With its message of human progress and defiance in the face of oppression, Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound has inspired revolutionaries for thousands of years. In this article, Jesse Murray-Dean explores the main themes of the play, the historical context in which it was written, and the influence it has had right up to our own time.

The fifteenth edition of the Marxist Winter School took place in the midst of a storm. A record snowstorm rocked Montreal on the weekend of February 14 to 16 delaying the arrival of many of the 600 or so participants. But this storm was nothing compared to the chaos currently gripping global capitalism. It was to help us navigate through these tumultuous events that we held this School under the theme of “The Pillars of Communism”.

This week, Trump went over the heads of Zelensky and the European leaders to embark on peace talks with Russia. At a stroke, the western order that has prevailed for over half a century has fractured.

A single phone call last week signalled the death of the so-called western alliance and the collapse of the system of world relations that has held sway since the Second World War. That phone call was, of course, between Trump and Putin.

In the 17th century, Swedish military might enabled its dominance over the Baltics, before they became a part of the Russian empire after Russia defeated Sweden at Poltava 1709. Today, Sweden has regained its dominance in the region – not through military power, but economic power.

Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has been in power for over half a year now. This will go down in history as the most rapidly discredited government in Britain (excluding Liz Truss’ brief tenure).

Lenin once said that there are decades where weeks happen, and weeks where decades happen. We are living through the latter. A new era has begun, one characterised by capitalist crisis, imperialist war, immense turbulence in world relations and revolutionary upheavals.

Over the last decade, China has become western capitalism’s primary competitor on the world market. Chinese imperialism has spread its influence into many regions previously dominated by the US, setting the stage for intensifying rivalry. We publish below an analysis of China’s economic and political development since 2016, written by Fred Weston as the preface to the new Chinese translation of China: From Permanent Revolution to Counter-Revolution released by Wellred Books.

Elon Musk’s Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has fed the US Agency for International Development (USAID) – the federal body responsible for foreign aid provision – through a woodchipper. The Democrats and the liberal establishment are up in arms. But while we communists recognise Donald Trump’s cynical motives for dismantling USAID, what his funding freeze has exposed is the real nature of this ‘humanitarian’ CIA front for pushing US imperialism’s ‘soft power’.

At 23:30 GMT (18:30 EST), the Revolutionary Communist Party – the Canadian section of the Revolutionary Communist International – will host a public book launch for two recent Wellred publications: Lenin's Selected Writings: On Imperialist War and Colossus: The Rise and Decline of US Imperialism. The event will be streamed live on YouTube and will feature a presentation by Jorge Martín, member of the International Secretariat of the RCI and author of the introduction to Lenin's Selected Writings: On Imperialist War.

Since our previous article, events in Serbia have accelerated rapidly. The government hoped that the holidays and extended school winter break would lead to fatigue in the movement, but the students, who are occupying their universities, did not allow the movement to dissipate. A large protest was held in front of the offices of the Serbian secret services on 11 January as a response to threats. They continued their strategy of 15 minute road blockades demanding justice for the 15 people murdered by the fall of the concrete canopy of the reconstructed railway station in Novi Sad.

Thanks to the support of the Socialist Party (PS) and the National Rally (RN), François Bayrou – leader of the liberal Democratic Movement – has succeeded where previous Prime Minister Michel Barnier's government failed: they have approved a budget.

The following is a speech on world perspectives, given on Tuesday 28 January at a meeting of the International Executive Committee of the Revolutionary Communist International. It looks at the upheaval in world relations, which has been caused by Trump’s presidency, it's impact on Ukraine and the Middle East, as well as across Europe.

The struggle waged by the people of Cameroon against imperialist oppression contains many lessons for revolutionaries throughout Africa and the world. And today, the legacy of the dirty war waged by French imperialism to crush that struggle can still be felt. In this article, Jules Legendre explains how France came to rule Cameroon, and the methods it used to maintain its domination, even after the country’s formal independence in 1960.

Trump has been in power for just over two weeks and already he has started to upend the liberal world order. With tariffs, deportations, the halting of all foreign aid, and his plan to turn Gaza into a “Rivera of the Middle East”, ‘allies’ and rivals alike have been thrown into panic.