Events have developed at lightning speed over the weekend in Madagascar. The mass youth movement, which started on 25 September, has now overthrown the old regime. A section of the army refused to continue carrying out repression against the masses and mutinied. The president had to be airlifted by the French military on Sunday, 12 October.

“Only the fresh enthusiasm and aggressive spirit of the youth can guarantee the preliminary successes in the struggle” – Trotsky, The Transitional Programme

Tuesday 30 September turned out to be a crucial day in the ongoing Madagascar uprising, which started on 25 September, in protest against electricity cut-offs.

What started as a day of peaceful protest called by the Madagascan youth on Thursday 25 September, ended with brutal repression, which left several youth killed by police, clashes and rioting. The government has declared a curfew in all major cities, but protests continue.

One day, it seems that a country is calm and the ruling clique there is firmly ensconced in power. The next day, the revolutionary masses stand in front of the burning parliamentary building. The police are gone, the MPs have fled, and so too has the Prime Minister. The photographs and videos that recently emerged from Nepal were astonishing. They are also astonishingly similar to the scenes that we’ve already seen: in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, ...

We publish here an eyewitness account of the conditions faced by workers at one of the most important copper and cobalt producers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This account was sent to us by Maurice Odingo, the general secretary of the Comité de Kinshasa. It gives a crystal-clear view of the horrific conditions faced by Congolese miners in general, and the character of China’s involvement in Africa today.

The mass movement to bring down Ruto rose up once more on 25 June. Its sequel was planned for 7 July, with another peaceful day of protest under the hashtag #SabaSabaRevolutionDay. But the day didn’t end with a revolutionary victory.

On 25 June, the youth erupted once more onto Kenya’s streets. One year to the day after the struggle to stop Ruto’s Finance Bill 2024 culminated in spectacular scenes of the youth overrunning the parliament building, Gen Z is on the move again. The movement has picked up where it left off. But this time, the mood is darker and angrier.

The struggle waged by the people of Cameroon against imperialist oppression contains many lessons for revolutionaries throughout Africa and the world. And today, the legacy of the dirty war waged by French imperialism to crush that struggle can still be felt. In this article, Jules Legendre explains how France came to rule Cameroon, and the methods it used to maintain its domination, even after the country’s formal independence in 1960.

Goma, the largest city in eastern Congo, has fallen to the ‘M23’ rebel group. At the time of writing it is unclear exactly how much of the city is under rebel control, but the sound of gunfire that had filled the city has reportedly died down.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Ethiopian Revolution, which began as an uprising against the semi-feudal despotism of Emperor Haile Selassie but would go much further, culminating in the abolition of capitalism in the country. In this article, Ben Curry, gives an account of these dramatic events, and explains the complex processes that shaped the revolution’s course.

The unbearable cost of living has sparked furious protests across Nigeria, with thousands taking to the streets shouting the slogan “We are hungry!” The masses have been forced to temporarily retreat under a deadly police crackdown, but we have been given a foretaste of greater battles to come. 

“Capitalist society is and has always been horror without end.” - Lenin, 1916

Three decades ago, between April and July 1994, the Rwandan government organised the extermination of almost 1 million people belonging to the Tutsi ethnic group. This genocide was aided and abetted by the French government, which both financed and armed those responsible, often referred to as ‘génocidaires’. But still, to this day, the French ruling class has not fully and openly recognised its responsibility for one of the most monstrous crimes of French imperialism.

The storming of the Kenyan parliament building by revolutionary youth last week stunned the world and left Kenyan politicians and the ruling class in a state of panic and disarray. Brute force could not clear the masses off the streets. The regime has been forced to resort to new methods: a sly combination of deception, manoeuvres and provocations.