Issue 48 of In Defence of Marxism magazine – the quarterly theoretical journal of the Revolutionary Communist International – is out now! Alan Woods’ editorial, which we publish below, takes up the central question of whether we can truly know and understand the world around us, which is a theme throughout this issue. The four articles in this issue take up a wide range of questions relating to this topic: the crisis and stagnation of contemporary science, mysticism in interpreting quantum physics, the philosophical insights of Goethe’s Faust, and a critique of the philosophical writings of Mao.

On Monday morning while I was having breakfast it occurred to me to check what the Spanish press was saying about Barça's victory in the Super Cup. I almost choked on my sloe jam on toast when a strident El Paíseditorial jumped out of the screen. “Europe must react” the headline shouted, almost hysterically. Alarmed, I began to read the opinion of this authorized mouthpiece of the Spanish ruling class. Where did this panic come from and what was the response that El País demanded?

The UN Climate Change Conference (COP29), held last year in Baku, was trumpeted by the government as an important event, putting Azerbaijan front and centre on the world stage in the global fight against environmental crises. In reality, like all COP conferences before it, the whole affair was a hypocritical farce that revealed the impotence of combating climate change on a capitalist basis – although it contained a few uniquely cynical twists.

Ever since the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) took the most votes in the election last September, a number of the establishment parties have been desperately seeking to form a coalition government to prevent its coming to power. But despite their best efforts, the coalition negotiations between the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) and the New Austria and Liberal Forum (NEOS) have failed.

At time of writing, six wildfires are raging out of control in and around Los Angeles. At least ten people have perished in the conflagration, and the LA County Sheriff expects that number to rise.

The European economy is facing its biggest crisis in a decade. Over the past few months, announcements of layoffs in France and Germany have come thick and fast. Hundreds of thousands of jobs are at risk as companies attempt to cut costs. At the same time, the European Central Bank (ECB) is cutting interest rates and its growth forecast. This reflects the historic crisis of European capitalism, which offers nothing but a future of austerity and misery.

If you thought that 2024 was disturbed, it will be seen as nothing compared to what we are about to experience in 2025.

With just two weeks before Trump re-enters the White House, the outgoing Democrats are doing everything they can to undermine the next president. In Ukraine in particular, where they fear a drastic change of course in the policy of US imperialism, they are funnelling in as much money as they can get away with, as well as escalating the war by allowing Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with US bombs.

After ruling Canada for nine years, Trudeau’s government has collapsed. In order to explain these events, we are publishing two articles written by Joel Bergman.

Denmark is one of the only countries in the world that still has a colony, Greenland, which has suffered under the brutal oppression of Danish colonialism for over 300 years. Control of Greenland is the only thing that keeps Danish capitalism relevant on the international stage, and the Danish bourgeoisie is desperately trying to cling to it.

In November, a concrete canopy collapsed at the newly inaugurated train station in Novi Sad, killing 15. Since then, a huge protest movement has swept the country, condemning the criminal negligence of the authorities which led to this tragedy. This movement has continued to escalate, with a series of student occupations and calls for a general strike.

Defined by political crises all over the world, spiralling tensions between the imperialist powers, and revolutions in Bangladesh and Kenya, 2024 was an historic year in the crisis of the capitalist system. But now, with Trump days away from power, Ukraine headed unavoidably towards a humiliating and bloody defeat, and with no end in sight to the complete destabilisation of the Middle East, this new year looks to be even more explosive.

The whole world situation is dominated by enormous instability in international relations. This is the result of the struggle for hegemony between the US, the world’s most powerful imperialist nation, which is in relative decline, and other weaker but nonetheless rising powers, above all the younger and more dynamic China.

This year marked the centenary of Lenin’s death. In order to reclaim the real legacy of one of history’s greatest revolutionaries, we dedicated a series of articles to some of Lenin’s most important texts throughout 2024. 

2024 has been a turbulent year for every continent. The war, imperialism, economic crisis and political turmoil of the capitalist system have been mirrored by the mass mobilisations and revolutionary movements of the poor and oppressed. Throughout this, marxist.com has aimed to provide clear, communist analysis of all the major events unfolding internationally.