History
This week in history: May 13–19
13 May 2019
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
One hundred years since the May 4 movement in China—Part Two
By Peter Symonds, 6 May 2019
The Chinese Communist Party today distorts the significance of the events of May 4, 1919. It has long ago repudiated the democratic principles of the New Culture movement and the socialist internationalism upon which the party was founded.
This week in history: May 6-12
6 May 2019
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
One hundred years since the May 4 movement in China—Part One
By Peter Symonds, 4 May 2019
The May 4 movement which erupted in 1919 was part of a broader intellectual ferment, profoundly influenced by the Russian Revolution, that led to the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921.
New York Times column falsifies legacy of Eugene Debs
By Tom Mackaman, 30 April 2019
Isserman portrays the early American socialist as a moralistic reformer.
This week in history: April 29-May 5
29 April 2019
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
The burning of Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris
By Alex Lantier, 17 April 2019
The inferno was caused by a horrific breakdown of fire safety in restoration work, for which the French government and ruling elite bear the responsibility.
An assembly of political bankrupts: Historical Materialism and Jacobin host “Socialism in Our Time” conference
By Joseph Kishore, 16 April 2019
A more accurate title for the event would have been, “Democratic Party Politics in Our Time,” or, perhaps, “Socialism not now, not ever.”
This week in history: April 15-21
15 April 2019
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
This week in history: April 8-14
8 April 2019
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
This week in history: April 1-7
1 April 2019
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
Two hundred attend meeting on the struggle against fascism at Leipzig Book Fair
By our reporters, 26 March 2019
David North and Christoph Vandreier addressed a Saturday public meeting on “The lessons of the 1930s and the struggle against the far right today,” organised by Mehring Verlag at the Leipzig Book Fair.
This week in history: March 25-31
25 March 2019
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
One hundred years since the formation of the Communist International
By Peter Schwarz, 20 March 2019
One hundred years ago this month, from March 2 to March 6, the founding congress of the Third, Communist International took place in Moscow.
Mehring Books launches English-language edition of Why Are They Back? in London
By our reporter, 19 March 2019
Why Are They Back? by Christoph Vandreier documents the promotion of the extreme right in Germany and the ICFI’s struggle against it.
This week in history: March 18-24
18 March 2019
Daniel Yock, aboriginal, workers inquiry, Socialist Labor League, Anguilla, St. Kitts, Britain, Hungary, World War II, Budapest, Hitler, Horthy, USSR, Bela Kun, Austro-Hungarian empire, Hungarian Soviet Republic
This week in history: March 11-17
11 March 2019
G7, jobs summit, Detroit
From Lordstown to Vietnam and Back
By David North, 7 March 2019
In the wake of the iconic plant’s final day of production Tuesday the WSWS is posting an interview with a GM Lordstown worker published February 12, 1973 in the Bulletin, the weekly organ of the Workers League, forerunner of the Socialist Equality Party.
This week in history: March 4-10
4 March 2019
Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Whitewater, scientists, MIT, antiwar, Vietnam, UCS
This week in history: February 25-March 3
25 February 2019
Hebron massacre, Baruch Goldstein, West Bank, Gaza, Israel, Palestine
How the ruling elite sought to suppress revolution
Renewal: Life after the First World War in Photographs
By Paul Mitchell, 22 February 2019
As one progresses around the exhibition it becomes clear that the main concern of British imperialism in the post-war period was to overturn the real “renewal” represented by the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and the “better world” beginning in Russia (none of which, incidentally, is shown in the exhibition).
The Last Survivors: A testament to the Holocaust
A documentary film by Arthur Cary, first shown on BBC Two
By Margot Miller, 15 February 2019
Cary has captured the testimony of some of the last generation who were children in the camps, most of whom saw the genocide of their parents, siblings, relatives and friends.
The Iranian Revolution—Forty Years On
By Keith Jones, 13 February 2019
It is the Stalinist Tudeh Party and the politics of Stalinism that were principally responsible for the tragic derailing of the Iranian Revolution.
100 years since the Seattle General Strike—Part 2
By Kayla Costa, 12 February 2019
One hundred years ago, over 60,000 workers brought the city of Seattle to a standstill in a strike that holds important strategic lessons for today’s struggles
From the arsenal of Trotskyism
The Political Report by David North to the International Committee of the Fourth International—February 11, 1984
12 February 2019
Thirty-five years ago this week, David North, then the national secretary of the Workers League (predecessor of the Socialist Equality Party), presented at a meeting of the International Committee of the Fourth International a critique of the British Workers Revolutionary Party’s abandonment of key theoretical conceptions and programmatic principles of Trotskyism.
