[Podcast] How the Spanish Revolution was betrayed 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.
Italy: battles in the Third International The following article by our Italian comrades explores the political debates between the leadership of the Comintern and the leaders of its Italian section. The political errors of these leaders, and the subsequent degeneration of the Comintern, contributed to the historic defeats and tragedies that befell the Italian working class in the 1920s onwards.
The rise of the Comintern and the role of Leon Trotsky The following is an introduction by marxist.com editor Fred Weston to the new edition of The First Five Years of the Communist International from Wellred Books (buy it now!) Fred outlines some of the key debates and decisions taken in the first four congresses of the Communist International. This, we hope will serve to place the contribution of Trotsky into the context of the period.
Report on the World Economic Crisis and the New Tasks of the Communist International We republish here the ‘Report on the World Economic Crisis and the New Tasks of the Communist International’, written by Leon Trotsky in June 1921. In this masterpiece of perspectives, which is highly relevant to the world situation to day, Trotsky analyses the nature of the organic, global crisis of capitalism, of a system being suffocated by its own mountains of debt, speculation and inflation.
[Video] The Communist International and the Women's Struggle The following is a speech by Marie Frederiksen (editor of the Danish Marxist journal Revolution) on the Comintern and the women's struggle, delivered at the International Marxist Tendency's 2019 Word School in Italy.
Zinoviev and the Stalinist degeneration of the Comintern The IMT has spent the past year commemorating the March 1919 centennial of the Third (Communist) International's founding. In particular, we celebrate the extraordinary promise and lessons of its first four congresses. But just a few years after it entered the scene of history, the Comintern suffered a sudden, dramatic, and irreversible decline. What happened? How was all that potential squandered and turned into its opposite?
100 years on: the founding of the Communist International A century ago, on 2-6 March 1919, the first congress of the Third International took place in Moscow. This marked the birth of the Communist International, which became a vital school of revolutionary ideas and strategy. Rob Sewell (editor of Socialist Appeal, British journal of the IMT) looks back on this momentous event.
[Audio] The Rise and Fall of the Communist International Marie Frederiksen, editor of the Danish Marxist paper Socialistisk Standpunkt, speaking on the rise and fall of the Comintern.
[Audio] The Russian Revolution and the Communist International Tomorrow marks the 92nd anniversary of the Russian Revolution. For the first time the working class conquered state power and at least began the task of the socialist transfomation of society. Listen here to this meeting of the ULU Marxist Society where Fred Weston, editor of the website 'In Defence of Marxism' (marxist.com), speaks on the Russian Revolution and the founding of the Comintern.
[Audio] 90 years since the founding of the Communist International This year marks the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist International. Mick Brooks spoke at a recent Socialist Appeal Day School on the rise of the "world party of socialist revolution" under Lenin and Trotsky and its subsequent political and bureaucratic degeneration under Stalin.
Programme of the International Much has changed since this document was first produced, and we have continually refined and updated our perspectives and analysis in subsequent books and articles. However, the historical value of this document, especially those parts concerning the history of the internationals, the rise of proletarian Bonapartism, and the post-WWII period retain their full force and value.
The Rise and Fall of the Communist International Edited for publication in The Unbroken Thread, full version available on the Ted Grant archive.
The League of Nations and the Communist International (From Trotsky's Revolution Betrayed, Chapter 8, Section 2) Trotsky's analysis of the League of Nations (predecessor to the United Nations) exposes the weakness and hypocrisy of a world body dominated by imperialist powers.
It is Imposssible to Remain in the Same International with the Stalins, Manuilskys, Lozovskys & Co. This article, signed with a penname, appeared in the Bulletin of the Opposition, No.36-37, October 1933. It was translated for The Militant, October 21, 1933. Trotsky had received a visa to live in France, and this article was written on the Bulgaria, an Italian ship, en route from Turkey to Marseilles.
To Build Communist Parties and an International Anew The official dissolution of the Communist International comes almost ten years after the proclamation by Leon Trotsky that the Third International was dead as the world instrument for the socialist revolution. It was on July 15, 1933 that Trotsky wrote his theses, reprinted here, in justification of this conclusion and the need of building the Fourth International.