Short Form

From 1958 to the late 1970s, the People’s Communes combined collective production and local governance within the wider project of socialist construction in the People’s Republic of China. They transformed rural life by pooling resources, developing productive capacity, and expanding social services. In part 3 of this 6-part series, we explore how the People’s Communes emerged, how they operated, and how they contributed to the development of Chinese socialism.

The Paris Commune was the first working-class government in history. As Marx wrote, “working men’s Paris, with its Commune, will forever be celebrated as the glorious harbinger of a new society.” In part 2 of this 6-part series, we explore some of the key lessons from the Paris Commune that have shaped revolutionary struggle since.

What is a commune? While communal structures are commonly associated with more anarchist or autonomist political projects, the commune has historically been a key element of socialist construction. In part 1 of this 6-part series, we recover an understanding of communes as located within a process of socialist transition.

If AI really does pose an existential risk to humanity, then why are companies continuing to develop it?
The AI race is revealing of capitalism’s core logic: the structural necessity to compete for profit, even if it leads to catastrophic outcomes. The people need to take democratic control over not just AI, but all of society’s productive capacity. This is the only way to prevent our ruinous trajectory.

Mao was the primary leader of the Chinese revolution, which liberated the Chinese people from feudal and imperialist oppression. “We Communists are like seeds and the people are like the soil. Wherever we go, we must unite with the people, take root and blossom among them.”

This is only the beginning. The largest El Niño in 1,000 years is currently gaining strength, which will “blow apart” previous records and make 2027 the hottest year ever recorded. Meanwhile, the British state is expected to approve new oil and gas projects in the North Sea, pouring fuel onto the fire. We need eco-socialist system change to ensure our collective future.

Nearly two weeks ago, police murdered Corey Ruiz in Madison, Wisconsin. Far from an isolated tragedy, Corey’s murder reflects a system that criminalises poverty, disproportionately directs state violence against racially minoritised communities, and maintains inequality through policing. In the post, we explore the structural roots of police violence, the community response in Madison, and what justice for Corey requires.

On June 25th, 1950, war broke out between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, i.e. ‘North Korea’) and the Republic of Korea (ROK, i.e. ‘South Korea’). The Korean War was a civil war over the future of a unified Korea. On the one side, the DPRK fought with the masses for a socialist Korea, while on the other side, the US-backed ROK fought for a capitalist Korea allied with Western imperialism. Over the course of the war, the US dropped 635,000 tonnes of bombs and 32,577 tonnes of napalm on the DPRK, killing between 1.5 and 2.5 million people. Today, the war continues as a frozen conflict, with the Korean people still divided due to US imperialism.

Imperialism is the systematic transfer of value from the Global South to the Global North. A new study by Morena Hanbury Lemos and Jason Hickel quantifies the extent of value drain from Latin America to the Global North. Between 1995 and 2020, Latin America exported on average 2.2x more materials, 4.5x more land, and 5.3x more labour to the North than it imported.

As a popular educator and sociologist, Marta Harnecker supported revolutionary processes across Latin America, including in her native Chile, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Venezuela. She has written critically important texts on the construction of 21st century socialism and remains one of the most widely read theorists in Latin America.

A new report reveals the shocking number of young people in Britain and the north of Ireland who are not in education, training or employment (NEET). Significant sections of today’s young people are politically conscious of their downward mobility, making them well-primed for eco-socialist struggle.

By controlling traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, Iran is challenging a core pillar of US hegemony: its control over global oil trade. As oil flows are disrupted, the Islamic Republic is showing that the petrodollar system, and the empire it sustains, is not untouchable.

Alexandra Kollontai fiercely devoted her life to the struggle for collective liberation, as a leading Bolshevik revolutionary, formidable Marxist theorist, and central figure in the early Soviet government. She made countless contributions to materially improving the lives of working-class people, especially women, in the USSR and to redefining debates on gender, labour, and socialist construction.

Cuba is resisting the US oil embargo through renewable energy. Renewables provide a way for Global South countries to reduce their dependency on US-controlled international oil flows. China’s massive strides in renewable energy have helped it withstand US neo-colonialism and to support other Global South countries, like Cuba, in doing the same. Harvest the sun. Decompose the US empire!

