Marxist Audio Archive

The following is a reading of a document that is the product of over 20 years of study and participation in the fight of Indigenous peoples against Canadian capitalism. Revolution not Reconciliation encompasses the accumulated conclusions of the supporters of the International Marxist Tendency, Indigenous and non, applying Marxist theory to the movement on the ground. Here we detail a revolutionar...

The pandemic has unleashed a deep economic crisis and the capitalist system has been shaken to its foundations. Capitalist governments acted quickly to keep the economy afloat by injecting huge sums of money into it.  In this context, ideas that had been relatively marginal until now suddenly entered mainstream discourse, such as "modern monetary theory", and universal basic income. Have thes...

With the death of Prince Philip, the media has spent weeks weeks bombarding us with praise of the world's highest paid unemployed family. This comes after a string of scandals involving the royals. Each new scandal reminds us that the monarchy continues to be at the heart of the Canadian political system. It is high time to abolish this costly, archaic, unnecessary and anti-democratic institution....

The objective conditions for socialism have existed for a very long time. So why have we not yet achieved socialism? Many people on the left will say that the fault lies with the workers. That they are too "weak" or do not have enough class consciousness. But if we look at the history of the last 100 years, we see that Time and again, the working class rises up to change society. The missing facto...

Listen to Fightback editor Alex Grant on Cheri DiNovo's "Left, Lefter, Leftist". This month: Abolishing the monarchy, the police and capitalism, and more. Also featuring David Slavick of ThePopularPod Also listen on Cheri DiNovo's soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/cheri-dinovo

On September 11, 1973, a bloody US-backed coup overthrew the government of Chilean socialist Salvador Allende, and ushered in the oppressive rule of dictator Augusto Pinochet. Decades later the capitalist system and constitution inherited from the dictatorship remained fundamentally the same. This was graphically demonstrated by the mass movement and general strike in the fall of 2019, which led t...

One hundred years ago, Ireland was in the midst of a revolutionary war for independence from Britain. The Irish struggle for freedom is full of lessons for Marxists today— the tactics of divide and rule of the ruling class, the betrayals of nationalist leaders, the role of individual terrorism, the role of religion, and above all the role of the working class in national liberation struggles. In t...

Since the 1920s, capitalist economists have argued that a socialist planned economy would be unable to distribute goods and services as well as a capitalist market economy. However, this argument is not supported by experience. In this episode, Fightback organizer Vincent Beaudoin looks at how examples of large-scale economic planning beat out market-based methods, and makes the case for a sociali...

The fight for women's liberation is one of the burning issues in the labour movement, and has been for over a hundred years. While we have come a long way in Canada, women continue to be an oppressed group under capitalism and our basic rights are constantly under attack. Most recently, COVID-19 has reversed decades of hard-won progress. What is the best way forward for the women's movement? The s...

The American Civil War of 1861-1865 is what Marxists consider the Second American Revolution. It finally uprooted slavery and paved the way for the struggle of the working class to unfold on a gigantic scale. As Marx said at the time, “Labor in the white skin can never free itself as long as labor in the black skin is branded.” While this revolution was a tremendous step forward, it never realized...

One hundred years ago, the Communist Party of Canada, the Canadian section of Lenin’s Communist International, was officially founded. The history of the party, and especially the early days, is full of lessons for revolutionary Marxists today. 

Officially founded in 1867, the creation of the modern nation state of Canada was not the result of a revolution as with our neighbours to the south - but of a vicious counter-revolution. The process which led to the creation of Canada began with the putting down of the rebellions in what is now Quebec and Ontario of 1837-38 and was completed with the crushing of the Metis resistance in the west....

Listen to Fightback editor Alex Grant on Cheri DiNovo's "Left, Lefter, Leftist". This month: The profit motive sabotages vaccine rollout, the Proud Boys being designated as a terrorist organization, and more. Also featuring Ben Nolan of UMass Also listen on Cheri DiNovo's soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/cheri-dinovo

Many people are appalled by the racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and all other forms of oppression and discrimination that capitalism breeds. Movements such as Black Lives Matter, Idle No More and the world wide strikes on International Women's Day show the burning desire to fight oppression in all its forms. Some wishing to fight oppression ascribe to ideas under the umbrella of "identity...

The experience of COVID-19 has proven time and time again that the bosses are prepared to risk the lives of workers for profits, and to make them pay for it when those profits are lost. In response, workers are increasingly realizing that they need to get organized to fight back in order to protect their health and safety, wages and working conditions. This episode draws lessons from the recent su...

In this recent talk Antonio Balmer - from the Socialist Revolution USA editorial board - discusses the unprecedented dramatic events in Washington DC, which are yet another symptom of the decline of American capitalism and the extreme political polarization within society. The storming of Capitol Hill by a mob of Trump supporters on 6 January is a graphic illustration of the deep crisis gripping U...

In this talk, Fightback editor Rob Lyon discusses how the far right hides behind the claim of "free speech". While this event was held in 2018 in the context of Fightback's campaign against the Doug Ford government's attempt to ban protests on campus, the issue of how to deal with the far right, and how to defend the freedoms of the working class and oppressed, remains just as relevant today.&nbsp...

Listen to Fightback editor Alex Grant on Cheri DiNovo's "Left, Lefter, Leftist". This month: a look back at 2020 and forward to 2021 through a Marxist lens. Also featuring Drew Garvie of the Communist Party of Canada, and Ben Nolan of UMass Also listen on Cheri DiNovo's soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/cheri-dinovo

Demands for a universal basic income (UBI) are increasingly popular on the left. In this episode, Fightback editor Rob discusses whether UBI is actually a solution to the crisis of capitalism. 

With the recent budget released by the Trudeau Liberals further increasing the already record deficit, the big question is "who pays?" Sooner or later someone has to pay - and you can be damn sure the bosses will try to make us pay. This question, as simple as it sounds, has been at the heart of every major revolution. With capitalism in decline, the ruling class can only buy time, kicking the can...

Listen to Fightback editor Alex Grant on Cheri DiNovo's "Left, Lefter, Leftist". This month: COVID, strikes, the need for a US labour party, and more! Also listen on Cheri DiNovo's soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/cheri-dinovo

Hamid Alizadeh, editor of In Defense of Marxism (marxist.com), speaks on the ideas of Hegel and the relationship to Marxist philosophy.

In this episode Fred Weston, editor of In Defence of Marxism, discusses how the Russian Revolution decriminalized homosexuality, and how this was eventually reversed by the Stalinist counter-revolution.

Following the October Revolution of 1917, the Third (Communist) International was setup to be a vehicle of international proletarian revolution. However, the International could not be conjured out of thin air, it had to be built through struggle against many different tendencies and ideas. In this talk, Fightback Editor Rob Lyon discusses the history of the Communist International, and what we ca...

Canadian capitalism was founded and built on the brutal exploitation and colonization of Indigenous peoples. A study of this history also clearly shows that the continued oppression and suffering of Indigenous peoples today is inherently linked to the capitalist system, and points the way forward for emancipation through the fight for the socialist transformation of society. In this episode, Fight...