Like the last two issues of the Review, this one continues the celebration of centenaries of the historic events of the world-wide revolutionary wave of 1917-23.

For the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings of 6 June 1944, the bourgeoisie has once again pulled out all the stops to exploit all the emotions stirred up by witness accounts of the slaughter and spread its nauseating nationalist propaganda. Yet another parade of the weapons of war, yet another mass spectacle. All the figureheads of the great powers were there, from Merkel to May and Macron, and of course Donald Trump. The aim is to glorify patriotic sacrifice and to justify the bloody carnage in the name of “freedom”.

In the first part of this article we looked at some of the most important developments in the international proletarian milieu after the events of May 68 in France. We noted that, while the resurgence of the class struggle gave a significant impetus to the revival of the proletarian political movement, and thus to the regroupment of its forces, this dynamic had begun to run into difficulties by the beginning of the 80s. We take up the story from this point. This “history” by no means claims to be exhaustive and we make no apology for the fact that it is presented from the ICC’s “partisan” point of view. It can be supplemented in future by contributions from those who may have different experiences and perspectives.

An impossible choice between needing to make a living and needing clean water and good health. In this situation the division in the community created by this impossible choice is particularly destructive because it is dividing a mining community, which means dividing the workers, and when workers are divided they lose the one strength they have to struggle against capital.

We look at the environmental journalist's claim that he is now for the overthrow of capitalism as the only solution to the ecological crisis.

This article, written by a close sympathiser, examines a contribution by the group Internationalist Voice on the strengths and weaknesses of recent workers’ struggles in Iran.

The moblisation led by the workers of the 'maquilas was undoutedly a very combative one. However it could not avoid the domination of illusions in the law and of confused hopes that the unions, if run "honestly", can change their anti-proletarian nature ...

At the end of May, a report into austerity in the UK by the UN rapporteur on extreme poverty was issued - to the accompaniment of protests by the British government.

This resolution, adopted by a conference in January 2019, seeks to draw out the main perspectives for the British situation in the coming period. This takes on even more importance when the whole social situation is dominated by the ruling class’s unprecedented political crisis around Brexit - a crisis that is going to continue to worsen in the coming period.

Introduction and update to the resolution on the British situation

The working class has no stake in the Brexit imbroglio, no camp to choose among the many factions or the umpteen ‘solutions’. All the arguments in the Brexit debate are ultimately to do with the best conditions in which to manage the capitalist economic crisis, the best way to compete with other capitalist swindlers on the world market.

Every day the evidence for the environmental catastrophe grows more alarming: melting glaciers, fires and floods linked to global warming, massive extinction of species, unbreathable air in cities, plastic waste building up in the oceans: it’s almost impossible to keep up with the coverage in the media and the press. And virtually every article you read, every speech by celebrated scientists and authors, ends up by calling on the governments of the world to be more committed to protecting the planet, and the individual “citizen” to use their votes more responsibly.

A close sympathiser reviews a new book on the Chernobyl nuclear disaster which exposes the cynicism of the ruling class, whether in Stalinist Russia or the "democratic" west.

100 years ago, in March 1919, the first congress of the Communist International (CI) was held: the founding congress of the Third International. If revolutionary organisations did not have the will to celebrate this event, the foundation of the International would be relegated to the oblivion of history. Indeed, the ruling class does not want the working class to remember its first great international revolutionary experience of 1917-1923, a revolutionary wave which was the international proletariat's response to the slaughter of the First World War. And the founding of the Communist International in 1919 represented the culmination of this first revolutionary wave...

The catastrophic fire at Notre-Dame de Paris has given rise to a flood of crocodile tears from the French and world bourgeoisie. But in reality this class is incapable of protecting the cultural heritage of humanity and indeed can only lead it to its destruction.   

After waves of popular protests in Algeria demanding the resignation of president Bouteflika and his clique, the former president seems to have finally given in to the pressure of his “people”. But the working class in Algeria should not believe in fairytales. In this “popular” national unity that aims to chase out a hated clique of leaders, the proletariat is in danger of abandoning its struggle as a class against the roots of exploitation and misery ...  

Right and left wing identity politics share the same patriotic standpoint

This article from a close sympathiser in the US looks at the adoption of “identity politics” by the left wing of the bourgeoisie, an international trend which has reached advanced levels in America.