-
Defining socialism
The CJI refrained from giving “socialism” an institutional character. All over the world the term “socialism” has been taken to mean social ownership of the means of production, at least of the key means of production; but the CJI, defining “socialism” in terms of outcome rather than the institution of ownership suggested that private enterprise was not incompatible with “socialism”; what really mattered was the creation of a welfare state ensuring equality of opportunity for all citizens.
-
Socialist politics and revolutionary compromise
In this article, I will discuss types of compromises and why they are necessary and possible.
-
Communist Party Marxist Kenya charts a new way forward for a “for a truly independent socialist Kenya”
In the second congress of the CPM-K, delegates called for the continuation of the National Democratic Revolution and asserted that socialism is the only path forward.
-
Three women, three perspectives on the division in MAS
In “the street”, in friends’ meetings, in the press… everywhere the population wonders about the veracity, depth and state of the division within the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS).
-
Prioritising anti-U.S. imperialism, Maduro’s Venezuela and the complexities of critical solidarity: An interview with Steve Ellner
Steve Ellner: “The basic contradiction of capitalism is at the point of production, the contradiction between the interests of the working class and those of capitalists.”
-
“Why do you fear my way so much?”
Professor Saibaba’s life, or rather, Sai’s life, for that is what his friends called him, cannot be adequately understood without situating him in an authentic history and “present as history” of the Indian society of which he was a part.
-
Squaring circles for peace and war: Berlin Bulletin No. 224, July 11, 2024
One can hate or admire any of the gentlemen now involved [in the push for peace in Ukraine]; I would endorse Satan himself if he could help end this God-awful war and move towards the urgently-needed peace in the area—and elsewhere.
-
How Britain made Paul Robeson a socialist
Pioneering black singer Paul Robeson was born on this day in 1898. One of America’s great radical figures, it was his encounters with Britain’s labour movement which inspired his socialist and anti-imperialist politics.
-
Seven reasons not to leave Lenin to our enemies
The Left has tossed Lenin’s corpse to the victors of history—both the Stalinists and their liberal opponents.
-
176 years since the Communist Manifesto was published, socialists around the world celebrate “Red Books Day”
Socialists across the globe in countries such as India, Brazil, and the United States celebrate the Manifesto and all “Red Books” that shaped the world.
-
Social Media and the war of positions
The collections of ideas we hold are historically conditioned by the mode of life we exist in.
-
Leave Cuba alone
Has Cuba really failed if we do not see, as in the imperial metropolis, entire families sleeping on the streets in the middle of winter or under a scorching sun in the summer, children barefoot and dressed in rags, people rummaging through garbage bins looking for something to eat, or thousands of men and women destroyed by drugs, victims of a society possessed by a cruel individualism which condemns them to wander like zombies through the main cities to feed, with their addictions, the profits of the banking and financial corporations that are the final beneficiaries of drug trafficking, a business of close to a billion dollars annually?
-
The descent into barbarism
IN The Junius Pamphlet written from jail in 1915, Rosa Luxemburg had said that the choice before mankind was between barbarism and socialism.
-
A hundred years since we lost Comrade Lenin
What does Lenin say to us in today’s post-Soviet world and what is his legacy, asks VIJAY PRASHAD. VLADIMIR ILYICH ULANOV
-
Learning from Lenin today
One hundred years since Lenin’s death, Nigerian socialist Abiodun Olamosu describes of the revolutionary on his own political development. As the preeminent organiser of the Russian revolution, Lenin helped to determine the course of Olamosu’s life in Nigeria. Olamosu explores the development of Lenin’s work and legacy. He regards Stalin’s rise to power, and the Soviet Union, as an abomination to the body of ideas of Marxism and socialist internationalism.
-
Lenin and his times
This is an extract from the introduction to Alex Snowdon’s forthcoming book on Lenin, to be published by Counterfire, where he outlines the key stages of Lenin’s life as a revolutionary.
-
Thoughts on Abolition
Since 2020, there has been a gradual realization about the limitations of various strategies, ideologies, and political approaches, particularly in the context of using “abolition” as a catch-all umbrella.
-
Why I believe what I believe about the Chinese Revolution: The Second Newsletter (2024)
I have tried not only to provide some facts to guide our discussion but also to thread them into the theory of socialism that I believe is most attractive.
-
Marx’s Vision of Sustainable Human Development
With global capitalism’s worsening poverty and environmental crises, sustainable human development comes to the fore as the primary question that must be engaged by all twenty-first century socialists in core and periphery alike. It is in this human developmental connection, I will argue, that Marx’s vision of communism or socialism (two terms that he used interchangeably) can be most helpful.
-
Accelerated decay
Joy and suffering in the Left Party: Wagenknecht aims to found a new party