We now close the financial appeal for In Defence of Marxism. We have reached the target we set ourselves of raising €3,000. Since the last update an additional £440 and $295 have come in, bringing the total raised to €2,970.

We had a wonderful response to the financial appeal for In Defence of Marxism. We have already collected €2446, only €550 short of the target. We are now extending the appeal for a few more days to give readers a last chance to help us reach the target.

The last weekend of January 40 Marxists from Sweden, Britain and Denmark gathered in Copenhagen for the Northern European Marxist Winter School. Even though it was freezing cold outside, the mood at the school was excellent as news from the revolutionary development in the Arab world kept coming in.

One month into the financial appeal we launched for In Defence of Marxism, we have raised €1,600, which is more than half of the money we were aiming for. Many contributions have come in over the last few weeks. We are very grateful for those contributions and would like to ask the rest of our readers to help us raise the remaining target.

Since we launched the appeal last Friday, we have already received €660. We still have €2,300 to go. We would like to thank all that have contributed and urge all readers that have not done so yet, to give a serious thought about giving something.

From 7-11 December the Austrian Marxists organised a speaking tour with Hubert Prévaud (CGT Airbus Toulouse and member of the Editorial Board of La Riposte). Hubert spoke in several public meetings on the protest movement against the pensions „reform“ in France.

The Nigeria section of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) recently held its national Conference on Saturday 27^th and Sunday 28th November, 2010. The Conference which was well attended by the members witnessed a lot of highly educational and inspiring leadoffs and contributions from the comrades present in the sessions. Some of the comrades living outside Lagos travelled hundreds of kilometres on the ever deteriorating Nigerian roads to be part of the conference.

2010 has been a very important year in the struggle against Capitalism and recent events bring to the fore, more now than ever before, the need for Marxist ideas. On our website we have provided analysis and updates on the most important events in this crucial year but we need your help to continue, and expand, this work.

The annual National Winter Marxist Youth School of the Pakistani section of the IMT was held from December 3rd to December 5^th, 2010 at Hawks Bay, Karachi. In spite of the very long distances and difficult economic situation more than 150 comrades from all over the country participated in the school with great revolutionary spirit.

On October 30 and 31, the Marxist Tendency “Militante” held its XIV Congress in the historic building which used to belong to the Mexican Communist Party in Monterrey 50, now a PRD office. The Congress took place while Mexico has been going through a severe economic recession and with large parts of its territory under the control of the drug cartels.

The Marxist paper La Riposte and the internal network of the PCF, Renforcer le PCF, renouer avec le marxisme, organised a speaking tour by Alan Woods in six public meetings, from the 11^th to the 16^th of October, in different parts of France. The meetings were held in Rouen, in Niort, in Toulouse, in Alès, in Lyon, and finally in Paris. The tour was a great success, and took place against the background of a rising tide of strikes and demonstrations throughout the country.

The inauguration was held on October 3 in the PPP offices in D.G. Khan at Khetran Plaza near Traffic Chowk. Almost 250 workers, peasants and students attended the ceremony. D.G.Khan Division was the worst hit by the recent floods. The cities of Jampur and Kot Addu were completely submerged in flood waters while hundreds of villages and towns were destroyed.

The 2010 World Congress of the International Marxist Tendency, which took place in Marina di Massa a seaside town in Tuscany, Italy, from 1 to 8 of August, represented a great step forward for the International.

Lal Khan was in Germany recently to present his book, Pakistan‘s Other Story - The 1968-9 Revolution.You can also buy the book online from Wellred Books.

Alan Woods recalls the role of Ted Grant, discussions he had with him and also provides excerpts from some of Ted’s speeches in the 1990s, that reveal a sharp mind still following world events and applying the Marxist method to explain them.