The US-Israeli war of aggression on the Islamic Republic of Iran has sharpened domestic, regional, and global contradictions. It is important that we study these developments in order to understand and intervene in the rapid unfolding of history. As Lenin said, “there are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happens.”

On March 14th, 1883, the great philosopher, economist, and revolutionary, Karl Marx passed away. He gave liberation movements around the world the tools to analyse the world in order to change it - a world-historic contribution.

On March 8th, we honour working-class, feminist struggles against gendered oppression, violence, and exploitation under patriarchy, capitalism, and imperialism. We must cultivate strength, determination, tenderness, and joy for the struggles ahead for the liberation of people of all genders. Let us together water the seedlings of a feminist, eco-socialist future.

The US-Israeli assault on Iran is an attempt to collapse the Iranian state and crush the power base of anti-imperialist resistance in West Asia. It extends the logic applied to the Palestinian people over the past two years: any challenge to imperialism will be met with indiscriminate violence against unarmed civilians, including children. We must reject this war on Iran!

The recent escalation of hyper-imperialist aggression against Cuba is cutting off the country's fuel supply, strangling basic services like healthcare, education, and food production. While emergency measures have been implemented on the ground, international solidarity efforts are also crucial for defending Cuban sovereignty.

Love is in the air, and marked by contradiction. Under capitalism, it is a primary site of exploitation and harm — privatised, commodified, and harnessed to reproduce structural inequalities inside the home and beyond. At the same time, it is a basic human need, without which life would be impossible. As such, many revolutionaries throughout time have recognised its liberatory potential. To build for a better world, we must struggle for and practice a better love, expanded beyond scarcity and rooted in mutual flourishing.

ICE’s siege on the people of Minnesota is part of the US’s broader decent towards fascism. Fascism is not a departure from capitalism. Rather, it is a political system that directly emerges from capitalism, especially during moments of hegemonic crisis. As repression in the US ramps up, so too does resistance, with popular ambitions for a general strike. A unique opportunity exists to extend organic community struggles against ICE to a broader socialist transformation in the heart of empire.

Imperialism is a world system in which the US-led imperial core underdevelops peripheral states and denies them sovereign control over their own resources through economic and military coercion. Yet misconceptions about imperialism circulate widely in the Western left. Debunking them is essential for effective anti-imperialist struggle and for creating the conditions for eco-socialist transformation.

General strikes have been a uniquely powerful tactic in the struggle for liberation. As the ruling class accelerates its assault on the people and our planet, the general strike is once gain emerging as an effective means of fighting back.

On January 21st, 1924, Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Bolsheviks and the Russian Revolution, passed away. Over 100 years after his death, he continues to be a teacher - an example of coherence between words and deeds. We remember Lenin’s tremendous legacy through the words of revolutionaries the world over.

The US military attack on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is the latest escalation in its decades-long hybrid war. In the face of unmatched military power, naval blockade, and regional encirclement by right-wing governments, the Bolivarian government will be forced to negotiate with the hyper-imperialist US. This is not surrender, but rather a necessary tactic to ensure the long-term survival of the Bolivarian process. As organisers in the imperial core, we must create more favourable conditions for the survival of all socialist states under the boot of US imperialism.

By accommodating a range of left tendencies through its member-led structures, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has become the organisational centre of an emergent US left. In part six of our six-part Parties of the People series, we draw key lessons from DSA.

By combining state and popular power, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has advanced the class struggle in India, as recently demonstrated by the eradication of extreme poverty in Kerala. In part five of our six-part Parties of the People series, we draw key lesson from the CPI(M).

By building trust, forging a national story, and delivering on an affordability platform, Morena became Mexico’s first leftwing government in almost one hundred years. While the party’s project carries contradiction, it also bears some important lessons. In part four of our six-part Parties of the People series, we draw key lessons from Morena’s experience.

By becoming a useful party that acts as a practical force for positive change in the lives of everyday people, the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) has built localised centres of people power on which it is building a national project for transformation. In part three of our six-part Parties of the People series, we draw key lessons from the KPÖ’s organising successes.

By organising around issues that matter to ordinary people and building social power from the ground up, the Workers' Party of Belgium (PTB) has achieved remarkable growth in both membership and electoral support in recent decades. In part two of our six-part Parties of the People series, we draw key lessons from the PTB’s organising successes.

From Labour’s historically low approval ratings to the rise of Reform UK and the Greens’ explosive growth, the seismic shifts in British politics today are indicative of people’s desire for real change. Yet, in order to address the root causes of their worsening material conditions, progressive social forces must unite in a left party that is rooted in the myriad struggles of the exploited and oppressed. In part one of this six-part series on Parties of the People, we provide a theoretical introduction to the functions, activities, and structure of a mass left party. For more on this topic, check out our brief 'The Eco-Socialist Party.'

Billionaire overlords and neo-serfs. Is this our new reality? There has been a recent increase in Marxists questioning whether we have transitioned out of capitalism to a new form of feudalism. Prominent accounts include Technofeudalism by Yanis Varoufakis and Capital’s Grave by Jodi Dean. In this post, we critically examine these arguments and provide our own perspectives.

As the Venezuelan opposition leader receives the Nobel Peace Prize, Washington is stationing warships off Venezuela’s coast, under the familiar banner of the “war on drugs.” But the US’s escalated military presence in the Caribbean isn’t about fighting cartels. It’s about undermining the Bolivarian Revolution and gaining access to Venezuela’s abundant oil reserves.

Communism is structured around working together to meet our basic needs, creating the conditions for genuine human and non-human liberation. It’s no utopia, but rather a concrete alternative that can realistically emerge out of a global socialist transition. A vision of the future is essential for guiding our struggles today. There is a world waiting to be born.

Imperialism is the root cause of forced migration. It produces the economic, political, and ecological conditions that push people from their homes. Case studies that illustrate this dynamic in action tells the story of why people risk crossing militarised borders, and who’s to blame.

Any discussion on immigration must begin with clarity about it’s root cause: imperialism. Imperialism produces the political, economic, and ecological conditions that force people to leave their homes and risk crossing militarised boarders. It is the poison that pillages nations of the periphery while creating conditions for exploitation in the core. Imperialism is the source of people’s anger and it must be directed at that.

The Israeli war machine relies on imported military equipment and energy to commit genocide in Gaza. Shipping companies are a key link in the global supply chain, delivering huge quantities of oil and gas to Israel. These companies must be held to account for their complicity. Demand these top 5 European shipping giants cut ties: Minerva Marine Inc, TMS Tankers Ltd, Thenamaris Ships Management, Golden Ocean Management, Golden Union Shipping Co.

Fueled by the hyper-imperialist strategies of the US, the world is descending into a new era of a global belligerence. This is increasing the risk of a nuclear world war. Here we outline the terrifying outcomes of a thermonuclear exchange. The research for this post is primarily based on the book Nuclear War: A Scenario, by Annie Jacobsen, which is a fact-based account of what a nuclear world war might look like. Trigger warning: This post contains graphic details of nuclear war. Viewer discretion is advised.

80 years after dropping atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the US is once again planing to use nuclear weapons. The US views its advanced nuclear arsenal as a military means to maintain unipolar dominance, which is increasingly under threat by China and its allies.

You’ve likely heard the terms “US hegemony,” “unipolarity,” and “global superpower” — but what do they actually mean? Here, we explore how the US gained its position as the most powerful country in the world and how it maintains its dominance. To do so, we draw on five forms of control, as identified by Marxist political economist Samir Amin, that are critical to sustaining neo-colonialism. Fortunately, we are witnessing the US’ absolute grip over the world weaken. As anti-imperialist organisers, we must do everything in our power to assist its downfall.

In 1954, the US overthrew Jacobo Árbenz, the democratically-elected president of Guatemala. This set into motion a torrent of regime change operations, including in the Congo (1961), Brazil (1964), Indonesia (1965), and Chile (1973). These regime change operations seemed to follow a 9-step manual, which Vijay Prashad outlines in his book Washington Bullets. The US empire will try to crush any government that stands up in defense of its own people. And although it may derail the struggle, it will never be able to quell the masses drive for dignity.

Last week, non-violent protest group Palestine Action was proscribed by the British state as a terrorist organisation. This is the first time in history that a domestic protest group has been proscribed. It represents a dramatic escalation in the state’s assault on freedom of speech, thought, and association. Nonetheless, 7 in 10 people in Britain support banning all arms sales to Israel. Proscribing Palestine Action is unlikely to stop people from taking direct action to enforce a popular arms embargo on Israel.

