The following is the draft US perspectives document which will be discussed at the National Congress of the US section of the International Marxist Tendency. The document aims to outline the main economic, social, and political developments in the United States over the past period and lay out perspectives for the class struggle in the coming period.
The following is the second part of a draft document which will be discussed at the World Congress of the International Marxist Tendency this summer. The main aim of this document is to define the main economic, social and political trends in the world today and to develop a perspective for the class struggle in the next period. The document was originally drafted in October 2015.
The following is the first part of a draft document which will be discussed at the World Congress of the International Marxist Tendency this summer. The main aim of this document is to define the main economic, social and political trends in the world today and to develop a perspective for the class struggle in the next period. The document was originally drafted in October 2015.
Once upon a time, same-sex marriage was legalized, sex reassignment surgeries were not only available but funded by the state, transgender people were allowed to serve openly in the army, an openly gay man was minister of foreign affairs, and it was a simple administrative matter to have one’s gender changed on official documents. Where was this wondrous place? When was it that such laws—which went further than those of any modern country in terms of LGBTQ+ rights—were enacted? Most importantly, why aren’t such laws in place everywhere today? Not surprisingly for Marxists, the country in question was Soviet Russia, and the laws in question were passed during the ascendant phase of the revolution, from 1917 until 1926, under Lenin and Trotsky’s leadership. Also not surprisingly, these laws were subsequently repealed by the Stalinist counterrevolution, which crushed all the social and political gains of Bolshevism underfoot.
For our organization-wide reading we are republishing the following article by Leon Trotsky. In it he draws out the significance of the Paris Commune and what lessons can be drawn from the heroic event in which the working class took power into its own hands for the first time in history.
