Category: Marxism

On US-Israeli War on Iran & Tehran’s Political Prisoners

By on • ( 7 Comments )

The August 20 Guardian, a British daily, published an Open Letter addressed To Iran’s political prisoners, trapped ‘between two blades of a scissors.’ Signed by Angela Davis, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and other activists and academics, the letter extended solidarity to political prisoners facing repression by Iran’s theocratic regime, and, at the same time, expressed opposition to the US-Israeli war on Iran. The letter is reproduced in this post. The Open Letter stirred a fierce controversy. Many on the left slammed the authors as objectively aligning themselves with US imperialism by criticizing the Iranian regime. This article explains why World-Outlook stands on the side of the Open Letter in this debate.

On Russia’s New Economic Policy in Early 1920s (2)

By on • ( 3 Comments )

In the early 1920s, the Bolsheviks carried out a retreat from earlier policies of the 1917 Russian Revolution — the New Economic Policy (NEP). It was launched following the devastation of the young Soviet republic after three years of civil war, foreign imperialist intervention, and setbacks of revolutionary struggles in Europe. In discussions and debates on social media and elsewhere in Cuba on a series of economic measures adopted in the Caribbean country on June 18, 2026, a number of supporters of the Cuban Revolution have referred to the NEP. While some of the measures being taken in Cuba resemble the NEP, the situation facing Cuba today is very different. An article on the NEP in the first installment of this post summarized that policy and the reasons for its implementation in Soviet Russia, as well as the differences between the situation in Soviet Russia in the early 1920s and what Cuba faces today. In this part, we are publishing major excerpts of speeches by Lenin on the NEP.

On Russia’s New Economic Policy in Early 1920s (1)

By on • ( 4 Comments )
Russian peasants carrying food in October 1921

On June 18, 2026, Cuba’s National Assembly — the country’s highest legislative body — adopted an extensive series of new economic measures. These decisions were made as Cuba confronts its deepest economic and social crisis since the 1959 revolution, largely caused by Washington’s relentless economic war for nearly seven decades, which the Trump administration qualitatively escalated this year. In discussions and debates on social media and elsewhere in Cuba, a number of supporters of the Cuban Revolution have referred to similar measures adopted in the early years of the Russian Revolution, known as the “New Economic Policy” (NEP). While some of the measures being taken in Cuba resemble the NEP, the situation facing Cuba today is very different. As a contribution to this discussion, we are publishing here an article on the NEP with a postscript sketching the main differences in the political situation faced by the Bolsheviks in the 1920s and those Cuba confronts today.

The Fight Against Fascism and the Right to Free Speech

By on • ( Leave a comment )

The mass resistance to the Trump administration’s attempt to terrorize immigrants and other working people in Minnesota highlighted issues of strategy and tactics in the struggle to defend democratic rights and put the brakes on Trump’s march toward one-man rule. In the spirit of drawing on the lessons from working-class history to facilitate making disciplined and thoughtful decisions in today’s struggles, World-Outlook published the three-part series Strategy & Tactics in Fighting Racist, Fascist Attacks. As a follow-up, we publish the materials below from the Education for Socialists publication The Fight Against Fascism in the USA.

Strategy & Tactics in Fighting Racist, Fascist Attacks (III)

By on • ( 3 Comments )

This is the third of three parts with excerpts from a May 6, 1975, discussion among socialists led by Farrell Dobbs on strategy and tactics in the struggle against fascism. The lessons from this chapter of working-class history are relevant to similar issues that emerged in the mass resistance to ICE terror in Minneapolis over the last two months (December 2025 – January 2026).

Strategy & Tactics in Fighting Racist, Fascist Attacks (II)

By on • ( 2 Comments )

This is the second of three parts with excerpts from a May 6, 1975, discussion among socialists led by Farrell Dobbs on strategy and tactics in the struggle against fascism. The lessons from this chapter of working-class history are relevant to similar issues that emerged in the mass resistance to ICE terror in Minneapolis over the last two months (December 2025 – January 2026).

Intellectuals and Revolution

By on • ( 1 Comment )

“It is elementary that ‘a superior capacity for material production is the necessary basis for a superior cultural superstructure,’” Cannon writes in this 1961 letter. “Even the Cuban leaders, who don’t profess to be practicing Marxists, know that and are working night and day to improve productive capacities to provide the means for all the other things. But in my opinion, there is also merit in [Mills’] concern for ‘moral, cultural, and intellectual superiority,’ because it cannot be taken for granted that this will follow automatically from the reorganization of the productive system. This aim must be deliberately stated and consciously fought for all the time.”

A Visit with Sociologist C. Wright Mills

By on • ( 3 Comments )

The following is a 1961 letter and postscript by Socialist Workers Party (SWP) leaders George Novack and Evelyn Reed to James P. Cannon, who was then SWP national chairman, describing a visit by Novack and Reed with sociologist C. Wright Mills. What is striking in the exchange is the open-mindedness of socialist leaders at the time, the interest in finding common ground with fighters committed to struggle for a world of social equality and human solidarity. This attitude permeates the writings of Novack, Reed, and Cannon. It is the polar opposite of sectarianism. And it is central to Marxism and to the spirit of the Communist Manifesto, the founding document of the communist movement.

