This year’s New Year edition of Der Spiegel features an interesting piece titled, “Was Marx right after all?” Full of astute observations about the state of capitalism, it’s a piece symptomatic of the anxiety of the ruling class. But the ‘solutions’ it proposes – reactionary and utopian ideas based on keeping capitalism intact, like ‘degrowth’ and Keynesianism – are really no solutions at all.

The invasion of the National Congress, the Planalto Palace and the Supreme Court yesterday (8 January) by Bolsonarista groups – in opposition to the electoral result and demanding military intervention – must be firmly repudiated and fought by the labour, popular and student movements. 

On Friday 30 December, the South Florida U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom, ordered four Florida-based cruise companies (Carnival, MSC SA, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian) to pay more than US$100 million each in ‘damages’ to Havana Docks. The latter, a US company, had owned a 1934 concession to several piers in Havana harbour, which was expropriated in 1960 by the Cuban Revolution. This decision, the first successful application of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, is capable of having a devastating impact on the Cuban economy and should be strongly rejected as an illegal act of imperialist bullying.

In May 2022, the CEO of BlackRock declared that “the Russian invasion of Ukraine has put an end to the globalisation we have experienced over the last three decades”. He undoubtedly has a point. The war in Ukraine has brought to a head the conflicts that have been brewing between the major powers for some time.

At a meeting of the National Board of PSOL (‘Party of Socialism and Liberty’), on Saturday 17 December, resolutions were discussed and passed drawing a balance sheet of the party’s 2022 election campaign, and on the relationship between the party and its parliamentary faction with the new Lula government.

On 10 January, the French government will reveal the details of its draft law on pensions. We already know the main measure that has been proposed: the postponement of the retirement age by four months, each year, to reach 64 or 65 years of age (against the retirement age of 62 today) in 2027 or 2031. In addition, the increase in the length of contributions required for a full pension could be raised to 43 years (from 42 today) before the planned deadline of 2035. There is no doubt that these policies will be opposed.

Today, 4 January 2023, marks the centenary of Lenin’s dictation of his postscript to his ‘Letter to the Congress’, also known as his ‘Testament’. In it, Lenin took up the struggle against the bureaucratisation of the Soviet state, which was threatening to derail all the gains of the revolution. Suppressed for decades by Stalin, this Testament dispels the slander that Stalinism was the continuation of Leninism.

This is the text of a leaflet, issued by the comrades of the IMT in Peru on 4 January, when there was a call for an indefinite general strike in the southern regions of the country, as part of the struggle to oppose the coup against President Castillo.

From activists glueing themselves to trains, to throwing soup at paintings: recent years have seen numerous groups employing ‘direct action’ tactics to achieve their aims. Instead, Marxists call for mass organised struggle by workers and youth.

The year 2022 has been a year in which much of the inflammable material in world politics – accumulating and smouldering over decades – has burst into flames. War, hunger, mass displacement and spiralling prices torment humanity. Meanwhile, we have seen industrial unrest, revolutions, and accompanying them, coups, counter-revolutions and repression. But to recall a folk expression: “The fire that bends the iron, tempers the steel.”

On 7 December 2022, the Chinese state issued its ‘Ten New Measures’ – a hasty shift from its ‘Zero COVID’ policy towards what it called “accurate counter-measures”. In reality, this was a complete abandonment of previous hardline measures to contain COVID-19. According to the capitalist CCP regime, the ‘Ten Measures’ are aimed at improving “scientific accuracy” in

The mountain has laboured and brought forth a mouse. Yesterday, the Peruvian Congress once again considered the question of an early election, which it had rejected last Friday. When Dina Boluarte illegitimately took over from president Castillo, she announced she would stay in office until 2026. That has become untenable. Clearly a section of the ruling class in Peru understands that it must reform the political system in order to try to quell the huge wave of indignation raised by the congressional coup against President Castillo on 7 December.

Yesterday, 15 December, was a test of strength between the growing anti-coup movement of the Peruvian masses, who had called for a national strike, and the usurper government of Dina Boluarte, which had declared a state of emergency to smash it through repression.

The editorial board of marxist.com is very excited to announce that we are launching a new, weekly podcast series beginning early next year. Get ready to tune in to International Marxist Radio, the official podcast of the International Marxist Tendency, for the best revolutionary news, theory and analysis. Click here to subscribe on Spotify, Apple

In 2022, the world was rocked by war and revolution, while inflation has upended global capitalism. Nothing will ever be the same again. At each dramatic turn, marxist.com has provided sharp, timely analysis, whilst continuing to bring you the in-depth theory revolutionaries need to be armed with in this tumultuous new period. To end the year, we’ve compiled some of the most popular reads of the past year, in case you missed any gems!