Imtv Radio - Marxist Ideas. Fighting For Revolution.

In this talk from the Revolution Festival, Nigel Warren provides an introduction to Marxist economics - discussing why capitalism goes into crisis, and explaining why socialism is the only way forward. It is over a decade now since the economic crash of 2008. And with the coronavirus pandemic paralysing production, and stock markets tumbling once again, a new slump is about to hit. The epidemic is not the cause of the crisis, however, but merely its trigger; the historical 'accident' that exposes the 'necessity' of the system's contradictions. The real cause of capitalist crisis, as Nigel outlines, is overproduction. The defenders of capitalism have no answers or solutions. By their own admission, the economic ideas they put forward have proven useless at best, and harmful at worst. Over 150 years since Karl Marx first published Capital, it remains the only work that comprehensively explains the workings of the capitalist system - and why it must be overthrown.

In this talk from Revolution Festival 2019, Natasha Sorrell introduces Engels' ideas about the origins of the family, explaining how these show that the oppression of women is not natural or permanent, but something that can and must be ended as part of the struggle for socialism. In 1884, Engels published his classic of historical materialism, The Origins of the Family, Private Property and the State. This seminal book was based upon the revolutionary work of American anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan, whose studies revealed something not understood in the West at the time - that most of human history did not consist of class societies, but classless ones. Engels linked these findings to the materialist view of history: that, as human society develops, it does not remain the same in its structures or ideas. One particularly important part of Engels' theory - which has been confirmed many times since - is that early human societies not only lacked class divisions, but were also free of any inequality bet

In this talk from Revolution Festival, Fiona Lali - national organiser of the Marxist Student Federation - outlines the ideas of historical materialism: the Marxist theory that provides a scientific explanation for how change and development occurs in society. "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle." So begins the Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. Rather than trying to make society conform to a timeless ideal, or to discover some fixed ‘human nature’, Marxists see society as a process, evolving through stages of development, driven forward by the struggle between the exploiters and the exploited. Ultimately, it is not morality or our ideas that determine the structure and dynamics of society, but economic conditions. Importantly, as Fiona explains, by studying the past we can understand how to bring about a socialist future.

In this talk from the Revolution Festival 2019, Niklas Albin Svensson (writer for In Defence of Marxism) discusses why revolutionaries must oppose any repression of migrants and refugees, and fight instead for workers of all countries to unite. Anti-immigrant rhetoric and far-right parties have risen in recent years on the back of the refugee crisis and the crisis of capitalism. In Britain and elsewhere, right-wing governments are whipping up xenophobia and nationalism in an attempt to divert attention from their programmes of austerity and attacks on the working class. Liberal commentators have blamed this on the idea that the working class is, itself, racist. Some within the labour movement have unfortunately also succumbed to this view, arguing that the left must adapt and argue in favour of migration controls, under the pretext of 'protecting the jobs and wages' of native workers. But this approach is directly the opposite of what is required. Anything that divides workers on the basis of nationality,

In our latest podcast, Ben Curry (Socialist Appeal editorial board) discusses the results of the recent general elections in Ireland, which have dealt a shattering blow to the Irish establishment and the two-party system. In the past, liberal commentators superficially asserted that Ireland had escaped the political turbulence that has rocked the rest of Europe. But no longer. Now Ireland had caught up with a bang. With Sinn Fein coming out on top, the election results are a political earthquake that has shaken the Irish ruling class. Sinn Fein's victory was achieved on the basis of a programme of left-wing, class-based demands, which found an echo amongst workers and youth, who are tired of sky-high rents and crumbling public services. At the same time, Sinn Fein's rise now puts the question of a border boll and Irish reunification firmly back on the agenda. A new period of instability and intense class struggle now lies ahead in Ireland - one in which the masses will rediscover the revolutionary traditio

