The first round of the French presidential elections represented a watershed moment in the political situation. Above all, we saw a tremendous rejection of the establishment. The traditional parties were decimated, and so-called ‘extremist’ candidates received over 50 percent of the vote. Left-winger Jean-Luc Mélenchon was denied a place in the final round by barely one percentage point, thanks largely to the wrecking behaviour of other left parties. The ‘centrist’ incumbent Emmanuel Macron now faces a knife-edge race in round two against Marine Le Pen of National Rally (RN).

Tory Chancellor Rishi Sunak has become embroiled in scandal over revelations that he and his family have utilised shady legal loopholes to dodge UK taxes. The establishment is living on a different planet. Their system must be overthrown.

On Wednesday 6 April, hundreds of thousands of workers from all over Greece responded to the call of the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE) and the Civil Servants' Confederation (ADEDY) to join a 24-hour general strike. Tens of thousands of workers, along with unemployed citizens and youth, participated in strike rallies organised in over 70 cities.

The first round of the French presidential election has turned out as Macron had hoped, and as he had prepared for a long time. In 2017, Macron won 66% of the vote against Le Pen in the second round. Millions of voters who had voted for Mélenchon or Hamon at that time in the first round, mobilised to “block the far right” in the second round. For five years, the Head of State has been aiming for the repetition of this scenario.

The main peculiarity of the present war in Ukraine is that it has been completely overshadowed by an unprecedented war of information. This has served to generate a lot of heat, but very little light. In fact, its principal objective is not to inform, but to conceal the real situation. In this, one has to admit, it has been highly successful.

After spontaneous protests demanding the resignation of President Gota last Friday in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, anticipation was mounting about how this movement in the crisis-ravaged country would develop.

Postmodernism is a counter-revolutionary tendency in ‘philosophy’ (if we are to dignify it with the term). While it presents itself as radical, in fact it represents a pessimistic attack on progress, objective truth and science in general – and the revolutionary ideas of Marxism in particular. We have to combat these reactionary ideas, which exert a powerful influence in academia, and even parts of the labour movement.

Three days before the first round of the presidential election in France, one thing is for certain: Jean-Luc Mélenchon is the only left-wing candidate with any hope of reaching the second round. In a few weeks, he went from 10 percent to 16 percent in the polls. However, the same polls put Marine Le Pen in second place behind Macron, with a lead over Mélenchon that varies from between four to six points. What is the position of the Marxists?

The world is in a period of deep crisis. Capitalism and its apologists have proven unable to explain or resolve the problems facing the working class everywhere. Only the ideas of Marxism offer an explanation and a way out. It is for this reason that we are proud to announce the launch of the International Marxist University 2022, a four-day online event organised by the International Marxist Tendency, dedicated to discussing the core ideas of Marxist theory and how we can use them to change the world.

Last weekend, over 50 comrades took part in the national political conference of the Spanish section of the IMT. It was our first face-to-face meeting in three years and our largest in-person national conference to date.

A political and constitutional crisis has opened up in Pakistan, leading to a back and forth over a no-confidence vote in the Imran Khan government. In reality, these fissures at the top are merely symptoms of a deeper rot in Pakistani capitalism, which has been rocked by the global capitalist crisis, while the ruling class endures the consequences of attempting to play different imperialist blocs off of one another. Such pathetic charades will never end while the capitalist system stands!

Workers at the Greek rail company TRAINOSE in Thessaloniki have forced the bosses to back down, after refusing to assist with transporting NATO tanks from the port of Alexandroupoli to Ukraine. The following statement was originally written in Greek on 5 April 2022, prior to the general strike that commenced the following day.

The fifth (and by far the most serious) wave of COVID-19 infections began in December 2021 in Hong Kong. It rapidly increased up until the end of January 2022, and thereafter cases and deaths continued to climb. By 3 March, daily infections had reached over 76,000 (over 1 percent of Hong Kong’s population) – a peak in Hong Kong since the pandemic began.

The Delhi State Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Union (DSAWHU) have been on indefinite strike since 31 January against the unbearable working conditions and low pay of their members. Their struggle is an example to the labour movement across India.

On 1 April, workers at the JFK8 fulfilment centre in Staten Island, New York voted in favour of becoming the first Amazon facility in the US to be officially unionised. Following unionisations in the service industry, and a wave of strikes last autumn, this is a clear signal that the labour movement in the USA is reawakening.

Early on the morning of April 1, a historic victory for the American working class was won. Amazon, the second-largest employer in the US, owned by the second-richest person, and a bastion of anti-union resistance by the bosses, has been dealt a serious blow. The JFK8 fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York has become the first Amazon facility in the US to be officially unionized, after a majority of 2,654 to 2,131 voted to organize with the upstart Amazon Labor Union (ALU). A simultaneous vote is still underway in Bessemer, Alabama. This is taking place at the same time as a ...

The deep economic crisis in Sri Lanka, which has entered an acute phase in the first months of this year, has resulted in the eruption of mass, spontaneous protests. The masses cannot take any more. More protests are planned across the country, at which the comrades of the Marxist tendency, Forward, will be distributing leaflets in Sinhalese and Tamil. We publish an English-language statement below, which that leaflet is based upon.

Sri Lanka is currently in the throes of the worst economic crisis in its recent history, which yesterday led to protests right outside the President’s residence, and curfews across Colombo, the capital. The country faces bankruptcy. The masses are being tortured by spiralling prices, 13-hour long blackouts, and a lack of basic medicines, cooking gas and food. What is happening in Sri Lanka is not unique to that country. It is only an acute expression of the worldwide crisis of capitalism, that is crushing poorer nations. The sort of social unrest we are seeing in Sri Lanka, we can expect to see all around the world in the period to come.

With the British monarchy mired in crisis and scandal, calls for republicanism are growing across the Commonwealth. The struggle for genuine independence must be linked to the struggle against imperialism and capitalism – and for socialism.

In the April 2017 French presidential election, Révolution, the French section of the International Marxist Tendency, critically supported the candidacy of Jean-Luc Mélenchon of France Insoumise (FI). Five years later, the French Marxists will again support FI in the upcoming elections (which begin on 10 April), despite maintaining their criticisms of its and Mélenchon’s limitations. In this article (written at the beginning of the year), they explain their position.