Marxist Voice

In our latest episode of Marxist Voice, Adam Booth - editor of www.socialist.net - looks back at the last week's chaotic events, and discusses the bold socialist steps that are needed to address the covid-19 pandemic.

Boris Johnson's has shown that he is completely incapable of tackling the coronavirus crisis. His government has been continually behind the curve, unable to get a grip on the situation, precisely at a time when decisive action is required.

Instead of providing reassurance, the Prime Minister veers between callous comments and jocular remarks - reflecting the whole out-of-touch establishment that he represents.

Under pressure, the Tories have now pledged to pump billions into the economy to save bankrupt businesses and households. But this is not enough. We need nationalisation and a plan of production - to take control of the economy so that urgent measures can be carried through to protect workers and the vulnerable.

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In this recent live-streamed talk, Fred Weston - editor of www.marxist.com - discusses the explosive developments surrounding the global coronavirus outbreak, which has wrought havoc on society.

The COVID-19 pandemic has provoked a severe economic and social crisis. The stock markets have plummeted; panicked people are bulk-buying supplies; and governments are scrambling to respond.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has bluntly informed the population: "your loved ones will die". At the same time, it is clear that the Tory government has no clue how to tackle the epidemic and its fallout.

As Fred explains, the virus is ultimately the trigger for a global crisis of capitalism, bringing all the existing accumulated contradictions to the fore.

This pandemic is exposing the rottenness of the capitalist system worldwide, and is preparing the way for a furious backlash from the masses in the period ahead.

As the covid-19 pandemic spreads, Hamid Alizadeh (editor of www.marxist.com) discusses how capitalism and the ruling class are completely incapable of addressing the crisis.

Healthcare systems across the world are overstretched and underfunded, decimated by years of austerity. Working-class families - already struggling to make ends meet - now face months of uncertainty about where their next paycheque will come from. And financial contagion threatens to spread, as households and businesses default on debts.

Desperate to keep production going, and profits flowing, big business politicians are dragging their heels. The measures proposed by world leaders such as Donald Trump and Boris Johnson are completely inadequate for tackling the epidemic.

We need to plan and take bold socialist measures to stop the virus and its impacts. But capitalism is anarchy; it is barbarism. It is, in the words of Lenin, 'horror without end'.

This crisis, however, will have a dramatic effect on consciousness, as anger accumulates amongst workers against the out-of-touch establishment and elites. This, Hamid explains, will have revolutionary consequences for the period ahead.

In this talk from the Revolution Festival, Nigel Warren provides an introduction to Marxist economics - discussing why capitalism goes into crisis, and explaining why socialism is the only way forward.

It is over a decade now since the economic crash of 2008. And with the coronavirus pandemic paralysing production, and stock markets tumbling once again, a new slump is about to hit.

The epidemic is not the cause of the crisis, however, but merely its trigger; the historical 'accident' that exposes the 'necessity' of the system's contradictions. The real cause of capitalist crisis, as Nigel outlines, is overproduction.

The defenders of capitalism have no answers or solutions. By their own admission, the economic ideas they put forward have proven useless at best, and harmful at worst.

Over 150 years since Karl Marx first published Capital, it remains the only work that comprehensively explains the workings of the capitalist system - and why it must be overthrown.

In this talk from Revolution Festival 2019, Natasha Sorrell introduces Engels' ideas about the origins of the family, explaining how these show that the oppression of women is not natural or permanent, but something that can and must be ended as part of the struggle for socialism.

In 1884, Engels published his classic of historical materialism, The Origins of the Family, Private Property and the State. This seminal book was based upon the revolutionary work of American anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan, whose studies revealed something not understood in the West at the time - that most of human history did not consist of class societies, but classless ones.

Engels linked these findings to the materialist view of history: that, as human society develops, it does not remain the same in its structures or ideas.

One particularly important part of Engels' theory - which has been confirmed many times since - is that early human societies not only lacked class divisions, but were also free of any inequality between the sexes. Indeed, such societies were typically matriarchal.

Today, the oppression of women under capitalism is clear. Mass movements are erupting across the world around issues such as the gender pay gap, femicide, and abortion rights. Engels ideas, Natasha explains, are therefore more relevant than ever in the fight for women's emancipation and socialism.

