Marxist Voice

In this talk from a recent London-wide meeting of the Marxist Student Federation, Hamid Alizadeh - writer for In Defence of Marxism - discusses the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, and the links between jihadi organisations and Western imperialism. After every barbaric terrorist attack, right-wing politicians and commentators attempt to whip up the idea of a "clash of civilisations" between Muslims...

In this talk from a recent meeting of the Marxist Student Federation in London, Francesco Merli - writer for www.marxist.com - examines the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict, and discusses the solution to the crisis in the Middle East. The chaotic situation in Israel and Palestine is one imperialism's worst ever crimes. By dividing up Palestine and creating the Zionist state of Israel, the...

Alan Woods - editor of In Defence of Marxism - discusses the battle in the Labour Party over the question of a second referendum. The Tories are torn apart over Brexit. Yet rather than uniting behind their party leader, right-wing Labour MPs are putting all of their energies into attacking Jeremy Corbyn. Sooner or later, judgement day will come for Theresa May, and the opportunity for Corbyn’s Lab...

In this video from the 2018 Revolution Festival, Francesco Merli of In Defence of Marxism (www.marxist.com) discusses the events and lessons of the 1968 Prague Spring - a revolt against the Stalinist bureaucracy that was put down by Moscow. In 1968, over 50 years ago, USSR-backed tanks rolled into Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague Spring. But could the movement have been successful? The Prague Sp...

In this talk from last year's Revolution Festival, Ben Gliniecki looks at the current collapse of the liberal status quo, providing a Marxist analysis of liberalism's rise and fall. In November 2016, American voters dispatched “the electoral equivalent of a suicide bomber to Washington”, according to the Financial Times. Only months before, the British public had delivered a shocking blow to the E...

Speaking at the recent Peterloo day school in Manchester, Mike Hogan of Liverpool Wavertree CLP discusses the lessons from the struggles waged in the 1980s by Liverpool city against Thatcher and the cuts. With Marxist Labour councillors in the leadership, a mass movement involving the entire labour movement and working class communities was built up in Liverpool in the 80s, in order to oppose cuts...

In this talk from the 2018 Revolution Festival, Ben Curry of the Socialist Appeal editorial board discusses the life of James Connolly: the man, his ideas, and their relevance for Marxists today. James Connolly was born in 1868 to Irish parents in Edinburgh’s Cowgate slum. He would grow to be the greatest Marxist ever produced by these islands; an iconic figure in the history of the Irish working...

In this talk from the Revolution Festival 2018, Daniel Morley of the Socialist Appeal editorial board examines one of the most long-standing questions of philosophy: what is consciousness? This is a question that has become increasingly relevant with the rise of artificial intelligence. Modern technological advances have raised the idea of creating machines capable of thinking for themselves. This...

In this talk from the 2018 Revolution Festival, Rob Sewell (editor of Socialist Appeal) explains the causes behind the 2008 crash and discusses the revolutionary way forward for society. September 2018 marked the 10th anniversary since the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the beginning of the deepest economic crisis in the history of capitalism. Now, over a decade on, none of the mainstream economi...

To mark International Working Women's Day - 8th March - we publish a talk from the 2018 Revolution Festival, where Ellen Morton and Fiona Lali of the Marxist Student Federation discuss the modern struggles taking place internationally against women's oppression. Ellen introduces the discussion by outlining how the crisis of capitalism has impacted upon working class women, who are doubly affected...

Speaking at the 2018 Revolution Festival, Jack Halinski-Fitzpatrick of Socialist Appeal provides a Marxist analysis of what role morality plays within class society, and how revolutionaries should derive their ethical framework and decisions. Many critics of Marxism attempt to paint it as being a cold and inhumane philosophy, far more concerned with economics than ethics. But, in fact, Marxism has...

In this video from the recent national conference of the Marxist Student Federation, Ian Hodson (president of the bakers' union) and Rob Sewell (editor of Socialist Appeal) discuss the turbulent political situation in Britain and the misery facing workers under capitalism. Ian Hodson highlights the devastating impact of Tory austerity on working class communities, and emphasises how Brexit has div...

