Claim OwnershipThe Revolutionary Communist Podcast
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The official podcast of the Revolutionary Communist Party, the Canadian section of the Revolutionary Communist International. We publish presentations and interviews each week in order to educate and organize workers and youth on the foundations of marxist theory and revolutionary history. If you agree with what you hear, then reach out to us at marxist.ca/join to build the Revolutionary Communist Party where you are!
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The assassination of Trotsky in August 1940 dealt a devastating blow to the young and untested forces of the Fourth International. Unfortunately, the leaders of the Fourth were not up to the level of the tasks posed by history. Deprived of Trotsky's leadership they made a series of fundamental mistakes. Only the leadership of the RCP in Britain was able to readjust to the new situation on a world scale after 1945. This was the result of the theoretical capabilities of Ted Grant. His writings on economics, war, the colonial revolution, and particularly Stalinism, were, and still remain, classics of modern Marxism.
In this talk from the 2023 Montreal Marxist Winter School, In Defence of Marxism editor Fred Weston discusses the Ted Grant and the Fourth International
In the 1950s the Indonesian economy was failing, with the division between rich and poor increasing sharply. At the same time the PKI, the Communist Party of Indonesia, grew to the third largest Communist Party in the world, with three million paid members and the support of ten million trade unionists and organized peasants. Sadly this explosive combination ended in the massacre of 1 million communists in 1965. Indonesia is a graphic example of how mistakes in theory have dire consequences.
In this talk from the 2023 Montreal Marxist Winter School, IMT activist Mike Leiden discusses the lessons of the Indonesian Revolution.
The question of how the US working class will create a party of its own—a class-independent, mass socialist party—has been a foremost concern of Marxists since the earliest beginnings of the movement, both in the US and around the world. Reactionaries have long pointed to the lack of a working-class party as an indication of “American exceptionalism” and the weakness of the class struggle in the land of McCarthy. Meanwhile, revolutionaries have tirelessly maintained that a mass workers’ party is an objective historical step that must be achieved in order for the US working class to fight back effectively and reverse decades of lost ground in the class struggle.
In this talk from the 2023 Montreal Marxist Winter School, Tom Trottier, editor of Socialist Revolution, discusses the struggle for a workers' party in the USA.
The history of Bolshevism has many vital lessons for today’s revolutionaries – particularly regarding the origins of the revolutionary party that led the masses to victory in Russia. At the second congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1903, the famous split between the majority (Bolsheviks) and minority (Mensheviks) took place. Many myths and distortion surround this split. It is often wrongly alleged the Mensheviks stood for a ‘democratic’ and ‘decentralized’ party, in opposition to Lenin’s ‘ultra-centralist’ and ‘authoritarian’ tendencies. In reality, this split on organizational questions was an anticipation of future political differences, which will lead the Mensheviks to betray the revolution.
This talk was given by Fightback editor Alex Grant at the 2023 Montreal Marxist Winter School.
The Oka crisis is one of the most significant episodes in modern Canadian history. For months, all eyes in the country were pulled to a small Quebec town where a group of Indigenous activists lead an armed blockade against a golf course expansion that threatened ancestral lands. This standoff sparked a wave of protest across Canada and left behind a spirit of militancy that the Indigenous movement continues to draw from today. In this talk from summer 2022, comrade Marcus discusses the lessons of the Oka crisis.
War, poverty, climate change, hunger, disease, the concentration of power, wealth, and influence in the hands of a few. These, and countless more nightmares have plagued the world for over 100 years, making life miserable for the vast majority of the globe. Lenin proposed in his work, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, that these phenomena are not a bug or mistake of capitalism, but rather the logical progression under a system based on the relentless and unending pursuit of capital.
In this talk from the Western Canadian Marxist Summer School 2022, Fightback activist Larissa discusses exactly how the imperialist powers make life a living hell for the rest of us, and what we can do to fight back.
In this talk from the Western Canadian Marxist Summer School 2022, Fightback editor Alex Grant discusses imperialism, pacifism, and the Marxist analysis of war.
The debate over “Critical Race Theory” has come to dominate mainstream media headlines in the United States. It is provoking a frenzy among Republicans, and is sparking furious confrontations at school board meetings, daily segments on cable news programming, and a torrent of legislation to limit what teachers can and cannot say in the classroom.
