Last week, a David-vs-Goliath struggle broke out at Samsung, the biggest Chaebol (conglomerate) in Korea, where workers launched the first indefinite strike in the company’s history.

The attempted assassination of Donald Trump has accelerated the polarisation of American society, as the Republican presidential candidate dodged death by the narrowest of margins. But it wasn’t just Trump who dodged a bullet. The entire country went right up to the edge of a precipice, before taking half a step back. As the title of a Financial Times article put it: “America is staring into the abyss”.

We publish here the editorial of issue 46 of In Defence of Marxism magazine, which looks at the relationship of culture, and art in particular, to the struggle for socialist revolution and human emancipation. In this editorial, Alan Woods dismantles the lazy caricature of Marxism as unconcerned with the rich cultural and artistic history of humanity. Issue 46 of In Defence of Marxism magazine is available now! Get your copy here.

The attempt by a 20-year-old gunman to assassinate Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday has plunged American bourgeois democracy even deeper into crisis.

Issue 46 of In Defence of Marxism, the quarterly theoretical journal of the Revolutionary Communist International is now available for purchase! Click here to get your copy. This issue deals with the very important question of the relationship of culture, and art in particular, to the struggle for socialist revolution and human freedom.

The Spanish student strike of 1986/87 was an epoch-making movement, lasting three months, involving three million school and university students, with hundreds of thousands in demonstrations, which ended up in a victory against the Socialist Party government. This document, written at the time by Alan Woods, is a blow-by-blow account of the movement which draws out the main political points. Alan was in Spain for most of the struggle, involved in daily discussions with the leading Spanish Marxists which led the movement.

With the world roiling in two wars in Ukraine and Palestine, while anxieties rise over a potential third conflict erupting over Taiwan, yet another potential flashpoint appears to be brewing in the Korean Peninsula, with sabre-rattling on both sides causing alarm.

Over the course of several days, Storm Beryl has wreaked havoc across the Caribbean, before landing in the USA. Island communities were flattened in a matter of a few hours and coastal areas were overwhelmed by flood waters. The lives of hundreds of thousands of people have been turned upside down.

In the British general election, the Revolutionary Communist Party, only 8 weeks after its founding, ran the most successful revolutionary communist election campaign in decades. Fiona, candidate of the RCP, received 1,791 votes for an openly revolutionary programme. This is an excellent result, but the reason communists participate in elections is to raise their programme and to build the revolutionary party. In this article, Daniel Morley delves deeper into the theoretical underpinnings of communist strategy and tactics in elections.

Three decades ago, between April and July 1994, the Rwandan government organised the extermination of almost 1 million people belonging to the Tutsi ethnic group. This genocide was aided and abetted by the French government, which both financed and armed those responsible, often referred to as ‘génocidaires’. But still, to this day, the French ruling class has not fully and openly recognised its responsibility for one of the most monstrous crimes of French imperialism.

After a brief break, we welcome the return of our series, Lenin in a Year, in which we explore the many writings – some more and some less well-known – of history’s greatest revolutionary, V. I. Lenin, in this centenary year of his death. 

Six weeks ago, the newly-founded Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), on the back of the wave of support for Fiona Lali’s public decimation of Suella Braverman, took the bold decision to run her as a candidate in the general election in the East London constituency of Stratford & Bow.

The results of the second round of the French legislative elections brought joy and, above all, relief to millions of voters who feared a victory for the far-right National Rally (RN) bloc.

The Tories have suffered a devastating defeat, allowing Starmer into Number 10 with a massive majority. But this new Labour government will be one of intense crises. Workers and youth must prepare for battle. Join the RCP!

French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to call snap legislative elections, with the final round this weekend, is proving a massive headache for the bourgeoisie. The prospect of Macron losing any semblance of a parliamentary majority is spooking the markets. At the same time, the rise of Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN) is provoking hundreds of thousands to take to the streets in protest.