Goodbye Socialist Appeal, welcome the Revolutionary Communist Party?

The British Trotskyist group: Socialist Appeal has changed its newspaper and name. Those who are active inside the revolutionary left-wing know the organisation as the largest section of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT). Socialist Appeal was created in 1992 as the voice of revolutionary socialists who choose to remain inside the British: Labour Party. Now after 32 years, they have chosen to rebrand themselves as communists by launching the Revolutionary Communist Party.

IMT and ISA have a common ancestor, the Committee for a Workers International (CWI). This revolutionary socialist group from the anti-Stalinist Trotskyist tradition was founded in 1974. It worked inside the social-democratic labour parties, trying to turn its members towards revolutionary socialism. They had moderate success with the socialist youth, but the pro-capitalist leaders of social-democracy decided to use undemocratic bureaucratic methods, against the Trotskyists in many countries. In Britain, the whole socialist youth section was dissolved by the Labour Party in 1991, because it was seen as too revolutionary Marxist.

Those British revolutionary socialists inside the Labour Party and the Labour Party Young Socialists were members of the Militant Tendency (CWI). However by 1991, a debate rose. The central question was if social democracy was still defending workers interests as many labour parties turned to the right-wing by accepting neoliberalism. A majority of the CWI accepted the idea that the old workers parties had become fully capitalist. A minority around Ted Grant and Alan Woods believed that revolutionary socialists should remain inside the social-democratic parties.

The CWI majority said that Grant and Woods left the Committee for a Workers International to set up their own group. Grant and Woods claim that they were expelled from the CWI by the leadership around Peter Taaffe, the same leadership who choose to ”rebrand the CWI” in 2019, because they had become a minority in a debate. In 1992, the Committee for a Marxist International was founded, renamed to International Marxist Tendency in 2004.

In Britain, the CWI led by Peter Taaffe and his supporters and the IMT led by Ted Grant and his supporters, went their separate ways. Due to difference over the Labour Party and the 1991 split, Grant and Taaffe never joined up again. Ted Grant remained inside the Labour Party, but Socialist Appeal was more or less invisible for many years. Grant himself died in 2006 at the age of 93, Socialist Appeal was then led by Alan Woods. It was not until after the defeat of Jeremy Corbyn, that they choose to work outside the Labour Party.

By 2020, the International Marxist Tendency had dropped their outdated ideas on working inside social-democracy. It has become clear that all former labour parties were too right-wing to be saved. Revolutionary socialists of the CWI (ISA now) had already seen that in 1991, it took Socialist Appeal 30 years before they understood it too. The IMT leadership choose to embrace the Soviet hammer & sickle and the name: ”communist” again. Alan Woods also decided to rename his organisation into the Revolutionary Communist Party in 2024.

A new generation of young activists joined the IMT. These youth had not experienced the first Cold War between capitalism and Stalinism. Since they were raised in the neoliberal era, they had little problems embracing the old Soviet symbols as rebel icons against capitalism. Revolutionary Socialist Media understands this, but at the same time reject the use of Soviet symbolism, like the face of Lenin or the hammer & sickle. These Soviet symbols are still used by dictatorial regimes in China, Vietnam, Laos and in the invasion of Ukraine against the working class.

Stalinist communists also use them and it will be difficult to explain to workers and youth, that we reject Stalinism and their state-capitalist dictatorships if we use their symbols too. Yet the top leadership of the International Marxist Tendency decided to adopt the hammer & sickle as its main symbol. They use the version that appears on Trotsky’s tomb stone in Mexico. Vladimir Lenin has also returned as an icon in IMT propaganda posters. Now that Socialist Appeal is to be rebranded as the Revolutionary Communist Party in Britain, the question remains! Can workers see the difference between the Stalinist communists and the Trotskyist communists? Based on their appearances and symbols? RSM thinks they cannot!

Alan Woods claims that the word ”socialism” has been corrupted by Labour and social-democracy. Meaning that social-democratic ”socialists” have abused the name for capitalist governing. This is partly true, but this is why we call them social-democratic and not socialist. Most social-democratic parties do not speak of socialism and do not educate their members to fight against capitalism. So this idea that the word: ”socialist” and ”socialism” is fully corrupted is not true. Now that the IMT has embraced the hammer & sickle and Lenin as a poster icon, they have embraced symbols that are used to oppress workers in countries like China, Vietnam and Laos.

At the same time, Stalinist/Maoist communist parties in Nepal and India also use the hammer & sickle, while not enforcing a revolutionary program for the overthrow of capitalism. Since 2008, Stalinist and Maoist communists rule the Democratic Federal Republic of Nepal and no socialism has ever been build. Stalinist communists participated in local Indian governments, but no opposition to Indian capitalism was enforced. Stalinist communists either enforce a state-capitalist dictatorship or work alongside the bourgeoisie, while using Lenin’s face and the Soviet hammer & sickle.

Last year, the International Marxist Tendency has called on its sections to call themselves ”communists”. In Sweden, the IMT section is to renamed Revolutionary Communist Party too, like Socialist Appeal in Britain. It is the right of the IMT to choose whatever they wish to call themselves. But reality is that Socialist Appeal is no mass party of working people, it has a membership of around 1100. In Sweden, the IMT section is far smaller with a few hundred members, who think they are the only ”genuine communists” while attacking Socialist Alternative – ISA Sweden as reformist.

In their statement, the Swedish IMT section claims that Socialist Alternative (the Swedish section of International Socialist Alternative) is only fighting for minor improvements within the framework of capitalism. Now the IMT can choose to use the hammer & sickle and Lenin as a poster icon, but to say that ISA is reformist and not revolutionary, is sectarian and not true! Socialist Alternative in Sweden has been fighting for socialism since 1973, under the names: Offensive (1973-1997) and Socialist Justice Party (1997-2023), long before there was a Swedish IMT section.

It is true that leftist generation Z members embraced the hammer & sickle as a protest symbol. But we revolutionary socialists must not forget that in Asia, these symbols are used by governments to silence activists and leftists. Marxists are arrested in Hanoi, Beijing and Vientiane because they reject the capitalist politics of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Communist Party of China and the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party. It will be difficult to work there with the very symbols that have caused injustice, exploitation and state terror.

It is better for revolutionary socialists not to call ourselves ”communists”. Lenin himself also choose not to use the label ”social-democrats” after 1918 due to the massive betrayal of social-democracy in the first World War. Had Lenin lived now and witnessed the abuse of Stalinist communists, he too would not use the label ”communist”, while so many workers remain oppressed by ruling communist parties in Nepal, China, Vietnam, Laos and Cuba. Even the Workers Party of Korea claims to uphold ”communism”, while serving as a vessel for the Juche monarchy in North Korea!

The IMT can win some radicalised youth with their use of Lenin and Soviet symbolism. But in many parts of the world, the face of Lenin is a symbol of Stalinist Russian rule. In the former Soviet-Union, many youth see Soviet symbols as something conservative and reactionary. In Ukraine, Soviet flags are used by Russian imperialists, who also restored Lenin as an icon of Russian rule in the occupied east. For these workers and their youth, the hammer & sickle is not a symbol of workers liberation, but a reminder of Moscow’s iron grip on them.

In Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation uses Lenin to spread social-conservative propaganda against LGBT+ people. These Stalinist communists are deeply anti-gay and hate anything that is not heterosexual (cisgender). They are fully on the side of the Kremlin. In Belarus, the Communist Party of Belarus uses the hammer & sickle and Lenin’s face, while kissing the feet of state-capitalist dictator: Alexander Lukashenko since 1996. Stalinist communists are the enemy of working class people and it is not wise to use Soviet symbols, as long as there is no country that builds socialism as Lenin genuinely wanted it be to build.