Some on the left may be tempted to counter the Republican offensive by coming to the defense of CRT, or accepting its characterization as the innocuous study of systemic racism. But Marxism is above all a science, and demands a rigorous approach when it comes to questions of theory—not merely an attitude of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” So what does CRT represent for Marxists?
In this talk, Antonio Balmer, member of the editorial board of Socialist Revolution, discusses Critical Race Theory
Philosophy is crucial for political struggle, because philosophy is our method of understanding the world. In this presentation from the Montreal Marxist Winter School 2022, marxist.com editor, Hamid Alizadeh defends Marxism against fashionable postmodern philosophy. He shows how the philosophical approach of denying the objectivity of the world, which is increasingly popular among scholars in both the natural and social sciences, is tantamount to denying the possibility of understanding the world and thus transforming it. The ultimate effect of this worldview is to defend the status quo.
1As a defining feature of Canadian capitalism, the oppression of Indigenous peoples is of prime importance for Marxists. In this talk from the Montreal Marxist Winter School 2022, Laine Sheldon-Houle, an activist with Fightback in Alberta and a member of the Swan River First Nation, explains how Marxism, which advocates a united class struggle, is the best tool to help fight for Indigenous liberation.
The pandemic has exposed the system that puts profits before needs. Capitalism is going through the deepest crisis in its history. It is an economic, social and political crisis, which is now expressing itself in political turmoil and growing class struggle across the globe. While the ruling class attempts to bury Marxism, it has in fact never been so relevant as it is today. We need revolutionary ideas that will enable us to overthrow this rotten system.
Fred Weston, editor of In Defence of Marxism (www.marxist.com), gives this keynote presentation.
In light of Israel's ongoing ethnic cleansing of Gaza, Joel and Julien talk about the complicity of Canadian imperialism, and what we can do in Canada to fight back.
Capitalism is on the brink. An entire generation has known only crisis, cutbacks, and climate catastrophe. Everywhere we look there is war, poverty, and exploitation. And yet, the rich have seen their wealth grow enormously. People all across the country are starting to draw the correct conclusion that the root of the problem is capitalism itself. More than one million young people in Canada now believe that communism is the ideal economic system. This week, Joel is joined by Fightback and La Riposte socialiste editor Julien to discuss these developments and how Fightback/La Riposte is building a Marxist party to fight for communism!
This week, Joel is joined by Fightback editor Laine to discuss the outcome of the Alberta election. Why did Danielle Smith and the UCP hold on to power? What can we learn from the election? And what can the working class do about it?
This week Joel is joined by editor of La Riposte socialiste, Julien Arseneau, to bring a Marxist analysis to the largest PSAC strike in 30 years. What are the demands the workers are fighting for? What is the significance of the strike for the Canadian class struggle? And how do the workers win?
This week, Joel is joined by International Marxist Tendency activist Ted Sprague to talk about so-called "Chinese interference" in Canadian election, actual CSIS interference in Canadian politics, and growing imperialist rivalry between China and western capitalist powers.
This week, Joel and Julien Arseneau of La Riposte socialiste discuss why a revolutionary party is necessary for the overthrow of capitalism.
Links:
"The class, the party and the leadership: How to organize revolution"/"Classe, parti et direction : comment organiser une révolution" by Julien Arseneau
Register for the Montreal Marxist Winter School 2023
This week, Joel and Alex discuss the coming recession, and what it means for class struggle in Canada.
The articles mentioned in the podcast can be found here:
https://www.marxist.ca/article/explaining-the-coming-crisis-of-capitalism
https://www.marxist.ca/article/canada-before-and-after-coronavirus
https://www.marxist.ca/article/fightbacks-perspectives-2021-the-coming-storm-and-the-tasks-of-the-marxists
You can sign up for the Marxist Winter School here:
www.marxist.ca/school
In an attack on the entire labour movement, the Ontario government has tabled back-to-work legislation against Ontario workers before the strike has even started, and is using the notwithstanding clause to push through this unconstitutional attack.
This week, Joel is joined by custodian and organizer with the CUPE 4400 Rank-and-File Group, Hermes Azam, to talk about what needs to happen for the labour movement to fight back against this attack.
This week, Joel is joined by Adam Booth from Socialist Appeal to talk about the fall of Liz Truss, the death of the queen, and class struggle in the U.K.
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