As part of the British section of the International Marxist Tendency's series on the historic crimes of Stalinism, and in defence of the genuine ideas of communism, Rob Sewell examines the disastrous ‘Popular Front’ policy in the 1930s, which consigned the revolutionary working class to defeat.

This week in our Lenin in a Year series, we republish a short but punchy article by Lenin, originally written in 1913 for the Bolshevik paper Prosveshcheniye (Enlightenment). In it, Lenin traces the unbroken thread that places Marxism as the successor and synthesis of the most progressive and revolutionary ideas that came before it.

“Blinken was so impatient that he almost snatched the binder out of Kristersson's hands”, is how Swedish bourgeois newspaper Aftonbladet reported on the Prime Minister of Sweden handing over the final NATO signatures to the US Secretary of State. Along with the new Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA), the war hawks in Washington have got all they could ever have hoped for – and more.

Glauber Braga, a left-wing member of the Brazilian parliament for the Party of Socialism and Liberty (PSOL), is currently being threatened and victimised for boldly standing up against provocations from the far-right Free Brazil Movement (MBL). Communists of the International Marxist Tendency give their full solidarity to comrade Glauber Braga, who was absolutely correct to oppose the harassment and bullying of these far-right thugs. 

On Friday 15 March, Colombian President Gustavo Petro took to the streets of Cali. In the speech he delivered on the day, he proposed a constituent assembly as a route out of the various problems his presidency has encountered in attempting to pass the reforms for which he was elected.

It is not often that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the communists agree on something. But the deep crisis of capitalism that we are facing today is an existential threat that cannot be ignored by the most serious strategists of capital. Therefore, the latter are increasingly reaching the same conclusion as Marxists despite coming from the opposite side: that revolution is around the corner.

With uncertainty and instability rocking the real economy globally, gambling investors are once again turning to speculation in search of a quick buck. But the whole of capitalism is a casino. It’s time to overthrow this bankrupt system.

From 22 March to 24 March, the annual national congress of the Austrian section of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) took place. 225 participants discussed the crisis of capitalism, the upswing of the class struggle and the tasks of communists – worldwide and in Austria.

On Saturday 13 April, Iran announced that it had launched an attack on Israel with over 300 drones and missiles. That afternoon, Joe Biden left the comfort of his beach house in Delaware and hurried back to the White House amidst a looming sense of crisis. The same night, the President met with members of the National Security team regarding the unfolding missile attacks in the White House Situation Room. 

The deepening crisis of capitalism is causing immense political instability across the world. In this context, a rise in the number of ‘authoritarian’ and ‘populist’ governments has provoked much discussion over the rise of ‘strongman’ politics. But what exactly does this mean? In this article, Ben Gliniecki considers the nature of the capitalist state and the concept of ‘Bonapartism’, as developed by Marx, in order to answer this question and provide a perspective for the impact of the class struggle on politics today.

Issue 45 of In Defence of Marxism magazine, the quarterly theoretical journal of the International Marxist Tendency, is available to order now! This issue focuses on the revolutionary struggles of the people of the African continent, the crimes of imperialism, and the lessons of the anti-colonial struggles of the postwar period.

This week in Lenin in a Year, we look at one of Lenin’s less well known writings, a major polemic against a trend that Marxists usually refer to as ‘ultraleftism’. The Faction of Supporters of Otzovism and God-Building was written in 1909, and it took up key questions of Marxist tactics and philosophy that an unprincipled ultraleft clique within the Bolshevik faction was seeking to revise.

On 6 and 7 April, communists from across Ireland gathered in Dublin for the founding Congress of the Irish group of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT). We were joined by international visitors from the Revolutionary Communist Party in Britain and the international centre of the IMT. Across the two days 33 people attended from Dublin, Navan, Belfast, Bangor, Derry and Galway, making this by far the largest meeting of the IMT in Ireland to date.

Elections to India’s parliament are starting on 19 April. The reactionary BJP-led Modi government has been in power for two terms, in which time it has failed to meet any of its promises to the masses; it has sold swathes of public property to multinationals; stirred up chauvinist hatred towards minorities and women; and backed Israel’s war of slaughter in Gaza.

Capitalism is polluting the air we breathe, the water we drink and the very food we eat: all in the name of profit. Further evidence of this comes from a review published by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) on 28 February, evaluating the best available research on the effect of ‘ultra-processed food’ (UPF) on our health. This review included 45 studies and almost 10 million participants, and crucially did not include any research funded by the big food companies. The findings are categorical.

In June, the International Marxist Tendency will take the monumental step of founding a new Revolutionary Communist International (RCI), to provide communist workers and youth around the world with a bold rallying point in the struggle to overthrow capitalism. In doing so, the RCI will build on the immense revolutionary legacy left behind by the Third (Communist) International, founded by Lenin and the Bolsheviks as the world party of revolution. Register now for the founding of the RCI!

On the night of Friday 5 April, in a clear violation of international law and bourgeois institutions, President Daniel Noboa ordered his police to invade the Mexican embassy in Quito to arrest former Vice President Jorge Glas, who had been granted political asylum by the Mexican authorities.

On Sunday 31 March, the Turkish masses inflicted the biggest electoral defeat on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since he came to power more than 20 years ago. This was a vote against Erdogan rather than one for the bourgeois opposition, which inspired little enthusiasm. Nonetheless, these elections are symptomatic of a storm of anger that is wearing down Erdogan’s authority. His days could be numbered.

Revolución Comunista [Communist Revolution] is here! On the 23 March, during a Marxist School titled, “Lenin’s life and ideas”, Revolución Comunista was officially launched, a new organisation, which aims to organise communists in El Salvador and which has as its medium-term goal the founding of a Revolutionary Communist Party.

In June, the International Marxist Tendency will be launching a new Revolutionary Communist International, to boldly bear the clean banner of communism on every continent. In this article, Alan Woods explains the historic importance of this step, tracing the rise and fall of previous Internationals and showing the importance of the RCI in the struggle for communism today. Register now for our founding conference!