Communism is often presented by its enemies as being at best uninterested in art and culture, and at worst openly hostile to anything but the crudest propaganda. This is completely at odds with the approach of Lenin and the Bolsheviks, and genuine communists today. The Russian Revolution ushered in an explosion of artistic creativity, which for the first time was unshackled from the constraints of class society. This is the legacy that communists must defend.

Last Friday, the world was shocked and horrified by reports of an appalling massacre at a packed concert venue in Moscow. According to the latest reports at the time of writing, at least 137 people were killed in this barbaric attack. Men, women and children were slaughtered indiscriminately by a group of gunmen who showed no mercy.

On the weekend 15-17 March, the founding congress of the Revolutionary Communist Organisation (RCO) was held in Madrid. This was a historic milestone for several reasons: we had the largest presence and participation of any previous congress; we launched a new organisation; and the comrades came out more determined than ever to build the forces of communism in the Spanish state and around the world.

The 10 March deadline for the attack on Rafah has come and gone, and there is no attack yet. Could it be that Netanyahu is having second thoughts? The answer to that is clearly, no. The Israeli government is manoeuvring under pressure from outside, in particular from the US administration, while at the same time being internally divided. Is the US pressure due to humanitarian concerns on the part of Biden? The answer, again, is no. The US continues to support Israel in its genocidal onslaught on the Palestinian people, as testified by its increased military aid. So why the delay in the attack?

This June, revolutionary communists from around the globe will be meeting in Italy to found a new Revolutionary Communist International (RCI), as the banner for organising communists for world socialist revolution. You too can participate by signing up online. But in order to participate fully, we are asking for something from you: politically prepare for the event. We have prepared reading lists for all 15 sessions. But first we want to answer a question: we intend this International to become a worldwide party of revolutionary action. Why then do we need a reading list?

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back (The Crisis in Our Party) sees Lenin analysing the fallout of the Second Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). The 1903 Congress saw the famous split emerge in the Russian workers’ movement between Bolshevism and Menshevism. However, the split didn’t initially concern differences in politics and perspectives, erupting over seemingly secondary organisational questions. Only in subsequent years, particularly around the 1905 Revolution, would those differences become sharply apparent, culminating in a formal and final split between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks in 1912.

It was an event that was nothing short of historic: more than 100 comrades from 16 local branches of Revolutionære Socialister – the Danish section of the International Marxist Tendency – gathered from 15 to 17 March for the organisation’s annual congress. Following in-depth discussions about the deep crisis of capitalism and the growing appetite for communist ideas among the younger generations, the congress decided to found the Revolutionary Communist Party at a conference in October.

Lenin, Trotsky and the Bolsheviks created the most revolutionary party that the world has ever seen. But is the building of a communist party still a relevant task for today? The role of the party in the struggle to overthrow capitalism is a fundamental question that all thinking communists must understand.

Communists are often slandered by our enemies as wanting to violently suppress and ‘ban’ religion. But this crude caricature bears no resemblance to a real Marxist approach. In this week's episode we look at the genuine Marxist attitude towards religion.

The Portuguese snap elections of 10 March were a political earthquake. The left and centre-left parties that dominated the country’s politics for almost ten years have suffered a painful defeat. The conservative Democratic Alliance (AD) won the elections, although by a very narrow margin. The real victor was the far-right party Chega, which more than doubled its share of the vote. Impressionists warn this heralds a turn to the right in Portuguese society. However, these results are a harbinger of instability and of major class battles to come.

A gang-led coup in Haiti has led to the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry. US imperialism is scrambling to regain control of the situation and has organised negotiations to create a transitional council to take power. But with the Haitian state in utter disarray, the gangs are moving to solidify their control of the capital Port-au-Prince.

On January 6, 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft were grounded after a door plug blew from one of the planes’ fuselages over Oregon during an Alaska Airlines flight. No passengers were seriously injured this time, but in at least three prior incidents, problems on Boeing planes ended in fatal disaster. Why? The Boeing bosses play dice with the lives of aircrews and passengers, all for the sake of profit. The reckless aviation giant’s history of missing or faulty parts, suppression of safety protocols, and utter negligence is only one symptom of a much larger decay in capitalist production.

The Dawn of Everything, by the anarchist anthropologist, David Graeber, and archaeologist, David Wengrow, has been widely promoted as a radical new vision of human history both in the mainstream press and on the left. In this article Joel Bergman subjects this work to a rigorous Marxist critique, and exposes the fatal flaws inherent in the authors’ idealist view of historical development.

In 1901, Lenin published his much awaited book, What is to be Done? This masterpiece of Marxist literature is an unparalleled handbook for anyone wanting to build a Bolshevik party, for anyone serious about the struggle to overthrow capitalism today. In this article, we explain what gives this book its enduring power, and why every communist should conquer this text today.

A recent New York Times article, “based on more than 200 interviews, current and former officials in Ukraine, the United States and Europe” has laid bare some aspects of US imperialism’s intervention in Ukraine. It details a collaboration between the CIA and Ukrainian intelligence services stretching back to the aftermath of the 2013-4 Euromaidan movement, and continuing up to the present war, including the construction of 12 “forward operating bases constructed along the Russian border.”

Since the collapse of Chinese real estate conglomerate Evergrande, the second-biggest economy in the world entered a slow-motion crisis that has expanded into other sectors. This crisis has now reached the sphere where the debts are issued: the banks.

Revolutionary times call for revolutionary solutions. Capitalism is driving society off a cliff. With mass poverty, environmental destruction, war, and genocide—this system has to go. That is why the Canadian section of the International Marxist Tendency is founding the Revolutionary Communist Party!

Yesterday, the International Marxist Tendency proudly published the Manifesto of the Revolutionary Communist International: a call to arms for all communists who want to put an end to the rotten capitalist system once and for all. If you agree with our analysis, register now for the founding conference of the RCI in June, and help us build an organisation in the traditions of Leninism and Bolshevism. This episode of Spectre of Communism podcast welcomes Alan Woods, who was instrumental in drafting the document, to introduce the Manifesto.

The PNP and JLP went head-to-head in local elections on 26 February for the first time in eight years. But rather than an eagerness from voters to cast their votes, turnout was Jamaica’s lowest ever at barely 29 percent. This is a clear rejection of not just the PNP and JLP, but the whole rotten edifice of Jamaican capitalist ‘democracy’.

The following manifesto is of utmost importance to the world communist movement. We call on all our readers to study it thoroughly and give it the widest possible circulation. It was approved unanimously by the International Secretariat of the IMT and will constitute the founding document of a new Revolutionary Communist International, which will be launched in June of this year.