Alan Woods LIVE on war and imperialism at Revolution Festival

We live in an epoch of war. Israel’s brutal campaign in Gaza, backed by the West, has spilled into Lebanon. The Ukraine War is careening towards its bloody denouement. These and many other conflicts are a product of the crisis of capitalism, which is sharpening the divisions between the imperialist powers, and sowing instability everywhere. What is the solution? On 15 November, 18:30 GMT, the Revolutionary Communist International’s lead theoretician Alan Woods will deliver a speech on the question of war and imperialism today.

Capitalist governments all over the world are beating the war drum. They are ratcheting up defence spending and arming themselves to the teeth, enriching death merchants like Lockheed Martin and BAE, while services and infrastructure at home crumble. All of this is feeding the anger and resentment of working people.

Billions of workers have already lived through years of inflation eating into their paychecks. This was made even worse by the impact of the war in Ukraine, which was provoked by US imperialism in a failed attempt to reassert its dominance on the world stage.

For over a year, we have watched a war of ethnic cleansing unfold in real-time. Gaza has been levelled, armed settlers run rampant on the West Bank, and Netanyahu has opened a new front with Lebanon in an attempt to drag Iran – and ultimately US imperialism – into the fray. This calamity has received the full-throated support of imperialists in the West, who have funnelled billions in weapons and support to the Israeli war machine, while repressing all dissent.

All the ingredients exist for a wider war that will set the whole region on fire. The despotic Arab rulers across the Middle East are quaking at the possibility of this war provoking another revolutionary upsurge like that in 2011. As is often the case in history, war can be the handmaiden of revolution.

Then there are the rising inter-imperialist tensions between China and the US, who have engaged in tit-for-tat trade skirmishes and who are rattling sabres in the Pacific. Add to this the re-election of Donald Trump as US president, which will only intensify the febrile situation. The ‘sensible’ representatives of the ruling class are quaking in their boots about what another term of Trump’s ‘fire and fury’ will mean for their profits and geopolitical interests.

Everywhere you look, the perspective is one of deepening chaos. This is having a major effect on consciousness. Capitalism’s hypocritical, warmongering political representatives have never been more discredited. The whole bourgeois establishment is despised – a fact that Trump’s election reflects, in a distorted way.

Millions of people hate the powers that be with a passion – only the absence of any serious working-class leadership holds back the tide of class struggle. But this tide cannot be contained forever.

The RCI is running a political campaign against war and imperialism: Books Not Bombs, in which we have aimed to expose the lies and reactionary policies of our warmongering capitalist rulers. Alan’s speech will take aim at all these criminals, offer our perspective on what is to come, and explain the necessity for workers and youth to struggle internationally for the end of capitalist imperialism; for socialist reconstruction; and for communism in our lifetimes.

This could put a stop to all wars – once and for all.

Join us in the struggle for an end to imperialist bloodshed, to win a decent existence for all of humanity!

Alan’s speech will be live-streamed on our YouTube channel and social media accounts.

It will take place on the first day of the Revolution Festival, hosted in London by our British section – the Revolutionary Communist Party. This event, which will take place over the course of three days, includes dozens of sessions on all aspects of Marxist theory, revolutionary history and the class struggle today.

Selected talks will be live-streamed to the RCP’s social media and YouTube channels.