The world woke on Tuesday 6 June to reports of a new ‘Russian atrocity’. A massive dam in Nova Kakhovka, a Russian-controlled area in Southern Ukraine, was breached, unleashing a torrent of water from the Dnipro River, resulting in devastating flooding in the Kherson Oblast.

The recent period in the USA has been highly eventful. From the Trump presidency, to the Sanders movement, to BLM and the George Floyd protests, to the storming of Capitol Hill, the ‘Land of the Free’ is more polarised than it has been for decades. Poverty, racism and inequality are rampant; and seemingly not a month passes without another terrible mass shooting. The American Dream has turned into an American Nightmare for millions. What we need is a Third – Socialist – American Revolution!

The partial and confused reports of clashes on the Donbass front, point to the beginning of the much-heralded Ukrainian counter-offensive. On the basis of sketchy information it is impossible to make a definitive prognosis. The following lines therefore bear an entirely conditional character.

In a summary judgement against a defamation case brought by Ben Roberts-Smith, Australia’s most decorated living soldier, the presiding judge found him to be a murderer who committed war crimes in Afghanistan, involving the brutal killing of defenceless civilians. The trial has revealed the depths of the rot in the Australian armed forces, including a ‘warrior culture’ and a reprehensible bloodlust among its elite units. Such cases are not isolated, but are a reflection of the rottenness of the whole institution.

This year’s Pfingstseminar, the annual seminar of the Austrian section of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT), was the largest ever, with over 200 participants. It was a truly internationalist seminar with many comrades from Germany, Switzerland, Czechia, Hungary, Britain and Yugoslavia, and it was a great success.

The crisis of capitalism is also the crisis of the post-USSR world order, which was based on the domination of US imperialism. With the rise of China as a world power, Russia taking an increasingly defiant stance internationally, and the US unable to intervene militarily on a large scale, the world policeman’s stick doesn’t carry the weight, nor guarantee the compliance, that it once did. This has major implications for the balance of power on the world stage.

The Marxists in Britain are recruiting for revolution. We are appealing to militant workers and youth to join us in the struggle for socialism. If you’re a communist, don’t wait – get in touch and get organised today.

We are happy to announce that a wide selection of Marxist texts are now available in audiobook format, many for the first time ever, courtesy of Wellred Books: the publishing house of the International Marxist Tendency! This brand new format will help meet the growing demand for revolutionary ideas. All our audiobooks are available to buy here.

The Marxists in Britain are calling on communists to get organised and join our ranks. Our recruitment drive to reach the 1000 membership milestone is picking up pace, with hundreds of responses in recent weeks. So don’t wait – join us today!

After more than 20 years in power, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has extended his rule for another five years after a multi-party opposition, led by bourgeois liberals, failed to deal his crisis-ridden presidency a decisive blow in the second round of the presidential elections on Sunday.

Is human population growth to blame for poverty and climate change? Plenty of pundits and politicians on the right andleft alike seem to think so. Knowingly or not, they repeat the reactionary ideas of the Reverend Thomas Malthus, whose economic and social theories Marx and Engels demolished nearly 200 years ago. Yet today, the spectre of Malthusianism still endures.

The victory of the right in the regional and municipal elections has caused a political earthquake in Spain that has resulted in Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez calling early elections for Sunday 23 July. What are the perspectives at this junction?

Whatever its scale, the 14th “day of action” against Macron’s rotten pension reform, scheduled for 6 June, will have no more effect on the government than did the 13th. Even if Macron did not really obtain the ‘appeasement’ he was hoping for, he can conclude that, on the pension reform, he has undoubtedly won the battle, at least temporarily. However, from the point of view of the French bourgeoisie, it is a Pyrrhic victory in which the winner emerges much weaker, overall, than the loser.

On 7 March, the bosses of the Delhaize Group – Belgium’s largest supermarket chain – announced a plan to franchise their 128 stores across the country. As a consequence, 6,500 out of the company’s 10,000 workers risk losing their jobs. The remaining workers will see their wages seriously reduced (by up to a quarter), be robbed of other hard-won benefits, and stripped of union representation. The existing collective bargaining agreement will be unilaterally torn apart. In response, thousands of Delhaize workers have begun an exemplary fight to save their jobs and working conditions. 

A former leading paramilitary officer has given explosive, public testimony on the close collaboration between the right-wing thugs under his command and the Colombian capitalists and landowners, who for decades relied on these forces to terrorise the workers and peasants.