100 years since the Seattle General Strike—Part 2
By Kayla Costa, 12 February 2019
One hundred years ago, over 60,000 workers brought the city of Seattle to a standstill in a strike that holds important strategic lessons for today’s struggles.
One hundred years since the Seattle General Strike
By Kayla Costa, 11 February 2019
One hundred years ago, over 60,000 workers brought the city of Seattle to a standstill in a strike that holds important strategic lessons for today’s struggles.
This week in history: February 11-17
11 February 2019
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
Eighty-two years since the victory of the Flint sit-down strike
By Jerry White, 11 February 2019
With General Motors threatening to shut five factories in the US and Canada, it is valuable for autoworkers to study the heroic 1936-37 sit down strike against GM’s operations in Flint, Michigan.
One hundred years since the death of Franz Mehring
By Peter Schwarz, 6 February 2019
Mehring was one of the leading Marxist theoreticians of his time. Unlike other leading Social Democrats, who shifted to the right, he joined the Spartacus League during World War I.
Fire in my mouth: New York Philharmonic premieres oratorio on the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
By Fred Mazelis, 6 February 2019
The hour-long work probes an infamous example—in New York City in 1911—of capitalist exploitation and the sacrifice of workers’ lives on the altar of private profit.
This week in history: February 4-10
4 February 2019
<em>This Week in History</em> provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
This week in history: January 28-February 3
28 January 2019
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
100 years since the founding of the Bauhaus
Including an interview with Bauhaus student Wilf Franks
By Barbara Slaughter and Stefan Steinberg, 25 January 2019
This year marks the 100 anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus movement in Germany, which played a key role in the development of progressive art and culture in the twentieth century.
Who Will Write Our History: Emanuel Ringelblum and the Warsaw Ghetto archive on the screen
By Clara Weiss, 24 January 2019
Roberta Grossman’s film is an important contribution to a wider discussion about the significance of historical truth in the struggle against fascism.
This week in history: January 21-27
21 January 2019
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
German SPD politician justifies murder of Rosa Luxemburg
By Peter Schwarz, 18 January 2019
Although the SPD continues to officially deny its complicity in the murder of Luxemburg and Liebknecht, Wolfgang Thierse, former president of the federal parliament, has now declared: We would do it again.
Video: Christoph Vandreier on “One hundred years since the assassination of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht”
By Christoph Vandreier, 16 January 2019
In this video, Christoph Vandreier, the deputy chairman of the Socialist Equality Party (SGP) in Germany, speaks on the 100th anniversary of the murder of the two great revolutionaries.
New study finds up to 15,000 Jews killed each day at peak of Holocaust
By Clara Weiss, 16 January 2019
At least 1.47 million Jews, more than a quarter of all victims of the Nazi genocide of European Jewry, were murdered within 92 days from mid-August to early November 1942.
One hundred years since the murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht
By Peter Schwarz, 15 January 2019
The ruling class had to kill Luxemburg and Liebknecht to prevent the revolution, which spread like wildfire throughout Germany during November 1918, from overthrowing capitalism as it had done in Russia.
This week in history: January 14-20
14 January 2019
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
This week in history: January 7-13
7 January 2019
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
Remembering the Kindertransport: 80 years since 10,000 mainly Jewish children were allowed in to Britain
Until February 10, 2019 at the Jewish Museum London
By Paul Mitchell, 28 December 2018
The testimony of the Kindertransport children are invaluable because most of the archives about their lives in Germany and Britain were destroyed during and after World War II.
The bicentenary of Frederick Douglass
A leading figure of the anti-slavery struggle
By Fred Mazelis, 20 December 2018
The foremost black Abolitionist escaped slavery as a young man and went on to advise Abraham Lincoln in the Civil War.
Russian television’s Trotsky serial: A degraded spectacle of historical falsification and anti-Semitism
By Fred Williams and David North, 19 December 2018
The eight-part mini-series, now available on Netflix, is an exhibition of the political, intellectual and cultural depravity of all those involved in its production. This comment was originally posted in November 2017.
This week in history: December 17-23
17 December 2018
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
SEP (Sri Lanka) to hold lecture on “Lessons of History and the Fight for Socialism Today”
By the Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka), 21 November 2018
The lecture in Jaffna will focus on the political lessons of key strategic experiences of the 20th century for the working class and their contemporary relevance.
The centenary of the “Spanish Flu”—Lessons for today
Part two
By Benjamin Mateus, 20 November 2018
This is the second part of a two-part series. The first part was posted on November 19.
