SpartTalk

Mansa brings to you a report by Comrade Jesse from Johannesburg, South Africa, on the political dynamics in the country. The punchline: things are not looking good for the ANC, and the failure of the post-1994 settlement has frustrated many, giving way to the right. This is most graphically illustrated by the large anti-immigrant protests throughout the country on 30 June. Follow our comrades on X...

Mansa is joined by Comrade Anacleto who spent some time in Bolivia during the height of the movement of workers and peasants against the Paz government. We discuss the current setback, how it was prepared by the leadership of the COB, and how to effectuate a strategic retreat in order to prepare for the next battle which is sure to erupt.  Comrades reports from Bolivia: Repudiate the traitors! For...

Mansa is joined by Vincent to make sense of everything unfolding in Britain today. From the PM's resignation, to a record-breaking heatwave, racist riots, and the steady growth of reform, Britain's ungovernability is on full display. We discuss how each of these episodes and processes reveals the underlying crisis of British imperialism, and the problems of the left in dealing with the o...

Mansa is joined by Comrade John Masters to discuss the series of economic reforms announced by the Communist Party of Cuba which, if implemented, would spell the death of the Cuban Revolution. We discuss why these measures must be vehemently opposed, why they are not akin to China's and Vietnam's reforms in previous decades, and the outlines of a concrete road to fight internationally an...

Mansa is joined by Ray to lay out our assessment of the Iran ceasefire. Much of the left has declared Iran the victor of the war with the U.S. and Israel, but we think that this is impressionist and disarming. The main reason? Nothing fundamental has changed in terms of the balance of overall forces in the region, and nothing has been resolved for either side. We also discuss how China continues t...

Mansa is joined by Comrade Perrault and a special guest, Michael Pröbsting of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) to facilitate (or try to!) a comradely exchange between the two on the world situation. A crucial question for all revolutionaries but on which there is little agreement. Comrades debate whether China is imperialist, its class character, and the war in Ukraine. We...

Mansa is joined by Comrade Perrault to report back to our listeners on the 4th annual Meeting of Internationalist Forces , held in Paris on 15-17 May and which we had the pleasure of attending. We discuss what the strengths and weaknesses of the meeting were, some of the main debates, and some highlights. We also appeal to leftists from other organisations to ask their own orgs to attend future me...

Mansa is joined by Comrade John to discuss a burning question for the international socialist and anti-imperialist movement: how to defend the Cuban revolution against the assault of U.S. imperialism. With the island in a deep crisis, we discuss how imperialist strangulation caused untold devastation, but how within this, the policies of the Cuban government have increasingly accommodated the stat...

Mansa is joined by Comrade Vincent to discuss the events shaking up Bolivia. The masses are demanding the resignation of U.S. lackey Rodrigo Paz, who has only been in power for 6 months. We salute the heroic struggle and call for a workers and peasants government, while discussing the state of the country and economy, the dynamics behind MAS's collapse, and the risks and dangers facing the mo...

Mansa is joined by Comrade Felix to discuss what's going on with today's youth. While we focus mostly on the West, the trends we discuss are definitely apparent in the Global South, as seen by the Gen Z revolutions of 2025. We discuss why to understand the current condition of youth - marked by anxiety, despair, and divisions - we must understand how youth fit into the changing world sit...

Mansa is on the hot seat in this one as Comrade Vincent takes over to fire all kinds of questions about the latest issue of Women & Revolution. While the issue is on youth oppression, in this episode we speak more broadly about the growing divisions, particularly as they shape the experience of young people, what's fuelling them and how to fight them as Marxists. We will have more episode...

Mansa is joined by Comrade Perrault to discuss what a revolutionary approach to trade union work looks like, and the challenges and pressures of such work as they bear down on both trade union militants, and left organisations. A day late in publishing this, we hope that listeners will nonetheless appreciate dwelling on these questions which are largely ignored by much of the left.  Check out some...

We bring you a special episode with reports from the 16 April protest in KuGompo City, South Africa, where Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) was sentenced to five years in prison on bogus gun-related charges. This is a clear attack by the Ramaphosa government which is bowing to Trump's targetting of Malema. Listeners will hear from members of the Socialist Party of...