This is why the rebranding of the International Marxist Tendency with the hammer & sickle and Lenin’s face is not a good idea. Yes, young revolutionary activists may love it, since they have not lived under the Stalinist era. For them, Lenin is a protest symbol, something they use to rebel against the capitalist system. But this not what Lenin wanted. He did not liked his face as an icon. This is why Revolutionary Socialist Media thinks it is better to learn from Lenin by reading his books. We must not use his face (or that of Marx, Engels and Trotsky) for political propaganda!

We need workers parties on a socialist program to overthrow capitalism. However if the IMT thinks that they are the vanguard of the proletariat, they fool themselves. They can set up as many ”revolutionary communist parties” as they like, but with 1100 members in Britain you are hardly a danger to the capitalist establishment. This website also fears the IMT will not attract many workers with their use of symbols that remain historically linked to dictatorial governments, who have abused workers in the name of communism and keep doing so in 2024.

Why You Should Be A Socialist In 2024

This video from the You-Tube channel: Second Thought, shows you why: You Should be a Socialist in 2024. We need a democratic socialist alternative to the injustice that is the capitalist system. We need democratic control over our wealth, that means the nationalisation of the companies that control the world economy. Our nationalisations will be done under workers self management as in the video you see that workers know best what consumers need. Corporate-capitalist managers however only care about profits. Therefore it is essential that we build up a socialist alternative in 2024 to the greed, injustice and cruel nature of capitalism!

2013-2023: Ten years of Revolutionary Socialist Media

In January 2013, Revolutionary Socialist Media in English began on a Blogspot website. The website was created by me, Jorein Versteege, who had started to write about socialist ideas in Dutch in 2012. Two years later the site moved to a WordPress website. The first logo of Revolutionary Socialist Media was a sun symbol based on the emblem of the Socialist Party in England and Wales. This sun symbol was used by many sections of the Committee for a Workers International (CWI). The first logo of RSM was used from 2012 until 2019.

The sun logo was replaced by a red flag logo due to the fact that the SP in England and Wales, choose to abandon the CWI and build their own CWI-Minority. This sectarian move lead to the design you see today on the website. In two years over 150 articles were written by me on the Blogspot site between 2013 and 2014. These articles can still be accessed by clicking on the red flag RSM logo on the main site. After 2017, the number of articles declined a bit due to my work and private life. I joined Socialist Alternative, the Dutch section of ISA in February 2020. Since then Revolutionary Socialist Media is linked to the socialist ideas of International Socialist Alternative.

On the Dutch WordPress website I have written over 361 articles since 2016. On the English WordPress site over 489 were published since June 2014. I’m not a journalist and RSM is not a on equal levels with the big websites of capitalist journalism. But I try to offer a socialist point of view to current politics and history. Socialism is not big government nor total government as often wrongly said by capitalist propagandists. I reject the political systems of the former USSR, PRC and other Stalinist states as socialist. As a revolutionary socialist I stand proud in the traditions of those who rejected both the capitalist western world as the eastern Stalinist world.

Socialist Alternative in the Netherlands is not big. But we try to offer a socialist alternative and we participate in movements that oppose the nature of the current capitalist system. We now work in The Socialists, a new formation to build a genuine socialist party. This party in building was created by expelled socialists and youth from the Dutch; ”Socialist” Party (SP). Over 140 people participated in the first conference of The Socialists in 2022. We hope that these socialists can work together to build a clear alternative to the failed established pseudo-left-wing in the Netherlands.

Socialist ideas are coming back as of 2023. While the ruling class still tries to mislead workers and youth by using Stalinism as proof that socialism failed, millions see that the current system also fails to protect the climate, working people and nature. Misinformation and lies are what keeps capitalism in power for now. Also the absence of a genuine socialist alternative in politics makes it possible that politicians make laws for the capitalists. This is why we need new workers parties to combat not only liberals and conservatives, social-democrats are part of capitalist governments too and offer us nothing!

Ten years of Revolutionary Socialist Media have passed. I hope that this website can provide working class people with some insights in what revolutionary socialists think. Because, workers have nothing to lose but their chains, they have a world to win. Workers of the World, Unite!

100 years ago since the USSR was founded

On 30 December 1922, the revolutionary republics of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Transcaucasia (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia) formed the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR). The Soviet-Union was meant to be a union of the working class, a country not build for one ethnicity or people, but a union by workers for workers. History has shown us that it never became a state for the working class. But what the USSR was able to do in its 70 year history remains an inspiration and also a curse. Because the ruling class is using the failures of Stalinism as a weapon against the working class. The Soviet-Union is part of the capitalist propaganda machine and we must learn from that fact, not to glorify nor neglect it.

100 years ago on 30 December, the worst nightmare of Winston Churchill came into reality. The former British Secretary of State for War had to watch as his pawns in Russia were defeated. Revolutionary workers under leadership of the Russian Communist Party had won the Russian civil war and defeated the White Armies of anti-Communists, who were supported by the British and Churchill. He always hated the idea of workers rule. Winston Churchill had said that he wanted to eliminate the Russian revolution and crush anybody who stood up to capitalism and imperialism. This is why he fully called for 40.000 British troops to be send into Russia to help the reactionary anti-Semitic White Armies!

The western intervention into the Russian civil war failed. But in the long run, the degeneration of the Soviet-Union turned out to be a major lifesaver for capitalism. Joseph Stalin rejected the idea of world revolution. At first he called for socialism in one country and then said that communists must work with progressive capitalists. This is why many communist parties today are part of capitalist electoral coalitions. Stalinism made sure that the communist movement became paralyzed and a propaganda mouth for Moscow. Today communist parties play no major role in world politics. Those who still rule in countries like Cuba, Vietnam, Laos and China have mostly accepted market capitalism.

Although revolutionary socialists gave no political support to the Stalinists, the Soviet-Union was seen by many as a alternative to western capitalism. Even among sections of the social-democratic left, there was admiration and even sympathy. This was mainly the result of campism, the idea that the world was divided into two camps; one ”democratic” and one ”communist”. Those who rejected the western ”democratic” camp were more or less pushed into the supposed ”communist” camp and those supported western democracy, were more or less pushed into the ”democratic” camp. We rejected this campist idea as the Soviet-Union was not socialist and the western world was not democratic by nature!

The first Cold War (1945-1991) was the period of major technological innovation as the two sides competed with each other. Had the Soviet-Union been a genuine union of workers councils, then it would have been able to surpass western countries like the United States of America. But the USSR was hindered by a parasitical caste of bureaucrats who wanted total control. The parasites of the Communist Party of the Soviet-Union gave themselves privileges and status, while working class people were left with breadcrumbs. Leaders like Leonid Brezhnev lived in luxurious houses, while the average Soviet worker could not even buy a car. Stalinism did gave workers a glimp of what is possible under a nationalized economy.

Today the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics is still remembered by former Soviet citizens as something positive (seen on this You-Tube channel). This is exploited by nationalist dictators like Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko. The Belarussian dictator used nostalgia for Soviet stability to win the first presidential elections in 1994. Lukashenko restored the symbols of Soviet Belarus (minus the hammer and sickle) and kept almost all aspects of Soviet life intact. This made him popular in the 1990’s, because in Russia millions ended up in poverty due to free market fundamentalism. Boris Yeltsin became the most hated man in Russia and when he gave up the presidency to Vladimir Putin, nobody was sad to see the drunken Russian leader go.

