Marxism and the Fundamental Problems of the 20th Century
Hundreds attend lecture by David North in Frankfurt, Germany
By our correspondents, 25 October 2016
In a lecture titled “Philosophy and Politics in Times of War and Revolution,” David North presented his book The Frankfurt School, Postmodernism and the Politics of the Pseudo-Left.
New book by David North
A Quarter Century of War: The US Drive for Global Hegemony 1990–2016
By David North, 11 July 2016
We publish here the preface to A Quarter Century of War: The US Drive for Global Hegemony, 1990-2016 by David North, the chairman of the international editorial board of the World Socialist Web Site. The book is available for preorder today at Mehring Books.
German court sentences former SS Auschwitz guard to five years imprisonment
By Sybille Fuchs, 24 June 2016
A court in Detmold found 94-year-old Reinhold Hanning guilty of complicity in the murders of 170,000 people.
Ninety years since the coup of Piłsudski
The Strategy of the Intermarium—Part 4
NATO’s preparations for war with Russia
By Clara Weiss, 3 June 2016
This is the final part of a series reviewing the history of the Intermarium, which was developed as a bourgeois nationalist antipode to the United Socialist States of Europe as proposed by Leon Trotsky.
Ninety Years Since the Coup of Piłsudski
The Strategy of the Intermarium—Part 3
The Intermarium and Poland’s integration into the US war alliance against Russia
By Clara Weiss, 2 June 2016
This is the third part of a series reviewing the history of the Intermarium, which was developed as a bourgeois nationalist antipode to the United Socialist States of Europe as proposed by Leon Trotsky.
May Day 2016: Introductory report by David North
By David North, 2 May 2016
We are publishing here the introductory remarks to the International Online May Day Rally by David North, chairman of the WSWS International Editorial Board and national chairman of the Socialist Equality Party (US).
A comment on demoralized opportunists
By David North, 19 April 2016
The anti-Trotskyist blog site of Alex Steiner and Frank Brenner recently reported on a meeting that they hosted in Brooklyn, New York, on April 12.
Behind the designation of Russia and China as “imperialist”: A case study in theoretical charlatanry
By Johannes Stern, 14 April 2016
The politically reactionary implications of the definition of Russia and China as imperialist powers are exposed by the positions of the German-based Revolutionary Communist International Tendency.
Marxism and the pseudo-left: David North interviewed at Leipzig Book Fair
1 April 2016
Following a presentation of the new German edition of The Frankfurt School, Postmodernism and the Politics of the Pseudo-Left, North was interviewed by the newspaper Schattenblick on the theoretical and political issues addressed in his book.
The political economy of endless austerity
By Nick Beams, 31 March 2016
The imposition of austerity is determined not by a lack of economic resources, but by the relentless logic of the profit system.
David North addresses Sri Lankan SEP launch of Sinhala edition of The Russian Revolution and the Unfinished Twentieth Century
By David North, 22 March 2016
Publication of this new translation of David North’s The Russian Revolution and the Unfinished Twentieth Century will contribute significantly to the education of workers and youth in Sri Lanka.
Colombo meeting launches Sinhala translation of The Russian Revolution and the Unfinished Twentieth Century
By our correspondents, 22 March 2016
SEP general secretary Wije Dias stressed that the book’s exposure of historical falsifications was “a weapon in the revolutionary struggles of the future.”
Who would celebrate Hitler today?: The German satirical film Look Who’s Back
By Bernd Reinhardt, 16 December 2015
The satirical film, based on the novel of the same title by Timur Vermes, has been seen by over two million people, making it one of the most watched in Germany this year.
Seventy years since the Nuremberg Trials
By Verena Nees, 3 December 2015
The post-World War II trials led to the adoption of the Nuremberg principles, forbidding aggressive war as the greatest international crime.
Meetings in Germany mark the 75th anniversary of the death of Leon Trotsky
By our correspondents, 23 November 2015
Over 200 people participated in meetings organised by the International Youth and Students for Social Equality in the cities of Berlin, Frankfurt and Bochum.
Security and the Fourth International, the Gelfand Case and the deposition of Mark Zborowski
An open letter from David North to Susan Weissman
10 November 2015
Netanyahu’s apology for Hitler
By Jean Shaoul, 23 October 2015
The Israeli prime minister has foully slandered the Palestinian people by attributing to them the responsibility for the Holocaust.
A world convulsed by crises
By Andre Damon and Barry Grey, 12 September 2015
Crisis is not the exception, but the rule. The very speed of events, with virtually no intervals of calm between the storms, denotes an intensifying general crisis.
