On October 9th, 1967 Ernesto “Che” Guevara was killed by the Bolivian army, backed by the United States. Fifty years later, Guevara remains one of the most popular revolutionaries amongst workers and youth around the world. To commemorate the figure of Che, but also, and most importantly, to understand the relevance of his life and ideas to today's struggles, we are publishing an edited version of an article written for the Italian Marxists’ theoretical magazine ten years ago on the 40th anniversary of his death.

En el marco de la conmemoración del aniversario de los 100 años de la Revolución de Octubre, el camarada Alan Woods ofreció una serie de charlas en la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires (CABA) y Rosario.

Editor of marxist.com, Alan Woods, has begun a speaking tour of Latin America with meetings organized by Marxists in Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. The tour will continue in November with a series of meetings in Mexico City, organised by Esteban Volkov (Trotsky’s grandson) and the Trotsky Museum.

On September 19th President Donald Trump delivered his first address to the UN General Assembly to outline his view of the world, the universe and life in general.

Three years ago, the police murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO brought to the surface the brutality faced by the black and poor population of the city of St. Louis and its surrounding suburbs. Now, the city finds itself in the news again with a murderous police officer at the center of the story. Brown’s killing in 2014 at the hands of Ferguson PD officer Darren Wilson was simply the spark that ignited a flame that eventually led to the nationwide prominence of Black Lives Matter, which can trace its origins to the murder of Trayvon Martin in 2012. Today, however, none of the problems which caused this social explosion have been resolved. In fact, they have only worsened.

Two hurricanes have hit the US Southeast in two weeks. The total death toll has surpassed one hundred. Hundreds of thousands of households have lost everything. In the Florida Keys alone, 25 percent of all homes have been completely destroyed. Millions of lives have been ruined and many areas will never be restored to their previous level.

On 1 August the Argentinian social activist Santiago Maldonado was abducted by the National Gendarmerie and has not been seen since. This case is linked to the repression of the land rights movement of the Mapuche indigenous people. It is part of a wider pattern of repression and attacks on social, economic and trade union rights carried out by the right-wing government of Macri.

Like Katrina and Sandy before it, Hurricane Harvey has once again revealed the rotten results of capitalism’s prioritization of profits over people. The disturbing images of wheel chair-bound nursing home residents up to their chests in floodwater say it all. “But the system was overwhelmed!”

This year has seen exceptional tension between the US and North Korea. A recent (Aug 29th) North Korean missile test flew a rocket through Japanese airspace for the first time ever, before it was exploded in an unknown location. This follows months of hostilities as the US administration has repeatedly made threats against the country.

The movement against the alt-right won another victory on Tuesday, August 23 in Toronto.

A classe trabalhadora organizada conscientemente, na forma de um partido socialista de massas, pode deter o processo de germinação de um movimento fascista. Imagens ao vivo de violentas batalhas de rua entre manifestantes “brancos nacionalistas” e neonazistas e um mar de contramanifestantes em Charlottesville, Estado da Virginia, inundaram o noticiário mundial e a mídia social em 12 de agosto.

The consciously organized working class, in the form of a mass socialist party, could stop a burgeoning fascist movement in its tracks. Livestreamed footage of violent street battles between “white nationalist” and neo-Nazi marchers and a sea of counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia flooded global news outlets and social media on August 12.

La clase obrera conscientemente organizada, en forma de un partido socialista de masas, podría detener un movimiento fascista en expansión.
El 12 de agosto, las imágenes en directo de violentas batallas callejeras entre manifestantes "nacionalistas blancos" y neonazis y un mar de contramanifestantes en Charlottesville, Virginia, inundaron las noticias mundiales y las redes sociales.

Donald Trump has promised "fire and fury like the world has never seen" and will not rule out a first strike against nuclear-armed North Korea.

The fascist bourgeois opposition, with the support of North American and European imperialism, threatens to crush the Venezuelan revolution and to wreck its achievements. The fascist attacks, in working-class neighbourhoods and against Chavista, are a taste of what is to come if the opposition takes power. This ultra-reactionary opposition must be defeated now, and only the workers’ revolutionary initiative can achieve this.