In our latest episode of Marxist Voice, we're joined by Ian Hodson - President of the Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union - who discusses the impact of the pandemic on precarious workers, and the need to fight back against the unscrupulous bosses. Follow us on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Soundcloud: Facebook - Socialist Appeal YouTube - youtube.com/c/SocialistNet1917 Twitter - twitter.com/socialist_app Podcast - soundcloud.com/socialist-appeal
In our latest episode of Marxist Voice, we're joined by Natasha Sorrell - a teacher and NEU activist - who discusses the difficulties and dangers facing essential workers, as the Tory government turns a blind eye to rule-dodging bosses. Follow us on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Soundcloud: Facebook - Socialist Appeal YouTube - youtube.com/c/SocialistNet1917 Twitter - twitter.com/socialist_app Podcast - soundcloud.com/socialist-appeal
In our latest episode of Marxist Voice, Helen O'Connor - former nurse and union organiser for healthcare workers - discusses the desperate situation facing NHS staff, who are on the frontline in the fight against the covid-19 pandemic. Follow us on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Soundcloud: Facebook - facebook.com/SocialistAppeal/ YouTube - youtube.com/c/SocialistNet1917 Twitter - twitter.com/socialist_app Podcast - soundcloud.com/socialist-appeal
In our latest episode of Marxist Voice, Rob Sewell - editor of Socialist Appeal - discusses the global economic crisis that has been triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. What's the scale of the slump? Will the economy ever recover? And how can we get out of the crisis? Watch to find out Rob's thoughts on these questions, and more! Follow us on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Soundcloud: Facebook - facebook.com/SocialistAppeal/ YouTube - youtube.com/c/SocialistNet1917 Twitter - twitter.com/socia...
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 Pri...
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 ...
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 defa...
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 expose...
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...
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 s...
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 at...
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...
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 ex...
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 movemen...
In this talk from Revolution Festival 2019, Fred Weston (editor of www.marxist.com) discusses the crisis in Israel-Palestine, which is back on the agenda thanks to Trump's proposed 'peace plan'. For decades, the conflict in Israel-Palestine has been one of imperialism’s most blatant and persistent acts of oppression. The world watches on as Palestine shrinks and shrinks; settlement after settlement gets built; and bomb after bomb falls on innocent men, women, and children. But, as Marx said, a n...
In this talk from the main rally at Revolution Festival 2019, Alan Woods - editor of In Defence of Marxism - discusses his new book on the revolutionary movement that overthrew the Franco regime in Spain in the 1970s. Based on his own personal experiences and involvement, Alan explains how the movement to overthrow the Franco regime was a modern-day revolution, with the working class providing the motor force for change. And as with any revolutionary movement, Alan discusses, this period is full...
In this talk from last year's Revolution Festival, Daniel Morley (writer for Socialist Appeal) looks back at the events leading up to the 1949 Chinese Revolution, explaining why the revolution played out as it did, and discussing the process that has unfolded since: from revolution to Tiananmen to capitalism. After the 1917 Russian Revolution, as Daniel discusses, the Chinese Revolution of 1949 is the most significant event in history. Fighting first Japanese occupation and then Chiang Kai-shek'...
Hamid Alizadeh, editor of www.marxist.com, discusses the recent confrontation between American and Iran, and explains why the left and the labour movement must oppose US imperialist aggression. The current sabre-rattling, as Hamid states, escalated on 3 January with the killing of the Iranian military general, Qassem Soleimani - one of the top figures in the Iranian regime. This was a clear provocation by Trump, designed as a chest-beating exercise to distract from the problems the US President ...
Alan Woods - editor of In Defence of Marxism - analyses last week's UK election results, explaining the real reasons behind Labour's dramatic defeat. In doing so, Alan answers the lies of the establishment media and the Blairites, who have falsely attempted to place all the blame for Labour's election loss on Jeremy Corbyn. In reality, however, it is not Corbynism that has failed, but Blairism, liberalism, and the centre ground. The areas that have abandoned Labour are those that have been left ...
In this talk from Revolution Festival 2019, Adam Booth - editor of www.socialist.net - compares and contrasts the economic ideas of Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, and MMT. The crash of 2008 brought all the established neoliberal economic ideas into question. As Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman told an audience at the London School of Economics in the wake of the financial crisis: “Most work in macroeconomics in the past 30 years has been useless at best and harmful at worst.” Over a d...