Disclaimer: This episode was recorded in February 2026, before the Iran war. We postponed its publication to cover more urgent questions.  Mansa is joined by Comrade John Masters to discuss South Korea, a country rarely discussed in the Western left. We talk about its strategic importance, how it's being squeezed as the US goes on a rampage, its relation to China, the tremendous potential of...

Disclaimer: This episode was recorded on 28 March and therefore some of the references to events are now slightly dated. Mansa is joined by Comrades Anna, Lisa and Tom to discuss their trip to Cuba. They brought material aid under the banner of the Partisan Defence Committee to help Cuba in its hour of need, and they did this in conjunction with the Nuestra America Flotilla - a campaign by hundred...

Mansa is joined by Comrade Vincent to discuss the latest on the Iran war, and probe why a huge majority of the left thinks Iran is winning, including why it was so positive about the ceasefire last week. We get into why simply cheering on the strategy of the IRGC ends up removing any role for socialists, whether on the question of the war, on against their own ruling classes in the West. Beware of...

Apologies for being a few days late! We have been busy producing the new issue of Women & Revolution which should be out soon. In this episode, Mansa sits down with Comrade Perrault to discuss a big debate on the left: why the world is not defined by an inter-imperialist rivalry, but by the breakdown of U.S. hegemony. We go into some of the arguments on the left for characterising China and Ru...

Mansa is joined by Comrade Erica from Workers Vanguard, the newspaper of our comrades in the United States. We start off with the context in the country and the domestic response to Trump's war on Iran as well as his attacks at home. We then discuss the problem with the dominant strategies on offer--a repeat of the so-called general strike in Minneapolis, and No Kings--both of which lead back...

Mansa is joined by Comrade Julia to discuss the rapidly worsening situation in Cuba and what is being done to help Cuba in its hour of need. Julia explains our fundraising efforts in the Partisan Defence Committee, which launched an international fundraising effort which has so far raised nearly £19,000 to donate to efforts to help Cuba, as well as our comrades who are bringing material aid to Cub...

Mansa is joined by Comrade Perrault to look at why a lot of analysts and the left think the U.S. will emerge weaker out of the Iran war. There is a lot of fatuousness that the Iranian regime's strategy will lead it to victory, but we ask: what constitutes victory? Our starting point is that communists and anti-imperialists should approach this question from the point of view of which class fo...

Mansa is joined by Comrade Elizabeth to discuss how the left finds itself divided and disoriented yet again on Iran. Whether it's the 12-day war, the Dey uprising, or now, the two trends persist and keep getting ever more polarised: denounce the regime for being repressive and therefore refuse to defend Iran from attack by the U.S. and Israel, or support the regime for being anti-imperialist....

Mansa is joined by Comrade Perrault to discuss the resumption of war against Iran by the U.S. and Israel. As we publish, there is news that they have murdered Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran. We discuss what this and the recent escalation on Iran means in terms of the balance of forces in the region, and as always, the problems with the left and what socialists should do. Check out our recent...

Mansa and Cairo pick up their discussion from the previous episode on how liberalism destroyed the black struggle in the U.S. They begin with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the hyper-liberalism of the Clinton years to Obama's post-racial society which eventually gave us MAGA, only for the anti-Trump resistance to then give us Biden which brought Trump back with a vengeance. In all this,...

Mansa is joined by Cairo Turner, editor of the newly relaunched Black History and the Class Struggle. We discuss how the current near non-existent state of the black movement is a result of decades of liberal politics. We start with the Civil Rights movement and how its massive potential was undermined by the likes of MLK Jr who hitched it to the progressive wing of the American ruling class, and...

In a special episode, Mansa is joined by Comrades Bourchier and Edith from Australia to discuss the merger of their two organisations, the Spartacist League of Australia and the Revolutionary Communist Organisation, respectively. We discuss the basis for the merger, what led to this despite differences on some questions of analysis and programme, what this merger means for rebuilding the Australia...