On 9 April, a group called Stand With Ukraine held a small demonstration in London. Despite receiving support from a number of trade unions, only a few hundred people took part. In true Orwellian fashion, this so-called anti-war solidarity demonstration was filled with hair-raising, warmongering rhetoric. Slogans included: “arm, arm, arm Ukraine!”, and participants were reportedly inviting NATO to “call Putin’s bluff”, i.e. to launch a full-blown military intervention and spark World War III.

In the early afternoon of 26 April, it was reported that the director of the Cuban student magazine Alma Mater had been dismissed. The decision has caused a huge stir on the island, on social media and beyond.

In a shock announcement, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has told Russian state media: “NATO, in essence, is engaged in a war with Russia through a proxy and is arming that proxy.” In an uncharacteristically angry tone, he accused NATO of fighting a proxy war by supplying military aid to Ukraine, just at a time when western defence ministers have gathered in Germany for US-hosted talks on supporting Ukraine through what one US general called a “very critical” few weeks.

We all know we are supposed to recycle plastic. We are taught the three R’s in school, at home, and at the workplace: “reduce, reuse, recycle.” From an early age, we learn to separate plastics from trash using the recycling triangle and to put the blue bins out on the sidewalk once a week since doing so can help combat pollution, in particular the pollution of the oceans. We are taught that we can all be a part of the solution—if only we recycle.

Quel spectacle! What a show we had yesterday as the exit polls indicated that Macron had won the presidential elections. He walked through the streets of Paris hand in hand with his wife, and accompanied by a group of young people, apparently an indication of the generations that will support him in the future. And in his speech, he announced that he was no longer “le candidat” but the “President of all the French”. How hollow all this must sound to the huge majority of French workers and youth who did not vote for him and hate him with a passion.

The re-election of Emmanuel Macron marks a new stage in the crisis of French capitalism. In the second round, taking into account abstentions and blank or invalid ballots, the ‘Jupitarian President’ won the votes of only 38.5 percent of registered voters. That's 5 percent and 2 million fewer votes than in 2017. Moreover, almost half of his 18.8 million voters have absolutely no confidence in him. All in all, Macron won amidst a sea of bitterness, mistrust and hatred. It is these conditions of social tension and class hatred that give rise to revolutions.

The final round of the French presidential elections will be held on Sunday 24 April. The French electorate will be called upon to chose between Emmanuel Macron or Marine Le Pen – two sides of the same pro-boss, viciously anti-worker and reactionary capitalist coin! While the so-called leaders of the French left and trade union bureaucrats have capitulated to bourgeois pressure, calling for workers and youth to form a ‘Republican Front’ behind Macron to beat Le Pen, we say: neither one, nor the other!

Parliamentary elections were held in Hungary on 3 April 2022. Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party has won a supermajority for the fourth consecutive time. On this occasion, they won against an opposition that united a whole range of parties, from the right-wing Jobbik to the supposedly left-wing Socialist Party. While the opposition lost more than 800,000 voters compared to their combined vote in 2018, the far-right Mi Hazánk, founded in 2018 by former Jobbik politicians, entered parliament.

Socialist Revolution,US section of the International Marxist Tendency, has actively followed the struggle of Starbucks workers in the US and Canada to form a union. At the time of publishing, hundreds of stores have either voted for establishing a union or are part of the ongoing organizing effort. We wholeheartedly support the campaign to force the Fortune 500 company to recognize the union and negotiate a union contract.

We publish the editorial from the latest issue of the International Marxist Tendency’s theoretical journal, In Defence of Marxism, available to buy now! Alan Woods introduces the contents of the magazine, including a piece of his own dealing with the oft-heard question: ‘why hasn’t there been a revolution?’ Additionally, the issue contains a pair of articles by Trotsky on the role of revolutionary leadership; a polemic against subjective idealism in science journalism; and a review of a new book on Lenin’s time in London.

The comrades of the International Marxist Tendency are following with enormous interest and sympathy the Socialist Movement in the Basque Country, which promotes the emergence of a mass communist movement, and defends the international character of socialism. We publish here a brief article on the characteristics of this extraordinary occurrence, and its current development.

The second round of the French presidential elections will take place on 24 April. All the parties of the left and trade union leaders are pressuring their supporters to get behind a ‘Republican Front’ to beat Marine Le Pen who they believe is a fascist – by voting for Macron’s government of the rich. This rotten class collaboration is already being rejected by thousands of young people, who have occupied their universities and demonstrated with the slogan: neither Macron, nor Le Pen!

In Pakistan, the government has changed but the political crisis continues, reflecting a deep economic and social crisis. Imran Khan has been ousted. The cracks within the ruling class are widening and the fighting among various factions of the state has now reached levels never seen before, with each side attacking the other publicly and on social media.

This article was produced several months ago by our Italian comrades of Sinistra, Classe, Rivoluzione in response to a polemic by Francesco Ricci concerning the counter-revolutionary demonstration in Cuba last year, which he supported. Ricci’s organisation (the PDAC) inherits the tradition of Nahuel Moreno, a leader of the Argentine Trotskyist movement who historically swung back and forth between ultra leftism and opportunism.

The most spectacular struggle of the Sri Lankan people since the 1953 Hartal is presently unfolding. The power of this struggle has forced the resignation of the cabinet. The government’s allies had declared their ‘independence’ in parliament. Meanwhile, Cabraal, the governor of the central bank, has resigned.