Alan Woods, editor of marxist.com and leading member of the International Marxist Tendency appeared on a well known Venezuelan programme last week, to discuss Friedrich Engels’ work “The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man.”

A universal basic income (UBI) is being seriously discussed across Canada, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the various federal benefit programs. UBI is an unconditional payment made to all citizens and is usually a guaranteed, cash-based payment that all citizens receive regardless of income or tax bracket. There are proposals for UBI coming from both the left and the right. Superficially at least, UBI proposals can look quite attractive for the left, but what position should socialists take? Note: this article was written in

Last week, a devastating winter storm hammered Texas and wreaked havoc on 90% of the state’s energy infrastructure. The crisis caused a loss of heat, unreliable water utilities, and structural damage to homes. A projected four million people were without power at one point. Nearly 70 deaths have been attributed to this disaster, and magnitudes more are experiencing hardships and desperation.

The 2021 Montreal Marxist Winter School was truly an unprecedented event. More than 1,150 people registered to participate in the school, which had ten presentations over three days, making this by far the largest Canadian Marxist meeting in recent memory. With big class battles on the horizon, the forces of Marxism are growing in preparation. 

Yesterday, the Senate acquitted Donald Trump of inciting the Capitol riot on 6 Jan. Although seven Republicans joined the Democrats to vote 'guilty', this was short of the two-thirds majority required to find Trump guilty. Despite a furious speech attacking the ex-president, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also voted to acquit. As explained in this article (published last month by our US comrades), the GOP is divided from top to bottom between MAGA true believers, opportunists looking to ride Trump's coattails, and career politicians intimidated by his reactionary voter base. The future of a cornerstone of the bourgeois political system hangs in the balance.

The Ecuadorian election on 7 February produced a clear victory for the left-wing candidate Andrés Arauz, but not enough to prevent a second round. There is a very close tie for the second position between the capitalist oligarchy’s preferred candidate Guillermo Lasso and the “indigenous” candidate Yaku Perez. 

The despotic President of Haiti, Jovenel Moïse, is refusing to step down, while the impotent bourgeois opposition appears incapable of forcing him out. The Haitian masses must break with the rotten bourgeois regime altogether, and establish a revolutionary constituent assembly.

In the last few weeks, there has been an escalation in the verbal attacks from the Venezuelan government against the revolutionary left. These attacks, by president Maduro and National Assembly speaker Jorge Rodríguez, have been directed particularly at the APR: the Popular Revolutionary Alternative, a political platform that gathers several parties and organisations to the left of Maduro’s government. Very serious allegations have been made, including the charge that the left opposition to the government is acting in cahoots with US imperialism.

At the end of January 2021, we arranged an interview with comrade José Salas, a communist worker, who told us about the origins of the San Rafael neighbourhood in La Pintana, the fight against Pinochet's dictatorship, and the Hugo Manascero Soup Kitchen. In the Octubre group of the International Marxist Tendency in Chile, we consider it very important to give a voice to working-class activists, contributing their experience to historical memory.