IYSSE, SEP (Australia) lectures: 100 years since the Zimmerwald conference
6 August 2015
The issues that erupted at Zimmerwald a century ago have the most decisive contemporary significance.
What is the pseudo-left?
By The WSWS Editorial Board, 30 July 2015
Political developments in Greece in recent months are a striking confirmation of the WSWS's analysis of “pseudo-left” tendencies.
Foreword to The Frankfurt School, Postmodernism and the Politics of the Pseudo-Left: A Marxist Critique
Part Three
By David North, 23 July 2015
The polemical essays in this volume examine the complex interaction between history, philosophy and politics. It is vital reading for those who wish to deepen their knowledge of classical Marxism.
A review of Stephen Kotkin’s Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928: Part one
By Fred Williams, 1 June 2015
Stephen Kotkin’s first volume of a projected three-volume biography of Stalin, published by Penguin Press, is a travesty of historical writing.
Germany: Auschwitz survivors testify against former SS officer
By Elisabeth Zimmermann, 12 May 2015
The prosecution of former SS officer Oskar Gröning has highlighted his role in crimes against humanity.
The Russian Revolution and the Unfinished Twentieth Century published in German
By Peter Schwarz, 2 March 2015
David North’s book is essential in providing a political orientation and formulating a socialist response to the global crisis of capitalism.
The 100th anniversary of the World War I Christmas truce
By Julie Hyland, 24 December 2014
The enduring lesson of the Christmas truce, which has burning relevance today, is that the spontaneous international solidarity of the working class soldiers had been betrayed months before by the collapse of the Second International.
Wide audience for online interview with David North, author of The Russian Revolution and the Unfinished Twentieth Century
By our reporter, 15 December 2014
Many hundreds of people from over thirty countries listened to the interview held December 13.
The Russian Revolution and the Unfinished Twentieth Century now available in eBook format
3 December 2014
This book by David North is an essential addition to every Marxist library.
Small audiences mark Remembrance Day in Australia
By James Cogan, 13 November 2014
The “Eleventh of the Eleventh” is considered of secondary importance by the Australian ruling elite in promoting patriotism.
German intellectuals in World War I
By Verena Nees, 20 October 2014
In 1914, German intellectuals launched an “Appeal to the Civilized World” to justify imperialist war. Today, their heirs hypocritically invoke “human rights” to build popular support for war.
Australian government “celebrates” first WWI military action
By Richard Phillips, 19 August 2014
The seizure of Germany’s Pacific colonies underlined the real character of World War I as an imperialist war.
One hundred years since the outbreak of World War I
By Nick Beams, 5 August 2014
The only progressive solution was not the victory of one or another imperialist power, but the overthrow of the capitalist system.
The lessons of August 4, 1914
By Ulrich Rippert, 4 August 2014
One hundred years ago, the social democracy’s vote for war credits in World War I sounded the death knell of the epoch of national programs for the working class.
One hundred years since Sarajevo
By David North, 28 June 2014
Today marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the event that triggered the outbreak of World War I.
The diary of Lena Mukhina: An important document on the Leningrad blockade
Lenas Tagebuch, translated by Lena Gorelik and Gero Fedtke, Munich, 2013
By Clara Weiss, 11 June 2014
Lena’s Diary is an important historical document relating to one of most horrific, although often forgotten, war crimes of German imperialism.
Nationalism and fascism in Ukraine: A historical overview
Part two
By Konrad Kreft and Clara Weiss, 10 June 2014
The collaboration of Germany and the US with Ukrainian fascists has historical precedents reaching back 100 years.
Nationalism and fascism in Ukraine: A historical overview
Part one
By Konrad Kreft and Clara Weiss, 9 June 2014
The collaboration of Germany and the US with Ukrainian fascists has historical precedents reaching back 100 years.
D-Day anniversary: Commemorating the Second World War and preparing the Third
By Bill Van Auken, 7 June 2014
The presence of a dwindling band of survivors of World War II—the greatest exercise in mass killing in the history of the planet—only underscored the boundless hypocrisy of the official ceremonies.
Financial Times’ attack on Piketty under fire
By Nick Beams, 30 May 2014
The Financial Times’ scurrilous attack on Thomas Piketty has been opposed by those working in the field of economic and social inequality.
