Category: Theory
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The history of Israel-Palestine to 1993
Trotsky warned in 1940 that the attempt to solve the ‘Jewish problem’ in Europe through the dispossession of the Palestinians would be a “bloody trap”. These words ring true to this very day. But the real history of Israel-Palestine has been buried under mountains of falsification. In this article, Francesco Merli explains the shady dealings…
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Trotsky on the Communist Manifesto
Written in 1847 by Marx and Engels, the Communist Manifesto retains an astonishing vitality today. We publish below an article by Trotsky written in 1937, during the intense crisis of capitalism before WW2, on the occasion of the Manifesto’s 90th anniversary. Capitalism has again entered deep crisis. Today these texts have acquired more relevance than…
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How the Communist International was built
Capitalism is a global system, and the struggle to overthrow it, therefore, has to be global. That explains why since the days of Marx and Engels, Marxists – revolutionary communists – have organised on an international level, from the First International, through to the Second, the Third, and the Fourth.
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Parasitical landlordism and the Marxist theory of rent
Along with bankers and capitalists, the landlord class is especially despised. They are regarded very much as greedy speculators, rack-renting owners, who force up rents at the earliest opportunity and cream off a section of the surplus-value created by the working class. It is clear why disdain for them is rising. In Britain alone, rents…
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Trotsky: Marxism in our time
Written in 1939 as an introduction to an abridgement of Karl Marx’s book Capital, Trotsky’s “Marxism in Our Time” offers a brilliant summary of Marx’s epoch-making discoveries. Using contemporary examples, Trotsky demonstrates how Marx’s analysis of capitalism in its youthful vigour is as valid now, in its period of terminal decline. Like today, when Trotsky…
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In defence of theory – or ignorance never yet helped anybody
The Revolutionary Communists International wages a consistent struggle in defence of Marxist theory. But in doing so, we have addressed not only questions that are obviously connected to the workers’ struggle, but also others (apparently) far removed from it, from cosmology to culture to the class struggle in Roman antiquity. Some so-called ‘Marxists’ have mocked…
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In memory of Leon Trotsky
On 21 August 1940 – 85 years ago today – Leon Trotsky died following an attack by a GPU assassin, on the orders of Stalin, the day before. 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…
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When British troops were sent onto Ireland’s streets
On 14 August 1969, British troops were deployed onto the streets of the North of Ireland. Operation Banner had begun. At the time, some mistakenly believed they were there to bring peace. The Marxists warned they would bring no such thing. Below we republish an article first printed in the In Defence of Marxism magazine…
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James Connolly – A chapter of horrors: Daniel O’Connell and the working class
Daniel O’Connell was born in Kerry 250 years ago as of this week. Hailed in the history books as “The Liberator”, O’Connell’s record in fighting for the oppressed Irish masses is not as straightforward as we are initially made to believe – quite the contrary in fact. We republish today an extract from James Connolly’s…
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Lenin and the importance of the workers’ press
“Out of this spark will come a flame.” Such was the strapline of Lenin’s newspaper Iskra (‘Spark’), which he founded in 1900 with a small group of comrades. How true those words were! Only 17 years later, Lenin and the Bolsheviks led the working class of Russia to power in the world’s first successful socialist…