Marxist Voice

Jorge Martin of the Hands Off Venezuela campaign discusses the ongoing attempted coup, which is being aggressively pushed by US imperialism.

Washington has stepped up it's efforts this week to oust the democratically elected government of Venezuela. They are now going for broke in an attempt to remove President Maduro.

As Jorge explains, whatever one's views of the Maduro government, this is an illegitimate and undemocratic attempt at regime change by Trump and his reactionary allies.

It is therefore the duty of all socialists, internationalists, and consistent democrats to oppose and condemn this imperialist intervention, and to offer solidarity to the revolutionary masses in Venezuela.

We must unite and shout: hands off Venezuela!

On 15th January 1919, Rosa Luxemburg - one of the main leaders of the German Revolution - was brutally murdered by reactionary state forces, depriving the working class of one of its greatest fighters.

To commemorate Luxemburg's life, we republish here a video from an IMT school in London in 2014, where Marie Frederiksen (editor of the Danish Marxist newspaper Revolution) discusses the real revolutionary history, ideas, and traditions of Rosa Luxemburg, drawing out the valuable lessons we can learn for today.

In this talk from the 2018 Revolution Festival, Hamid Alizadeh (editor of www.marxist.com) looks at the ideas of Georg Hegel, the German thinker who resurrected the philosophy of dialectics.Dialectics, as Hamid outlines, is a philosophy that explains change, motion, and development. In this respect, Hegel's ideas provided a profound leap from the mechanical and rigid outlook of those who preceded him.Hegel's dialectics were the basis for the revolutionary philosophy of Marxism - dialectical materialism. But in order to make sense of Hegel, Marx and Engels had to turn him upside down, taking his philosophy from the realm of idealism to that of materialism.With this method, Marx revolutionised philosophy, history, and economics, providing the tools with which we can not only interpret the world, but fundamentally change it.

Alan Woods, editor of In Defence of Marxism, discusses the magnificent gilets jaunes movement in France, which has exploded out of nowhere to land a blow against the ruling class.

Ever since his election as president in May 2017, Emmanuel Macron has been held up as a poster boy for liberalism by the European establishment.

Liberals everywhere proclaimed that Macron's electoral victory represented a turning of the tide for the centre ground against the encroachment of populism and extremism.

But the massive and militant yellow vests movement has shattered this delusion, demonstrating that there is a profound anger amongst workers and youth towards the broken status quo of inequality and austerity that the 'Jupiterian' President and the gilded elite defend.

The task now is for the movement to develop a political strategy: for a new French Revolution to overthrow the ancien regime of the Macron government.

Alan Woods, editor of In Defence of Marxism, discusses the historic political crisis taking place in Britain, as the Tory Prime Minister's fate hangs in the balance.

As Alan notes, the UK was once considered one of the most stable countries in the world. But now it is a source of enormous instability for world capitalism.

And the crisis is not confined to Britain. May, Macron, and Merkel are all facing huge difficulties at home, as the broken status quo collapses around them. Only the call for a socialist Europe can offer a way forward.

Money, the Bible says, is the "root of all evil". Under capitalism, it dominates over us, acting - in the words of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - like a "chain of gold".But money has evolved and changed throughout history: from the early use of precious metals, to the modern day network of cash, credit, and cryptocurrencies. And the more complex the money system becomes, the more removed and mysterious it seems.In this talk, Adam Booth - author of Understanding Marx's Capital - discusses the development of money over the centuries (and millennia), analysing its role in capitalist society, and explaining how we can break free from its shackles.

In this talk from the recent Revolution Festival, Jorge Martin discusses a new book co-authored by himself and John Roberts, which explores the application of Leon Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution to the experiences of Latin America.

Trotsky's theory explained how the capitalists in the colonial countries could not play a progressive role, but would instead be a barrier in the fight for agrarian reform, parliamentary democracy, and national independence.

In their new book, John Roberts (author of "China: from Permanent Revolution to Counter-Revolution") and Jorge Martin (of the International Marxist Tendency) discuss how this theory can be applied to Latin America and the anti-imperialist struggles that have taken place across the continent over the past 60 years.

In particular, Jorge discusses the examples of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, comparing and contrasting the different revolutionary processes - each of which, in their own way, provide a validation of the correctness of Trotsky’s ideas.

Buy your copy of "Permanent Revolution in Latin America" today from Wellred Books:

https://wellredbooks.net/permanent-revolution-in-latin-america.html

In February 1918, the UK Representation of the People Act was brought in, giving the right to vote to women with property over the age of 30.In November of the same year, women in the UK were allowed to stand for parliament for the first time. In December, women voted for the first time in a British general election.Ten years later, women gained electoral equality with men, as the franchise was extended to all women over the age of 21.These achievements came on the back of a militant struggle from the Suffragettes, who were renowned for their methods of direct action. But did these tactics help or hinder the movement for votes for women?100 years since women won the right to vote, Natasha Sorrell discusses this turning point in history and the continuing struggle for real equality today.

Jorge Martin, editor of América Socialista and writer for In Defence of Marxism, discusses the results of Sunday's presidential elections in Brazil, where the far-right candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, won with 55% of the vote.

As Jorge explains, Bolsonaro is an extremely reactionary politician, who will go on the offensive against the working class and the oppressed. But his election does not represent a rise of fascism in Brazil. Rather, it reflects the hatred towards the establishment and the broken status quo.

The blame for Bolsonaro's victory lies at the feet of the PT, who have been thoroughly discredited through years of carrying out austerity and attacks on the working class whilst in government.

Above all, this election will mark a political turning point in Brazil, leading to increased social turbulence and an intensification of the class struggle, as workers mobilise and organise to defend themselves against this new reactionary government.

Alan Woods - editor of In Defence of Marxism - discusses the barbaric crimes of the monstrous Saudi regime in the wake of their recent murder of a critical journalist.

This rotten regime is responsible for exporting wars, oppression, exploitation, and terrorism across the world. In Yemen, for example, they are carrying out daily atrocities, bombing and starving the population into submission - all with the help of the British and American governments.

The labour movement must expose the brutal actions of the Saudi monarchs and the hypocritical support they receive from Western imperialism.