As geopolitical tensions grow with China
Australian columnist lauds World War I as a “just war”
By James Cogan, 12 May 2014
The language used by Sheridan resonates with his portrayal of US and Australian foreign policy as a justified response to China’s “military build-up.”
French TV documentary: “Shoah by Shooting—SS Death Squads in Ukraine”
By Clara Weiss, 22 April 2014
Earlier this year, the French television documentary “Shoah by Shooting—Death Squads in Ukraine” was released on DVD in Germany.
Paul Keating’s Remembrance Day address: Nationalist myth-making to glorify World War I
By James Cogan, 28 November 2013
Keating’s speech was an attempt to explain away any concerns about commemorating the war and glorify Australia’s involvement.
Eighty years since Hitler’s coming to power
By Peter Schwarz, 2 February 2013
Leon Trotsky drew far-reaching conclusions from the disastrous defeat of the German working class in 1933.
A reader reviews Tsar to Lenin
29 October 2012
A WSWS reader has written in with a comment on the unique documentary film Tsar to Lenin, available from Mehring Books.
British historian Eric Hobsbawm (1917-2012)
8 October 2012
On October 1, noted British historian Eric Hobsbawm died at the Royal Free Hospital in London. He was 95.
Film showings and lectures by David North
The historical significance and enduring political relevance of the 1917 Russian Revolution
10 September 2012
In this series of meetings in the US, Socialist Equality Party National Chairman David North will introduce showings of Tsar to Lenin with a lecture on the Russian Revolution.
75 years since the Flint sit-down strike
By Barry Grey, 30 December 2011
Today marks the 75th anniversary of a momentous chapter in the history of the American and international working class—the beginning of the Flint sit-down strike.
Arthur Ransome and the Bolshevik Revolution
Part one
By Dave Hyland, 25 June 2011
This is the first in a three-part consideration of the English author Arthur Ransome, particularly as regards his relationship to the October 1917 revolution in Russia.
Now available at Mehring Books online
Revolution and Counterrevolution in Spain by Felix Morrow
24 June 2011
Mehring Books is making available for online purchase Felix Morrow’s Revolution and Counterrevolution in Spain.
Hands off Rosa Luxemburg!
The historical falsification of Rosa Luxemburg's heritage by the German Left Party
By Lucas Adler, 14 January 2011
In a vulgar attempt to distort Rosa Luxemburg’s writings, the German Left Party resorts to interpreting passages out of context in order to justify their own opportunism.
Marxism and the Holocaust
By Nick Beams, 15 May 2010
The following is an addendum to the lecture “Imperialism and the political economy of the Holocaust,” delivered by Nick Beams at San Diego State University on April 29.
Imperialism and the political economy of the Holocaust
By Nick Beams, 12 May 2010
This lecture was delivered at San Diego State University on April 29. It was the eighth in a series entitled "Killing for a higher cause: Political violence in a world in crisis" sponsored by the Institute on World Affairs within the Political Science Department of the San Diego State University.
Nick Beams delivers lecture in Sydney and Melbourne
World War Two: Lessons and Warnings
By Nick Beams, 18 November 2009
Nick Beams, national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia) and a member of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site, delivered a lecture on “World War Two: Lessons and Warnings” to audiences in Sydney and Melbourne in November, 2009.
Myths and legends about World War II exposed at Australian SEP public meetings
By our correspondents, 18 November 2009
The Socialist Equality Party in Australia held public meetings in Sydney and Melbourne this month on “Seventy years since World War II: lessons and warnings”.
The fall of the Berlin Wall
By Peter Schwarz, 9 November 2009
The contradiction between the official celebrations and the lack of public enthusiasm over the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall speaks volumes about the real significance of the events of November 1989.
Twenty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall
Statement of the Bund Sozialistischer Arbeiter, October 18, 1989—Part 2
Overthrow the Stalinist bureaucracy! Build workers’ councils in East Germany!
6 November 2009
This statement by the Central Committee of the Bund Sozialistischer Arbeiter, the predecessor of the Partei für Soziale Gleichheit (Socialist Equality Party of Germany), was issued on October 18, 1989. Today we are posting the second of three parts of the statement.
European Trotskyists mark seventieth anniversary of World War II
Whole families were forced into exile due to their anti-Nazism
By Françoise Thull, 4 November 2009
On October 11 in London, the European sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International held a joint meeting on the lessons of the Second World War. We publish here the remarks made by Françoise Thull, a member of the Socialist Equality Party in Germany (Partei Partei für Soziale Gleichheit, PSG), who spoke on the experiences of her family in France during that period.
