Imtv Radio - Marxist Ideas. Fighting For Revolution.

In part two of our series on the lessons of the Communist International, Lubna Badi outlines the events of the German Revolution of 1918-1923 and draws out the lessons for communists today. With power lying in their hands, the masses were able to topple the Kaiser and end Germany's involvement in WWI. And yet, without a well-established Communist leadership, the socialist revolution ultimately failed. The consequences of that failure would be most brutally felt over a decade later with the rise of fascism in Germany and the consolidation of Stalinism in Russia.

To kick off our six-part series on the lessons of the Communist International, Fiona Lali outlines the rich history of Marxist internationalism, stretching from Marx and Engels' efforts to build the First International, through to Trotsky's Fourth International.

As the working class flexes its muscles on the industrial front today, many have drawn comparisons with the class struggle of the 1970s - a decade which saw workers topple governments, occupy factories, and raise the question of socialism. In this episode of Marxist Voice, Ben Gliniecki draws the lessons from the successes and failures of this decade of struggle.

In 1920s Italy, all of the objective conditions were ripe for socialist revolution, and yet this period saw the triumph of Mussolini's fascists. In this talk, Fred Weston discusses why the workers' movement failed, and how its defeat paved the way for the victory of fascism.

Under capitalism, an ocean of talent is left untapped: creativity is crushed by the profit motive; and culture sector workers endure exploitation and oppression. In this talk, Joe Attard will discuss the links between art, culture, and revolution.

The Marxists in Britain have launched a communist recruitment drive, aimed towards revolutionary workers and youth who want to get organised in the fight to overthrow capitalism. In this episode, we are joined by Ben Gliniecki, the national secretary of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) in Britain, to discuss why you should get organised, and what being a member of the IMT looks like. ✊ Join the fight for revolution with the International Marxist Tendency: https://socialist.net/join

Karl Popper dedicated his life to dressing up very commonplace arguments against socialism with philosophical and political critiques. The most famous one was to claim that Marxism is not scientific, since it does not satisfy his ‘falsifiability criterion’. Marx’s insights, therefore, did not make any serious advance from the utopian socialists that preceded him. In this episode of Marxist Voice, Khaled Malachi defends the scientific status of Marxism, and reveals the faults in Popper’s one-sided approach to both science and history.

15 May marks 75 since the 'Nakba', a campaign of terror against Palestinians, led by Zionist paramilitaries as part of the proclamation of Israel in 1948. This resulted in over 700,000 Palestinians being expelled from their land. And it paved the way for the chaos that has engulfed Israel-Palestine ever since. Today, Palestinians continue to suffer under the iron heel of the Israeli imperialist state. In this episode of Marxist Voice, Khaled Malachi outlines the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict, the current crisis in Israel, and a revolutionary programme for the liberation of Palestine.

With the coronation of Charles III around the corner, many workers and youth are responding with apathy and revulsion at this royal circus. But is the British monarchy just a feudal relic, or does it play a more important role for the ruling class? In this episode of Marxist Voice, Jack Tye Wilson discusses the real role that the monarchy plays, as a reserve weapon that can and will be deployed to defend capitalism against the growing class struggle.

The crisis of capitalism is not just an economic and political crisis. It is a crisis of culture, of art, and of science. Mysticism and idealism are increasingly being reflected in the sciences. In this episode of Marxist Voice, Ben Curry puts forward a defence of materialism: against idealist interpretations of quantum mechanics, mystical theories of consciousness, Big Bang creationism, and many other examples of the garbage that passes today as ‘science’.

Over the last year, a spectre that was thought by many to be dead-and-buried has returned with a vengeance: the spectre of inflation. Across the world, prices continue to soar. And yet, whilst the capitalists profit from scarcity and shortages, the ruling class scandalously blames workers and their pay demands for causing a ‘wage-price spiral’. In this episode of Marxist Voice, Adam Booth explains the real causes behind inflation, and presents a revolutionary alternative to this menace and madness.

From Xi Jinping to Putin, to Stalin and Hitler, strong-man leaders who rule with an iron hand appear throughout history. In this talk, Ben Gliniecki explains the Marxist concept of Bonapartism.

NATO was founded in 1949, not as an instrument of peace, but as a weapon of the Western imperialists to fight the Cold War. It has remained a weapon of Western imperialism ever since. In this session, Lotta Angantyr will explain the real role and history of NATO and why Marxists are irreconcilably opposed to NATO, as part of our struggle against imperialism and for genuine proletarian internationalism.

Class struggle is back on the agenda in the USA. Workers at Amazon, Starbucks, Apple, and elsewhere are beginning to organise and unionise. Workers and youth are becoming increasingly radicalised - looking way beyond the Democrats and left-wingers such as Bernie Sanders, and are instead openly identifying as ‘communist’. These developments have important implications for the perspectives for world revolution. A mass movement of the working class in America, the biggest imperialist power on the planet, would send shockwaves across the globe. In this session, Dylan Thomas discusses the militant traditions of the American working class, the industrial battles taking place today, and the prospects for revolution in the USA – the belly of the capitalist beast.

On 18 March 1871, the masses of Paris rose up and established the first ever workers' state, known as the Paris Commune. In this talk, Josh Holroyd covers these brief but heroic events, and draws out the lessons for revolutionaries today. We apologise for the low audio quality. This was due to a technical error.

The Russian revolution made colossal steps in the fight for women's liberation, far greater than any other movement - today or in history. In this talk, Natasha Sorrell discusses how the Bolsheviks approached the women's question, the gains that were won in the Revolution, and the conditions that led to their reversal.

We are often told that the war in Ukraine is being fought in defence of democracy and national self-determination. In this talk, Jorge Martin details the real reasons for the war, and the complex history of the national question in Ukraine.

Amidst the carnage of the First World War, Lenin characterised capitalism as “horror without end”. Today, the grim truth of that statement can be seen in the proliferation of brutal conflicts around the world from the industrial slaughter of civilians in Yemen, to the intensification of the proxy war between NATO and Russia in Ukraine. In this talk from last year’s Revolution Festival, Josh Holroyd discusses the nature of capitalism today, how it necessarily leads to imperialist domination and conflict between the major powers, and how an end to war might be achieved, once and for all.

From 1925 to 1927, the young Chinese working class waged a revolutionary struggle against the decaying order of the warlords and imperialists. Tragically, the errors of the Stalinist Comintern led to the crushing of this revolution. In this talk, Daniel Morley outlines the key lessons of these events, and draws out the need for class independence and a socialist programme.

Within the Irish Republican movement, there have always been two tendencies: one which sees the struggle for Irish liberation as solely a nationalist question, and another which correctly sees it as a class question. In this talk from the book launch of 'Ireland: Republicanism and Revolution', Ben Curry uncovers the revolutionary lessons of Ireland's struggle for liberation.