The centenary of the “Spanish Flu”—Lessons for today
Part one of a two-part series
By Benjamin Mateus, 19 November 2018
The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 was the deadliest outbreak of disease in human history, killing as many as 100 million people.
The armistice of November 11, 1918 and the lessons for today
By Nick Beams, 12 November 2018
The silencing of the guns 100 years ago was not the end of the bloodshed and carnage but was simply the conclusion of the first phase of what was to become a thirty-year international war between the major capitalist powers.
“100 years of social partnership”—a sinister celebration of trade unions, employers’ associations and the state in Germany
By Wolfgang Weber, 10 November 2018
On October 16, the German Trade Unions and Employer Associations celebrated the centenary of the Stinnes-Legien-Agreement, which laid the foundation for the suppression of the German Revolution of 1918/19.
One hundred years since the November Revolution in Germany
By Ulrich Rippert and Peter Schwarz, 9 November 2018
On November 9, 1918, the revolutionary uprising of the German working class against war and monarchy reached its peak and shook the capitalist system to its foundations.
David North in conversation with Nick Beams
Book launch of The Heritage We Defend in Sydney, Australia
9 November 2018
Meetings in Australia and New Zealand to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Fourth International
19 October 2018
The meetings will take place in Sydney on Sunday, December 2, in Melbourne on Thursday, December 6, and in Wellington, New Zealand on Sunday, December 9.
Large Colombo audience hears David North’s lecture on the history of the Fourth International
By our reporters, 9 October 2018
David North concluded his Sri Lankan tour with a powerful lecture in Colombo, delivered to a large, enthusiastic audience.
Mexico: Fifty years since the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre
By Don Knowland, 6 October 2018
For five decades the Mexican state has engaged in violence in order to crush political and social opposition, regardless of the political party in power.
SEP and IYSSE win broad support for Peradeniya university meeting on the struggle for Trotskyism
By our correspondents, 29 September 2018
SEP campaigners have spoken with scores of students, workers and academics at the campus, explaining the historical record and political importance of the struggle for Trotskyism in Sri Lanka and internationally.
The neo-Nazi offensive in Germany and the role of historians
By Christoph Vandreier, 27 September 2018
The 52nd Historikertag (Historians’ Conference) September 25-28 in Münster takes place under conditions where historical questions have assumed immense significance.
Vadim Rogovin and the sociology of Stalinism
By Andrea Peters, 25 September 2018
September 18 marked the 20th anniversary of the death of Soviet Marxist historian and sociologist Vadim Rogovin, the author of a seven-volume series on Stalinism and the Marxist opposition to the Soviet bureaucracy.
Twenty years since the death of Marxist historian and sociologist Vadim Rogovin
By David North, 18 September 2018
On the twentieth anniversary of the death of Vadim Rogovin, we republish two tributes to the greatest Soviet and Russian Marxist sociologist and historian of the second half of the twentieth century.
Ten years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers
By Nick Beams, 15 September 2018
September 15, 2008 marked a milestone in the eruption of the most far-reaching and devastating crisis of the capitalist system since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Bisbee ’17: The deportation of Arizona copper miners is a “still-polarizing event”
By Joanne Laurier, 10 September 2018
In July 1917, 1,200 striking copper miners in Bisbee, Arizona were illegally kidnapped, loaded in cattle cars and dumped in the southwest New Mexico desert. This episode is the subject of Bisbee ’17.
On the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Fourth International
By David North, 3 September 2018
The founding of the Fourth International on September 3, 1938, was an event of great historical significance and contemporary relevance.
Fifty years since the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia: Part four
The split with the OCI and the degeneration of the WRP
By Clara Weiss, 31 August 2018
The intervention by the Pabloite International Secretariat in Eastern Europe in 1968-1985 was facilitated by the degeneration of the British Workers Revolutionary Party.
Arsène Tchakarian (1916-2018): the Manouchian Group’s resistance struggle
Part 2: Who betrayed the Manouchian Group?
By Francis Dubois and Alex Lantier, 31 August 2018
There is no doubt that the Stalinists’ decision to sacrifice the Manouchian Group was bound up with their genocidal onslaught against Trotskyism and the Left Opposition.
Fifty years since the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia: Part three
The intervention of the Pabloites
By Clara Weiss, 30 August 2018
The Pabloite International Secretariat intervened aggressively in Eastern Europe and especially Czechoslovakia in 1968 in order to disorient the opposition to Stalinism within the working class and intelligentsia.
Arsène Tchakarian (1916–2018): The Manouchian Group’s resistance struggle
Part 1: The political origins and military record of the resistance fighters
By Francis Dubois and Alex Lantier, 30 August 2018
Arsène Tchakarian, the last remaining survivor of the famed Manouchian Group of the French Resistance, died on August 4, 2018, at the age of 101.