European Trotskyists mark seventieth anniversary of World War II
“It was industrialised slaughter on an unimaginable scale”
By Barbara Slaughter, 2 November 2009
On October 11 in London, the European sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International held a joint meeting on the lessons of the Second World War. We publish here the remarks made by veteran Trotskyist and SEP (UK) Central Committee member Barbara Slaughter.
European Trotskyists mark 70th anniversary of World War II
A battle for empire rooted in profound contradictions of capitalism
By Julie Hyland, 31 October 2009
The following is a contribution by WSWS Editorial Board member Julie Hyland to an October 11 meeting convened by the European sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International to consider the lessons of the Second World War.
“Socialism in One Country” and the Soviet economic debates of the 1920s
By Nick Beams, 13 October 2009
The lectures deal with some of the crucial conflicts over economic policy in the Soviet Union during the 1920s. One of the motivations for the lectures was to answer the distortions advanced by the British academic Geoffrey Swain in his book Trotsky published in 2006.
Seventy years on
World War II: The essential lessons
Joint public meeting of the Socialist Equality Party, Britain and Germany
22 September 2009
World War II engulfed the entire European continent, pitting all of the continental powers in the bloodiest slaughter in world history.
Seventy years since World War II
Its causes and its lessons for today
22 September 2009
World War II was the bloodiest and most tragic event in world history. Up to 70 million people lost their lives during the six year conflict. It witnessed unimaginable barbarism, including above all the mass murder of 6 million European Jews by the Nazis. The war ended with the dropping of the atomic bomb on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Revolutionary leadership and the struggle of 1934
75th anniversary of the Minneapolis truck drivers’ strike—Part four
By Ron Jorgenson, 29 August 2009
The final part of a four-part series on the 1934 Minneapolis general truck drivers’ strike.
Revolutionary leadership and the struggle of 1934
75th anniversary of the Minneapolis truck drivers’ strike—Part three
By Ron Jorgenson, 28 August 2009
The third part of a four-part series on the 1934 Minneapolis general truck drivers’ strike.
Revolutionary leadership and the struggle of 1934
75th anniversary of the Minneapolis truck drivers’ strike–Part one
By Ron Jorgenson, 26 August 2009
The first part of a four-part series on the 1934 Minneapolis general truck drivers’ strike.
70 years since the Hitler-Stalin Pact
By Alex Lantier, 24 August 2009
Seventy years ago, Nazi foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov met in Moscow to sign a hastily-negotiated Non-Aggression Pact between Hitlerite Germany and the USSR.
Lecture 2
“Socialism in One Country” and the Soviet economic debates of the 1920s—Part 2
By Nick Beams, 7 May 2009
This is the second of two lectures delivered at an SEP summer school in August 2007 that deal with some of the crucial conflicts over economic policy in the Soviet Union during the 1920s.
The struggle against centrism and the founding of the Fourth International
Part one
By Bill Van Auken, 15 April 2009
The five years between Trotsky’s call for the Fourth International in 1933 and the holding of a founding conference in 1938 were marked by a continuous struggle against a wide range of centrist political organizations active during this period, particularly in Europe , many of which professed sympathy with Trotsky’s perspective and some of which declared themselves for the Fourth International.
The Revolution Betrayed and the fate of the Soviet Union
By Peter Daniels, 26 February 2009
An understanding the Russian Revolution and the Soviet state—their rise and subsequent degeneration—is critical in politically arming the working class by learning the lessons of the twentieth century in order to prepare for the struggles of the twenty-first.
The tragedy of the 1925-1927 Chinese Revolution
Part 3
By John Chan, 7 January 2009
The rise and fall of the 1925-1927 Second Chinese Revolution was one of the most significant political events of the twentieth century. One cannot understand modern Chinese history without examining its lessons.
The tragedy of the 1925-1927 Chinese Revolution
Part 2
By John Chan, 6 January 2009
The rise and fall of the 1925-1927 Second Chinese Revolution was one of the most significant political events of the twentieth century. One cannot understand modern Chinese history without examining its lessons.
The tragedy of the 1925-1927 Chinese Revolution
Part 1
By John Chan, 5 January 2009
The rise and fall of the 1925-1927 Second Chinese Revolution was one of the most significant political events of the twentieth century. One cannot understand modern Chinese history without examining its lessons.
Stalin, Trotsky and the 1926 British general strike
Part Two
By Chris Marsden, 29 December 2008
Bereft of any revolutionary guidance from the Communist Party of Great Britain, the working class had no possibility of arming itself against the role of the lefts who were being continually boosted under the Comintern’s orders.
