incas, which at one point covered 3,000 square kilometres, with about 12 million inhabitants in total.

The process of primitive accumulation which razed these societies to the ground led Marx to declare: “If money comes into the world with a congenital blood-stain on one cheek, then capital comes dripping from head to toe, from every pore, with blood and dirt.”

The discussion is based on the cover article of issue 40 of the In Defence of Marxism theoretical magazine, available now: https://www.marxist.com/magazine.htm

Categories
International Marxist University

New IMT podcast, International Marxist Radio (IMR), out now! Subscribe today!

Subscribe to International Marxist Radio: a new, weekly podcast series from the IMT. Episode 1, with Alan Woods on world politics at the dawn of 2023, is out now.

Main feed – contains latest episodes and links to all streaming platforms:

https://podcast.marxist.com/

First episode with Alan Woods:

https://www.marxist.com/podcast-imr-1-2023-for-a-revolutionary-new-year.htm

Categories
Spectre of Communism

2023: for a revolutionary new year!

The International Marxist Tendency (IMT) is pleased to announce the launch of its new podcast, International Marxist Radio (IMR). The first episode of this new series features presenter Joe Attard speaking to In Defence of Marxism (IDOM) editor-in-chief Alan Woods. 

They discuss perspectives for the world situation going into 2023: will there be a return to normality for capitalism, or will the class contradictions continue to sharpen, as the bosses’ system lurches from crisis to crisis? Will there be a global recession? Where is the war in Ukraine heading?

Alan delves into the history of capitalism to help explain these processes going on today – and why a socialist revolution is the only way forward for humanity.

Categories
International Marxist University Spectre of Communism

International Marxist Radio: coming Jan 2023!

A new podcast from the International Marxist Tendency (marxist.com). Revolutionary news, theory and analysis every single week, starting Jan 2023. Spread the word with #IMR!

Categories
International Marxist University

Building the Revolutionary Party

Our epoch is characterized by a groundswell of desire for revolution amongst the masses around the world. In many instances we have seen the masses have taken to earth-shaking action to achieve change. Yet as Leon Trotsky explained: “Without a guiding organisation, the energy of the masses would dissipate like steam not enclosed in a piston-box.” The guiding organisation that can channel the steam of the masses is the revolutionary party, and it needs to be built ahead of decisive events.

The depth of the capitalist crisis through which we’re living makes revolutionary leadership more urgent than ever. It’s up to us to build it!

Categories
International Marxist University

Dialectics of nature: Marxism and modern science

The great philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel led a revolution in philosophy by breaking with the mechanical bourgeois materialism, dominant in the Europe of his day, in favour of a worldview that embraced contradiction and constant change. Marx and Engels’ scientific socialism placed Hegel’s ideas on a materialist basis, culminating in the highest accomplishment of philosophy: dialectical materialism.

Today, the most-advanced discoveries and theories in science continually validate Marx and Engels’ ideas. Rather than a world consisting of fixed, discrete, static entities moving in a predictable way for all eternity, or even a gradual shift from one state to another, science increasingly uncovers a cauldron of revolutionary transformation.

From chaos and complexity theory in mathematics, to the Gouldian theory of punctuated equilibrium in evolutionary zoology, to quantum mechanics in physics, the limits of formal logic are being exposed by the march of discovery. Scientists have to reckon with a world where particles behave like waves and vice versa, where matter and energy are equivalent, and species undergo sudden and dramatic flourishes and extinctions. In other words: nature is defined by motion, change and revolution!

Recommended Reading:

Categories
International Marxist University

The US Civil War: the Second American Revolution

The American Revolution of the late 18th century was followed by an even greater, and bloodier, revolution in the 1860s. Usually presented as the American Civil War, it was in reality a revolutionary conflict between the historically progressive industrial capitalism of the North, and the plantation and slave-owning counterrevolution of the South. This clash resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and was followed by the smouldering revolution and counterrevolution of Reconstruction.

The legacy of the Civil War is still felt to this day, particularly in the former slave states. But throughout the entire country, the impact of slavery can be seen in the institutional racism that continues to plague American society. What is needed today is a third revolution that will break with the root source of oppression and exploitation – the capitalist system – and lead to the establishment of socialism in the USA.

Recommended Reading:

Categories
International Marxist University

Oppression, inheritance and private property: Marxism and the family

Engels described the emergence of the patriarchal family as humanity’s first counterrevolution. For hundreds of thousands of years, under conditions of what Engels calls primitive communism, there was no private property, marriage as we know it today did not exist, and there were no classes. But agriculture and the production of a surplus (more resources than was necessary for sheer survival) laid the material basis for a division of labour, and with it the emergence of social classes: exploiters and the exploited.

The burgeoning ruling class needed a way to pass their accumulated wealth to their offspring, down the male line, which in turn necessitated a way of determining paternity and controlling reproduction. The only way that could be done was by demoting women to the position of domination by men. This is the historical basis for marriage in its present form and the family. The family, private property, the state, and class society all have a shared origin. Today, we strive to free human relations from the shackles of coercion and oppression; and put them on a healthy basis under a socialist society.

Recommended Reading:

Categories
International Marxist University

Competition, monopoly and planning: the market vs socialism

The defenders of capitalism like to tell us stories about free competition and the wonders of the market mechanism. But can we really talk about a ‘free’ market, when the world economy is dominated by 500 monopolies?

The development of capitalism has brought into being massive multinational corporations, most of them ‘too big to fail’, as we saw in 2008, when the state intervened to prop up many of them. These companies engage in planning on a massive scale, whilst, of course, claiming that planning is impossible.

Yet, at the same time the world market still maintains its chaotic existence, dominating everything and wreaking havoc across the world. How would socialist planning be different and what advantages do modern technology bring?

Recommended Reading: