Another war has begun between arch-rivals India and Pakistan, in which both have claimed victory so far. In the early hours of 7 May, the Indian Air Force carried out nine attacks inside Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir. In retaliation, Pakistan claims to have downed five Indian jets, which India has so far denied.

On Saturday 26 April, a large demonstration led by the far right marched through Dublin’s North Inner City. The turnout was significant: estimates range from 5,000 to as many as 10,000. In fact, this was four or five times larger than the previous biggest far-right led mobilisation.

“Do I really need to read long theoretical books to be a communist?” This is a common question among class fighters today. In our final episode of this season of Spectre of Communism, we make the case that, in order to change the world, it is first necessary to understand it. And for that, we need a philosophy!

The year 2025 is turning into a decisive year. What seemed fixed and stable before is crumbling and in flux now. Millions of workers and youth are seeking to understand why. The revolutionary communists alone have clear answers. At this year’s International Workers’ Day protests on 1 May, we intervened in greater numbers than ever before with these answers. We include here a selection of reports that show how the revolutionary communists are beginning to turn the heads of a growing number of radicalised workers and youth.

El Lissitzky’s iconic Civil War poster ‘Beat the Whites With the Red Wedge’ is perhaps the single most recognisable piece of artwork to emerge from the entire Russian Revolution. Its influence is widespread even today. In this article, Nelson Wan and James Kilby explore how The Red Wedge came into being, how it captures the essence of revolution, and how a work of propaganda such as this can be considered great art.

The world is being transformed before our eyes. With Trump taking a sledgehammer to the order of the last century, with Russia closing in on victory in Ukraine, with the globalised world economy being ripped apart by tariffs, and with Netanyahu setting fire to the entire Middle East, a new epoch has opened up.

Electoral success for Nigel Farage’s Reform in yesterday’s local and regional contests across Britain has provoked panic in Labour and Tory HQs alike. Britain’s political landscape is fracturing, as the centre ground collapses. Revolutionary upheavals impend.

On 28 April at midday, Red Eléctrica de España [Spanish Electrical Network] (REE) suffered an unprecedented failure that left the entire Spanish state, its neighbours Portugal and Andorra, and parts of southern France without electricity. In some areas, the blackout lasted until well into the night. After an unusual Monday, today [Tuesday 29 April] seems to be starting ‘normally’, with 99 percent of the electricity supply restored and the working day back on track.

This year’s 25 April celebration, marking eighty years since Italy’s liberation from fascism, was one of the most well-attended in recent times, with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets across Italy. In town squares across the country, we saw Palestinian flags, overwhelming enthusiasm, and young people and workers eager to discuss how to change the situation.

Since 1889, May Day has been taken up by the workers of the world as a day of celebration and struggle for the emancipation of labour. In this year of unprecedented crisis for the capitalist order, the Revolutionary Communist International sends its revolutionary greetings to our readers and to all those organising for socialist revolution around the world.

Since Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine three years ago, a flood of lies has gushed forth from western governments and the billionaire press alike to obscure the real nature of this war.

The ruling class in Canada is breathing a sigh of relief. Mark Carney, their elite banker, has won the election. But there won’t be much time for celebration. Carney faces an impossible situation with a sluggish economy and a trade war with the United States. Make no mistake, instability and crisis are on the horizon and we must be prepared to resist the coming attacks.

Today is the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon. Prior to this denouement, from 30-31 January 1968, 70,000 North Vietnamese soldiers, together with guerrilla fighters of the NLF, launched one of the most daring military campaigns in history. The Tet Offensive was the real turning point in the Vietnam War. In 2008, on its 40th anniversary, Alan Woods analysed the events that led to the Vietnam War and the significance of the Tet Offensive in bringing about the defeat of US imperialism.

Trump’s announcement of reciprocal tariffs has kicked US-China competition up a notch, but the implications will be felt more broadly than between just these two main belligerents in this trade war. When Trump announced his ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs on 5 April, among those countries initially set to receive the highest tariffs were many that are counted among the ASEAN bloc (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), including Vietnam (46 percent), Laos (48 percent), Myanmar (44 percent) and Cambodia (49 percent) with Malaysia on 24 percent.

What is fascism, how do we fight it, and is it a threat today? In this episode of the Spectre of Communism podcast, we discuss the history of fascism’s rise to power in the 1930s, to learn the lessons for our movement.