The so-called Freedom Convoy has dominated headlines for the past few weeks and has been blockading the downtown core around Parliament Hill in Ottawa for a week. While the numbers in the blockade have thinned, there are no signs that they intend to leave anytime soon and many have vowed to stay until their demands for the rescinding of all pandemic health measures are met.

We’re often told that the British monarchy is little more than harmless pompery, the equivalent of a shiny ornament atop the solid Christmas tree of British democracy. It is there to look nice, but does not actually affect how the country is run. And after all, isn’t the Queen a lovely lady who works mightily hard?

The 10 richest people in the world have more than doubled their wealth since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, while over 160 million people have been driven into poverty. Inequality is killing one person every four seconds, and the poor are four times more likely to die of COVID-19 than the rich. This is all according to Oxfam’s 2022 report Inequality Kills.

In November 1918, Germany exploded into revolution. In the spring of 1919, the working class succeeded in seizing power and declaring a Bavarian Soviet Republic. In its short, heroic lifetime, the republic had to fight not only against open counter-revolution, but also against the results of its own inexperience. This article was first published in the theoretical magazine ‘In Defence of Marxism’. Get your copy of the latest issue here.

The following theses were approved at the World Congress of the International Marxist Tendency, held between 29 July and 3 August 2014, in Greece. Despite the time that has elapsed, we believe that the core points of this analysis remain completely valid: its assessment of the situation in Ukraine; of the civil war in Donbas; of the character of the government that emerged from the Maidan events; the role of Russia and NATO, etc. The points explained within these theses are key to understanding the crisis that is currently unfolding.

Police and state authorities in Bangladesh have once again resorted to brutal repression. Allied with thugs like the Chhatra League, they unleashed an attack against protesting students at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) in Sylhet. The students were protesting for basic demands and a representative body to look after their affairs in their hostel, but were met with police brutality unleashed by the university administration. The protesting students were beaten up on the campus, and attacked with stun grenades, tear gas and batons.

Following a two-year witch-hunt, Kirklees Council has shamefully sacked Unison president Paul Holmes. This disgraceful act will embolden employers to go on the offensive against trade union activists. A titanic fightback is needed.

On 23 January, soldiers led by lieutenant-colonel Paul-Henri Damiba seized control of a military base in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. Shortly afterwards, gunfire erupted in front of the presidential residence and several military barracks. Several hours later, President Roch Kaboré was reported to have been detained by the soldiers.

On 30 to 31 January, tens of thousands of teachers went on strike across Iran in over 300 cities, led by the Teachers’ Coordinating Committee. Slogans at the rallies included: “The teacher would rather die than accept [this] humiliation”, “If there was justice, the teachers would not be here”, and: “We do not have cannons and guns but we have the support of the people”. The strike was met with the arrest of dozens of trade unionists. But this has not discouraged the teachers, who have planned weekly strikes this month and threatened an indefinite strike if their demands are not met.

In a cynical attempt to distract from his crises back home, Boris Johnson is whipping up hysteria around the ‘threat’ of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Socialists must expose these lies – and the imperialist interests that hide behind them.

It is the duty of left activists to defend Paul Holmes, the democratically-elected Unison President, who is facing a witch-hunt by the employers and union bureaucrats. Unfortunately, however, sectarian elements are aiding this victimisation.

We live in tumultuous times. In the midst of a pandemic, workers are putting their health and lives at risk for peanuts while the bosses rake in record profits. For almost two years, employees have been expected to drone on as loyal worker bees with zero regard for their health. Meanwhile, homelessness and rent, hunger and food prices, natural disasters, and fuel prices continue to rise, and meager wage rises are gobbled up by inflation. Such conditions are volatile and unsustainable.

In the current crisis over Ukraine, Canada has not played its usual role as the mild-mannered younger brother of U.S. imperialism. As a recent op-ed in the Toronto Starpointed out, Canada has been “playing the cowboy” and being “unusually hawkish”. Far from unusual, this is entirely consistent with Canada’s typical approach to Ukraine. Posing as a benevolent protector to cover its own imperialist maneuvers, Canada’s denunciations of “Russian aggression” ring with hypocrisy.

50 years ago today, soldiers of the British paratroop regiment opened fire on a peaceful civil rights march in the North of Ireland. 13 people were killed immediately, and a 14th victim died later as a result of his injuries. For half a century, the British state has covered up this atrocity, a crime for which no one has yet paid.

The Algerian Council of State has banned the Socialist Workers’ Party (PST) and shuttered its offices. This scandalous act of political repression is part of an ongoing, general clampdown on left-wing activism, democratic freedoms and the revolutionary Hirak movement. The International Marxist Tendency (IMT) strongly condemns this outrageous move and sends its solidarity to the PST.

Despite mounting pressure on all sides, the Prime Minister is stubbornly clinging on. But it is clear that the ruling class is looking to replace him. This is opening up a crisis for the whole establishment, preparing an explosive situation.

Thirty years have passed since the publication of The End of History and the Last Man. Gloating in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the American political scientist Francis Fukuyama made an astonishing claim. Humanity had reached “the end of history as such: that is, the end-point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.”

The first weeks of the new year have already had their fair share of bleak news. As if the Omicron surge was not enough, working Canadian families can now look forward to a surging grocery bill. Food prices are set to increase between six and eight per cent this year, according to a new report from Dalhousie University.

50 years ago, on Sunday 30 January 1972, the British Army opened fire on a peaceful civil rights march in Derry in the North of Ireland. 14 innocent people were killed in an atrocity. For decades, the British ruling class attempted to cover up the atrocity. When British troops were sent into Ireland in 1969, some mistakenly believed they were there to bring peace.

What does Marxism have to say about cinema? Quite a lot in fact. For over a century now cinema has existed as a primary tool of social communication within society: one aimed directly at the people rather than an elite, reaching audiences far beyond anything previously conceived. From this has flowed TV, video, DVD, streaming and more - all features of our daily lives.