In this talk from Revolution Festival 2019, Helena Nicholson of the LSE Marxist society discusses the climate catastrophe facing the planet, and the need for a revolutionary alternative. The question of climate change has become the burning issue of our era, as a result of the fires, floods, hurricanes, and droughts that have devastated communities across the world. Urgent action is required; and yet world leaders have proven that they are incapable of taking any serious steps to address this existential environmental crisis. At the same time, millions of young people have taken to the streets as part of the 'Fridays for Future' movement. And left-wing political demands to fight climate change have found an echo - most notably with the proposal for a 'Green New Deal' from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the USA, and Labour's call for a 'Green Industrial Revolution' in the UK. It is clear that capitalism is killing the planet. Immediate and radical action is needed. But how can workers and students link togethe

In this talk from Revolution Festival 2019, Shaun Morris discusses the period known as ‘The Troubles’ in the North of Ireland, which began just over 50 years ago when British troops were sent onto the streets of Derry. In the decades that followed, thousands lost their lives as a result of sectarian violence, whipped up by the British ruling class and Unionist hardliners to divide working-class communities. On the other side, the IRA’s strategy of bombing and terrorism led the Republican movement into a complete impasse. The Troubles were only brought to end decades later with the Good Friday Agreement. But, until recently, this power-sharing arrangement lay dead in the water. And whilst the Stormont Assembly has recently been revived, the spectre of sectarianism remains, threatening to rear its ugly head once again as a result of the crisis of capitalism. In the Republic of Ireland, meanwhile, elections are taking place this weekend and Sinn Féin is leading in the polls. This will put the question of a bo

In this talk from Revolution Festival 2019, Fred Weston (editor of www.marxist.com) discusses the crisis in Israel-Palestine, which is back on the agenda thanks to Trump's proposed 'peace plan'. For decades, the conflict in Israel-Palestine has been one of imperialism’s most blatant and persistent acts of oppression. The world watches on as Palestine shrinks and shrinks; settlement after settlement gets built; and bomb after bomb falls on innocent men, women, and children. But, as Marx said, a nation that oppresses another is not free itself. The oppression of the Palestinian people has dragged on for so long, that many ask: is it even possible for a solution to be found? Negotiations, ceasefires, and accords - nothing seems to work. Further talks clearly won’t achieve anything. Under capitalism, there is no way out. A one-state 'solution' would be an apartheid state, with Arabs as second-class citizens. Trump's so-called 'peace plan', meanwhile, has demonstrated that a two-state solution is a utopia. Fr

In this talk from the main rally at Revolution Festival 2019, Alan Woods - editor of In Defence of Marxism - discusses his new book on the revolutionary movement that overthrew the Franco regime in Spain in the 1970s. Based on his own personal experiences and involvement, Alan explains how the movement to overthrow the Franco regime was a modern-day revolution, with the working class providing the motor force for change. And as with any revolutionary movement, Alan discusses, this period is full of vital lessons for a new generation coming into political activity today. The remnants of the Franco regime live on still inside the modern bourgeois Spanish state. In this respect, as Alan concludes, "it is our duty to ensure that this unfinished revolution will be carried to a successful conclusion". Get your copy of this fantastic historical account of a modern revolutionary movement from Wellred Books: https://wellredbooks.net/spain-s-revolution-against-franco-the-great-betrayal.html

In this talk from last year's Revolution Festival, Daniel Morley (writer for Socialist Appeal) looks back at the events leading up to the 1949 Chinese Revolution, explaining why the revolution played out as it did, and discussing the process that has unfolded since: from revolution to Tiananmen to capitalism. After the 1917 Russian Revolution, as Daniel discusses, the Chinese Revolution of 1949 is the most significant event in history. Fighting first Japanese occupation and then Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang, the Chinese Communists took power and swept away the old relics of landlordism and feudalism in China. Under the threat of counter-revolution and US imperialist aggression, Mao and his Red Army went even further, abolishing capitalism and establishing a planned economy. But, unlike the revolution in Russia, the working class had not played the leading role in the Chinese Revolution. As a result, the new state that was set up was riddled with contradictions from the beginning, taking as its model the to

