Internationalist Communist Tendency's blog

This year marks the centenary of the Russian Revolution and the Communist Workers' Organisation has participated in a number of meetings to commemorate this. On 18 November the CWO held a meeting in Newcastle to discuss its legacy, the revolutionary events of 1917-1918 as well as the process of degeneration. The following document – The Russian Revolution: From Workers’ Inspiration to Proletarian Tragedy – served as the basis of the presentation and was followed by a discussion.

Translation of a commentary on last week’s election in Catalonia, from the Spanish blog Nuevo Curso.

The rise of so-called populism and the far right over the past few years has been a global trend. We have written about it before – "reactionary ideologies always feed on social decomposition, atomisation and growing insecurity."

Trump has just offered two early Christmas presents to the imperialist project in Israel. This article briefly explains the wider context for this provocation.

The removal of Mugabe means only that the ruling elite will seek new imperialist links to solve the economic mess the country is in. Zimbabwe demonstrates for the nth time that "national liberation" in the epoch of imperialism means liberation only for the indigenous bourgeoisie linked to the world order of capitalism.

The official line is that universal credit is being introduced to make things easier, simpler, gather a multitude of payments together to benefit people generally. As if fine-tuning bourgeois bureaucracy is a matter for anyone apart from itself and those it serves. The reality for those on the receiving-end is catastrophic to say the least.

The solidarity and determination of the Durham Teaching Assistants has been an inspiration to other workers throughout the North East and beyond. More than once they refused to accept a deal which would have meant a complete cave-in.

The solidarity against injustice and the self-organisation of the Durham Teaching Assistants was, as we wrote in July, an inspiration to other workers throughout the North East and beyond (see leftcom.org). Their refusal to allow 25% of their colleagues to be sacrificed for the sake of a sordid deal with Durham County Council has deservedly earned the TAs (or Lions of Durham as they were labelled) the admiration of many.

Contrary to the cries of the Venezuelan government and its hypocritical Opposition, Venezuela remains, as before, a state-capitalist economy based on the extraction of oil rents.

The conflict between the factions defending the existing Spanish state and those seeking a separate Catalonian state continues to accelerate. Whatever the outcome or the detailed twists and turns it is clear that class-conscious workers need to be equally independent from those arguing for either a separate Catalan state or the preservation of the existing state order – both represent the façade behind which the bosses’ class exercise their control.

Ever since the post-war principle of free education was abandoned in 1998 by Blair’s New Labour government, fees for higher education have risen steeply and expanded to include maintenance charges.

This is our third translation from Kommunist No 1 the journal of the “left Communists” which appeared briefly in the spring of 1918 to register the concerns of its supporters about certain developments in the Russian revolution which they saw as dangerous to its future.

The building of a new mode of production which is based on the self-activity of all people cannot be delegated to any body – not even a working class party. It is only through the mass organs of working class life that a new society can be built. Communism cannot be brought in by decree but is the living product of a mass collective consciousness struggling towards new forms of social organisation.

In Charlottesville, Virginia 32 year old anti-racist Heather Heyer was run down with a car at an anti-fascist protest on August 12. This murder by a white supremacist touched off a fury of democratic rhetoric by the very political forces that have cultivated this political violence for decades.

The results of the G20 summit in Hamburg, which cost €130 million, have been, as expected, modest. According to official announcements the G20 meeting offered political decision-makers the possibility of “finding their tongues and entering into dialogue with each other.”

Once again the workers of Mahallah have gone on strike against both management and unions over the non-payment of wages.

Some of those who support Corbyn’s Labour do so with the idea that “it’s the least worst option” but many more actually believe that Labour can reform capitalism in favour of those who create the wealth that is enjoyed by a minority. This article is mainly directed at their distortions.

Durham Teaching Assistants have remained solid in their resistance to the threats and deals done behind closed doors between the unions and the Labour Council. The fight goes on.

In 1922, at the Fourth Congress of the Communist International, Władysław Kowalski (pseudonym Grzech) and Henryk Stein (pseudonym Domski) openly clashed with the leadership of both the Communist Workers’ Party of Poland and the Communist International. This article documents their contribution to the proceedings of the Congress to shed some more light on the Polish Communist Left. For more on the subject check the links in footnotes 2 and 3.

The official story is that Saudi Arabia, supported by Egypt, the Emirates, Bahrain and other sidekicks in the Gulf, is trying to isolate Qatar from the rest of the Arab world as punishment for betraying the Sunni cause and for financing jihadhi terrorism. Like all lies, this one contains an element of truth which conceals other aspects of the situation which must not be brought to light, much less focussed on.