International Marxist Tendency

As the scorching sun kissed our dehydrated skins, one could not help but feel goose bumps at the thought of being part of history as the oldest liberation movement reached the 100^th year mark on Sunday, 8^th January. The ANC leadership decided to mark this occasion by spending R100 million ($12. 3 million) on a commemoration that included a huge feast for invited heads of states and several guests, also indulging in celebrity music shows and a golf tournament.

On 17^th January, the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign organized a historic Labour convention and a protest rally in Islamabad. More than 300 trade union activists, students, political workers, women and youth from Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Attock, Taxila-Wah, Abbottabad and surrounding areas participated in the convention.

When the Irish Catholic priest Fr. Hugh O’Donnell decided it was time to build a Catholic church in Belfast he had a problem: it costs a lot of money to build a church. The Catholic population of Belfast was too small and too poor to provide enough money, so if he had to rely on the Catholics alone it would take forever. He had to seek help elsewhere. So he asked the Protestants of Belfast to help him out. As you do.

“In the space of twenty years, in a throwback to eighty years ago, millions believe the racist, chauvinist ‘ideas’ of the 1930’s.” writes Attila Csernok in Népszava, a Hungarian liberal daily. Is the situation in present day Hungary that critical? Does the election of the Fidesz government in April 2010 by a two thirds majority mean a return to the horrors of 1930’s Hungary?

“Marx was right!” For Marxists, this is not a particularly profound revelation. We have long known that the German revolutionary's analysis of capitalism was as fundamentally sound as the capitalist system itself is fundamentally unsound. But let's face it: for decades, we've been in a small minority, fighting against the stream and against the odds. After spending a long time in the “wilderness,” that is beginning to change. The fact that the more serious capitalist economists are forced to admit the correctness of ideas they once ridiculed is an important symptom of a transformation in public consciousness./(Editorial for Socialist Appeal USA Issue 65/)

On Monday, 14 November 2011 I happened to open the Evening Standard and saw a short item that was tucked away in the inner pages so that few people will have noticed it. It begins with the surprising affirmation: “Revolution is in the air at top Catholic independent school St Benedict’s, Ealing.”