Chris Marsden, 59, is a member of the international editorial board of the World Socialist Web Site, and the national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party in the UK. He joined the Trotskyist movement in 1983 and has played a leading role in the work of the International Committee of the Fourth International for several decades.
Examining the crisis that erupted in the Bolshevik Party on the eve of the October insurrection puts the vital question of the irreplaceable role of the revolutionary party under the microscope, and enables us to more fully understand the tasks faced by our party and its cadre today.
The British General Strike of May 1926 remains, after the passage of almost a century, a defining moment in the history of the workers’ movement. Its lessons are essential for the development of a revolutionary strategy, not just in Britain but the world over.
Chile’s supposed transition to democracy is built on a lie: that it is in everyone’s interest that the past be forgotten and the crimes that were committed be forgiven.
Dave Hyland’s lasting political legacy is that in 1985-1986 he led the faction of the Workers Revolutionary Party that declared its support for the International Committee of the Fourth International and opposed the efforts of the party’s central leadership, Gerry Healy, Cliff Slaughter and Mike Banda, to liquidate the Trotskyist movement in Britain and internationally.
Seventy-six years after his assassination at the hands of a Stalinist agent, Trotsky remains not only a towering historical personality, but also a figure of acute contemporary political relevance.
Dave Hyland joined the Socialist Labour League at a crucial juncture in not just British, but world history, and it was world events that ultimately shaped him.
On Sunday, June 23, the Parti de l’egalité socialiste, the French section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, held a public meeting in Paris entitled, “Free Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning!”
SEP (UK) National Secretary Chris Marsden spoke at the May 12 meeting in London in defence of Assange and Manning. This clip has been taken from the full video livestream of the event, published by independent journalist Gordon Dimmack.
This is the speech delivered by Chris Marsden, national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (Britain), to the 2019 International Online May Day Rally organized by the International Committee of the Fourth International and the WSWS.
Labour haemorrhaged support across the UK and among all sections of workers, young and old, from the north and south, those in favour of leaving the European Union and those for remaining.
For the past year, Corbyn has led the suppression of any discussion over Assange’s imprisonment in Britain and the country’s participation in the US-led attempt to destroy him.
Corbyn’s defence of the Labour Party’s grip on the working class and his continued opposition to any struggle against the right wing is a vindication of the political stand taken by the Socialist Equality Party.
Labour was, from its birth, dedicated to the defence of capitalism against the threat of international socialism.
Marx repudiated the central premise of reformism when drawing the fundamental lesson of the Paris Commune of 1871. The first attempt by the working class to take power into its own hands ended in the slaughter of up to 20,000 Communards.
The answer to the Brexit crisis is not unity with the EU, but working class unity in a continent-wide struggle against all of Europe’s governments for the United Socialist States of Europe.
Nigel Farage is intent on portraying the European elections, which will see a massive abstention, as a plebiscite on Brexit and a weapon against any move towards a second referendum.
Having spent over three years hailing Corbyn as the left rebirth of Labour, Galloway now parrots the claim that Farage’s politics articulate the views of the working class on what he insists is the main issue of the day—Brexit.
A new report shows that decades of cuts in social programs have fallen on all workers, regardless of whether they voted to leave or remain in the EU.
The Socialist Equality Party’s campaign for an active boycott of the June 23, 2016 referendum on UK membership of the European Union sought to mobilise the working class against nationalism and war.
The SWP have joined in the efforts to railroad Assange and blacken his name, justifying a course of action that would end with the WikiLeaks editor facing a show trial in the US.
The Socialist Workers Party’s aim is to promote the “progressive” credentials of the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn and of the Trades Union Congress.
The building of a genuine anti-war movement can only proceed through a ruthless exposure of Labour’s apologists.
The Revolutionary Socialists have played a vital part in a political conspiracy against the Egyptian working class.
The former Greek finance minister described in a recent interview the “air of defeat” within the Syriza leadership following the landslide “no” vote in the July 5 referendum on EU austerity.
Varoufakis’ essay on becoming an “erratic Marxist” is a damning exposure of the political role of the new Syriza-led government in Greece and the social layer that it represents.
Various pseudo-left groups have moved from providing political apologies for Syriza’s coalition with the Independent Greeks to fully embracing the alliance as a model to be emulated
Syriza has come to power based upon a programme that articulates the interests of a powerful section of the Greek bourgeoisie and more privileged sections of the upper-middle class.
Mnangagwa, who came to power in a coup against President Robert Mugabe last November, advances himself as the strongman required to restore the order necessary for resumed investment by the major corporations.
Two things recommend Ramaphosa to the world’s bourgeoisie—his fabulous wealth and the fact that he earned it through a readiness to deal ruthlessly with the working class.
Mugabe’s resignation is the result of a palace coup with political and economic aims dictated by bourgeois forces no less corrupt than Mugabe.
The goal of the new Zimbabwean president, Mnangagwa, is to impose an adrenalized version of the capitalist policies that have already created so much suffering.
Below is the report given by Chris Marsden, national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (Britain), to public meetings this past week in London and Manchester.
Yasser Arafat will be remembered as a man of tremendous personal courage and unswerving loyalty to the cause of Palestinian liberation. Millions throughout the world will dismiss with contempt the slanders heaped on Arafat, the international symbol of Palestinian resistance for nearly four decades, by the likes of Ariel Sharon and George W. Bush, war criminals both, who have the temerity to call Arafat a terrorist.
The political career of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, whose death June 10 ended a 30-year reign, illustrates the organic incapacity of the Arab bourgeoisie to realise the aspirations of the Arab masses for freedom from foreign domination, democracy and social justice.
The passing of the Arab League deadline for the regime of Bashir al-Assad to meet its terms brings military intervention in Syria’s escalating civil war by the region’s powers one step closer.
Cohen’s attack on the left’s “anti-Semitism,” which seeks to proscribe all criticism of Israel, is a slander directed in particular against Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters.
What is revealed by the renewed slander campaign against Foot is a dirty plot by the security services to bring down a Labour government, had it won the 1983 general election, that now reads like a dry run for today’s campaign against Corbyn.
This month marks the 25th anniversary of the 1984-85 British miners’ strike. We are republishing the conclusion of a two-part series that reviews its essential lessons. The series was first published in March 2004 to mark the 20th anniversary of the strike.
Most working people will have greeted the announcement of her demise with cold indifference, contempt, and, in some cases, celebration.