Letters from our readers
4 November 2008
A selection of recent letters sent to the World Socialist Web Site.
The Communist Manifesto
By Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 14 October 2008
The manifesto, written in the months prior to the revolutionary wave of 1848 and distributed throughout Europe, is the first definitive statement of the methods and aims of the Communist movement. It introduces the materialist conception of history and of the class struggle, explaining how bourgeois society, having sprung up amid the formation of a world market, simplifies and intensifies class antagonisms by creating the proletariat, a class which has no property aside from its own ability to labor. It explains and refutes objections to the basic demands of the Communist movement, and offers remarkably concise yet profound statements of many of the fundamental tenets of Marxism -- for instance, the state as a "committee for managing the affairs of the entire bourgeoisie," internationalism ("workingmen have no fatherland"), and the role of the political party: "Every class struggle is a political struggle." It closes with an analysis and criticism of other parties, socialist ideologies, and oppositional tendencies.
Declassified grand jury transcripts confirm frame-up of Ethel Rosenberg
The trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
By Tom Eley, 13 September 2008
The recent release of previously secret grand jury transcripts has revealed that crucial testimony was perjured in the conviction and 1953 execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for conspiracy to commit espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union.
1968: The general strike and the student revolt in France
Part 8—The centrist line of the OCI (4)
By Peter Schwarz, 8 September 2008
This is the eighth and final part in a series of articles dealing with the events of May/June 1968 in France.
1968: The general strike and the student revolt in France
Part 6—The centrist line of the OCI (2)
By Peter Schwarz, 5 September 2008
This is the sixth in series of articles dealing with the events of May/June 1968 in France.
1968: The general strike and the student revolt in France
Part 5—The centrist line of the OCI (1)
By Peter Schwarz, 4 September 2008
The Organization Communiste Internationaliste (OCI) officially broke with the International Committee of the Fourth International in 1971, but the political course it pursued in 1968 was already far removed from the revolutionary perspective it had defended, along with other ICFI sections, against Pabloite revisionism at the beginning of the 1950s.
Hegel, Marx, Engels, and the Origins of Marxism
A review of Marx After Marxism: The Philosophy of Karl Marx by Tom Rockmore
By David North, 3 May 2006
The following is second of a two-part series. The first part can be read here.
Hegel, Marx, Engels, and the Origins of Marxism
A review of Marx After Marxism: The Philosophy of Karl Marx by Tom Rockmore
By David North, 2 May 2006
The following is the first of a two-part series. The second part will be posted tomorrow.
International school examines the century’s central problems of history, politics and culture
By the, 31 October 1998
The International Summer School held in early January by the International Committee of the Fourth International and the Socialist Equality Party of Australia represented a milestone in the revival of classical Marxism. Entitled "Marxism and the Fundamental Problems of the Twentieth Century," the school, held in Sydney from January 3 to 10, was the first such international symposium organized by the world Trotskyist movement.
International school examines the century's central problems of history, politics and culture
By the, 31 January 1998
The International Summer School held in early January by the International Committee of the Fourth International and the Socialist Equality Party of Australia represented a milestone in the revival of classical Marxism. Entitled "Marxism and the Fundamental Problems of the Twentieth Century," the school, held in Sydney from January 3 to 10, was the first such international symposium organized by the world Trotskyist movement.
Castroism and the Politics of Petty-Bourgeois Nationalism
By Bill Vann, 7 January 1998
This lecture was delivered on January 7, 1998 to the International Summer School on Marxism and the Fundamental Problems of the 20th Century, organised by the Socialist Equality Party (Australia) in Sydney, from January 3-10, 1998.
Stalinism in Eastern Europe: the Rise and Fall of the GDR
By Peter Schwarz, 6 January 1998
ICFI Secretary Peter Schwarz explains the historical origins of the East German state and demonstrates that Stalinism, not socialism, existed there.
The Significance and Implications of Globalisation
A Marxist Assessment
By Nick Beams, 4 January 1998
The globalisation of production has prepared a new period of social revolution. This is the inevitable outcome of the vast changes in the structure of world capitalist economy over the past two decades -- the culmination of processes stretching back over 200 years.
The Aesthetic Component of Socialism
By David Walsh, 3 January 1998
Art expresses things about life, about people and about oneself that are not revealed in political or scientific thought. To become whole, human beings require the truth about the world, and themselves, that art offers.
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