Western capitalist commentators use the USSR as a Red Scare weapon. They claim that Soviet life was grey, backward, terrible and inferior to the way of life under western capitalism. These propagandists never talked to people who actual lived under Stalinism. Yes in 1992, many had illusions about capitalism and fully believed the lie that they would all own cars, mansions, enough money for a luxurious life. This is what capitalists (and their western governments) told workers they would get, if their governments privatized the economy and open it up for western ”investment”. At the end of the 1990’s, this lie was exposed as capitalism created only massive poverty.

Capitalist barbarity has resulted in deep nostalgia towards the grey, but stable Soviet life. Capitalism may created more choices, but made many basis products too expensive for ordinary workers. At the same time we must not forget that the USSR was not destroyed by western governments nor by capitalists. The parasites of the Communist Party of the Soviet-Union destroyed the USSR as they embraced the god of free market capitalism. In the end, Leon Trotsky was right. The return of capitalism was a logical result of the Stalinist bureaucracy deciding to abandon their Marxist-Leninist façade on 25 December 1991.

Vladimir Putin abuses the Soviet-Union to justify his great Russian chauvinism. For Putin and his imperialists, the USSR was a great Russian state. The use of the Soviet flag by Russian imperialist forces in Ukraine does not mean that Putin is a internationalist or a Marxist. For these Russians the Soviet flag is a reminder of a time when Moscow ruled over Ukraine. They wish for Ukraine to be subjugated as it was under czarist and Stalinist times. This is why the use of the Soviet flag is a major paradox. Because the USSR was founded in direct opposition to Russian imperialism and capitalism.

Revolutionary socialists say that the foundation of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics on 26 December 1922 was a major blow to capitalism. For 70 years it could not exploit workers, land and resources of 22.402.200 km² of this world. The ruling class always hated the idea that they had lost Russia. When China also turned against capitalism in 1949, the capitalists lost control over another 9.597.000 km² of the planet. The return of capitalism in both Russia and China is not because of its supposed superiority as we often hear in the west. It returned because the parasites of the ruling Stalinist/Maoist bureaucracies decided to dump their facades and join the capitalists in exploiting workers, land and resources.

Today we can defeat capitalism again as Lenin and the Russian Communist Party did in 1922. It is in fact much easier compared to 100 years ago. Workers today are more educated, they have all learned to read and write. Why then is capitalism still ruling supreme? This is due to indoctrination, misinformation and the fact that the political left-wing fails to provide a socialist alternative. Left-wing parties/groups like the Democratic Socialists of America, are not able to brake with the power structures of capitalism due to their reformism, the misguided social-democratic believe that they can reform the system from within. Too many leftists fail to understand that a revolutionary brake with capitalism is needed.

But there is hope. A new generation is growing in understanding that the system cannot be changed. The generation born into the 21 century is less if not dependent on traditional media outlets like television or newspapers. If a young girl in Sweden is able to rally millions against climate change, what can young people do if they understand that more is needed. Greta Thunberg seems to realize that you cannot save the climate under capitalism. If she can persuade millions of young people that socialism is the alternative, then the capitalists should be very worried. It would require a clear understand of what socialism is as our idea is misinterpreted by almost all political propagandists.

Socialism is not big government or total government. It is not about more taxes for working class people or a deeply bureaucratic government making your life a hell. This is not what we call socialism. For revolutionary socialists, socialism is the democratic rule of working class people over the state, economy and society. We do not believe that the current state/government can be made to work for workers. We need to brake up the state/government and transform them into organizations of the working class. This is why Lenin choose to abolish all elements of the Czarist state, while the Stalinists simply took over states and renamed them. Socialism cannot be build on existing capitalist states, economies and societies. This is why we call for a revolutionary change.

100 years ago, the Soviet-Union was the first state that claimed to be socialist. Although it never became socialist, the USSR inspirited millions to fight and oppose capitalism. However it also mislead millions into a lie, an illusion that was not real socialism. When the Stalinist façade collapsed, many self styled anti-capitalists abandoned their struggle for socialism in deep disillusion. Today only a few dogmatic Stalinists support the communist parties in Vietnam, Laos, Cuba and China. These ”communist” parties are not allies of the working class in the struggle against capitalism!

In the struggle against capitalism we can learn from the Soviet-Union, but also not forget that this state failed to become socialist. We need mass workers parties on a socialist program in all countries of the world. This is what International Socialist Alternative tries to build in at least 30 countries of the world.

We call on a all youth and workers to join us in the struggle for a world free from capitalist exploitation, pollution and destruction.

Greta and her supporters need to move beyond capitalism

Greta Thunberg made headlines when she organized a world wide climate march in 2019. Originally from Sweden, Thunberg started her Fridays for Future strikes in 2018 in opposition to the growing climate disaster. Millions of young people heard her calls and they have showed the massive potential by organizing demonstrations for the climate. But now after three years, the movement needs to move beyond capitalism. They need to understand that System Change is needed and that the politicians will not deliver.

Fridays for Future has been able to rally millions since 2019. But they are limited by their inability to see what is needed. System change is their slogan, but what kind of system change? Do they think that politicians who are paid and bought by the very system that causes climate change, will make laws to limit the abilities of their masters to end the exploitation of nature? No, the capitalist class who pays off most politicians does not care about the environment. Sure they claim that some regulations are needed, but as a whole the system will not change.

This is why revolutionary socialists call on the youth of Fridays for Future to make a move beyond capitalism. Millions of young people need to understand that the current rulers of the world only talk, as Greta Thunberg said: ”blah, blag, blah”. They talk about green deals, green innovations, green sollutions, but they do not dare to limit the core reasons of climate change. It is no surprise that the leaders of the most toxic nations on the planet actively try to limit these so called ”green solutions”. This is because leaders like Jo Biden and Xi Jinping only care about the need to make profits.

That is the core of the capitalist system, to make profit above anything. Today the ruling class of the USA is in direction competition with capitalists from Europe, China and Asia. Although Russian capitalism has been isolated, it too plays a role in climate change. Green capitalism is a myth, a propaganda story created by the politicians of capitalism to mislead young people into thinking that they are working on it. In reality, scientists have already proven that the Paris Accords (2015) have failed because politicians do not dare to limit the eternal greed of capitalists.

So what do young people need to do? What can they do? First a understanding is needed, that capitalism cannot be made green or ecological. The market is not a system of fairness, greenness or putting humans, animals and nature above profits. Capitalism is by nature a system that is build on exploitation and it destroys anything that stands against it. Although environment regulations are in place, many are broken because capitalists pay off government officials or the state looks the other way. Donald Trump relaxed many regulations that prevented capitalists from dumping toxic waste.

Second, young people must come to the realization that demonstrating each year is not enough. Sure it scares some, but in the end the ruling class knows that nothing changes. Young people can demonstrate for many things, but the (capitalist) politicians in the end make all the rules. This is why socialists call for the building of political parties that stand for a alternative. That alternative according to us is socialism, not Stalinism (misnamed: ”communism”) or social-democracy (regulated capitalism). Socialism is about democratic control of society and planning according to the need of the majority, not a minority.

Fridays for Future has the potential to rally millions, Greta Thunberg is an icon. But the movement can die out like Occupy Wall Street did. Young people grow older and can be manipulated into thinking that they cannot change society. This mentality about; There Is No Alternative (TINA) was a capitalist dogma from 1991 until around 2008. Today many know that capitalism does not work, but because of many TINA years few have a clear understanding of what is needed to replace capitalism.

Revolutionary socialists give critical support to Fridays for Future, but we also say that the movement is at a crossroad. There are people inside Greta Thunberg’s movement who ally themselves with the establishment and their lies about ”green capitalism”. These people then indoctrinate the youth into trusting capitalist politicians and their ”blah, blah, blah”. Greta herself might also fall for this trap as she is welcomed by many establishment figure to speak. But let us not forget that the politicians who rule today are all in support of the very system that causes climate change. From liberals to conservatives, to social democrats and even so called greens.

