We are proud to announce the publication of the ninth issue of the Arabic magazine of the International Marxist Tendency: Freedom and Communism. We publish here an overview of its contents, and an English translation of the editorial statement. You can read the whole issue in Arabic online here.
This issue includes an article by comrade Alan Woods, published at the turn of the new year, with the title ‘I saw it in the movies’; a detailed study of the origins of class society by comrades Josh Holroyd and Laurie O'Connell; an article celebrating the centenary of the Battle of Anwal by comrade Javier Cabrera; and two pieces on the Sudanese Revolution by comrades Mohamed Hossam and Joe Attard.
In addition, you will also find a report on the activities of the International Marxist Tendency in all parts of the world during the year 2021. In the art section, we publish two articles about movies that received great attention during the year 2021: Squid Game and Don’t Look Up.
Editorial
We, the workers and youth of North Africa and the Middle East, like the rest of the workers and youth of the world, bid farewell to 2021, which was a difficult year full of crises and tragedies. We welcomed the new year with the exchange of wishes that it would be better than the previous one, although we know for sure that it will be as bad, or perhaps worse.
Poverty, unemployment, disease, psychological anxiety, and wars have reached unprecedented levels. Life has become unbearable for billions of people. The crisis also extends to the environment in which we live, to the air we breathe, the water we drink. We witness the extinction of dozens of species of animals and insects on a daily basis, some of which are extinct even before we discover their existence! The summer of 2021 was the hottest ever recorded, and there is no indication that the situation will change.
The new issue includes an article by Alan Woods, published at the turn of the new year; a detailed study of the origins of class society; an article celebrating the centenary of the Battle of Anwal; and two pieces on the Sudanese Revolution / Image" Communism and Freedom
However, the questions that must be asked are: why is our life so bad? Why is there all this unemployment, all this poverty, and all these wars? Why are so many people wretched and hungry, while a small minority are so wealthy? Why do we continue to see the destruction of forests and pollution of the seas, air and soil…. Is this inevitable, is this fate? Is it impossible to change this situation?
The ruling class, their strategists and media are doing everything in their power to divert our attention from these questions and from the search for answers by encouraging nihilism, excessive selfishness and indifference.
We Marxists, on the other hand, do everything in our power to focus attention on these pressing issues, spread revolutionary consciousness, and provide answers that expose the main cause of all the tragedies and atrocities in the world, that is: the capitalist system itself.
Unemployment and exploitation are not inevitable, but rather a product of the capitalist system. By eliminating capitalism, and building a rationally planned socialist system, we can also do away with these societal evils. In this way, which is neither impossible nor imaginary, no one will have to either work themselves to death, or be left without work and impoverished.
Poverty and famine are not inevitable, but a product of the capitalist system. The capitalist crisis, and the resulting pauperism and hunger facing millions, are not the result of a lack of agricultural and industrial products. On the contrary, they occur despite a surplus of production. The problem is the basic means of life cannot be provided to the majority of people profitably.
While the budgets for social services, health and education are being slashed, because the ruling class considers them burdensome (by which they mean unprofitable), they continually increase their military budgets. That is, budgets for destruction and killing. All this madness can be put to an end by creating a socialist system in the service of the overwhelming majority, based on production in order to meet the real needs of society as a whole.
All objective and technical conditions are available to create a world free of poverty, hunger and exploitation, in harmony with the environment; one without racism, wars or imperialism. The only obstacle that stands in the way of this world and prevents it from being born is the capitalists and their guard dogs in the army top brass, governments, the media, academia, etc. What is required now is to break this obstacle through the socialist revolution, and the seizure of power by the working class, placing the bosses’ wealth under the democratic control of society as a whole.
But for that to happen we need more than just good wishes for a Happy New Year. We need to engage in the struggle to build the revolutionary party in our countries, to be part of the international party of the socialist revolution, and to work tirelessly to spread Marxist ideas among the workers and the youth who are looking for a revolutionary alternative.
In the era of deep organic capitalist crisis that is dragging humanity into the abyss, in the era of revolutions and counter-revolutions on a global scale, indifference is a crime, nihilism is a crime, and turning our backs on reality is a crime. The task of our generation is to accomplish the great historical objective of the socialist transformation of the world.
This is the cause that we, the IMT, are fighting for. This is the cause in which we invite you to join us. Let's make it a new red year, a year of struggle for socialism.