Hamid Alizadeh, editor of www.marxist.com, discusses the recent confrontation between American and Iran, and explains why the left and the labour movement must oppose US imperialist aggression. The current sabre-rattling, as Hamid states, escalated on 3 January with the killing of the Iranian military general, Qassem Soleimani - one of the top figures in the Iranian regime. This was a clear provocation by Trump, designed as a chest-beating exercise to distract from the problems the US President faces back home, and also with his reactionary foreign allies in Saudi Arabia and Israel. The result, however, has been to push ordinary people in the Middle East behind the Iranian rulers, in opposition to US imperialism, thus cutting across the class struggles and revolutionary movements that have been developing in Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon in recent months. It is the duty of all socialists to oppose the warmongers in Washington and London, and to fight to overthrow our own imperialist ruling classes.

Alan Woods - editor of In Defence of Marxism - analyses last week's UK election results, explaining the real reasons behind Labour's dramatic defeat. In doing so, Alan answers the lies of the establishment media and the Blairites, who have falsely attempted to place all the blame for Labour's election loss on Jeremy Corbyn. In reality, however, it is not Corbynism that has failed, but Blairism, liberalism, and the centre ground. The areas that have abandoned Labour are those that have been left behind by capitalism; those that voted Leave as a rejected of the broken status quo. It is vital to learn the lessons of this election defeat. But Labour activists must now regroup to kick the right-wingers and careerists out of the PLP, to fight Boris Johnson and the Tories, and to continue the struggle for socialism.

In this talk from Revolution Festival 2019, Adam Booth - editor of www.socialist.net - compares and contrasts the economic ideas of Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, and MMT. The crash of 2008 brought all the established neoliberal economic ideas into question. As Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman told an audience at the London School of Economics in the wake of the financial crisis: “Most work in macroeconomics in the past 30 years has been useless at best and harmful at worst.” Over a decade on, and mainstream capitalist economists still have no answers or solutions. Some on the left have attempted to fill the vacuum with alternative economic theories. These include old ideas, such as those of John Maynard Keynes; and new concepts, such as 'Modern Monetary Theory'. Neither of these tendencies, however, provide a genuine, scientific analysis of capitalism. Instead, both seek to patch up and reform the broken capitalist system. In this talk, Adam looks at these economic ideas - old and new - and e

In this talk from Revolution Festival 2019, Ben Curry (of the Socialist Appeal editorial board)discusses the Marxist philosophy of dialectical materialism and its application to the natural world. Dialectics is a philosophy of change, explaining that all matter is in a state of motion and flux. But how does this change take place? Using a number of examples from science - from thermodynamics, to evolution, to chaos theory - Ben demonstrates one of the basic principles of dialectics: that change occurs through a process of 'quantity and quality'. In other words, the gradual accumulation of small quantitative changes eventually leads to the qualitative transformation of a system to a new equilibrium state. Such 'tipping points' are seen all around us in nature - and, Ben stresses, in society also, in the form of capitalist crises and revolutions. This is why an understanding of dialectics is so vital for all Marxists and revolutionary activists today.

In this talk from Revolution Festival 2019, Jorge Martin - editor of American Socialista and writer for www.marxist.com - discusses the recent revolutionary developments in Latin America, including in Chile, Ecuador, and Haiti. Until recently, commentary about Latin American politics was full of pessimism and talk about a swing to the right, with the election of the Macri and Bolsonaro governments in Argentina and Brazil, respectively; and with Trump's attempted coup against the Maduro government in Venezuela. But now the pendulum has begun to swing in the opposite direction, with a revolutionary wave sweeping across the continent. Uprisings, insurrections, and mass movements have erupted onto the streets in Ecuador, Chile, Haiti, Honduras, and elsewhere. Meanwhile, Macri has been defeated in the Argentinian elections; AMLO remains popular amongst the masses in Mexico; and workers and youth have come out en masse against Bolsonaro's reactionary programme. Jorge examines these revolutionary processes devel