In this talk from Revolution Festival, Fiona Lali - national organiser of the Marxist Student Federation - outlines the ideas of historical materialism: the Marxist theory that provides a scientific explanation for how change and development occurs in society.

"The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle." So begins the Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels.

Rather than trying to make society conform to a timeless ideal, or to discover some fixed ‘human nature’, Marxists see society as a process, evolving through stages of development, driven forward by the struggle between the exploiters and the exploited.

Ultimately, it is not morality or our ideas that determine the structure and dynamics of society, but economic conditions.

Importantly, as Fiona explains, by studying the past we can understand how to bring about a socialist future.

In this talk from the Revolution Festival 2019, Niklas Albin Svensson (writer for In Defence of Marxism) discusses why revolutionaries must oppose any repression of migrants and refugees, and fight instead for workers of all countries to unite.

Anti-immigrant rhetoric and far-right parties have risen in recent years on the back of the refugee crisis and the crisis of capitalism. In Britain and elsewhere, right-wing governments are whipping up xenophobia and nationalism in an attempt to divert attention from their programmes of austerity and attacks on the working class.

Liberal commentators have blamed this on the idea that the working class is, itself, racist. Some within the labour movement have unfortunately also succumbed to this view, arguing that the left must adapt and argue in favour of migration controls, under the pretext of 'protecting the jobs and wages' of native workers.

But this approach is directly the opposite of what is required. Anything that divides workers on the basis of nationality, race, or religion only distracts from where the real blame lies: the bosses and the capitalist system. Only on the basis of united organisation and struggle can workers from all countries effectively fight against the capitalists and their attacks.

In our latest podcast, Ben Curry (Socialist Appeal editorial board) discusses the results of the recent general elections in Ireland, which have dealt a shattering blow to the Irish establishment and the two-party system.

In the past, liberal commentators superficially asserted that Ireland had escaped the political turbulence that has rocked the rest of Europe. But no longer. Now Ireland had caught up with a bang.

With Sinn Fein coming out on top, the election results are a political earthquake that has shaken the Irish ruling class. Sinn Fein's victory was achieved on the basis of a programme of left-wing, class-based demands, which found an echo amongst workers and youth, who are tired of sky-high rents and crumbling public services.

At the same time, Sinn Fein's rise now puts the question of a border boll and Irish reunification firmly back on the agenda. A new period of instability and intense class struggle now lies ahead in Ireland - one in which the masses will rediscover the revolutionary traditions of James Connolly and socialist Republicanism.

In this talk from Revolution Festival 2019, Helena Nicholson of the LSE Marxist society discusses the climate catastrophe facing the planet, and the need for a revolutionary alternative.

The question of climate change has become the burning issue of our era, as a result of the fires, floods, hurricanes, and droughts that have devastated communities across the world. Urgent action is required; and yet world leaders have proven that they are incapable of taking any serious steps to address this existential environmental crisis.

At the same time, millions of young people have taken to the streets as part of the 'Fridays for Future' movement. And left-wing political demands to fight climate change have found an echo - most notably with the proposal for a 'Green New Deal' from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the USA, and Labour's call for a 'Green Industrial Revolution' in the UK.

It is clear that capitalism is killing the planet. Immediate and radical action is needed. But how can workers and students link together to fight against the climate crisis? And what is the socialist answer to capitalism's destruction of the earth?

In this talk from Revolution Festival 2019, Shaun Morris discusses the period known as ‘The Troubles’ in the North of Ireland, which began just over 50 years ago when British troops were sent onto the streets of Derry.

In the decades that followed, thousands lost their lives as a result of sectarian violence, whipped up by the British ruling class and Unionist hardliners to divide working-class communities. On the other side, the IRA’s strategy of bombing and terrorism led the Republican movement into a complete impasse.

The Troubles were only brought to end decades later with the Good Friday Agreement. But, until recently, this power-sharing arrangement lay dead in the water. And whilst the Stormont Assembly has recently been revived, the spectre of sectarianism remains, threatening to rear its ugly head once again as a result of the crisis of capitalism.

In the Republic of Ireland, meanwhile, elections are taking place this weekend and Sinn Féin is leading in the polls. This will put the question of a border poll firmly on the agenda. But, as Shaun explains, only the fight for a Socialist United Ireland can offer a way forward for the working class.