It’s the festive season, and the Spectre of Communism podcast is welcoming Alan Woods (marxist.com editor-in-chief) onto a special live episode to discuss the origins of Christianity from a Marxist perspective. This is a fascinating story of revolution and counter-revolution in the ancient world. We will broadcast the episode tomorrow (12 December) at 7pm British time via our YouTube channel.

Ridley Scott’s recent biopic Napoleonhas evoked much criticism for its shallow narrative and plethora of historical inaccuracies. But who was the real Napoleon Bonaparte? How did a young Corsican from a relatively modest background become the strongman behind an empire that would dominate Europe?

Many people think of the state as a huge collection of bureaucratic offices and institutions that have little to do with our daily lives. Some have illusions in the state as a neutral arbiter over society, operating on the basis of universal principles of ‘democracy’ and ‘rule of law’. But for countless workers and youths on the receiving end of police violence, legal victimisation or military oppression, the real nature of the capitalist state is clear.

The Chinese Communist Party and its defenders claim that China is building a successful socialist society, and is at the forefront of an anti-imperialist struggle against the West. But is China communist? Does the legacy of the Chinese Revolution live on today in the CCP?

Right-wingers claim that communism would be a dictatorial hellscape: nothing could be further from the truth. Communism means a society free from money, social classes, poverty and oppression, where people live “from each according to their ability, each according to their needs.” But what would such a society look like, and how do we get there?

We are celebrating this year’s anniversary of the greatest event in human history – the Russian Revolution of 1917 – with the launch of the International Marxist Tendency’s brand new podcast, Spectre of Communism. In this special first episode, editor of marxist.com Alan Woods, discusses this great event, when workers and the oppressed, for the first time on the scale of an enormous nation, threw off capitalist rule and took the running of society into their own hands.

A spectre is haunting all major podcast platforms… The International Marxist Tendency (IMT) is launching a new weekly podcast, the Spectre of Communism, to coincide with the anniversary of the Russian Revolution (7 November). The first episode will feature Alan Woods, editor-in-chief of marxist.com and author of Bolshevism: The Road to Revolution. Subscribe today, and tune in every Tuesday!

On Saturday 7 October, Hamas forces in Gaza launched an unexpected attack on Israel, triggering an immediate response from the Israeli Defence Force. Fundamentally, this is a conflict between unequal forces, as the Palestinian masses have for decades been the victims of a regime of terror promoted by the likes of Netanyahu and Israel’s imperialist backers in the west.

Today marks 50 years since the coup that overthrew the government of Salvador Allende in Chile. To remember the revolutionary struggles of this period and to emphasise the invaluable lessons contained therein, International Marxist Radio is back for a special episode.

More and more workers and youth all over the world are being drawn to the ideas and banner of communism, much to the anger and anxiety of the bosses, bankers and bourgeois politicians. The final episode of the International Marxist Radio podcast explains "Why We Are Communists". You can watch a video of the discussion on our YouTube channel and listen to the audio version on your preferred podcast streaming platform.

The Roman Republic was a society characterised by great social and political upheaval. This is a period of well-documented and important class struggle, which has many parallels with the situation today. If we are to avoid making the mistakes of history, a close study of the past is absolutely crucial for all Marxists.

The Spanish Revolution and Civil War (which began this week in 1936) represent a profoundly heroic period of struggle by the Spanish working class and peasantry. The masses gave their all in the fight against Franco, only to be failed by their leadership. Both the anarchists and the Stalinists, consciously or otherwise, were unable to lead the workers and peasants to victory, ushering in a period of fascist reaction that would last for decades.

David Graeber and David Wengrow’s anthropological opus, The Dawn of Everything, claims to offer an entirely new, radical view of the development of human society (implicitly: one that knocks down Marx and Engels’ historical materialism). This is no small task, but is the book as earth-shattering as the immodest title suggests?

Last week, a French policeman shot an unarmed French-Algerian teenager (Nahel M.) in the chest after a traffic stop. Before pulling the trigger, Nahel was told “I will lodge a bullet in your head”. A video of the brutal slaying was uploaded to social media, resulting in a massive outpouring of rage that swept the country.

Last weekend, Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the infamous Russian mercenary company Wagner, led an apparent mutiny. After withdrawing his troops from the front line of the Ukraine War, Prigozhin took control of the military bases at Rostov-on-Don and began what he called a “march for justice” (albeit a heavily armed one), heading towards Moscow. Within a day, it was all over, but what are we to make of these dramatic events?