Hostiles: A US soldier accompanies a Native American chief home in 1892 …
… and homelessness in Seattle in The Road to Nickelsville
By Joanne Laurier, 30 August 2018
Scott Cooper’s Hostiles opens in 1892 in Fort Berringer, New Mexico, as the mass destruction of the Native Americans population is winding down.
Fifty years since the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia: Part two
The Prague Spring
By Clara Weiss, 29 August 2018
On August 20-21, 1968, tens of thousands of troops of the Warsaw Pact states invaded Czechoslovakia to crush the “Prague Spring” and stifle a nascent movement of the working class. This is the second part of a four-part series.
Fifty years since the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia: Part one
Establishment of a deformed workers’ state in Czechoslovakia
By Clara Weiss, 28 August 2018
On August 20-21, 1968, tens of thousands of troops of the Warsaw Pact states invaded Czechoslovakia to crush the “Prague Spring” and stifle a nascent movement of the working class. This is the first part of a four-part series.
Seventy-eight years since the assassination of Leon Trotsky
By Eric London and David North, 21 August 2018
On August 21, 1940, Leon Trotsky, the founder of the Fourth International and the co-leader of the Russian Revolution, died from wounds inflicted the day before by an assassin, the Stalinist GPU agent Ramon Mercader.
An “Exemplary Comrade”: The Socialist Workers Party’s 40-year-long cover-up of Stalinist spy Sylvia Callen: Part four
By Eric London, 17 August 2018
This is the final part in a four-part series examining the cover-up by the Socialist Workers Party, beginning in 1947, of information exposing the role of Sylvia Callen, the personal secretary of long-time party leader James P. Cannon, as a Stalinist agent.
An “Exemplary Comrade”: The Socialist Workers Party’s 40-year-long cover-up of Stalinist spy Sylvia Callen: Part three
By Eric London, 16 August 2018
This is the third part in a four-part series examining the cover-up by the Socialist Workers Party beginning in 1947 of information exposing the role of Sylvia Callen, the personal secretary of long-time party leader James P. Cannon, as a Stalinist agent.
An “Exemplary Comrade”: The Socialist Workers Party’s 40-year-long cover-up of Stalinist spy Sylvia Callen: Part two
By Eric London, 15 August 2018
This is the second part in a four-part series examining the cover-up by the Socialist Workers Party, beginning in 1947, of information exposing the role of Sylvia Callen, the personal secretary of long-time party leader James P. Cannon, as a Stalinist agent.
An “Exemplary Comrade”: The Socialist Workers Party’s 40-year-long cover-up of Stalinist spy Sylvia Callen: Part one
By Eric London, 14 August 2018
This is the first part in a four-part series examining the cover-up by the Socialist Workers Party beginning in 1947 of information exposing the role of Sylvia Callen, the personal secretary of long-time party leader James P. Cannon, as a Stalinist agent.
Preface to the Russian edition of In Defense of Leon Trotsky
By Vladimir Volkov, 2 August 2018
Understanding the role Leon Trotsky played in the twentieth century is fundamental to the revival of the heritage of Marxism in the countries of the former Soviet Union, and to the fight to build the International Committee of the Fourth International.
This week in history: July 23-29
23 July 2018
25 years ago: Clinton administration proposes anti-immigrant legislationThe administration of Democratic President Bill Clinton announced a new round of attacks on immigrants and democratic rights on July 27, 1993, unveiling new legislation titled the “Expedited Exclusion and Alien Smuggling Enhanced Penalties Act,” to be sponsored in Congress by the leading Senate liberal, Edward Kennedy.
A quarter century since the Thai toy factory fire
By Richard Phillips, 14 July 2018
The Kader fire exposed the rapacious character of global capitalism, which was not improving factory conditions but further undermining them.
This week in history: July 2-8
2 July 2018
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
SEP in Sri Lanka holds powerful 50th anniversary meeting
By our correspondents, 27 June 2018
The meeting began by paying tribute to the party’s founding general secretary Keerthi Balasuriya, Wilfred Pereira and all those who gave their lives to the fight for Trotskyism in Sri Lanka and South Asia.
Social studies teachers denounce anti-democratic changes to Michigan education curriculum
By Debra Watson and Ed Bergonzi, 26 June 2018
Teachers are opposing proposed changes to the state’s social studies curriculum that would block students from learning about struggles for democratic and civil rights.
