Marxism and war

Remaking Socialism: From Socialism's Collapse in 1914 to the Foundation of the Communist International in March 1919

THE ECLIPSE OF THE INTERNATIONAL On 4 August, 1914, the Workers' International breathed its last, and that watchword of socialism "Death to militarism", which should have rung out clear and strong above the tumult of mobilisation and the clash of arms, was unheard by the peoples of the world. No doubt this cry of revolt from a workers' movement animated by a true solidarity of the exploited against their task masters would have been promptly stifled by the death-dealing implements of war, and by the weight of censorship and martial law, but ere its defeat it would have awakened the consciences...

Benn, the Left and the Serb-Kosova Conflict, 1999: a Reconstructed Dialogue

Three people aroud a table in a back-street pub between Kings Cross and Euston stations. They have come from the Friends Meeting House on Euston Road, where Tony Benn MP, the one-time bishop Bruce Kent, the journalist Paul Foot and others have spoken against NATO's bombing of Serbia. The three are old college friends who have not seen each other in a long while... TONY: That was a hell of a meeting, eh? It's many years since we've had an overflow meeting like that! Footsie and Bruce Kent were in great form. And Benn is fantastic! KATE: I thought it was a dreadful meeting, Alice in Wonderland...

The SWP's Political Nihilism in the Balkan Wars [1999]

Review of "The Balkans, nationalism and imperialism", edited by Lindsay German,1999 If socialists operate in politics according to worked out positive principles, then they will generally be consistent. Should circumstances arise that compel them to seemingly veer from those principles, then they will explain themselves in terms of the base-line principles involved, or of some higher principle. For example, socialists believe that peoples should be self-governing - that, for instance, where the compact majority wants it, Ireland has a democratic right to be free of British interference. But...

The Fruits of SWP Mechanical negativism in the Balcan Wars

If socialists operate in politics according to worked out positive principles, then they will generally be consistent. Should circumstances arise that compel them to seemingly veer from those principles, then they will explain themselves in terms of the base-line principles involved, or of some higher principle. For example, socialists believe that peoples should be self-governing - that, for instance, where the compact majority wants it, Ireland has a democratic right to be free of British interference. But suppose that the British working class has taken power and a hostile Ireland is used...

Kosovo, NATO, Milošević and the SWP at the Easter 1999 NUT Conference

Friday, April 2 Arrive at the NUT Conference in Brighton expecting a lively and constructive weekend. Teachers are deeply angry about the Green Paper proposals for performance related pay. Yet it is hard to think about anything but the unfolding crisis in Kosova. The previous week I had been to an involved discussion on the issue. This conflict is not reducible to the well-worn slogans - 'the main enemy is at home', 'stop the war', etc. Politics starts immediately with a Socialist Teachers Alliance (STA) meeting. The main issue is, rightly, the Green Paper, but I am approached by some comrades...

September 1939: Behind the Stalinazi pact

I: 5 September 1939 The Hitler-Stalin pact is the most sensational news to come out of Moscow in many years. Up to yesterday, it was the general belief that Stalin was moving heaven and earth in an earnest attempt to establish a “peace front” of the “democracies” against the “fascist aggressors”, especially against Fascist Germany. The friends and supporters of the Stalin regime said this repeatedly, and in so many plain words. Suddenly, right in the midst of the Anglo-French-Russian military discussions in Moscow, came the news that Hitler and Stalin had made a very important trade agreement...

1940: Max Shachtman's reply to Leon Trotsky - A “petty bourgeois” opposition?

Where Is the Petty Bourgeois Opposition? A Repeated Challenge Remains Unanswered. In his open letter to Comrade Trotsky, Comrade Shachtman, repeating the challenge issued by the Minority since the moment it was accused of representing a petty-bourgeois tendency in the party, declared: “... it is first necessary to prove (a) that the Minority represents a deviation from the proletarian Marxian line, (b) that this deviation is typically petty-bourgeois, and (c) that it is more than an isolated deviation — it is a tendency. That is precisely what has not been proved.” Comrade Trotsky has been the...

To Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg

They slew you in their beastly rage. Because you dared the struggle Wage With tyrants and with traitors too— The traitors feared and so they slew. Deluded naves! Your lifeless tongues More potent now in martyr songs Will trumpet forth the truth until, The very earth will rock and thrill; And thrones and states will crash and fall— And labor triumphs over all. * * So comrades, sleep—your Work is done; Sleep on! The battle will be won.

Cliff's state capitalism in perspective: The "Russian Question" in Britain in the 1940s

Click here to download as pdf Click here to download as epub Click here to download as mobi Or read online below: Introduction I. The great riddle of the twentieth century II. 1917 and Marxist socialism III. Trotsky IV. Trotsky's picture of the USSR V. 1933: Trotsky discusses state capitalism VI. 1933: Trotsky discusses 'bureaucratic collectivism' VII. Perspectives: before World War Two VIII. The results of World War Two IX. The other Trotskyists: the Workers' Party X. One, two, many state capitalisms XI. Tony Cliff's revolution in science XII. Cliff and Haston-Grant XIII. Being arbitrary XIV...

Hymn of the warmonger

Gun God, we are nearly ready for the sacrifice. How many millions it shall be we do not know: But it shall be considerable. We shall dig them from the cities Ere the grime is from their face Ere the ink is from their fingers You shall have them All the strata in a bundle Slums and all. They're a holocaust for you, Gun God. Do they tremble at the ordeal before them? No, They are preoccupied with trifles. Like young mice they will nibble at our cheese: delicious, intoxicating cheese, having nothing at all to do with traps. A national cheese. You shall have them from the fields, Fresh and brown...

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