The annual Marxist School of the Nigerian section of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) was held over the weekend of 23-24 November 2019.

Alan Woods’ tour of Italy has concluded with two hugely successful meetings in Naples and Rome (preceded by appearances in Milan and Bologna). The tour (entitled “Revolution for the future: from the History of Bolshevism to the revolutions of tomorrow”) was organised by Sinistra Classe Revolution: the Italian section of the International Marxist Tendency.

Alan Woods is on tour in Italy for a series of public meetings titled “Revolution for the future: from the History of Bolshevism to the revolutions of tomorrow”, organised by Sinistra Classe Rivoluzione: the Italian section of the IMT. Here is a report of the first two meetings, in Milan and Bologna. Today, Alan is in Naples; and on Saturday, 9 November, he will be in Rome.

The global economy is slowing down, heading for a new world slump. A rebellion is taking place across the planet, with mass insurrectionary movements erupting onto the streets from Baghdad to Beirut to Barcelona. And in Britain, the Corbyn movement is preparing for the battle of a generation, as a general election looms.

It was with tremendous sadness that we discovered comrade Pam Woods had died following a courageous battle with leukaemia and MDS. In keeping with her immediate family’s wishes for privacy at such a difficult time, we did not publish an obituary.

On the morning of Tuesday, 22 October, Max, a comrade of Fightback (the IMT in Canada) was arrested by plainclothes police officers in front of his home in Hamilton. His family was made to watch as Max was placed in handcuffs and forced into the police cruiser.

Since mid-September, the Marxist Student Federation in Britain has signed up 3,193 people across the country. This is by a huge margin our best year ever. It reflects the deepening crisis of capitalism, and subsequent search for new ideas from the youth. We’ve been present in 36 universities, at the freshers fairs, putting forward the demand for a radical socialist labour government. With a General Election around the corner, people are ready to talk about politics, and the Marxist societies are bigger than ever.

On 5 October, 27 people gathered in the Dutch city of Utrecht for a Marxist day school organised by Revolutie, the section of the IMT in the Netherlands. Our intention was to provide an introduction to the ideas of Karl Marx... in one day!

Last week, the comrades of the US section of the IMT unveiled a new version of socialistrevolution.org. After 16 years of producing Socialist Appeal, we launched Socialist Revolution in 2017, a better name for the struggles of the post-2017 election era. Our new site was also a big step forward toward raising the IMT's profile and visibility. Since then, we have kept working on improvements to continue to enhance the user experience, especially on mobile devices.

At 6pm on Friday 10 October, at the Plekhanov Memorial Library in St. Petersburg, comrade Alan Woods, the editor of marxist.com and a leading member of the International Marxist Tendency, addressed an audience of about 70 people, who crowded into the small conference room. In addition to the members of the older generation associated with the library, the majority of those present were young people — students and workers — members and sympathisers of the Revolutionary Workers’ Party who had organised the event in collaboration with the Plekhanov Library. The meeting was chaired by the director of the Library, Tatyana Filimonova.

Our comrades have continued to march alongside workers and youth on climate demonstrations all over the world, participating in enormous mobilisations against capitalism's destruction of the planet. 

Following our global intervention in the climate strikes on 20 September, comrades around the world once again took to the streets for another day of action last Friday. Some of these demonstrations broke records for attendance, showing how the question of climate change is bringing millions of people – particularly the youth – into political activity. Our comrades raised the slogan of class struggle and socialist revolution, as the only way to save the planet!

Friday 20 September saw the biggest climate strike in history, uniting millions of people across the globe in the fight to save the planet from the ravages of climate change, for which capitalism is the culprit. We share the following series of reports from comrades all over the world, who intervened in these events, arguing that only class struggle and socialist revolution can avert climate catastrophe!

The British Labour Party has been holding its national conference over the past several days. At a Labour4Clause4 fringe meeting on Monday evening, a packed room of grassroots Labour activists heard from Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer, John McDonnell and leading trade unionists, who speakers pledged their support for the restoration of Clause 4 and Labour's commitment to socialist policies.

It was with a deep sense of sadness and personal loss that Ana and myself learned of the death of our dear old friend and comrade, Bob Lee, last Friday. We had been very close for many years, and we learned to love and respect him as a great comrade, a tireless fighter and above all as a warm, loving and generous human being.