Six years after the beginnings of the Black Lives Matter movement, the death of George Floyd in the USA has sparked an international movement against racism and police violence. The repression and injustices experienced by BAME communities day-in, day-out was captured by the last words of George Floyd and Eric Garner: “I can’t breathe!”
The protests against institutional racism have spread like wildfire to Britain, with militant demonstrations insisting that ‘the UK is not innocent’. But the question facing activists now is: how do we channel this incredible energy and potential power into real, lasting change?
The struggle against racism must be fought on a class basis – by uniting workers and youth into a mass movement capable of overthrowing capitalism: a system that has oppression, violence, and exploitation built into its very fabric.
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The Black Lives Matter movement has helped to shine a light on Britain’s own racist, colonial history. Fiona Lali looks at the origins of British capitalism, which came into being – in the words of Marx – with “blood dripping from every pore”.
The British establishment is attempting to divert the movement against racism down safe-channels – turning the struggle into a polarising ‘culture war’, and offering tokenistic gestures. Instead, we must fight for socialist change.
With the rise of Black Lives Matter into a radical mass movement, many are rediscovering one of the heroes of the struggle for black liberation in the ‘70s. Fiona Lali analyses her theoretical ideas.
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This document was passed at the 2008 National Congress of the US section of the International Marxist Tendency. The arguments it raises are more relevant than ever.
As Marxists we stand on the front lines in the struggle against discrimination in all its forms. We believe that to be successful, this must be combined with the united working class’s struggle against capitalism and for socialism.
Marxists must call for workers' unity, organisation, and internationalism.
A layer of young people and students who are becoming politicised as part of recent movements come to view oppression through the lens of 'intersectionality'. But what does it mean and is it useful for fighting oppression?
Marxist classics & books
The barbarity of the Nazis is well documented. Less well known are the events that preceded Hitler's rise to power. Rob Sewell gives a picture of these tumultuous events. Available from Wellred in paper copy and as an ebook.
The word fascist is often very loosely used today, as a swearword against right-wing figures or reactionaries in general. But there is a Marxist analysis of fascism. It was made by Leon Trotsky not as a postmortem, but during the rise of fascism. This was one of Trotsky's great contributions to Marxism.
In the following collection of Trotsky’s letters and articles, he is specifically addressing the German Communist Party, which he considered the only realistic organisation to stop fascism. These series of articles and essays show Trotsky’s method in his ultimate break with the Comintern.
The European Union throws up a number of questions for Marxists, not just in terms of our perspectives for the class struggle in Europe, but also theoretical questions on the nature of the EU and the attitude of Marxists to the idea of European integration.
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Martin Luther King was killed because of the danger his ideas posed to the establishment. Fred Weston looks at MLK's life and ideas, and discusses the way forward today in the fight against racism and for liberation.
In this talk from the Revolution Festival 2019, Niklas Albin Svensson discusses why revolutionaries must oppose any repression of migrants and refugees, and fight instead for workers of all countries to unite.
As the conditions for revolution rapidly mature in the US, there is an urgent need for the movement to grapple with some serious questions: What role do police play under capitalism? What will it take to abolish this institution?
In this talk, Hamid Alizadeh explains why the struggle against racism must be fought on a class basis – by uniting workers and youth into a mass movement capable of overthrowing capitalism: a system that has oppression, violence, and exploitation built into its very fabric.
In this online talk organised by the Marxist Student Federation as part of Black History Month, Fiona Lali (national organiser of the MSF) explains why the fight against racism must be a fight against capitalism.
Fred Weston speaks on the effects of positive discrimination and the lessons for the labour movement, touching on the origins of racism and the Black question in the USA.
