Yesterday, 23rd of June 2016, the people of Britain made a momentous decision. After 40 years as part of the European Union they voted to turn their backs on it. This decision has immense consequences for the future of Britain, Europe and the world.

At lunchtime yesterday Jo Cox, a young Labour MP, was standing outside a local library, as she did every week, meeting residents in her constituency. It was just an ordinary day in the small town of Birstall near Leeds in Yorkshire. There was nothing to indicate the horrific events that were about to happen.

In advance of the upcoming referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union, Alan Woods - editor of In Defence of Marxism - explains the real motivations of the Stay and Leave camps, which are both dominated and led by reactionaries. The EU referendum is a fight between two wings of the Tory Party. Rather than supporting either of these, it is the task of Marxists to tell the truth, expose the lies and hypocrisy on both sides, and fight for a Socialist Europe.

On August 20th 1940 Trotsky’s life was brutally ended when a Stalinist agent brought an ice pick crashing down on his defenceless head. Among the works left unfinished was the second part of Stalin. Trotsky’s Stalin.This work is probably unique in Marxist literature in that it attempts to explain some of the most decisive events of the 20th century, not just in terms of epoch-making economic and social transformations, but in the individual psychology of those who appear as protagonists in a great historical drama.

David King British graphic designer and collector of Soviet art (1943-2016)

Alan Woods - editor of In Defence of Marxism - discusses the scandal of international tax avoidance that has been uncovered by the Panama papers, which involved figures from the across the global Establishment, including David Cameron, the British Prime Minister.

On Sunday an official state ceremony was held in Dublin to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising. The officials present, including the men of the Church, represent a class that did not support the Rising in 1916, but who now wish to present themselves as heirs to that heroic struggle. Here Alan Woods exposes the utter hypocrisy of these people and recalls what the Rising was really about.

For Marxists elections provide a valuable way of ascertaining certain tendencies in society. It is true that they are not the only way of judging the mood of the masses – nor even the best barometer of the real state of the class struggle. At best they are a snapshot of a certain mood at a given time. But having made these necessary reservations and qualifications, one has to take these indicators seriously, as Marx and Lenin certainly did.

Although it had been widely predicted, the landslide victory of Bernie sanders in the New Hampshire primary produced shock waves. After narrowly losing in Iowa (and it is quite likely the result was rigged), Sanders beat Clinton by a margin of more than 20 last Tuesday.  This result has produced bewilderment among the commentators. That was something that was not supposed to happen.

Alan Woods - editor of www.marxist.com - discusses the latest economic developments in China, where panic on the stock exchange provides a perilous warning sign about the state of the Chinese - and world - economy. All the contradictions are now coming to the fore in the crisis-ridden global capitalist system.

This work by Alan Woods, provides a comprehensive explanation of the Marxist method of analysing history. This first part establishes the scientific basis of historical materialism. The ultimate cause of all social change is to be found, not in the human brain, but in changes in the mode of production.

“Out with the Old. In with the New”. That was always the encouraging message of New Year. But amidst all the parties and the popping of champagne bottles, there was no sign of any optimism or hope for the future on the part of the ruling class and its strategists. On the contrary, the columns of the bourgeois press are filled with pessimism and foreboding.

Alan Woods - editor of In Defence of Marxism and founder of the solidarity campaign Hands Off Venezuela - comments on the results of the recent elections in Venezuela, where the counter-revolutionary opposition has won a majority, enabling them to now go on the offensive against the gains of the Bolivarian Revolution.

The publication of the Mexican edition of Lenin’s Imperialism, could scarcely come at a more appropriate time. No book has ever explained the phenomena of modern capitalism better that this. All of Lenin’s predictions concerning the concentration of capital, the dominance of the banks and finance capital, the growing antagonism between nation states and the inevitability of war arising out of the contradictions of imperialism have been shown to be true by the entire history of the last 100 years.

As David Cameron beats the war drum and Members of Parliament debate whether to commence airstrikes in Syria, Alan Woods - editor of www.marxist.com - discusses the Tory lies about the war, and looks at the scandalous behaviour of the Blairites towards Corbyn and their support for Cameron on the question of bombing.