A new strain of Mpox is tearing through Central Africa. Since the start of the year, 13 African countries have reported more than 22,800 Mpox cases and 622 deaths, which represents a 160 percent increase compared with the same period in 2023. This is likely only a fraction of the real number. What is clear is that, four years on, nothing has been learned from COVID-19.

Wednesday 11 September marks the 51st anniversary of the 1973 coup that overthrew president Salvador Allende in Chile and installed the brutal Pinochet dictatorship. We republish here a document written in 1979 by Alan Woods, analysing the history of the Chilean labour movement and the period of the Popular Unity coalition government of Allende. Who was behind Pinochet's coup? What interests was he defending? What were the policies of the Allende government and why despite all warnings was he unable to prevent the coup?

In this instalment of our series, Lenin in a Year, we take a look at a short but very interesting text by Lenin, written in 1919, The Third International and its Place in History. This year represented the high water mark of a European-wide wave of revolutions. The foundations of capitalism were shaking. And to lead the European and world proletariat, Lenin led the founding of a new Third Communist International.

50 years ago, after the long postwar boom, the world economy experienced its first truly global crisis. Falling output and spiralling inflation combined to devastate the working class. Today, capitalism faces similar turmoil. It must be overthrown.

“War is a terrible thing? Yes, but it is a terribly profitablething,” Lenin once remarked. The ongoing aggravation of inter-imperialist conflicts and proxy wars is once again proving Lenin entirely right. As thousands are being butchered in Gaza, Ukraine, Congo, Sudan and elsewhere, and as defence spending is rocketing globally, a handful of capitalists are lining their pockets. The working class is having to foot the bill for this deadly spending spree.

In the summer of 1923, Germany found itself in the grip of an intense revolutionary ferment. But this historic opportunity for the working class to seize power was squandered, with devastating implications, not only for Germany, but for the course of the world socialist revolution. In this article, marking the hundredth anniversary of the dramatic failure of the German Revolution in October 1923, Tatjana Pinetzki explains how this situation emerged, the mistakes of the leadership, and the impact of these events on world history.

After seven weeks of delays and a series of ‘consultations’, French President Macron announced yesterday the appointment of Michel Barnier as Prime Minister from the traditional centre-right Les Republicains (LR), who came fourth in legislative elections where the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) won the most seats.

Following weeks of speculation, based on as-yet-unproven allegations of corruption and criminality in the bourgeois media, on Friday 23 August the ruling Australian Labor Party (ALP) launched an unprecedented attack on the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU). Via draconian legislation passed by the Federal Government, with the help of the right-wing opposition, the ALP has sacked the leadership of one of Australia’s most militant unions and, in the words of one CFMEU regional secretary, “opened the gates of hell for tens of thousands of workers.”

By October 1919, the soviet republic in Russia was approaching its second anniversary. Since 1917, the Russian workers had taken the first steps towards communism. This remains one of the most extraordinary periods in human history. For the first time – in a country covering one sixth of the Earth’s surface – the capitalists and large landowners were expropriated. The economy was nationalised and placed under the control of the workers' state.

We are very excited to announce the release of the Italian edition of History of Philosophy, a Marxist Perspective, by our editor-in-chief, Alan Woods. We congratulate our Italian comrades on producing this translation, which has made this important text accessible to an entirely new audience. 

In the past weeks, the ruling party of Vietnam, the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) experienced a sudden change of leadership after the death of its aging General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng on 19 July. Trọng had been the de facto supreme leader of the country for 13 years, and oversaw a process of concentrating power in the state and in his person, not unlike the process in China around Xi Jinping. What is the significance of this post being passed on to Tô Lâm, the President? How will all this affect the perspectives of Vietnam and its class struggle moving forward?

The crisis of German capitalism is deepening relentlessly. Last Sunday, elections were held in the two federal states of Saxony and Thuringia. They were won by the right-wing party ‘Alternative for Germany’ (AfD) and the demagogic new outfit ‘Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht’ (BSW), a split-off from the Left Party. The reformists and liberals in Germany and beyond are in a state of panic, but this outcome is a measure of their own bankruptcy.

On 24 August 2024, the Revolutionary Communist International’s group in Taiwan ‘The Spark’ held a public meeting entitled “Proletarian Class Struggle 2024” in Taipei. A total of 13 people were in attendance, seven already organised as communists. Attendees came not only from Taipei, but travelled from all across the country to participate.

On 24 August, Pavel Durov, the Russian billionaire owner of encrypted messaging app Telegram, was arrested by French police. Interrogated for four days, he was yesterday transported to a court and charged on all counts. Now, awaiting trial, he has been released on a €5 million bail, must visit the French police twice a week, and has been prevented from leaving France. A warrant is also out for the arrest of his brother, the co-founder of Telegram.

The recovery of the dead bodies of six hostages, held by Hamas in Gaza, by the IDF over the weekend has led to an explosion of anger, directed against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Hundreds of thousands came onto the streets on Sunday in mass demonstrations across Israel. The country was paralysed by a general strike called by Histadrut (the General Organisation of Workers in Israel) this morning, Monday 2 September. Protesters hold Netanyahu responsible for the death of the hostages, given his blatant and constant sabotage of the negotiations with Hamas. This is a very serious political crisis, which could lead to the removal of the Israeli PM.