Throughout the self-proclaimed ‘civilised’ western world, the ruling classes have banded together to denounce Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7 October and have rallied around Israel’s ‘right of self-defence’ as it bombs Gaza to smithereens. But this is not the first time we have been told to accept a bloody war against an oppressed people in the name of the oppressor nation’s ‘self-defence’.

The following short article by Karl Marx, published in the New York Daily Tribune in 1857, comments on the Indian Rebellion that broke out against the British East India Company the same year. In a few short lines, Marx skewers the hypocrisy of respectable English society reeling in horror at the violence of the rebels; the product of decades of oppression. His words bear great relevance today given events in Israel-Palestine.

The history of Chile, where the 50th anniversary of Pinochet’s brutal coup d’état is being commemorated this month, is an example of the danger that awaits those who fail to distinguish between the two. As was the case with socialist leader Salvador Allende, reform sometimes takes on a revolutionary garb. It’s crucial for communists to understand what separates the two phenomena.

It has been 50 years since the coup d’état against president Allende in Chile. In this article, Carlos Cerpa Mallat describes the events that preceded the coup, how the transition from dictatorship to the current regime took place, and draws the main political conclusions of that tragedy, which are necessary to arm the new generations.

In August 1913, Vancouver Island was engulfed in class struggle. The coal miners strike of 1912-1914, the Great Strike as it is called, crippled Vancouver Island for nearly two years as workers flew the red flag on Canadian soil. Coal miners on Vancouver Island rose up against the mining bosses and defied the power of the Canadian state, taking over the town of Ladysmith for three days, and bringing the Island to the brink of an all-out class war. 

In the West, some have called the Korean War the ‘Forgotten War’. It is true that, in the days since the cessation of conflict in Korea, there has been no shortage of bloody wars offered to humanity by capitalism. But the Korean War holds historic significance that cannot be neglected.

The Spanish Civil War began this month in 1936 with the beginning of the coup by General Franco. The fascist forces could have been defeated, with the working class rising up and fighting back. But their heroism was betrayed by the Stalinists. During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), the working class showed all the determination, self-sacrifice, and […]

How was it that a formal complaint against a racist professor managed to escalate into one of the largest student riots in Canadian history? 

On Feb. 11, 1969, the Montreal police violently put down one of the largest student occupations in Canadian history. For two weeks, as many as 300 students had peacefully occupied the computer centre at Sir George Williams University to protest a racist professor’s treatment of Black students, and the administration’s complicity in defending him.

Issue 42 of In Defence of Marxism magazine is available to pre-order now! Alan Woods’ editorial, which we publish here, looks at the Marxist view of the state and the role of the individual in history.