Links | International Journal of Socialist Renewal

French Workers' Party (POF) poster that reads "Workers of the World Unite". By Doug Enaa Greene To the memory of my great grandparents, radicals in their way, Helen and Frank Last. May 11, 2016 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal – In the late nineteenth century, despite the ascendancy of Marxist-led socialist parties across Europe, it was not inevitable that Marxism would become the hegemonic trend on the French left. France possessed a rich and vibrant revolutionary history from 1789 to the Paris Commune that produced many vibrant movements, figures and ideologies, who all contended for allegiance of the working class.

Thinking and voting outside the two-party box: Interview with US Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein

May 10, 2016 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from US Socialist Worker -- Dr. Jill Stein (pictured) is a leading member of the Green Party and its likely presidential candidate in 2016. A longtime activist, including around issues of health care reform and ecological justice, Stein ran for several offices as a Green in Massachusetts, before becoming the party's presidential nomination in 2012, where she won 456,169 votes. She talked to Todd Chretien about why she's running again and the importance of an independent alternative to the two-party system.

Filipinas: la epifanía presidencial de Rodrigo Duterte y la tormenta que se avecina

[Original articles published in English on Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal] May 9, 2016 -- Traduido para Sin Permiso por Enrique García -- El aumento espectacular de las expectativas de Rodrigo Duterte (foto), alcalde de la sureña ciudad de Davao, que ahora lidera las encuestas cara a las elecciones presidenciales del 9 de mayo en Filipinas, ha sacudido el panorama político del país. Su campaña desde fuera del sistema, al hablar de la necesidad de una "revolución Duterte" contra el fraude electoral, que se prepara para evitar su elección, ha galvanizado gran parte del descontento existente con la clase política.

Explaining the Anthropocene: Ian Angus on how human activity is transforming the entire planet

May 6, 2016 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Socialist Review -- Human activity has transformed the Earth, accelerating climate change in just a few decades. Author Ian Angus talks to Socialist Review about facing up to the new reality. Angus will be one of the keynote speakers at Socialism for the 21st century: Moving beyond capitalism, learning from global struggles being held in Sydney on May 13-15.

Greece: vulture creditors jostling for their next feed

Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War

Reviewed by Chris Slee Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War
by Robin Yassin-Kassab and Leila al-Shami
Pluto Press 2016 London
May 4, 2016 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Despite some flaws, this book is a good introduction to the Syrian revolution. It explains why people protested against the Assad regime, and why many of them took up arms. It also shows how the initially non-sectarian popular uprising was increasingly converted into a sectarian conflict. The main flaws of the book relate to the role of Turkey, and of the PYD (Democratic Union Party) in the struggle in Rojava (the predominantly Kurdish area in northern Syria).

Philippines socialists on the phenomenal rise of presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte

The phenomenal rise of Rodrigo Duterte (pictured), the mayor of the southern city of Davao who is now leading in the polls ahead of the May 9 Philippines presidential elections, has shaken up the country's political landscape. His outsider campaign, with talk of the need for a "Duterte revolution" against expected electoral fraud to prevent his election, has galvanized much of the existing discontent towards the political class. Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal have republished two pieces, one by Sonny Melencio from the Party of the Labouring Masses, and the other by left Senate candidate Walden Bello, looking at what the Duterte phenomenon means for the Philippines and the left.

The final aim is nothing: The politics of revisionism and anti-revisionism

Chinese communist propaganda poster from the sixties: 'Defeat American Imperialism, defeat Soviet Revisionism' By Doug Enaa Greene I. Introduction May 2, 2016 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Revisionism, like the terms “Marxism-Leninism” or “fascism” is arguably one of the most widely used and abused terms on the revolutionary left.

Anti-imperial Marxism: Borderland socialists and the evolution of Bolshevism on national liberation

Latvian Marxist polemic against class harmony By Eric Blanc May 2, 2016 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from International Socialist Review with the author’s permission — Given the importance Marxists place on the fight against racial and national oppression, it is surprising that relatively little attention has been paid to the socialists of imperial Russia’s borderlands. Most of the inhabitants of the tsarist empire were non-Russian (Poles, Jews, Ukrainians, Finns, Latvians, Georgians, Muslims, etc.), as were most revolutionaries. Yet academic and activist historiography has distorted our understanding of the socialist movement’s overall development by narrowly focusing on Central Russia.

The Kiental Manifesto: Socialists against war, 1916

Rosa Luxemburg’s Spartacists called at Kiental for a new International. By John Riddell April 27, 2016 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from John Riddell’s blog with permission -- One hundred years ago this week, socialist opponents of the First World War gathered in Kiental, Switzerland, issued an appeal calling on working people to “use every means possible to bring a rapid end to the human slaughter.” The appeal, known as the “Kiental Manifesto,” appears below.

Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood: ‘Listen To People, Hear Their Problems And Listen To Their Solutions’

Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood talks to John Haylett about the party’s manifesto which she sums up as three ambitions to build a Wales that is ‘well, well-read and wealthier’

Peru: An initial analysis of the election results

Veronika Mendoza (pictured) ran as the presidential candidate of the left-wing Broad Front in the April 10 general elections.   By Bárbara Ester and María Florencia Pagliarone, translation by Sean Seymour-Jones  April 23 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal translated from Strategic Latin American Centre of Geopolitics, CELAG --  General elections were held in Peru [on April 10]. Along with the position of president and vice-president, 30 congresspeople were elected for the 2016 – 2021 period, and another five representatives to the Andean Parliament.