In this video from the 2018 Revolution Festival, Alan Woods (editor of In Defence of Marxism) discusses the events of the English Civil War - England's revolution. The civil war in the 17th century saw the forces of Parliament battling against the monarchy of Charles I, fighting for power over England. In essence, this was a revolutionary struggle for domination by the rising bourgeois class of me...

In this talk from the 2018 Revolution Festival, Josh Holroyd discusses the origins of the capitalist system, the violent and contradictory revolution it carried out across the world, and the implications these hold for the fight against capitalism today. As Josh explains, the society in which we live is often presented as something eternal; a natural expression of human nature and common sense. Bu...

Jorge Martin of the Hands Off Venezuela campaign discusses the ongoing attempted coup, which is being aggressively pushed by US imperialism. Washington has stepped up it's efforts this week to oust the democratically elected government of Venezuela. They are now going for broke in an attempt to remove President Maduro. As Jorge explains, whatever one's views of the Maduro government, this is an il...

On 15th January 1919, Rosa Luxemburg - one of the main leaders of the German Revolution - was brutally murdered by reactionary state forces, depriving the working class of one of its greatest fighters. To commemorate Luxemburg's life, we republish here a video from an IMT school in London in 2014, where Marie Frederiksen (editor of the Danish Marxist newspaper Revolution) discusses the real revolu...

In this talk from the 2018 Revolution Festival, Hamid Alizadeh (editor of www.marxist.com) looks at the ideas of Georg Hegel, the German thinker who resurrected the philosophy of dialectics. Dialectics, as Hamid outlines, is a philosophy that explains change, motion, and development. In this respect, Hegel's ideas provided a profound leap from the mechanical and rigid outlook of those who preceded...

Alan Woods, editor of In Defence of Marxism, discusses the magnificent gilets jaunes movement in France, which has exploded out of nowhere to land a blow against the ruling class. Ever since his election as president in May 2017, Emmanuel Macron has been held up as a poster boy for liberalism by the European establishment. Liberals everywhere proclaimed that Macron's electoral victory represented...

Alan Woods, editor of In Defence of Marxism, discusses the historic political crisis taking place in Britain, as the Tory Prime Minister's fate hangs in the balance. As Alan notes, the UK was once considered one of the most stable countries in the world. But now it is a source of enormous instability for world capitalism. And the crisis is not confined to Britain. May, Macron, and Merkel are all f...

Money, the Bible says, is the "root of all evil". Under capitalism, it dominates over us, acting - in the words of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - like a "chain of gold".But money has evolved and changed throughout history: from the early use of precious metals, to the modern day network of cash, credit, and cryptocurrencies. And the more complex the money system becomes, the more removed a...

In this talk from the recent Revolution Festival, Jorge Martin discusses a new book co-authored by himself and John Roberts, which explores the application of Leon Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution to the experiences of Latin America. Trotsky's theory explained how the capitalists in the colonial countries could not play a progressive role, but would instead be a barrier in the fight for ag...

In February 1918, the UK Representation of the People Act was brought in, giving the right to vote to women with property over the age of 30.In November of the same year, women in the UK were allowed to stand for parliament for the first time. In December, women voted for the first time in a British general election. Ten years later, women gained electoral equality with men, as the franchise was e...

Jorge Martin, editor of América Socialista and writer for In Defence of Marxism, discusses the results of Sunday's presidential elections in Brazil, where the far-right candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, won with 55% of the vote. As Jorge explains, Bolsonaro is an extremely reactionary politician, who will go on the offensive against the working class and the oppressed. But his election does not represent...

Alan Woods - editor of In Defence of Marxism - discusses the barbaric crimes of the monstrous Saudi regime in the wake of their recent murder of a critical journalist. This rotten regime is responsible for exporting wars, oppression, exploitation, and terrorism across the world. In Yemen, for example, they are carrying out daily atrocities, bombing and starving the population into submission - all...

In a special podcast episode of IMTV, Arturo Rodriguez - activist from Lucha de Clases and editor of the Catalan paper Revolucio - discusses the dramatic events that have taken place in Catalonia and the rest of Spain over the past 12 months. The movement for independence has erupted onto the scene in Catalonia, but has been temporarily been beaten back as a result of political repression and a la...