Americas

As we were about to publish the latest editorial of the Argentine section of the IMT, concerning the first budget announcements of the new government of far-right demagogue president Milei, he doubled down: announcing by decree the abolition of over 300 pieces of legislation, which regulate economic activity in a wide range of fields. This is an unprecedented, ultra-liberal assault on the rights and living conditions of the working masses, introduced using undemocratic emergency decree powers. The announcement provoked a spontaneous movement of protest, with thousands coming out into the streets of Buenos Aires, as Alejandro Spezia describes in this special update (the original article

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The United Auto Workers’ (UAW) contracts with the Big Three automakers—GM, Ford, and Stellantis—all expired on September 15, 2023. Shawn Fain and the new UAW leadership were willing to lead the workers on strike. History shows that workers can win more with a fight than when no struggle is engaged in at all. However, Fain put forward a strategy of the “stand-up” strike, which he argued would be this generation’s answer to the sitdown strikes of the 1930s.

On Nov. 23, close to 600,000 public sector workers in Quebec were on strike. Considering that Quebec has around 4,439,000 people active in the labour market, this represents 13.5 per cent of all workers in the province! It is safe to say that everyone personally knows at least one person who went on strike that day: teachers, nurses, support staff and specialists in the fields of health, education and social services. This is the largest strike in the history of

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From 30 November to 3 December 2023, 110 comrades of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) met in Mexico City. The countries represented were Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia, El Salvador, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Cuba, USA, Canada and Mexico (with comrades from Monterrey, Sonora, San Luis Potosi, Oaxaca, Queretaro, Yucatan, Veracruz, Puebla, Mexico State and Mexico City); as well as representatives of the international leadership of the IMT, and guests from Switzerland, Sweden and Italy. 

On Sunday 3 December, a consultative public referendum, called by the National Assembly, on the territorial dispute over the Essequibo territory in Guyana, was held in Venezuela. The escalating conflict over this territory has deeply reactionary implications for both peoples. It is imperative that communists adopt an internationalist position.

For months, Indigenous activists, trade unions, and youth organizations in Panama have been on the streets, demonstrating against the extension of a massive Canadian-owned mine in the middle of a rainforest.

On the night of November 29, 2023, the public was informed of the death of Henry A. Kissinger, former National Security Adviser to the President and a former US Secretary of State. The bourgeois media along with various statesmen and politicians are shedding tears for their late loyal servant.

The 1970s was one of the most tumultuous eras of Jamaican history. The island country was thrown into a period of intense class struggle not experienced since the Great Depression and the 1938 general strike. Ultimately, a bloody campaign of violence driven by US imperialism defeated the struggle for socialism in Jamaica. This momentous episode in the history of the Jamaican working class provides all workers and youth with stark lessons for the class struggle today.

We are pleased to announce that the appeal to collect $10,000 to help fund the Panamerican School of the IMT has already raised over $8,750 in dozens of donations, big and small from comrades and sympathisers from around the world. 

Far-right "libertarian" candidate Javier Milei has won the presidential run-off election in Argentina with almost 56 percent of the vote, beating Peronist candidate Massa (who got 44 percent), the country's outgoing Finance Minister who had renewed a deal with the IMF and promised a government of national unity.

After the results of Argentina’s general elections last month, the two leading candidates, Peronist Sergio Massa and far-right Javier Milei, will contest the presidency in a run-off election on 19 November. The prospect of a run-off election, a device of bourgeois democracy that is meant to force working-class voters to support one of two capitalist candidates who do not represent their interests, has revealed enormous confusion among Argentina’s largest left parties.

On 4-5 November, the national congress of the Brazilian section of the IMT took place. The congress was tasked with evaluating the development of the organisation, the developing political situation, and the success of the “are you a communist?” campaign. In light of this, the organisation decided to change its name. Previously Esquerda Marxista (Marxist Left), the Brazilian section of the IMT is now called the Internationalist Communist Organisation!

Members of Marxist Left (the Brazilian section of the IMT) and the Brazilian Communist Party – Revolutionary Reconstruction met on the afternoon of Thursday 2 November 2 at the “Rally against imperialist wars – Ukraine and Palestine”, hosted jointly by both organisations. 200 people attended, including members and guests, with political reports delivered by Jorge Martín, representing the International Marxist Tendency (IMT), Gabriel Lazzari, representing the PCB-RR, and Serge Goulart, representing the Marxist Left.

In 1780, the Spanish Viceroyalty of Perú was shaken by a massive rebellion, led by Túpac Amaru II – a man claiming to be the direct descendent of the last Sapa Inka, Túpac Amaru, who had led the final resistance of the Inca empire until his capture and execution by the Spanish in 1572. Tens of thousands of men and women flocked to Túpac Amaru’s army, under the leadership of him and his wife, Micaela Bastidas. For two and a half years, war raged across the Andes in the greatest challenge Spanish colonial rule had faced thus far. Ultimately, the rebellion went down to defeat, although it left behind it a heroic tradition of struggle. In the following article, Pascal Cueto

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On Sunday 22 October, Argentinians went to the polls to determine the next president. The elections occurred in the context of an increasingly desperate economic situation, with 40 percent of the country living in poverty, triple-digit inflation, and crippling state debt. This is the expression of the global crisis of capitalism in Argentina, a country with a backwards capitalist economy dependent on the export of primary materials.

The 14th Montreal Marxist Winter School – organised by Fightback/La Riposte, the Canadian section of the International Marxist Tendency – will take place on 17-18 February 2024. To mark 100 years since the death of the great Russian revolutionary, the event will be dedicated to the life and ideas of Lenin.

Israel’s decades of aggression against the Palestinian people reached a tipping point in the past week, sparking an almighty blowback. As could have been expected, this was met with brutal reprisals by Israel, which has been bombing Gaza savagely and indiscriminately for almost a week. As it prepares for a likely ground invasion of Gaza, Israel has ordered one million people to flee south—an impossible task, as there is nowhere in the world’s largest open-air prison to go.

On Saturday 30 September, at a General Assembly the indigenous and peasant communities of Guatemala called a National Strike to demand that the result of August’s election be respected. The strike has extended to the capital and has drawn in various sections of society. This article was written on 6 October, the fifth day of the indefinite strike, and at the time of writing, demonstrators were also demanding the resignation of the attorney general and other prosecutors that have sought to interfere in the electoral process.