Americas

Communism has returned to Chicago! In a city with a rich history of labor struggles—including the world-famous Haymarket martyrs and the fight for a forty hour work week—about 200 revolutionary communists met on October 25–26 for the first-ever RCA Chicago Marxist School.

Over the past 10 months, Donald Trump has used the enormous weight of the relationship between the United States and Colombia to increase pressure on Gustavo Petro's government. The most recent example has been his scandalous denunciation of the Colombian president as a “drug trafficking leader” and the imposition of 25 percent tariffs.

What began as youth protests against a pension counter-reform has quickly escalated into a political crisis of enormous proportions. Against a backdrop of rampant crime, persistent corruption and social unrest, the mass movement has forced the ousting of coup president Dina Boluarte. But the attempt to replace her from above, with the appointment of José Jerí, did not stop the protests. 15 October was a critical day: a protester named Eduardo Ruiz was killed by the police, and hundreds were injured.

Argentinian President Javier Milei’s position is looking increasingly unstable, as his government’s drawn out financial and political crises are picking up steam. The government’s panic is palpable as they stare down the gauntlet to the key midterm elections on 26 October.

The financial markets are booming like never before. After a few jitters in April as Trump announced his ‘reciprocal tariffs’, the stock markets have hit record after record. This at the same time as workers are being squeezed, government finances are in crisis everywhere, central banks are failing to curb inflation, and unemployment is rearing its ugly head. Something doesn’t add up.

In a world on fire with revolutionary uprisings and mass movements, 165 communists from across the West Coast and beyond gathered in Los Angeles on October 11–12 for a landmark weekend of Marxist education.

On 10, 11, and 12 October, more than 200 communists gathered at the Telephone Workers' Union in Mexico City for the founding congress of the Revolutionary Communist Party (PCR). In an atmosphere of great enthusiasm, we discussed international and national perspectives, a balance sheet of our work, and the political and organisational principles of our party.

80 years ago, in the early hours of 5 October 1945, a pitched battle erupted at the Warner Brothers studio lot in Burbank, California. This was not a shoot for a new war movie, but an armed clash between unionised set decorators on one side; and strikebreakers, mafia goons and police, allied with the studio bosses, on the other. ‘Black Friday’ was the bloody culmination of the biggest strike in Hollywood’s history, a high watermark of labour militancy the likes of which the industry has not seen since.

On 12 September 2025, Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison for the crimes of leading a criminal organisation, attempting to violently abolish the democratic rule of law, coup d'état, damage to national public property and damage to listed property of historic significance.

“He who laughs has not yet heard the bad news.” – Berthold Brecht