This week in history, June 25-July 1
25 June 2018
<em>This Week in History</em> provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
Preface to the thirtieth anniversary edition of The Heritage We Defend
By David North, 21 June 2018
We are posting the new preface written by David North for the soon to be released thirtieth anniversary edition of The Heritage We Defend: A Contribution to the History of the Fourth International.
Fifty years of the Socialist Equality Party of Sri Lanka
Arm the working class with the program of socialist internationalism and with revolutionary leadership!
By the Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka), 16 June 2018
The fulcrum of the 50-year struggle of the RCL/SEP has been the fight for the political independence of the working class and the program of permanent revolution.
This week in history: June 11-17
11 June 2018
25 years ago: US military slaughters Somali civiliansOn June 11, 1993, six months after US troops landed in Somalia for the supposed purpose of feeding starving people, US warplanes reduced large parts of the capital city, Mogadishu, to rubble, while United Nations troops carried out house-to-house raids and cold-blooded massacres.
1968: The general strike and the student revolt in France
Part 8—The centrist line of the OCI (4)
By Peter Schwarz, 6 June 2018
Fifty years ago, in May–June 1968, a general strike brought France to the brink of proletarian revolution. This eight-part series describes the events and draws the political lessons for today.
1968: The general strike and the student revolt in France
Part 7—The centrist line of the OCI (3)
By Peter Schwarz, 5 June 2018
Fifty years ago, in May-June 1968, a general strike brought France to the brink of proletarian revolution. This eight-part series describes the events and draws the political lessons for today.
1968: The general strike and the student revolt in France
Part 6—The centrist line of the OCI (2)
By Peter Schwarz, 4 June 2018
Fifty years ago, in May–June 1968, a general strike brought France to the brink of proletarian revolution. This eight-part series describes the events and draws the political lessons for today.
1968: The general strike and the student revolt in France
Part 5—The centrist line of the OCI (1)
By Peter Schwarz, 2 June 2018
Fifty years ago, in May-June 1968, a general strike brought France to the brink of proletarian revolution. This eight-part series describes the events and draws the political lessons for today.
1968: The general strike and the student revolt in France
Part 4—How Alain Krivine’s JCR covered for the betrayals of Stalinism (2)
By Peter Schwarz, 1 June 2018
Fifty years ago, in May–June 1968, a general strike brought France to the brink of proletarian revolution. This eight-part series describes the events and draws the political lessons for today.
1968: The general strike and the student revolt in France
Part 3—How Alain Krivine’s JCR covered for the betrayals of Stalinism
By Peter Schwarz, 31 May 2018
Fifty years ago, in May–June 1968, a general strike brought France to the brink of proletarian revolution. This eight-part series describes the events and draws the political lessons for today.
1968: The general strike and the student revolt in France
Part 2—The betrayal of the PCF and CGT
By Peter Schwarz, 30 May 2018
Fifty years ago, in May–June 1968, a general strike brought France to the brink of proletarian revolution. This eight-part series describes the events and draws the political lessons for today.
Germany: Twenty-five years since the arson attack in Solingen
By Marianne Arens and Elisabeth Zimmermann, 30 May 2018
On Saturday, May 29, 1993, five members of the Gença family were killed in an arson attack carried out by far-right extremists in the town of Solingen.
1968: The general strike and the student revolt in France
Part 1—A revolutionary situation develops
By Peter Schwarz, 29 May 2018
Fifty years ago, in May-June 1968, a general strike brought France to the brink of proletarian revolution. This eight-part series describes the events and draws the political lessons for today.
Capitalist restoration in Russia: A balance sheet
Part 4: The Kuzbass today
By Clara Weiss, 4 May 2018
This series reviews the lessons of the Soviet miners’ strike of 1989 and capitalist restoration in Russia.
Capitalist restoration in Russia: A balance sheet
Part 3
By Clara Weiss, 3 May 2018
This series reviews the lessons of the Soviet miners’ strike of 1989 and capitalist restoration in Russia.
Capitalist restoration in Russia: A balance sheet
Part 2: What happened to the miners’ strike
By Clara Weiss, 2 May 2018
This series reviews the lessons of the Soviet miners’ strike of 1989 and capitalist restoration in Russia.
Capitalist restoration in Russia: A balance sheet
Part 1
By Clara Weiss, 1 May 2018
This series reviews the lessons of the Soviet miners’ strike of 1989 and capitalist restoration in Russia.
This week in history: April 30-May 6
30 April 2018
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
NY Times, Mark Rudd on anniversary of Columbia U sit-in: Socialist revolution is a “fantasy”
By Patrick Martin, 26 April 2018
Mark Rudd, the most prominent leader of the student protests at Columbia University in 1968, has taken to the pages of the leading capitalist newspaper to deny the possibility of revolution.
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