Marxist Voice

In this podcast, Jules Legendre from Révolution - the French section of the International Marxist Tendency - explains what the Paris Commune was, and the lessons that revolutionaries must draw from it today.

For two months between March and May 1871 the armed workers of Paris, surrounded by enemies on all sides, took their destiny into their own hands and demonstrated that it is possible for the workers to run society democratically, without capitalists, bankers or even a standing army.

In his brilliantly concise and penetrating addresses, written in the heat of the events themselves, Marx succeeds in distilling the experience of the Commune down to its most fundamental elements, drawing out in the process a programme for the revolutionaries of the future. 150 years on, this book remains a priceless resource for the workers of the world.

Pre-order Wellred's brand new edition of Marx's 'The Civil War in France' here: https://wellredbooks.net/the-civil-war-in-france.html

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In this talk from yesterday's meeting on how to end violence against women, we were joined by Natasha Sorrell, an NEU activist and Socialist Appeal supporter, and Karen Campos, an activist in Izquierda Socialista (IMT - Mexico)and the Liga de Mujeres Revolucionarias. Both Natasha and Karen emphasised that it is only by abolishing capitalism that we can begin to build a society free from oppression and violence.

"Killed by the system we're told 'protects' us.” These were the striking words on one placard at Saturday's vigil for Sarah Everard in London – a protest against the daily violence, oppression, and unsafe conditions that women face under capitalism.

In the case of Sarah Everard – and her harrowing murder, allegedly at the hands of a serving police officer – women everywhere see themselves, and the traumatising experiences they live through day-in, day-out as a result of this oppressive system.

Across the world, however, women are rising up against these injustices. From Mexico to Argentina; from Ireland to Poland: women are coming out onto the streets against gender-based violence; against workplace harassment; and against repressive abortion laws – in short, against this oppressive status quo, and against the politicians and police who uphold it.

As the slogan on Saturday's demo stated: the system isn’t protecting us – it is killing us. We need to unite and fight to overthrow this whole rotten, violent, oppressive system.

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In this podcast, James Kilby analyses the Great Depression, a period of crisis that many have compared to the present situation. In both cases, however, it is clear that these crises are not 'accidental', but a necessary product of capitalism's incurable contradictions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a deep economic collapse. The world stands on the verge of a new depression. We must therefore look to the past to understand the present – and the future.

The Wall Street Crash was the spark for the Great Depression of the 1930s. This period provides a stark demonstration of the failure not only of the capitalist system, but also of the Keynesian New Deal – as admitted by even Keynes himself.

Facing mass unemployment and struggling to survive, workers began to fight back. Today, we are entering into a similarly stormy period of crisis, instability and rising class struggle.

However, every historical analogy has its definite limits: there is no precedent for the current capitalist crisis. We must learn the lessons of the 1930s and fight to put an end to capitalism once and for all.

In this talk from our international women's day event, Laurie explains where women's oppression comes from and what we can do to end it.

Marxists understand that women's oppression has not existed forever. Rather, it arose with the rise of class society, which alongside subordinating the majority of people to the will of a few exploiters, also resulted in the origins of the family and the oppression and exploitation from women.

This historical understanding of oppression is crucial - contrary to the beliefs of those who think that the oppression of women is somehow biological or innate. If women's oppression has not existed forever, then it can be overthrown.

Today, despite decades of so called 'progress', nothing has really changed for the vast majority of the world's women. In fact, COVID-19 has turned back the clock on many of the gains of the past period. In the first few weeks of lockdown alone, 14 women were murdered in the UK.

Just as women's oppression arose with class society, so it will only truly disappear with the overthrowal of class society and the end of all exploitation.

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In this talk from last month's MSF conference, Fiona Lali - lead organiser of the MSF - discusses need for leadership in our present-day struggles, and why we should look to the ideas of Lenin and Trotsky as inspiration.

With mass movements taking hold in every corner of the world, it has become clear that the masses possess plenty of energy and initiative. But spontaneous outbursts of anger are only one side of the equation: without a conscious, far-sighted leadership, movements will ebb, enter into decline and be defeated.

But how do we build such a leadership? And what should it be based on? The rich history and traditions of Bolshevism offer us a wealth of lessons in how to build a revolutionary leadership, capable of winning over the masses.

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In this talk, Fiona Lali discusses the importance of remembering the crimes of the ruling class. While almost all African nations have official independence, they have no independence at all from imperialist exploitation. The only way forward is militant struggle against the exploiters of all lands, based on the principles of socialist internationalism.

