#RevFest2022 – a three-day festival of Marxist ideas – begins this Friday. This year’s event comes at a critical moment, with titanic events shaking society across the world. So get your ticket today, and join the revolution!

On 11 October, the French government decided to use state powers to “requisition” several oil depots where workers had been on strike since 27 September. This has led to a call for a day of national strike action on Tuesday (18 October). Coming off the back of a large demonstration against the cost of living yesterday (16 October), the class struggle in France is roaring back onto the scene.

For almost half a year, the chairman of the Kurier trade union (representing food delivery couriers), Kirill Ukraintsev, has been in custody. He is charged with repeated violations of the law for holding public events. But in fact, he is being persecuted for legitimate trade union activities, and for defending the rights of one of the most disadvantaged and disenfranchised groups of the working class.

The recently awarded 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics has been accompanied by much chatter in popular science columns about how the work of the three awarded scientists has proven that there is no such thing as ‘objective reality’, and the world is not real. Even the Nobel Prize committee itself succeeded in misrepresenting the science. Idealist mysticism has made much headway in the sciences, and is expressed most crudely in popular science journals. Perhaps the worst specimen is the once highly regarded New Scientist magazine, as the following article from issue 37 of In Defence of Marxism magazine explains.

The latest issue of In Defence of Marxism (#39), the theoretical journal of the IMT, is launching tomorrow, featuring four articles around the theme of the Enlightenment and the struggle for rational thought. Order your copy today!

The following is a model leaflet, produced by the International Marxist Tendency, to be distributed at events and demonstrations held in solidarity with the revolutionary youth movement in Iran. It presents our position on how this inspiring movement should advance. Down with the mullahs' regime! Down with imperialism! Down with capitalism!

The recent market turmoil in Britain has revealed the immense level of speculation that takes place in every corner of capitalism. The bankers and billionaires are gambling with our futures. It is time to overthrow their bankrupt system.

After the chaos of Boris’ premiership, the Tories have gone from the frying pan into the fire, with Liz Truss leading the party towards electoral disaster. We are seeing a crisis of the regime – a reflection of the crisis of British capitalism.

If you were to believe Western media and the statements of officials on both sides of the Atlantic, you would get the impression that Ukraine is winning the war against Russia and that it is only a matter of time before Putin is overthrown by his own people. In order to understand what is really happening, first we must tear through the fog of propaganda which surrounds this war. 

In the Spanish State, 12 October is celebrated as the ‘National Day of Spain’, commemorating the ‘discovery’ of the Americas by Christopher Columbus in 1492. But what is there to celebrate? The Spanish conquistadors, driven by an appetite for gold, subjected countless people to bloody subjugation, extinguishing entire civilisations in just a few years. This session from our International Marxist University this summer tells the real story of the conquest of the Americas.

As the nationwide protest movement in Iran enters its fourth week, the efforts of the regime to suppress it only appear to have had the effect of further agitating the masses and of drawing in new layers. The youth on the streets and in the university campuses have now been joined by thousands of school students and bazaar merchants, as well as important layers of the working class. Most importantly, a series of strikes have started in the oil and petrochemical sector, the heart of the Iranian economy.

Brenda West, a 69-year-old retired widow, lost her home in Myakka City, Florida, to Hurricane Ian. She cares full time for her daughter, who has multiple sclerosis. Now, if she wants somewhere to live long term, she will have to contend with soaring rents and unattainable mortgages: symptoms of the global cost-of-living crisis. After a short stay in a run-down Bradenton motel, Brenda says: “I don't know where I'm going. My resources [are] about to run out.”

We are delighted to announce the arrival of Ireland: Republicanism and Revolution by Alan Woods, newly republished and available to purchase today from Wellred Books! This is an essential read for all revolutionaries eager to learn about how British imperialism can be buried in Ireland, its oldest colony.

The cost of energy has been soaring. There are very real worries amongst the representatives of the European ruling class that this could lead to deindustrialisation, unemployment and an almighty response from the working class. There is talk of a new winter of discontent.

As we have recently reported, the Iranian masses are in the midst of a monumental struggle against the regime. In this podcast recorded by Fightback (Canadian section of the International Marxist Tendency), Hamid Alizadeh talks about the mass movement in Iran, what's necessary for it to win, and what we can learn from it internationally.