In opposition to Greta Thunberg is the far-right and the most right-wing elements of the ruling class. They openly deny climate change and mislead working class people into thinking that young people are brainwashed. These right-wing people themselves are raised to think that capitalism is the supreme good and that the market must be unlimited. Far-right people hate Greta Thunberg because she stands against the system they support. Fascists are the stormtroopers of capitalism and because Greta is a young woman, she is also hated for being just that: a woman who dares to stand up!

A change in direction is needed. We can demonstrate each year about climate change. But more is needed, a change in mentality is needed inside Fridays for Future. If the youth is not presented with a socialist alternative, they can become demoralized as years pass and nothing changes. We have seen this before. Therefore revolutionary socialists are calling on young people to think about about is needed. We need System Change not Climate Change. Our alternative to capitalism is socialism and that is what the youth of this world needs.

Communism was never reached

In the western world and its history books, the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics and its client states are often called ”communist” states. Countries like China, Vietnam Laos, Cuba and North Korea are said to be the last ”communist” countries on the planet. This is not true, because neither of these states have build a state less and class less society. The idea of communism has been distorted by not only the people who lead these countries but also by western historians, who mislead working class people into thinking that communism was build and that it is undemocratic, totalitarian and oppressive!

Capitalism, socialism and communism are all part of human evolution. Before capitalism (around 1815) we had feudalism and before that most economies were build on slave labour. Ancient Roman and Greek states could not have build themselves win-out the massive exploitation of slave men, women and children. Feudalism replaced slave economies around 800 AD, when holding of land in exchange for service or labour became more common. Feudalism gave rise of the nobility as ruling class, they would remain the dominating force for a least 1000 years.

Their absolute power decreased as capitalism became the dominating economy after 1810. By 1850 most wealth was centralized in the hands of the class who grew rich because of ownership over the means of production and not because of noble birth. The bourgeoise replaced the nobility in the western world, although in the colonial world and underdeveloped nations, feudalism remained longer the dominating economy. In czarist Russia in 1917, feudalism was still powerful as 47% of all land remained owned by the nobility. The Russian working class was a minority compared to the peasantry.

Karl Marx hoped that workers would take power away from the capitalist class (the bourgeoise) and rule for themselves. This is why he called for a revolution and a class less and state less society. Communism was in 1860 an old name, the political left-wing called itself: social democracy, although Marx hated that name. To build a class less and state less society (communism) the working class has to go through the period of socialism. Under socialism elements of capitalism will remain, like money and the state. However unlike under capitalism, socialism will make sure that these elements are controlled by the working class.

Social democracy was split between supporters of revolutionary socialism and evolutionary socialism. The revolutionaries favoured a revolutionary overthrow, while the evolutionaries wanted a slow and parliamentary road towards a socialist society. The evolutionary socialists started to work within the capitalist system and gradually abandoned the idea of fighting for socialism. By 1914, most had become nationalist and supported their countries in the first world war. After that bitter and bloody conflict, the revolutionary socialists supported revolutions in Russia, Finland, Germany and Hungary.

Evolutionary socialists rejected these revolutions, this allowed the counterrevolution to win in countries like Germany. The Social-democratic Party of Germany (SPD) betrayed the German working class by allying themselves with German capitalism to build the unstable Weimar Republic. Social democracy became more focused on improving the lives of workers under capitalism, not calling on them to overthrow it. Meanwhile the revolutionary socialists took the old name communist and created the Communist International in 1919.

The foundation of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics was seen as a mile stone. It was called the first workers state, denounced as a ”communist” state by western governments because of the ruling communist party. Although capitalism was overthrown in Russia, the working class would never take actual power. Because of the civil war and the destruction of Russian society, the communist party degenerated into a bureaucratic dictatorship of parasites, who took privileges and wealth for themselves. Although named after Joseph Stalin, the Stalinist system was largely build on the old czarist bureaucracy.

By 1928, Stalinism had become the dominating ideology of all communist parties. It meant that they abandoned the fight for world socialism. Building socialism in one country was the main dogma. Also all communists were forced to defend the Soviet-Union and praise Joseph Stalin. Social democracy was by now fully capitalistic and deeply anti-communist. They rejected Marx and openly worked with the bourgeoise against revolutionaries. By the 1930’s, the first capitalist governments were formed with social democrats in them.

Although some improvements were made for workers, social democrats were forced to accept market laws, colonialism and capitalism as a whole. Most of them did that and this is why social democracy is such an empty shell. After the second world war, Stalinist communists were very popular due to their resistance to fascism. Also many countries had come under control of communist parties. Social democracy then fully joined the anti-communist world in fighting the Soviet-Union and their allies, while communists worshipped Stalin as a ”Great Leader”.

Because of the second world war, communists were installed in countries like Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia, East Germany and Poland by the Soviet-Union. Stalin at first wanted these countries to be neutral bourgeois states. Communists were told to join capitalist governments and to behave moderately and patriotic. However the anti-communist world feared the power of Stalin and so the Red Czar abandoned his democratic façade and told his puppets to build ”socialism in their own countries”. This however was done with no democratic participation from workers.

Stalinism meant the nationalization of the means of production under a totalitarian state. A state that prosecuted anybody the ruling communist party saw as a enemy. This is not what Karl Marx and we revolutionary (anti-Stalinist) socialists called socialism or even communism. Stalinist states often kept the illusion alive that they were bourgeois-democratic, by using symbols of the old bourgeoise states. All Stalinist states kept the flags of the previous capitalist governments. East Germany had the flag of the Weimar Republic. Bulgaria and Romania used the tricolours of the kingdoms that came before them.

The Chinese communists did not returned to the imperial symbols or that of the corrupt Republic of China. This is mainly because of the Chinese civil war and the long struggle against dictator Chiang Kai Shek and his nationalists. This is why the People’s Republic of China did not kept the symbols of the Republic of China. Still, the supporters of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were never able to build socialism. Like the Russians, the CCP was stuck in their dogmatic Stalinist/Maoist ideology. After the failed Cultural Revolution, the CCP slowly moved back to (state)capitalism.

This also happened in Eastern Europe and in the Soviet-Union. By the 1980’s, Stalinism could not keep up with the western capitalist world. Its bureaucratic top-down system was stagnated and because of totalitarian rule, few dared to change or propose anything. It was Mikhail Gorbachev who in 1985 tried to bring changes by introducing elements of capitalism and some openness. Despite what is said today, Gorbachev did not wanted to end the rule of the Communist Party of the Soviet-Union. However by allowing some openness, he opened a Box of Pandora.

70 years of lies, oppression and mismanaged led to workers getting indoctrinated by capitalist and nationalist forces. There was no genuine left-wing opposition to fight against the wave of capitalist propaganda about the ”failures of socialism”. Social democracy (the former evolutionary socialists) agreed with the lies of capitalism and degenerated into a fully capitalist ideology, no different then mainstream (neo)liberalism. The collapse of the Soviet-Union in December 1991 was seen as a major victory for those who championed capitalism. The whole system of planning and regulation was thrown out of the window. Deregulation and privatization were the norms of the 1990’s.

The remaining Stalinist states also abandoned the idea of a planned economy. This means that they embraced market laws. We see this in countries like China, Vietnam and Laos. The ”Democratic People’s Republic” of Korea degenerated into something much worse. North Korea became a Stalinist monarchy of one family with feudal elements in place. Stalinist communists played a large role in the overthrow of the Kingdom of Nepal. Although they rule the Democratic Federal Republic of Nepal since 2008, socialism has not been build and massive exploitation and inequality remain!

