Internationalist Communist Tendency's blog

It seemed unlikely but it happened. On 19 December, Gabriel Boric, the centre-left candidate for the Chilean presidential elections, beat his opponent, the ultra-reactionary right-winger, José Antonio Kast. It was probably also the fear that the latter – openly nostalgic for the “good old days” of the Pinochet dictatorship – would become president, which prompted a part of the electorate to go and vote, lowering the number of abstentions to 44%, when normally it is around, or well above, fifty percent.

Introduction to our article Global Warming: IPCC Report AR6 - Writing a Death Warrant?, from Revolutionary Perspectives #19.

For some months now the atmosphere over the stretch of sea that separates China from Taiwan has become very heated, but this has become more intense in recent weeks.

On 2 January, in response to a sudden increase in gas prices, protests and blockades rose up in the oil city of Zhanaozen in the Mangistau region, western Kazakhstan. The revolt has now spread across the country, including Almaty, the largest city in the country, and Nur-Sultan, the capital. It has forced the current president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, to sack his cabinet, declare a state of emergency and rescind the rise in gas prices (for six months). Despite this, the unrest continues.

It is hard not to feel depressed. At what is supposed to be a time of the year when families and friends gather together to enjoy each other’s company and exchange gifts, even this small escape from the wage-laborer’s life of fast-paced monotony seems difficult to enjoy when the overbearing clouds of capitalism cover us in darkness. Whatever holiday one celebrates at this time of the year, the festivities and general atmosphere seem tainted and stained by the mess that capitalism has strewn around us, and the woes that it is brewing for our near futures.

Tornadoes that struck Kentucky, Illinois, and other states over the past week have left almost 100 dead across the damaged areas, with around the same number unaccounted for, countless injured, and vast swathes of homes and infrastructure destroyed. As is usual with these phenomena, this is yet another ‘natural’ disaster that has fallen the hardest on our class. And as is usual, plenty of these deaths could have been prevented were it not for the profit-centered system called capitalism that we live in.

In the current mode of production the perennial drive to increase capital is a necessity, not one political option amongst many.

Leaflet distributed by the PCInt during the "No Draghi Day" protests in Italy.

Leaflet distributed by the IWG during the Kellogg's strike in Lancaster, PA.

Evergrande's $300 billion debt turns the spotlight on to the increase in unproductive and speculative investment that has given a fictitious boost to Chinese national capitalism.

The United States has experienced a wave of strikes on a scale rarely seen since 1968. All over the country, workers, exhausted by the Covid-19 pandemic, are demanding improvements in their working conditions. Driven by the rise in the cost of living, these thousands of workers are putting pressure on their bosses to grant them wage increases. This encompasses every sector of the economy.

Below is a brief note from a striking worker, Mahmoud from Assaluyeh. Not only is it a good illustration of how the leading strikers in Iran today are thinking and how their discussions are shaping up, it also gives us an insight into the potential of the working class movement when we see how far the workers have advanced. It is a window into the future, showing what could be created, not only throughout Iran but also beyond.

Liberal capitalism is a remedy for the ailments brought on by six decades of state capitalism in just the same way that swimming in sewage would be a suitable "remedy" for a staph infection.

Despite all the talk about ‘humanity’ as a whole being responsible for climate change, the world is class-divided. Inevitably, the ‘carbon footprint’ of the rich folk at the top of each national pyramid is far larger than the rest of the population.

Climate change is only one of many threats to our future. Life is already hell for millions trying to survive on low wages or no wages at all, who face both environmental degradation and wars over dwindling basic resources. Imperialist powers stoke these into devastating conflicts which force millions to become refugees, kicked from pillar to post, often dying in their search for a secure existence.

Since October 4, 1,400 workers at the four Kellogg’s plants in the United States have been on strike in response to a two-tier wage system and the company’s efforts to permanently classify workers out of receiving better wages and benefits.

UN Climate Conferences have been going on for 25 years. They have achieved precisely nothing. The participants at Paris in 2015 agreed to decrease production of oil, gas and coal by 6% a year for the next decade. Instead, according to the UN itself, they are planning increases of 2% annually, even as carbon emissions continue to mount.

Following our last report on the Iranian oil workers' strike, when the strike had reached its 81st day (it started on 19 June 2021), on 12 September, the Council for Organising Protests by Oil Contract Workers issued statement no. 20, under the title of "What have been our achievements?", which we are publishing here. However, since then there have been reports that sections of striking workers are going back on strike.

The United Nations International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) published its sixth Assessment Report (AR6) in August. This is a reworked and an updated version of their last report AR5 published in 2013. It is much more confident in its assessments and its summary for policy makers is clearly intended to shock countries into promising drastic reductions in their emissions of Green House Gases (GHGs) at the international climate conference, the Conference of the Parties (COP 26), to be held in Glasgow in November. When one understands that such reductions are very unlikely to happen the report reads like a death sentence, a harbinger of a new mass extinction.

The article which follows was written before the German elections last month. The German lower house of parliament (Bundestag) reopened today (26/10/21) but Germany still awaits a new government. One thing seems clear though. After 16 years of “Mutti” (Angela Merkel) another capitalist coalition will be pieced together as in the past. As the old adage has it “whoever you vote for, the bourgeoisie always win”.