The American Civil War was one of the bloodiest conflicts of its age, resulting in over a million deaths. Not merely a war, this was a ruthless and relentless revolutionary clash. In the third episode of our US comrades' podcast, they address the actual events of the conflict. 

The recent outbreak of COVID-19 in the town of Odemira, which led to a lockdown being imposed upon two local parishes, has exposed a festering wound on Portugal’s social fabric. The outbreak has brought to light conditions of modern slavery, involving human trafficking and the exploitation of migrant workers, living under extremely precarious conditions, which contributed to the outbreak of the disease.

The victory of Pedro Castillo in the Peruvian presidential election is a major political earthquake, which reflects the enormous social and political polarisation in the Andean country. The ruling class has been dealt a massive defeat by the masses, who have rallied behind a militant teacher trade unionist at the head of a party, Perú Libre, which calls itself Marxist, Leninist and Mariateguist (after Mariátegui, the founder of the Peruvian labour and socialist movement).

Earlier this month, an independent panel commissioned by the World Health Organisation (WHO) published the findings of its research into the international response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Surprisingly, the report places the blame for the crisis exactly where it belongs: with bourgeois politicians and capitalist bosses. In this period of widespread barbarism and untold suffering, the WHO report shows the brutality at the heart of the ruling class’ response to the pandemic, as well as the ease with which it could have been avoided.

Recent events have shone a spotlight on the murky institution of the Monarchy in Britain. This reactionary feudal relic is a key pillar of the British establishment; a reserve weapon of the ruling class. The labour movement must demand its abolition.

The Spanish government’s intention to partially pardon political prisoners of the Catalan independence movement has provoked an angry reaction from the right wing, which is trying to stir up its social base to wear down Socialist Party (PSOE) president Pedro Sánchez. However, key sectors of the ruling class support the amnesty, behind the scenes, confident that their interests are better defended by making this small concession to the Catalan independence movement. What should be the position of the left?

The Communist Party of Cuba held its 8th congress in Havana from 16 to 19 April, coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the proclamation of the socialist character of the revolution on the eve of the attempted invasion of Playa Girón [Bay of Pigs]. The congress was the culmination of the process of replacing the historical leadership in a context of serious economic crisis and of dangerous economic reforms.

In the following polemic, Jorge Martin (editor for marxist.com) responds to a pair of articles in a Cuban magazine, which mischaracterise the 27N movement as being left wing. In fact, this movement of artists and intellectuals for ‘democratic freedoms’ is liberal at best, and openly counterrevolutionary at worst. We also include a letter by Martin, addressed to the Comunistas blog, laying out our differences and calling for communists to stand unequivocally on the side of defending the Cuban Revolution and its conquests.

June 4th marks the 32nd anniversary of the brutal crushing of the Tiananmen Square movement in China in 1989. This year, like every year, we will no doubt see many bourgeois commentators producing articles that use the tragic events of 1989, not to explain what the movement was actually about, but to denounce “communism/socialism” as a failure. They will paint it as a system that cannot work, and present capitalism as the only viable system available to humanity. The media in the west present it as a movement for bourgeois parliamentary democracy and for capitalist restoration in China.

With just a few days until the second round of the presidential election in Peru, Pedro Castillo has only a very narrow advantage over his rival, Keiko Fujimori. The election reveals the enormous political polarisation in the Andean country, which has been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A mass grave containing the remains of 215 children, some as young as three years of age, was discovered at the end of May on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, Canada. The grisly discovery, the result of a search organized by the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation using ground-penetrating radar, confirms what the survivors and families of victims of the residential school system have known for years—that many of the children forced into

On 22 May, 1,400 farmers protested against the lack of permanent access to water in the Iranian province of Isfahan. The regime answered by sending riot police, who brutally beat the farmers, who fought back, leading to clashes. This was not an isolated incident; there is widespread discord among farmers, with recent protests in Khuzestan, Sistan-Balochistan, Khorasan and elsewhere.

Governments across the world have spent the last year propping up the capitalist system with unprecedented state support. But these desperate measures have built dynamite into the foundations of the world economy – which is now set to explode.

One century ago, on 31 May and 1 June 1921, a so-called “race riot” erupted in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Despite a brave attempt by black residents of Tulsa to fight the pogromists, an estimated 300 black people were murdered in those events. The true history of these events has been airbrushed to this day. They represent the horrific fruit of centuries of divide and rule by the American ruling class.

We are very pleased to present this re-publication of Trotsky's classic text, The Revolution Betrayed, in the Vietnamese language. This essential critique of Stalinism is now available to a whole new audience. Click here to download the PDF.