On June 27th, 1954, democratically-elected president of Guatemala, Jacobo Àrbenz, resigned following a US-backed coup. The coup ended Guatemala’s ‘Ten Years of Spring’ and reinstated a string of military dictators that were subservient to US capital. This is a quintessential example of how imperial powers shape the world system to maintain uneven accumulation. Imperial intervention of this kind continues today, as can be seen with Palestine, Iran, Venezuela, and China.

In September 2022, a popular coup made Captain Ibrahim Traoré the interim President of Burkina Faso. Under his leadership, Burkina Faso expelled the French military, took back control of gold production, kick-started sovereign industrialisation, and co-created an anti-imperialist confederation with Mali and Niger known as the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). The conditions are different, but the motive force of today’s struggles against neo-colonialism and imperialism remain the same: collective liberation

In part 5/5 in our ‘Understanding China’ series, we investigate the US-led Global North’s New Cold War on China. China’s political-economic ascendance poses an intolerable threat to the US’ ruling class. To shore up its late stage empire, the US and its imperialist allies are attempting to militarily and economically constrain China. This escalating belligerence risks spiraling into a thermonuclear World War III. As eco-socialists organisers in the imperial core, it is our duty to stop the New Cold War on China. We must build a new world order based on peace, justice, cooperation, and sustainability.

In part 4/5 in our ‘Understanding China’ series, we explore China’s concept of the ecological civilisation. China is world-leading in terms of renewable energy, low-carbon transport, and ecosystem restoration. There is also an observable, credible commitment to address the ongoing contractions between China’s development and ecological sustainability.

In part 3/5 in our ‘Understanding China’ series, we investigate whether China is imperialist, as is commonly alleged in the West. We examine China’s role in the capitalist world system on the basis of four factors: the global division of labour, the imperialist drain of labour and resources, international relations, and military hostility.

In part 2 of our 5-part series on understanding China, we look at China’s poverty alleviation efforts, which have been characterised by Antonio Guterres as “the greatest anti-poverty achievement in history.” This post pays particular attention to the Targeted Poverty Alleviation programme (2013-2020), which is situated within the much wider poverty alleviation efforts that have lifted 850 million Chinese people out of poverty since 1949.

The Carnation Revolution toppled the fascist Estado Novo regime in Portugal. The anti-fascist struggle in Portugal was powered by the national liberation movements in the Portuguese colonies, including Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Principe, and Angola. This historical period is a stark reminder that it is anti-imperialist victories in the periphery that create conditions for revolution in the core. Going in chronological order, we explore these movements through the art and culture they produced, including paintings, posters, murals, poems, and songs. Culture is not just a byproduct of struggle, but an indispensable tool for the struggle itself.

In 1949, the Communist Party of China (CPC) came to power through a successful people’s revolution. Since then, China has gone from a poor country subject to imperialist humiliation to an industrial powerhouse with the second largest economy in the world. Now, for the first time in 500 years, a country from the Global South is challenging Western hegemony. Confronted with this existential threat, the US-led Global North is mounting a dangerous new Cold War on China. As eco-socialists in the Global North, we must actively resist our ruling classes’ attempts to manufacture consent for imperialist war. Instead, we must develop our own political conclusions on China and its role in an emergent multipolar world. Without proper investigation, we have no ability to advance our struggle.

Maersk is more than just a merchant of genocidal war. It is also wrecking the planet and exploiting its workers. From pumping the atmosphere full of toxic pollution to “reprehensible” violations of worker safety, Maersk’s socio-ecological destruction is the source of its mega profits. To hold Maersk accountable, support the Mask off Maersk campaign.

What does “Make America Great Again” really mean? In this post on the North Atlantic far right, we analyse the real essence of Donald Trump’s MAGA movement.

In the first few lines of Donald Trump’s 2026 inauguration speech, he said: “the golden age of America starts now.” This notion of the “golden age” is emblematic of the politics of the far right in the North Atlantic (i.e. North America and Europe). They promise national renewal by breaking from the old and ushering in the new. Is the far right really a populist force moving beyond the neoliberal consensus? In this post, we break down the far right’s political strategy, drawing on the Tricontinental Institute's recent dossier — The False Concept of Populism and the Challenges Facing Left.