Wellred Books is proud to announce the third installment of Lenin’s Selected Writings – On the National Question. Recent events, from the war in Ukraine to the slaughter in Palestine, have thrust unresolved national questions around the globe to the fore. It is vital for revolutionary communists to be able to navigate these often complex questions. We publish here Jorge Martín’s new introduction to the volume. Get your copy from Wellred Books today!

Last year, the seven largest economies in the world spent over $1.2 trillion on their militaries. With the horrors of war escalating around the globe, imperialist powers are pumping a never-before-seen amount of cash directly into the deep pockets of the arms manufacturers. That’s a lot of money for bombs at a time when the vast majority are struggling to get by! If only there was something better the ruling class could be spending this money on… perhaps we can make some suggestions.

This week’s episode of Against the Stream was recorded just days after Trump was inaugurated as US president. For some, this represents the triumph of fascism, a fear that was stoked by Elon Musk’s Nazi salute at the inauguration ceremony.

120 years ago, on a cold Sunday in 1905, tens of thousands of unarmed St. Petersburg workers marched to the Tsar’s Winter Palace to deliver a petition. When they arrived, tsarist soldiers fired into the crowd, killing hundreds and wounding thousands.

David Lynch, who died on 15 January 2025 at the age of 78, made surreal, deeply unsettling films and television shows, including Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive and many others. His works were mysterious, even inscrutable at times, and used dreamlike imagery to explore the alienated state of American society. Despite the eccentricity of much of his output, he enjoyed considerable success and amassed a legendary reputation as a singular artist with the unique ability to capture the absurdity of everyday life under capitalism.

The guns have fallen silent in Gaza, for now. After fifteen months, a ceasefire agreement has brought a pause to the relentless genocidal killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians and the near total destruction of the Palestinian enclave by the state of Israel.

The newly elected president of the United States, Donald Trump, has repeatedly threatened to annex Canada over the past several weeks. While initially written off as a joke by Canadian officials, the thrust behind Trump’s threats has dire implications for Canadian capitalism.

Shocking revelations have recently come to light surrounding the more than decade-long persecution of Julian Assange. A British judge, Penrose Foss, has ruled that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) must explain why it deleted a series of emails between itself and the Swedish legal authorities about the attempt to extradite Assange.

The following is an excerpt from a new title, Colossus: The Rise and Decline of US Imperialism, written by John Peterson, chief editor of The Communist – paper of the Revolutionary Communists of America. The book provides an introduction to Lenin’s classic writings on imperialism and war with modern figures, following the rise and relative decline of US imperialism. As revolutionaries it is our duty to study this history and arm ourselves with the theoretical weapons to overthrow capitalism in the United States and around the globe.

Donald Trump is once again set to helm the most powerful imperialist power in history. He has made sweeping promises to bring back American “greatness,” and there are big expectations for a serious shake-up of the hated status quo.

Issue 48 of In Defence of Marxism magazine – the quarterly theoretical journal of the Revolutionary Communist International – is out now! Alan Woods’ editorial, which we publish below, takes up the central question of whether we can truly know and understand the world around us, which is a theme throughout this issue. The four articles in this issue take up a wide range of questions relating to this topic: the crisis and stagnation of contemporary science, mysticism in interpreting quantum physics, the philosophical insights of Goethe’s Faust, and a critique of the philosophical writings of Mao.

On Monday morning while I was having breakfast it occurred to me to check what the Spanish press was saying about Barça's victory in the Super Cup. I almost choked on my sloe jam on toast when a strident El Paíseditorial jumped out of the screen. “Europe must react” the headline shouted, almost hysterically. Alarmed, I began to read the opinion of this authorized mouthpiece of the Spanish ruling class. Where did this panic come from and what was the response that El País demanded?

The UN Climate Change Conference (COP29), held last year in Baku, was trumpeted by the government as an important event, putting Azerbaijan front and centre on the world stage in the global fight against environmental crises. In reality, like all COP conferences before it, the whole affair was a hypocritical farce that revealed the impotence of combating climate change on a capitalist basis – although it contained a few uniquely cynical twists.

Ever since the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) took the most votes in the election last September, a number of the establishment parties have been desperately seeking to form a coalition government to prevent its coming to power. But despite their best efforts, the coalition negotiations between the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) and the New Austria and Liberal Forum (NEOS) have failed.

At time of writing, six wildfires are raging out of control in and around Los Angeles. At least ten people have perished in the conflagration, and the LA County Sheriff expects that number to rise.