The fact that even so called ”communists” now rule capitalist states proofs to us the complete degeneration and failure of the Stalinist ideology. With social democracy now a mainstream capitalist ideology, workers have little to choose from. Genuine socialists will have to build from scratch since all the social democratic/Stalinist parties have betrayed us and the working class. Around the planet there is deep need for a socialist alternative. Yet, the ruling class is using the ghost of communism to scare workers.

Now the socialism is becoming more popular, the ruling class is using social democrats and Stalinist communists as to called ”proof” that any opposition to capitalism either ends up in failure (social democracy) or oppression (Stalinism). We have seen that figures like Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn did fail. They failed because they did not dare to move beyond the capitalist system. Hugo Chavez also did not abolished the Venezuelan capitalist system. Worse, he used a deeply corrupt state to bring about changes and in the end he failed.

Socialism was never build and communism never reached. The communist parties of the past have either marginalized or disappeared. ”Communist” leaders in China, Cuba, Vietnam and Laos are nationalist and have no interests of giving political and economic power to their workers. Their nationalism is a smoke screen to hide their corruption, nepotism and greed. The sadness is that many left-wingers are still living in the illusions of the past. There are enough who champion Stalinist systems as ”socialist” and they fuel the anti-socialist propaganda machine of the ruling class.

Revolutionary socialists today are a minority. The left-wing of many countries are led by empty social-democrats or evolutionary socialists who do not know how to move beyond capitalism. It is therefore essential that working class people understand that reforming capitalism is not possible. More government rules is not the solution as many evolutionary socialists say. What is needed is democratic planning, expropriation of millionaires and billionaires. The end of private ownership over the means of production.

30 years since the collapse of the Soviet-Union

The Union of Socialist Soviet Republics was dissolved on 25 December 1991, by the very members of a party that was banned by the Soviet government since August of that year. Capitalists did not destroy the Soviet-Union, the former members of the Communist Party of the Soviet-Union (CPSU) did that. On 8 December 1991, the Belovezh Accords dissolved the union. The accords were signed by only three Soviet republics. By the year 1992, the Soviet-Union was no more and world capitalism celebrated its so called ”victory over communism”.

Now 30 years later we can say that capitalism did not won the Cold War. As we revolutionary socialists said in the 1930’s, the Stalinist system would inevitable lead to the restoration of capitalism. In Asia, the Stalinist states indeed introduced capitalism win-out giving up on their single party states. Countries like China, Vietnam and Laos have all embraced the market while claiming to remain ”socialist”. In Nepal, the monarchy was replaced with a bourgeois republic, while the ruling Stalinists and Maoists did not build socialism.

Stalinism was a perversion, a degeneration that came out of the Russian civil war. Although named after Joseph Stalin, the system survived his death in March 1953. Stalin was the face of a totalitarian bureaucracy that ruled over the working class like parasites. His extreme cult of personality and disregard for even his loyal comrades led to his removal from Soviet life after 1956. Classic Stalinism only survived in North Korea were it evolved into the absolute monarchy of the Kim dynasty.

The Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR) is called a ”communist” state by the capitalist world and history. This is false as it was neither a class less and state less society nor a workers controlled country. Communism was never build, not even socialism. Despite claims by Stalin and his successors, the working class never had any political or economic control. In the last year of his life, Vladimir Lenin understood this and tried to fight the growing power of Stalin. His early death in January 1924 prevented this.

Leon Trotsky and the Left Opposition took on the task of fighting the bureaucracy led by the centrist and right-wing (who supported the NEP market economy) of the communist party. However by 1927, democratic processes were all eliminated as the centrists (early Stalinists) and rightists expelled the Left Opposition and banned their ideas. The Soviet government organized a massive repression of Bolsheviks, who dared to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution with critical slogans of Stalin.

By 1929, Stalin expelled the right-wing from the All-Union Communist Party (party name from 1925 until 1952) and his centrist faction made Marxism-Leninism (Stalinism) the state/party dogma. The Stalinists took some ideas of the Left Opposition on collectivisation, but in their brutality they introduced famine and massive deaths. Trotsky was expelled by the time Stalin began with his collectivisation program and could only criticize from exile.

From 1927 until 1991, Marxism-Leninism (Stalinism) was the official ideology/dogma of the USSR. Even those who used the ideas of Lenin to criticize the injustice of the state, were called an ”enemy of socialism”. But socialism was never build, the state did not tolerate workers self-management nor were the soviets (councils) freely elected. Workers knew the reality, but could do nothing as they lived in a totalitarian system.

Although the system was relaxed a bit after 1956, the state was considered supreme. This anti-communist idea was brutally enforced by the Communist Party of the Soviet-Union (CPSU), who’s members were given many privileges not available to ordinary workers. This is how the CPSU kept its members loyal, not because of ideology but by privileges. These elitists remained dogmatic loyal. Going against the party-line meant that you could lose it all.

After two Soviet leaders died of sickness and old age, the CPSU had become a gerontocracy. The leading politburo was installed by Leonid Brezhnev in the 1960’s and its members remained there for almost 20 years. Brezhnev himself was unable to govern after 1980, but as General Secretary he was vital for all political decisions. The average age of a politburo member by the time Brezhnev died was 70+. His successors Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko all died before the year 1985.

There were many jobs that were not really productive for society. Since the state claimed that there was no unemployment, millions did meaningless work. Meanwhile the state propaganda kept saying that they had build socialism and a society free from exploitation. By 1985, the reality could not be kept away. Soviet technology was leaping years behind that of the western world. Since the Soviet-Union gave little attention to consumers products, these ”Made in the CCCP” were often of inferior quality.

The Soviet economy stagnated since the 1970’s. It was unable to complete with the capitalist world, due to the undemocratic nature of the state and the conservative nature of the ruling caste. Nothing was allowed to change and planners had little freedoms. Workers themselves had little motivation to work as they had no input nor control. They were told over and over that the USSR was a ”socialist workers utopia”, few believed these lies!

Capitalist propagandists claim this was because of the planned economy. In reality it was because workers had no saying in what they produced. They knew that their cars were bad, but they had no input in the production, just as under capitalism. Their state managers were the bosses and even they were forced to obey the national planners, who themselves were subjugated to the politburo led by inflexible and deeply conservative men. On 11 March 1985, the CPSU elected Mikhail Gorbachev who was 56 years old, a young face compared to the old guard.

Gorbachev tried to use market elements to save the Soviet-Union. His Glasnost and Perestroika was an attempt to give more economic freedoms to national planners and state managers. Beside economic changes, the new Soviet leader also hoped to bring a period of openness. That however led to the rise of nationalism and massive criticism of the single party state. By 1988, Glasnost and Perestroika had resulted in the rise of nationalist groups in many Soviet republics. Fuelled by ethnic nationalism they called for independence from Moscow.

The Soviet government lost control over the situation and the CPSU became paralyzed. Little by little the dogmatic old Stalinists were replaced by younger members, who were eager to embrace capitalism. Leaders like Boris Yeltsin choose to walk away from the communist party in 1990, while others like Saparmurat Niyazov waited until the whole system collapsed. It is ironic that the last politburo of the CPSU was made up of leaders, who all became nationalist dictators in many ex-Soviet republics after 1991.

On 19 August 1991, the old Stalinist guard tried a coup d’état attempt against the Soviet government. The coup was supported by conservative elements who feared the destruction of the union. By trying to keep the Marxist-Leninist (Stalinist) façade alive they doomed the USSR. The working class rose up against the plotters of the State Committee on the State of Emergency. After only three days the coup leaders surrendered. Russian president Boris Yeltsin took this opportunity to ban the CPSU in Soviet Russia.

