In recent days, a series of public announcements have been made about Russian investments in Cuba. "They are giving us preferential treatment, the path is clear," declared Boris Titov, the head of the Russian delegation at the closing of the Cuba-Russia Business Economic Forum. The conditions offered to Russian capitalists are very favourable to them: 30-year land concessions – longer than those that have been in place until now – tax exemptions on machinery imports, and the repatriation of profits.

The deadline for reaching a deal on the US debt ceiling is just days away, and Capitol Hill is deadlocked. On or around 1 June, the federal government will no longer have the money to continue paying its bills, potentially resulting in an unprecedented default that would send catastrophic shockwaves across the world economy.

Born in 1632 in the Dutch Republic, the rationalist philosopher Baruch Spinoza was one of the great fathers of Enlightenment thinking. As Hamid Alizadeh explains, Spinoza’s philosophy – which contained a materialist and atheistic kernel – represented a revolutionary challenge to the authority of both Church and state.

Guillermo Lasso, Ecuador's banker-president, has used Article 148 of the Constitution – known as the “muerte cruzada”or “mutual death” – to shut down the National Congress just two hours before the vote on his impeachment trial for corruption was due to begin. Elections must now be called within six months to renew both the executive (the president) and the legislature (the Congress), but in the interim, the president remains in office and rules by decree without parliamentary oversight. It is therefore a power grab or, as some have described it, an autogolpe (a self-coup).

This week’s episode of International Marxist Radio is the first of a special two-part series looking at the class struggle in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ben Morken, a leading comrade of the International Marxist Tendency based in South Africa, discusses the current political situation in a number of African countries, which constitute a bubbling cauldron of class struggle.

Hollywood is known as a “dream factory,” but for film and television writers it’s become simply a factory like any other, with all the drudgery and exploitation that entails. Sea changes in the industry brought about by streaming and artificial intelligence (AI) technology have made writing all but untenable as a career. To confront what it calls an “existential crisis”, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) presented the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) with a list of demands including major changes to how writers are paid, staffing guarantees, and safeguards against being replaced by AI. After six weeks of negotiations, the AMPTP refused to even counter many of

The first round of the presidential elections in Turkey has not resulted in a clear winner. The current president Erdogan of the AKP (with 49.3 percent of the votes) will be forced into the second round for the first time. His rival will be Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu of the CHP, the Republican People's Party. This election was an uphill battle for the AKP, which has governed Turkey for 20 years, and yet Erdogan was not dislodged.

After suffering for years under a reign of terror at the hands of increasingly powerful gangs, the people of Haiti are standing up and fighting back to regain control of their neighbourhoods and cities.

10 May marked a full year since the conservative right returned to power in South Korea under President Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party. This period has been marked by fierce attacks by the government on the working class, with a corresponding rise of class militancy. As the capitalist crisis deepens, the South Korean class struggle will reach new heights.

Our Brazilian organisation (Esquerda Marxista) recently sat down for a discussion with Jérôme Métellus, leading member of Révolution (the IMT in France), about the powerful movement of strikes and protests that rocked French society starting in January. This struggle, triggered by Macron attempting to hike the retirement age, has entered into a phase of stagnation, but the situation in France is more polarised and enraged than ever.

This weekend, protests will be taking place across the world to mark the 75th anniversary of the Nakba – the disaster faced by the Palestinian people as part of the creation of Israel. We say: Fight for a Socialist Federation of the Middle East!

The government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) is approaching its final year. His tenure has been fraught with complications at all levels: the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic crisis driven by it, unchecked violence, bashing by the right wing, etc. Nevertheless, polls indicate his support stands at over 65 percent. He enjoys massive support among the poorest. Against the odds, his personal backing will allow the party that he formed, Morena, to win the elections next year, notwithstanding something out of the ordinary.

This week’s episode of International Marxist Radio welcomes Daniel Morley, a leading comrade of Socialist Appeal, the British section of the International Marxist Tendency, to discuss so-called identity politics, and why Marxists oppose its influence on the class struggle.

The nauseating nationalism surrounding the coronation celebrations in Britain was accompanied by a swathe of anti-monarchy arrests. The ruling class are gearing up for the battles ahead. Workers and youth must fight back with militant class struggle.

As the rate of inflation continues to cut into the living standards of workers, some businesses are posting record profits. Some have pointed the finger at price gouging and the excess profits of big business as the cause. This phenomenon has been dubbed by trade unions and commentators as ‘greedflation’.