Socialist Appeal and the International Marxist Tendency invite all our readers to REVOLUTION 2017 - a three day festival of Marxist ideas in London, celebrating the centenary of the Russian Revolution of October 1917 and discussing the relevance of Marxism today. Book your tickets now!

On May Day in Pakistan, public meetings and protests were organised across the country to pay tribute to the martyrs of Chicago who gave their lives for the eight hour working day. More than 130 years later, the workers of Pakistan are still struggling for basic rights such as the eight hour day and week-end holidays. Here we bring a report of the interventions of the Pakistani Marxists of Lal Salaam across the country.

This year’s May Day - a major event for the international working class movement - took place in the context of growing class struggle everywhere, which is also seeing rising interest for Marxist ideas. This was reported by all the sections of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT), who participated in May Day events in dozens of countries. Here we provide reports and photos of the interventions of our comrades around the world.

On 18 and 19 February a Marxist School was held in Multan. This school was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Russian Revolution. Young comrades from all over the country started arriving in Multan on the evening of 16 February. From Kashmir to Karachi comrades had to travel long distances amid difficult economic conditions, but they arrived with revolutionary enthusiasm. On 17 February a convention of Multan city was organized by the Progressive Youth Alliance in which all comrades participated with Bolshevik spirit. Afterwards they stayed to attend this two day national school. More than 70 comrades participated in the school. The hosts of this school made it a success despite the

Over the past period, the annual “Karl Marx seminar”, which is organised by the comrades of the IMT who lead the Socialist Youth of Vorarlberg, has grown to become an important event for the left in the lake Konstanz region of Austria, Switzerland and Germany.

On 17 February the Progressive Youth Alliance organised its city convention of Multan at the Multan Tea House hall. More than 200 students from various colleges and universities of Multan participated in this meeting.

Comrades and friends, We would like to inform everyone that the National Executive of PSOL [Party of Socialism and Freedom] yesterday [11th February] approved the entry of the Marxist Left [Brazilian section of the IMT] into the party.

The seventh annual Montreal Marxist Winter School, held this past weekend (February 18-19), was a resounding success! Attendance at this year’s school was almost double that of last year, with some 200 people from countries such as Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Mexico attending and participating. In fact, this was one of the largest revolutionary Marxist meetings held in Canada for many, many years.

The new and completed edition of Stalin, which Leon Trotsky was working on at the time of his death, was officially launched in Canada at a meeting in Toronto this past Thursday, February 16.

There was a record participation at the congress of the Italian section of the International Marxist Tendency – Sinistra, Classe e Rivoluzione – held on 6-8 January in Bologna with more than 150 comrades from 25 cities attending. Fred Weston of the IMT introduced the debate on global relations.

Over 100 people gathered on U.S. Inauguration Day for the United Against Trump Town Hall held at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. The event was hosted by a coalition of organizations led by the Canadian section of the International Marxist Tendency, Fightback. Others who supported the event included the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), Justice for Migrant Workers (J4MW), the Canadian Federation of Students Ontario (CFS-O), the Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario (CUPE) and the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP).

This year, the fourth national conference of the Marxist Student Federation - taking place in London at UCL (Cruciform Building B304 – LT1) on 11th February - will be a Bolshevik celebration of the life and ideas of Vladimir Lenin, 100 years since the February Revolution in Russia kicked off events that would lead, a few months later, to the first successful proletarian revolution in history.

We are on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, the most important event in world history. The first time the working class took power and held it. This anniversary also takes place at a time of severe crisis of the capitalist system. The euphoria of capitalist commentators 25 years ago, at the time of the collapse of Stalinism, has turned into depression and deep worry for the future of their own system. This confirms Ted Grant’s prediction at the time when he said that the collapse of Stalinism was only a prelude to a new period of crisis for capitalism, which would make the former look like a tea party by comparison.

On the weekend of November 19–20, nearly 30 comrades gathered in Chico, California for the fourth annual Regional Marxist School - an important new milestone for the building of the IMT in the West Coast region. 

Further to the reports from the congress of the Pakistani Marxist organisation of the IMT we publish the report on the organisational discussions which took place.