The idea that the British Empire ‘civilised’ the ‘backward’ and ‘barbarian’ people of Africa is the story rolled out by the apologists of imperialism, even to this day. The brutal reality of colonialism is almost always whitewashed over. Instead, at school and in the news, we are told to take pride in the role “we” played when “Britannia ruled the waves”.

These ideas serve as a useful foundation for the racist and xenophobic ideas that the capitalists deploy today in order to divide the working class and exploit it all the more surely.

The truth is that the wealth of Britain’s capitalist class came from the enslavement of black people and later, the bloodthirsty subjugation of the people of Africa in the 19th century. As Marx wrote, capitalism was born with “blood dripping from every pore”. In a very literal sense, this blood has continued to pour ever since.

Even today we see how the European capitalists continue to plunder Africa, with the mechanisms of world trade stacked against the ex-colonial nations. The most naturally rich continent on the planet continues to be ransacked by the imperialists of the world, breeding misery and poverty for billions.

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In this podcast, we share with you a talk given by Fred Weston - editor of marxist.com - given at the recent Marxist Student Federation Conference, on the perspectives for world revolution in 2021.

As the pandemic drags on and the crisis of capitalism deepens, any illusions in the stability of the current system have been crushed. All around the world, the working class are awakening to the reality of the situation.

In the USA, we have witnessed the seismic Black Lives Matter movement, which took on insurrectionary characteristics. Elsewhere, in places like Tunisia, Algeria, Russia and Haiti, we have seen similar mass movements taking to the streets, burning with anger at governments who offer no way out of the suffering experienced under capitalism.

But where do we go from here? Can we just sit back and let events take care of themselves? Or do we need to actively build a Marxist leadership capable of winning over the masses to a revolutionary programme.

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In this talk, Alan Woods - editor of marxist.com - discusses the relationship between Marxism and art, noting the nature of art under class society and how we can create a world where everyone can express themselves freely through art.

Marxists are sometimes accused of only being interested in pouring over economic data and political analysis; that we have no interest in art and culture. Nothing could be further from the truth.

By striving for the end of capitalism, and freeing men and women from exploitation, we seek to give ordinary workers more time to enjoy and participate in culture, and to raise art to new heights.

Art under capitalism is chained to the profit motive. Culture is a business. And many of humanity’s finest works of art, music, and literature are locked up in private collections or reserved for the wealthy.

Moreover, art has become increasingly shallow and pedestrian, reflecting the crisis of the capitalist system itself. Rather than empowering artists to experiment and develop new ideas, billions are thrown at derivative dross by a shrinking handful of media monopolies. The rot of capitalist society is reflected in a rotten culture.

The solution to art's problems is not to be found in art itself, but in society. In this session, Alan Woods, editor of In Defence of Marxism, will offer a fascinating Marxist analysis of the history of art – pointing the way towards the liberation of art and all human culture from the shackles of capitalism.

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At a meeting of leading members of the International Marxist Tendency at the end of January, Alan Woods (editor of marxist.com) provided an overview of the dramatic events unfolding at the start of 2021. The crisis of world capitalism is causing eruptions, dislocation and class polarisation in one country after another.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to inflict misery and hardship on ordinary people, while the wealthy enrich themselves even further. The ruling class is pumping trillions into the system to keep it afloat, but even if there are short-term recoveries, this will ensure an even-deeper collapse down the line.

The new year barely began before a far-right mob stormed the US Capitol Building in Washington at the urging of former US president, Donald Trump – turning the centre of Western imperialism into the image of a failed state. These events, coupled with the vastly larger BLM protests last summer, show how deep the polarisation of US society has become.

Elsewhere, big protests in India and Russia demonstrate the same process: the masses' resentment is growing, and the ruling class is failing to govern in the old ways. As Alan explains, every road leads to an unprecedented explosion of class struggle on the world stage.

In this context, the task of Marxists is to present a revolutionary socialist alternative to the millions of radicalising workers and youth who are witnessing with their own eyes the total failure of capitalism to provide them with a decent existence.

In this talk, Ben Gliniecki discusses the history of the capitalist state and the police, and why a workers’ state would offer a clear socialist alternative to the repression and violence seen under capitalism.

The ruling class has always tried to give the state and the police an appearance of neutrality and justice – a force for preserving peace and stability. But since 2008, the crisis of capitalism has destroyed the economic and political equilibrium. And the present crisis will make this much worse.

In these conditions, the brutality of the state and its repressive apparatus have become more and more obvious. This real, ugly face of the capitalist state has been plainly revealed by the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent mass movement against police violence in the USA and internationally.

Rather than acting as a force for peace and stability, the state’s “armed bodies of men” – in the words of Friedrich Engels – are provoking radicalisation and revolution.

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