Mikhail Gorbachev left the office of CPSU General Secretary, but remained President of the Soviet-Union until 25 December 1991. His last months were meaningless as he had no real power. The Soviet red flag flew next to the czarist tricolour on the Kremlin, which was reintroduced on 22 August as the flag of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. Yelstin ended the Soviet façade by signing the Belovezh Accords which formally dissolved the union in December of 1991.

30 years later we can conclude that capitalism and nationalism have failed. Older workers in Russia and many former Soviet republics have nostalgic feelings towards the USSR. This is because capitalism has created more inequality and poverty compared to the deeply flawed Stalinist system. Despite all problems and political repression, the Soviet-Union gave millions a glimpse of what is possible if the economy is not under capitalist control. We revolutionary socialists understand this, but we say that a return to the failed methods of Stalinism is not the alternative.

What is needed is genuine democratic socialism. A society under democratic control of the working class. The Soviet-Union was an inspiration, but not a role model. Capitalist propagandists use the USSR as a weapon against the political left. Any rejection of the market dictatorship is equalled to Stalinist oppression they say. Millions of workers still believe these lies, because too many leftists dogmatic supported the Soviet-Union and praised it as ”socialist”.

This works in favour of the capitalist establishment. Right-wing dictator Vladimir Putin praises the Soviet-Union, but only because it was a ”Russian” state. Other Russian right-wingers love the USSR because it competed against the western world. We revolutionary socialists support the idea of a nationalized economy, but reject the dictatorial single party state and bureaucratic methods. We stand for democratic control from below, workers self-management and participation of all in the planning of the economy.

Our intervention at COP26

International Socialist Alternative (ISA) held a successful intervention at the COP26 gathering of world leaders and their capitalist masters in Glasgow UK. As revolutionary socialists we oppose their inability to protect this planet and its workers from the eternal greed of the capitalist system. One rally cry of ISA during the COP26 demonstration was: ”World Leaders At COP26, Your Election Makes Us Sick”. Millions of human lives are at risk when the planet’s eco-systems start collapsing one by one in the next thirty to fifty years. The main polluters of the planet are not willing to change course. Xi Jinping refused to attend and many other capitalist regimes care little about the growing climate problem.

300 members of ISA travelled to Scotland in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Our plan was to be a loudly bloc to promote socialism as the only alternative to capitalism. Socialist Alternative in Great Britain worked hard to set up the intervention. While ISA in the UK is less then one year old, the organisation can be given huge credit for setting up the structures for 300 ISA members to work with. There were revolutionary socialists from Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, Israel-Palestine, Brazil, China and even from the USA. Most of us stayed at the Castle Rock Hostel in Edinburgh, which is why we had to travel to Glasgow to make our intervention.

Castle Rock Hostel is situated in a old building next to Edinburgh Castle. Between Wednesday 4 November and Saturday 6 November the Belgian, German, Austrian and Dutch ISA members stayed at this hostel. A bus took the German Austrian, Belgian and Dutch ISA members from Brussels to Edinburgh. It was a long ride and because of an error in the Eurotunnel ticket, we had to go through British border control two times. Finally we arrived in Edinburgh late in the evening. For the next day, ISA planned two interventions. One intervention in the Saturday 6 November march in Glasgow and one in Edinburgh organized by International Socialist Alternative itself.

Because all attention was pointed at Glasgow, there was no march or demonstration in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. ISA decided to organize a small march to the Scottish parliament, which was closed. Under police escort, we marched through the capital city with our banners and slogans. Many come to see us and even workers who were building houses looked at us. It is important that working class people are presented with a socialist alternative, since the Scottish nationalists have failed to provide any meaningful alternative to Brexit.

November 6 was the second demonstration in Glasgow. With over 300 members, International Socialist Alternative formed a strong and loudly bloc. The reasons for that were clear. We did not come to Scotland only to show flags and march. We came to offer a socialist alternative and to make sure the world would hear us. Indeed, the capitalist media could not go around our bloc. Major television networks broadcasted us like the Dutch NOS, British BBC, German ZDF and even the Indian television showed our bloc. Out of all socialist groups participating, ISA was by far the best organized bloc as our slogans could not be mistaken.

After the second Glasgow march was over, ISA organized a public gathering to call for a socialist alternative. With many speakers we hoped to motivate our members and none members to fight on. After the day was over we sold over 1000 papers of our British newspaper. 200 names were noted of potential new contacts and 2000 British pounds were raised. This however is not the end, the fight for a socialist alternative will go on. COP26 leaders have come up with another plan, like the Paris Climate Accords this new plan is not enough. We need a fundamental system change to end climate change, capitalism is unwilling to change.

This is why we call for a planned economy. Now social-democracy and Stalinism have abused to the idea of a planned model. Social democratic countries never abolished capitalism and Stalinism simply replaced the capitalist boss with a state boss as the ruler over the working class. Our vision of a planned economy has nothing to do with the undemocratic economies of Stalinist Russia or Maoist China. We oppose the bureaucratic top-down model that was/remains hailed by communist parties.

Here are three different ways in which economic planning can be organised in a democratic way:

1. Anticipating demand based on its real time evolution, which is the model of the multinational retail company Walmart. The company shares the information from the cash register in real time with its supply chain. With this information, the suppliers organise Walmart’s stock replenishment, the company doesn’t do this itself. While socialist planning could use such technology to great effect, it would of course be different, with democratic discussions among workers and representative organisations replacing exploitation and top-down decisions about more or less random sales targets.
2. Order-based planning. In this case, production only starts when an order arrives. This can be useful for bigger industrial or technological products, and is already implemented in almost every big corporation, but without being integrated into an overall plan for the industry or economy as a whole.
3. Input-output analysis. This is a form of planning particularly useful for socialist planning. It means that the planning of production is based on output targets and the input needed for their production. This is very useful when it comes to the planning of sufficient free and public health, social and care infrastructure like hospitals, schools, day care, and public laundries. The same applies for public transport and clean energy.

What would democratic socialism look like an how will it change our way of life?

• It means turning the power structure of society on its head. A new workers’ state will have the interest of working people as its priority instead of today’s capitalist state whose laws, repression and weapons exist to keep capitalist profits safe at any price.
• It means that the key parts of the economy will be nationalised (owned collectively) and run under workers’ control and , management.
• It means that workplaces together with schools and communities, will become a forum for the democratic running of society, making use of everyone’s creativity and input instead of merely a place of exploitation.
• It means sharing out the work to make unemployment history and to give everyone time to take part in running their workplace, community and society, as well as for holidays and free time.
• It means production according to people’s needs with products that last, can be repaired and are made from raw material that can be reused.

All this is possible, if the working class takes political and economic power away from the class that is the minority. The capitalist class is made up of less then 1% of all humans. We do not talk about small business owners or those workers who own a few shares. We talk about people like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault & family, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison and Larry Page. These five capitalists alone have a personal wealth of a least 915 billion U.S dollars. Just think what we could do with that money that is now stored in the private bank accounts of these elitists!

International Socialist Alternative calls on all workers and youth to join us in the fight for a society free from millionaires and billionaires. Capitalism must be abolished! JOIN US!!