National Guard’s Role in Strikebreaking: A Lesson from History

By on • ( Leave a comment )

This article, which first appeared in the Marxist magazine New International in June 1938, is a review of a pamphlet published that year by the American Civil Liberties Union on the use of National Guard troops to break strikes. In light of the recent deployments of National Guard troops by U.S. president Donald Trump across the country, the lessons of history outlined in this article seem relevant today.

Zionism: ‘A Form of Racism’

By on • ( 1 Comment )

This article, first published on November 24, 1975, by Intercontinental Press, reported on the passage of a resolution by the United Nations General Assembly on November 10 of that year. Approved with a vote of 72 to 35, the resolution answered yes on the question of whether Zionism is a form of racism. Fifty years have passed since that document’s approval. The controversy it generated at the time, and the arguments for and against it, however, are quite relevant today.

Free Trade vs. Protectionism

By on • ( 2 Comments )

The recent sweeping tariffs the Trump administration imposed on goods imported from dozens of countries across the globe pose important questions: What’s in the best interests of working people, free trade or protectionism? Do tariffs really benefit U.S. workers, as most top labor union officials claim? This editorial tackles these questions.

Why Lenin, Bolsheviks Backed Independence for Ukraine

By on • ( 3 Comments )

This is a resolution adopted by the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in November 1919. Russian revolutionary leader V.I. Lenin drafted the original text. The resolution can be found in Vol. 30 of Lenin’s Collected Works under the title “On Soviet Rule in Ukraine.” World-Outlook is publishing it because it is relevant to the world-wide discussion and debate on Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. Moscow’s brutal attack on a sovereign neighboring republic smacks of the Great Russian chauvinism prevalent under the czars, the barbaric monarchy that ruled the Russian empire for centuries before it was overthrown by workers and peasants in 1917. That same chauvinism animated the reactionary policies re-established by the late 1920s in the former USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) during the counterrevolution led by Joseph Stalin—a regime Russian president Vladimir Putin faithfully served decades later as an officer of the KGB, the secret police. The resolution illuminates the stark contrast between the position of Putin and Russia’s capitalists today, with that of the workers and peasants’ government Lenin led after the Russian revolution.

Lenin on Internationalism, Fighting National Oppression

By on • ( 2 Comments )

This is a selection of writings by Russian revolutionary leader V.I. Lenin on internationalism, fighting national oppression, and the need for a voluntary union of soviet socialist republics. In recent posts, World-Outlook has referred to the fight Lenin carried out at the end of his life for a genuinely internationalist approach to ensuring such a voluntary union in the early years after the Russian Revolution of 1917. Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine this year, and Vladimir Putin’s distortions of Russia’s and Ukraine’s revolutionary history, give renewed importance to these issues.

Reform or Revolution? A Debate (III)- The Lessons of Chile

By on • ( 1 Comment )

September 11 marked the 48th anniversary of the 1973 bloody military coup, backed by Washington, which overthrew the elected Unidad Popular (Popular Unity) government led by Salvador Allende in Chile. On September 12, Jacobin, a magazine that describes itself as “a leading voice of the American left, offering socialist perspectives on politics, economics, and culture,” published an interview by Mia Dragnic with Tomás Moulian titled, “Salvador Allende Was Overthrown Because His Government Showed Chile Could Be Transformed.” Eric Blanc’s article, “Socialists Should Take the Right Lessons from the Russian Revolution,” also originally appeared in Jacobin in July.
At first glance, these two articles may seem unrelated. Blanc does not discuss the defeat in Chile and Moulian’s interview does not refer to Blanc’s article. However, both pose the same issues: How can a fight be led to end the evils of capitalism and transform society to open the road to socialism? Is a genuine revolution led by the working class necessary to achieve this?
The last installment of the three-part series, “Reform or Revolution?”, this third part focuses on the lessons of the Chilean experience in the 1970s.

The Muslim Peoples of the East and the Russian Revolution

By on • ( Leave a comment )

The end of the 20-year-long U.S. war in Afghanistan in August, and the takeover of the country by the Taliban, highlighted once again the worldwide political significance of the countries of the Islamic East. Are peoples in these countries condemned to permanent backwardness, as many believe, weighed down by reactionary religious ideology? Or can they be a revolutionary force in the fight to liberate humanity? What will it take to cement an alliance between working people of East and West? An article by John Riddell, with an introductory note by Mike Taber, take up these questions.

Reform or Revolution? A Debate (II)

By on • ( 4 Comments )

What lessons can we draw for today from the Russian Revolution of 1917—the first socialist revolution and one of the most important events in modern human history? The Bolshevik Party, which led that revolution, viewed it as the beginning of the worldwide struggle to overturn capitalism and open the door to the socialist transformation of society by working people. This is the topic of a recent debate between Eric Blanc, a socialist historian and activist, and Mike Taber, editor of a number of books related to the history of revolutionary and working-class movements. This second part of the debate includes the article by Mike Taber.

Reform or Revolution? A Debate (I)

By on • ( 2 Comments )

What lessons can we draw for today from the Russian Revolution of 1917—the first socialist revolution and one of the most important events in modern human history? The Bolshevik Party, which led that revolution, viewed it as the beginning of the worldwide struggle to overturn capitalism and open the door to the socialist transformation of society by working people. This is the topic of a recent debate between Eric Blanc, a socialist historian and activist, and Mike Taber, editor of a number of books related to the history of revolutionary and working-class movements. This first part of the debate includes the article by Eric Blanc.