In this talk from the recent Revolution Festival, Marie Frederiksen - editor of the Danish Marxist paper 'Revolution' - discusses the impact of the Berlin Wall, which was broken apart 30 years ago, on 9th November 1989. This marked the beginning of the end for the Stalinist regimes of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Subsequently, liberal commentators declared that these events marked the final victory of capitalism over Communism. As Marie explains, however, what collapsed was not genuine Communism, but a deformed caricature of Communism, strangled and suffocated by the growth of an enormous bureaucracy. Despite this, enormous gains were made as a result of the planned economy. And vice-versa, huge falls in living standards were experienced in Russia and Eastern Europe following the collapse into capitalism. The task for Marxists today is to counter the hysteria of the liberal establishment, and to understand why the Russian Revolution degenerated into Stalinism. Above all, as Marie emphasises, we m

Speaking at a day school in Manchester earlier this year, Josh Holroyd of Socialist Appeal discusses the events surrounding the Peterloo massacre of 16th August 1819, when thousands of protestors demanding political rights were brutally repressed by local representatives of the ruling class. As Josh explains, the Peterloo massacre marked a turning point for the working class in England. In the years that followed, powerful trade unions were forged in order to fight back against the attacks of the capitalists. And within decades, mass political movements such as the Chartists were on the rise, striking fear into the hearts of the bourgeoisie. 200 years on, we stand on the shoulders of giants as we attempt to build on these revolutionary traditions - fighting for socialism in Britain and internationally.

Alan Woods, editor of In Defence of Marxism, discusses the current contest between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt to succeed Theresa May as leader of the Conservative Party. As Alan highlights, it is a farce of democracy that a 160,000-strong reactionary rabble of Tory members will decide who becomes the next Prime Minister. Whilst the Tory leadership candidates out-compete each other over Brexit, the right wing of the Labour Party are once again ramping up their efforts to undermine Jeremy Corbyn. Far from being unelectable, in reality the Blairites fear that Corbyn could end up in Downing Street. Hence the endless smears and slanders - for example over antisemitism. We cannot allow this sabotage to continue. Nor can we allow a new Prime Minister to come to power in a coronation or coup. Instead, we need to fight for a general election and a socialist Labour government.

Daniel Morley, writer for Socialist Appeal, discusses the mass movement that is taking place in Hong Kong against the repressive extradition law. Millions have participated in the protests against the newly proposed extradition bill - this in a city of around 7.5 million. This shows the scale of the anger that exists towards the Hong Kong government, and the Beijing regime that stands behind them. Hong Kongers are rightly terrified of seeing their democratic rights torn to shreds, as Xi Jinping seeks to shore up China against the instability of class struggle, trade wars, and international meddling. The movement has grown in militancy since its beginning, and is now demanding the resignation of Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam. The call for a general strike has also gained an echo. The task ahead for this movement is to organise mass strike action, and to forge links with the working class internationally - particularly the workers and youth of mainland China. On this basis, the Hong Kong protests could act a

Hamid Alizadeh, writer for In Defence of Marxism, discusses the increasing friction between the USA and Iran, with Washington accusing the Tehran regime of attacking two oil tankers and shooting down an American drone. The US President, with the support of belligerent influential figures like John Bolton, has escalated tensions and threatened military strikes in retaliation. But he has been forced to pull back, for now. It is clear that the bellicose Trump administration, along with their reactionary allies in the Middle East, are looking to thwart the power and influence of Iran in the region, in order to assert their own imperialist interests. We must oppose this sabre-rattling and warmongering. The task of overthrowing the corrupt Iranian regime belongs to the Iranian masses, not the occupants of the White House.