A conservative ”socialist” won in Peru

Pedro Castillo has defeated the candidate of the Peruvian capitalist establishment. The rural teacher was able to defeat the anti-Communist hysteria, that his opponent spread in order to win the presidential elections in the Republic of Peru. Let us be clear, although Castillo has leftist ideas he is not a revolutionary socialist. He only joined the ”Free Peru” party to be its candidate. Pedro Castillo is a reformist leftist with conservative ideas on gay marriage and abortion rights. He ran on the presidential ticket of the Free Peru party, which claims to follow Marxism and Mariáteguism. Castillo himself has rejected Marx and the whole communist ideology. Despite this, the right-wing Keiko Fujimori tried to portray him as a ”dangerous Marxist” trying to destroy democracy.

Capitalism in Peru is harsh and unforgiving. 20% of the population is living in relative poverty, in rural era’s the official poverty level is higher. In rural Peru over 45% of all Peruvians are poor and makes just enough money to survive. The rich and capitalist class have always been deeply anti-Communist. They stood firmly behind the right-wing president and dictators that have ruled the Republic of Peru since 1821. Between 1968 and 1975, the country was a right-wing military dictatorship supported by the USA. It was then that a Maoist guerrilla army was created. This People’s Guerrilla Army is the armed wing of the Communist Party of Peru – Shining Path.

Since there are more then one communist party in Peru, the armed Peruvian Maoists are called Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso). Like many Maoist rebel groups, the Shining Path was deeply sectarian, cruel and violent towards all their enemies. Not only supporters of the capitalist state were attacked, Shining Path also targeted workers, peasants and leftists who rejected their dogmatic ideology. Although based on Maoism, Shining Path became more a political cult around Abimael Guzmán. This professor of philosophy started the guerrilla war in 1980 and was captured by the Peruvian dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori in 1992.

The cruel actions of Shining Path gave the ruling class a perfect propaganda weapon to be used against all leftists, both revolutionary socialist and moderate socialist. The capitalist state reacted brutal and arrested many leftists under the assumption that they supported Shining Path. Although many working class Peruvians rejected the Maoists, in rural Peru the armed guerrilla group was able to attract support among the poor. Rural poverty was very high and millions were living in very bad conditions. The capitalist rulers never cared about them and the liberation ideology of Shining Path attracted many young Peruvians from poor families.

Pedro Castillo has not supported the Maoists, but for the ruling class his leftist ideas are ”communist” enough. Keiko Fujimori portrayed the 2021 election as a struggle between ”communism and democracy”. In reality she is the voice and face of the intolerant capitalist class. Her father Alberto Fujimori ruled between 1990 and 2000 in Peru. His brutal ways of dealing with the Maoist rebels resulted in breaking many democratic laws. In November 2000, Alberto Fujimori fled to Japan to avoid charges of corruption and human rights abuses. Japan however arrested him and extradited the ex-president/dictator back to Peru.

Keiko Fujimori tried to become president of Peru many times. She was always defeated because the majority of rural Peruvians hated her. Her pro-capitalist ideology has attracted urban voters and even workers who are raised with anti-communist dogmatism. Keiko Fujimori lost the elections in 2011, 2016 and 2021. When looked at who votes who, we see that in richer provinces of Peru, Fujimori win with ease. The ruling class and wealthy Peruvians all support the right-wing leader of Popular Force, the party of Fujimori. But she also wins support among conservative workers with her opposition to LGBT rights and school curriculums including gender equality or sex education.

Her staunch anti-communism, forceful anti-terrorist actions, pro-free market policies and disregard for political institutions makes her a clear candidate for right-wing Peruvians. To win over more working class voters, Popular Force and Fujimori have often resorted to lies and misinformation like the Republicans in the USA. They claim that their opponents are all ”cultural Marxists” who wish to destroy traditional Peruvian society. In the last round of any presidential election, those who fear Marxism often vote Fujimori purely out of ignorance.

At the same time those who reject the anti-communist Fujimori automatically vote for the candidate that opposes her. This is why she always lost the election, mainly because rural Peruvians and those from native roots firmly oppose her. However the gap between Keiko Fujimori and her opponents has never been huge. She often lost by just 1%. If more working class voters would go out and vote then the differences might be bigger. We must not forget that 20% of all voters never votes in the second round of the presidential elections, this year the voter turnout was 74%. Pedro Castillo also won by just 44.240 votes.

Castillo does not advocate a socialist Peru nor a society under democratic control of the working class. He already told the ruling class that he will maintaining dialogue with the various sectors of businessmen and indicating that his government will respect capitalist property and that all the changes he will make, will be within the current neoliberal constitution. This shows that Pedro Castillo is not that far-left revolutionary Keiko Fujimori portrayed. Also on personal issues Castillo remains conservative and rejects gay marriage and abortion rights for women. Still his victory is a boost for working class people. What we now need is a party that starts popular mobilization, the unity of the working class and the mass movements.

The Free Peru party is not the workers party that Peru needs. But it is new and openly left-wing. It can participate in building this new party for working class Peruvians, if it is willing to move beyond political opportunism. Revolutionary socialists call for a revolutionary constituent assembly to bury the old neoliberal constitution. This was a main demand that emerged from the November 2020 protests. It is possible that Pedro Castillo is not able to change anything fundamental if he does not dare to brake with the system. Like Chavez in Venezuela, Lula in Brazil and Correa in Ecuador, Castillo will lose support if he does not brake with capitalism.

Millions of Peruvians want change, but that change cannot be build inside the current rotten political and economic system. The bourgeois state and capitalist economy need to go. Reformists like Chavez, Lula and Correa wrongly believed that they could use the state to create a fair society. But the state is not about fairness, the state serves to keep the capitalist system intact. No state is build for the working class and no leftist leader in Latin America has dared to abolish it. Even Fidel Castro in Cuba kept the state alive and turned it into a vehicle for the Cuban Communist Party, not the Cuban working class!

International Socialist Alternative calls for the masses to push Castillo beyond his limited leftism. Those who want change must go towards the destruction of the Peruvian capitalist state and advance in the construction of a workers government and build socialism in Peru and the rest of Latin America.

The end of 2020

The year 2020 is almost over. A year of fear, panic and desperation. Corona virus disease 2019 has caused a global pandemic, infecting 80.852.622 as of 28 December 2020. 1.766.336 have died in the 12 months since Covid-19 was first diagnosed in December 2019. The capitalist governments of the world have created many vaccines. For prestige, nations like Russia and China have already started to inject their vaccine to people. However skepticism runs high in societies like Russia, because trust in the government is something Russians never have and rightfully so. There are six Covid-19 vaccines approved by different governments. Working class people are right to be skeptic and fearful. Because healthcare is a for profit institution and the price for the vaccines is often higher then the average salary of workers in Africa or Asia.

Who will profit at first from a Covid-19 vaccine? The countries who can afford the price. Are set between 10 and 20 dollar per dose. For many third world nations, this means that most cannot afford any vaccine for Covid-19. Many working class people in Africa are struggling with salary below 20 dollars a month. It is very possible that for them, the vaccines will only be available around 2023. While Europeans and Americans could have access to a cure in 2021, billions of poor people will have to wait for another 24 months. This gives Covid-19 more time to spread and to kill. Capitalism is the reason why the rich countries are able to get the vaccine first. It is also the reason why Africa remains poor and Europe rich. European countries exploited their African colonies and then abandoned them to dictators who keep exploiting them.

2020 was the year of social distancing. Although the media and governments call for it, millions of working class people have no choice. They are forced by their capitalist bosses to go to work. Many companies also refused to implement safety protocols at first. This is the result of a capitalist mentality of putting profits ahead of workers and their healthcare. Now in late 2020 we all know that social distancing and protection is vital is preventing the virus from spreading. With many countries in another lock-down, national governments putting themselves under stress. Because the capitalists do not wish for a total lock-down as that hurts their interests. But the rise in infections proof that there is no other choice. Revolutionary socialists argue that working class people need to stand up for their rights.

