Novedades de Marxist.com

$10,000 for the 5th Pan-American Cadre School of the International Marxist Tendency

From 30 November to 3 December, dozens of communists from across the American continent will be gathering in Mexico for the 5th Pan-American Cadre School of the IMT. We are expecting over 100 comrades from Canada, the US, Mexico, El Salvador, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Chile and Argentina will participate in the school, which is being organised around the theme of the life and ideas of Lenin, marking the 100 anniversary of his death in January 1924. The opening rally will take place at the Trotsky House Museum in Mexico City and the rest of the school will be held at a residential venue outside of the Mexican capital.

Right wingers riled by 'Are You a Communist' campaign!

A spectre is haunting right-wing social media. From Denmark to the USA, from Canada to Great Britain, a reactionary online rabble is reeling at the success and ubiquity of the International Marxist Tendency’s ‘Are You A Communist’ campaign. In reply, we say: thank you for the free advertising – and you’re right to fear us! The communists are getting organised, and we aim to bring down your entire system.

USA: capitalism’s cancer treatment crisis

The United States is rife with crises: from the economy to the environment to student debt—and the problems facing workers don’t stop there. The country is now suffering a major shortage of drugs for cancer treatment due to a single manufacturer, Intas, closing its doors. The shortage is so bad that doctors are being forced to ration these drugs. This means many cancer patients are receiving lower-than-ideal doses, delays in receiving their treatments, or substitute medication that can be less effective or have harmful side effects.

Pakistan: nationwide protests against rising cost of electricity

Countrywide protests against extremely costly electricity have erupted in Pakistan during the past few weeks. The protest wave started in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, where students, workers, small traders, intellectuals, political activists and others organised large-scale public protests in various cities. This wave has now swept a nation that was already on the brink of an explosion.

Workers and viewers foot the bill as streaming boom turns to bust

After years of frenzied, debt-fuelled investment into on-demand content, the media industry is now facing an almighty crash, with studio staff, creative workers, and streaming customers paying the price. The chaos of capitalism is to blame.

Are you a communist in the US? Then get organized!

Are you tired of the endless war, poverty, climate disasters, instability, and chaos that capitalism offers? Are you looking to end capitalism once and for all? Are you a communist? Then get organized!

USA: Trump’s mugshot – more turmoil and instability on the horizon

On August 24, Trump was arrested for the third time in recent months, this time in Atlanta, on felony charges stemming from alleged efforts to manipulate Georgia’s vote count during the 2020 election. He was booked, fingerprinted, and photographed in Fulton County Jail. While the Democrats and their liberal hangers-on lauded the mugshot in celebration of bourgeois “justice,” Trump monetized it. Within 24 hours, his campaign raised $4.18 million in political donations and sales of mugshot merchandise. This broke the campaign’s one-day fundraising record and is well over half of the amount raised since he officially announced his candidacy seven months ago. At the time of writing, the figure is now upwards of $9.4 million.

Blood and Gold: the Spanish Conquest of the Americas

When the Spanish arrived in the Americas 500 years ago, they encountered diverse cultures across the continent, including powerful civilisations such as the Mexica and the Incas. This article, first published in issue 40 of In Defence of Marxism magazine (click here to subscribe), takes a look at the material foundations of these rich cultures, their internal contradictions, as well as the conditions of contemporary Spain itself at the time of the conquest. Only by understanding these conditions can we in turn understand the devastation that the conquest wrought, and the wider role of these events in the ascent of capitalism.

China: economic downturn augurs epoch of instability and struggle

The news that Evergrande has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States has sounded the final death knell for China’s real estate industries. A series of corporate defaults, a recession in the real estate market, soaring unemployment and a rapid decline in people's consumption have debunked the ruling Communist Party of China (CCP) regime’s fraudulent claims of a “strong economic recovery” in China.

Europe’s rotten new deal on refugees

The Mediterranean might be a paradise for holidaymakers, but it is simultaneously a graveyard, where at least 27,000 migrants have died in attempted border crossings since records began in 2014. A new EU deal is being touted as the best chance for a more ‘structured’ approach to this ‘problem’: distributing migrants more evenly across the continent. In reality, it will do nothing to alleviate the nightmare, and merely balances the reactionary interests of European powers.

Coup in Gabon: pressure continues to build on the African continent

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, 12 military officers appeared on Gabon’s national television to announce they had cancelled the results of the latest elections, dissolved all state institutions, and closed the country’s borders. This latest military coup against a puppet of French imperialism continues a process that has already seen seizures of power in a number of African countries, including Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.

Green austerity and the climate culture war

Capitalist politicians are increasingly wrapping-up austerity measures in ‘green’ packaging – provoking a backlash amongst ordinary people, and polarising the working class. This article was originally published by our comrades in Britain in the wake of the expansion of London’s Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), which penalises thousands of working-class commuters in the name of protecting the environment.

As Ukraine’s offensive stalls, are negotiations on the agenda?

The failure of Ukraine’s counter-offensive has brought to the fore all the contradictions in the Ukrainian war effort. Disaffection is spreading in the army and among civilians, while at the same time Ukraine’s western allies are getting cold feet and starting to talk about negotiations.

Who killed Prigozhin?

When the news of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s demise hit the headlines yesterday, the usual pundits appeared on our television screens with the alacrity of a flock of vultures, anxious to pick over the bones of a dead animal in the African savannah.

Western imperialism turns a blind eye as Saudi regime massacres migrants

A damning new investigation accuses Saudi Arabia of deliberately slaughtering hundreds of migrants attempting to cross the Saudi-Yemeni border over the past 12 months. The 73-page report, based on extensive eyewitness testimony and expert analysis of satellite imagery, as well as footage of injuries, lists a litany of allegations against Saudi border guards. It describes them as having “used explosive weapons and shot people at close range, including women and children, in a pattern that is widespread and systematic”. 

In Memory of Leon Trotsky

21 August marks the anniversary of Leon Trotsky's death, following an attack by a GPU agent, on the orders of Stalin. This article by Alan Woods, commemorating Trotsky, was originally published in the year 2000. We share it today in memory of a revolutionary titan whose work and sacrifices preserved the authentic traditions of Marxism and Bolshevism for future generations. 

The Assassination of Leon Trotsky

We republish here an account by Sieva 'Esteban' Volkov, Leon Trotsky's grandson, who was present at Coyoacán, Mexico when Trotsky was struck down by a GPU agent on 20 August 1940, passing away the following day. Volkov himself sadly passed away earlier this year, severing one of the last living links to the outstanding revolutionary who, along with Lenin, led the Russian working class to victory in the October Revolution of 1917. Read our editor-in-chief Alan Woods' tribute to Volkov here.

Páginas