In this talk from Revolution Festival 2019, Ben Curry (of the Socialist Appeal editorial board)discusses the Marxist philosophy of dialectical materialism and its application to the natural world. Dialectics is a philosophy of change, explaining that all matter is in a state of motion and flux. But how does this change take place? Using a number of examples from science - from thermodynamics, to evolution, to chaos theory - Ben demonstrates one of the basic principles of dialectics: that change ...
In this talk from Revolution Festival 2019, Jorge Martin - editor of American Socialista and writer for www.marxist.com - discusses the recent revolutionary developments in Latin America, including in Chile, Ecuador, and Haiti. Until recently, commentary about Latin American politics was full of pessimism and talk about a swing to the right, with the election of the Macri and Bolsonaro governments in Argentina and Brazil, respectively; and with Trump's attempted coup against the Maduro governmen...
In this talk from the recent Revolution Festival, Marie Frederiksen - editor of the Danish Marxist paper 'Revolution' - discusses the impact of the Berlin Wall, which was broken apart 30 years ago, on 9th November 1989. This marked the beginning of the end for the Stalinist regimes of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Subsequently, liberal commentators declared that these events marked the final victory of capitalism over Communism. As Marie explains, however, what collapsed was not genuine C...
Speaking at a day school in Manchester earlier this year, Josh Holroyd of Socialist Appeal discusses the events surrounding the Peterloo massacre of 16th August 1819, when thousands of protestors demanding political rights were brutally repressed by local representatives of the ruling class. As Josh explains, the Peterloo massacre marked a turning point for the working class in England. In the years that followed, powerful trade unions were forged in order to fight back against the attacks of th...
Alan Woods, editor of In Defence of Marxism, discusses the current contest between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt to succeed Theresa May as leader of the Conservative Party. As Alan highlights, it is a farce of democracy that a 160,000-strong reactionary rabble of Tory members will decide who becomes the next Prime Minister. Whilst the Tory leadership candidates out-compete each other over Brexit, the right wing of the Labour Party are once again ramping up their efforts to undermine Jeremy Corby...
Daniel Morley, writer for Socialist Appeal, discusses the mass movement that is taking place in Hong Kong against the repressive extradition law. Millions have participated in the protests against the newly proposed extradition bill - this in a city of around 7.5 million. This shows the scale of the anger that exists towards the Hong Kong government, and the Beijing regime that stands behind them. Hong Kongers are rightly terrified of seeing their democratic rights torn to shreds, as Xi Jinping ...
Hamid Alizadeh, writer for In Defence of Marxism, discusses the increasing friction between the USA and Iran, with Washington accusing the Tehran regime of attacking two oil tankers and shooting down an American drone. The US President, with the support of belligerent influential figures like John Bolton, has escalated tensions and threatened military strikes in retaliation. But he has been forced to pull back, for now. It is clear that the bellicose Trump administration, along with their reacti...
Fred Weston, editor of www.marxist.com, discusses the revolutionary events taking place in Sudan. In April this year, after decades in power, long-standing dictator Omar al-Bashir was toppled by a mass movement. Following this, a military junta - the Transitional Military Council (TMC) - stepped into the vacuum. But workers across Sudan recently shut down the economy with a powerful general strike, aimed at wrestling control from the TMC. This terrified the regime, who know that they could lose ...
Alan Woods, editor of In Defence of Marxism, comments on President Trump's recent state visit to Britain. With Theresa May stepping down, Tory leadership contenders have made a lot of noise about how Britain will 'reclaim sovereignty' and 'take back control' after Brexit. But the events surrounding Trump's visit expose this as a complete charade. Far from achieving a favourable trade deal with the USA, the Tory government is preparing the ground for American big business to sweep in and pick at ...
In this talk from a recent London-wide meeting of the Marxist Student Federation, Daniel Morley discusses the Tiananmen student protests that shook the regime in China 30 years ago. The Tiananmen square protests were the largest student movement in history, with over 1 million involved at the height of the demonstrations. But, as Daniel explains, the protests were not confined just to students. Workers across Beijing also came out in support of the movement, and the initial wave of soldiers sent...