Why? Because we cannot trust a capitalist government, we cannot trust a system build for profit. Healthcare in many countries is a for profit business. Who will pay for Covid-19? The ruling class already knows who! They will put the price of Covid-19 on the working class people by demanding austerity and cuts to social services. We have seen it before, during the 2007/2008 crisis, all governments suddenly started bailing big companies out with public money. Then the governments said that the money was gone and cuts had to be made. Liberals, conservatives and social democrats all agreed, cuts had to be made. Then came Covid-19 and suddenly protectionism returned, sponsored by the same people who cried for free markets and no government regulation. This hypocrisy is why revolutionary socialists reject liberalism, conservatism, social democracy and any ideology who promoted free market fundamentalism.

Great Britain left the European Union, but the price for Brexit will be on the British workers. Because no capitalist is going to pay for increase costs due to Britain leaving the European Union. Now that the British have left the common Europeean market, there will be costs and the ordinary worker will be the one who pays the price. This is why revolutionary socialists called for a socialist Brexit. Only socialism can make a difference and prevent the rising costs. Unfortunate, Great Britain does not have a workers party on a socialist program. The British working class has been misled by nationalist poison and the Conservative Party is profiting from it. Had the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn willing to fight for socialism, then the conservatives might not have won. But the inability of Corbyn to provide a socialist alternative not only led to a internal right-wing victory, but also his expulsion from the Labour Party itself.

Right-wing leaders like Viktor Orban of Hungary and Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland may use nationalist rhetoric, but neither of them have dared to leave the EU. This is because they know that their capitalist class does not want to leave the common European market. The British capitalists also did not wanted to leave the European Union. Brexit was an act of resistance to the European Union and its undemocratic European Commission. The nationalist right-wing used racism and hatred of migrants to fuel the anti-EU mood. This is why many leftists were told to vote for the STAY camp (pro-EU), this was the internationalist way claimed by social democrats, greens and reformist leftists. But by supporting the STAY camp, the working class would vote for a institution build for capitalism.

2020 was the year Donald Trump was fired. After leading the USA for four years, the capitalist exploiter lost the elections to Joe Biden. Revolutionary socialists called on American voters to vote for Howie Hawkins of the Green Party. However with Biden presented as the only alternative to Trump, 81 million Americans decided to vote for the Democratic Party candidate. Trump lost the election, but his narcissistic brain could not accept this fact. Even now the defeated Republican tries to spread misinformation and lies to his brainwashed supporters who glorify Donald Trump as a saint, who cannot do any wrong. The Republican establishment has decided to accept Joe Biden as the next President of the USA. They know that Biden is a right-winger and who they can work with. However the base of the Republican Party is no longer supportive of the Republican establishment. The Grand Old Party is Trump’s party now and his pseudo-populism is not gone.

Turkish imperialism proofed in 2020, that they do not care a thing about human rights or democratic values. As demonstrated in the years before, the Turkish imperialists supported the Azerbaijani government in attacking Nagorno-Karabakh. Although still part of NATO, Turkey has become a cruel nationalist dictatorship. Led by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan since 2002, the Turks have now build their presence in many countries including Syria, Libya, North Cyprus and Azerbaijan. The fact that NATO tolerates the undemocratic tyrant Erdogan shows us that the western alliance only uses phrases like ”democracy” and ”liberty” for propaganda. As we have seen with Donald Trump, the main goal of NATO is to defend the interests of western imperialism. This is why Turkey (as a dictatorship) is tolerated inside the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

Revolutionary socialists will stand for genuine socialism in 2021. Socialism is not what the Soviet-Union, China or North Korea claims/claimed to be ”socialist”. The Marxist-Leninist (Stalinist) facade is over, North Korea and Cuba are also moving away from a bureaucratic top-down economy. We have always said that a planned economy with no democratic input is doomed to fail. The collapse of this model between 1989 and 1991 proofs that we were right. Socialism cannot be build in a single nation with a totalitarian top-down political and economic model. Socialism requires democratic participation from the working class in both economics and politics. Unfortunate almost all workers are raised with the idea that capitalism is the only working system. They are told that competition and greed are the only way forward for innovations.

The youth of the world understand that the current system does not work. They know that capitalism is wrong. What they need is a socialist alternative. We see an increase in support for socialist ideas. In the USA the Democratic Socialists of America have grown from 6.000 members in 2016 to over 86.000 in 2020. Although strong on paper the DSA is still a federation of chapters, not a unified political party. Also not all 86.000 members are politically active and struggle for a socialist alternative. Some DSA chapters are not anti-capitalist and wish to work within the Democratic Party to build social democracy. The British: Labour Party got over 500.000 new members since 2015, mainly young British who supported Jeremy Corbyn. However with his expulsion and the return of the Labour right-wing to power, these 500.000 members might soon abandon the Labour Party.

Other leftist parties failed to profit from the inabilities of capitalism to provide for all. Mainly this is due the unwillingness of leftist leaders to openly stand for socialism. Moderate left-wing parties like the Dutch: Socialist Party (SP) react very hostile to Marxist ideas. The Dutch SP leaders started a witch-hunt against young SP members from their own youth section. RED – Young in the SP was abandoned by their mother party after they had elected a Marxist to be their leader. Socialist Party leaders had ruled that this Marxist was a member of a ”party inside a party”. This is how the SP leaders classified the Communist Platform and Marxist Forum, set up to spread revolutionary ideas inside the Dutch: Socialist Party. The witch-hunt against RED inside the SP will likely result in a defeat for the party at the upcoming 2021 elections in the Netherlands.

The left-wing of this world is weak because it refuses to stand up. Its leaders are reformist and part of a generation of leftist brainwashed with anti-socialism. Many started out as dogmatic supporters of Stalinist Russia or Maoist China. Then came the collapse of the Soviet-Union and the Chinese embraced capitalism. Many of their international supporters decided to dump Marxism and embrace classic social democracy. But classic social democracy is not working. Capitalism will not tolerate government regulations to keep their greed in line. The crisis of capitalism should have been a wake up call, but most leftist leaders still hold on to their social democratic dream that they can manage and reform the system. Bernie Sanders is one of these leftists who dreams of capitalism with a human face.

When in coalition with right-wingers, many reformist leftists fail to deliver. The old social democrats have decided to dump even classic social democracy. Today these social democrats are not leftists, they have fully embraced the capitalist system and defend it. It was the British: Labour Party under Tony Blair who supported the imperialist wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Social democratic parties in all of Europe embraced austerity and deregulation, it is no surprise that Margret Thatcher said that New Labour (Tony Blair) was the thing she was the most proud of. New Labour carried on were Thatcher left, it was a loyal servant of both British capitalism and American imperialism around the world. The same we say about social democrats in Europe. Especially the ex-Stalinist social democrats who once championed the dogma’s of Stalin, now embrace the dogma’s of imperialism, capitalism and free market fundamentalism.

This is why social democracy is our opponent too. Although Bernie Sanders might dream of it, most European social democrats have sided with our capitalist enemy. Revolutionary socialists have exposed social democrats during the Cold War as pro-capitalist, but today they are more then just that. They are class enemies who should be rejected together with liberals, conservatives, nationalists and other ideologies who promote the private ownership over the means of production. Socialism is not to be build by a small party of Marxists. It can only be build by the majority, the working class who has to sell its labour for a wage. 70% of all humans own less then 3% of all wealth produced. This inequality is not because all humans are greedy (as the capitalist media claims). The capitalist system allows for a minority to own 97% of all wealth, while leaving 70% with almost nothing. This is why we say that socialism must be build, the democratic control of the majority over the wealth it creates.