Socialism From Below

The International Socialist Tendency (IST) is a current of revolutionary socialist organisations, based in different countries, which share a political outlook and seek to help each other by exchanging experience and practical support.

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IST STATEMENT ON THE WAR IN SUDAN

Friday 5th May 2023

Once again war is ripping apart the lives of millions. A capital city is under bombardment, dead bodies litter the streets while hospitals and markets burn. It has been left to ordinary people to organise medical supplies, find water and food and risk their lives under fire to keep basic infrastructure going.

Unlike in the war in Ukraine, the warring parties in Sudan are both from within the same country as the civilian population they are terrorising. One of them, the Rapid Support Force (RSF), is a brutal militia which grew out of the Janjaweed forces, the other the Sudanese Armed Forces. Their leaders have long been partners in crimes against the Sudanese people, from Darfur, to Port Sudan, to the streets of Khartoum. Now these thieves and murderers are fighting each other for a bigger share of the spoils of power.

Just as in Ukraine, the horrors of this ...

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IST STATEMENT ON THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE WAR IN UKRAINE

Monday 20th February 2023

1. The war in Ukraine is a year old. We responded to the initial invasion with this assessment: ‘The Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February was an act of imperialist aggression and a violation of the Ukrainian people’s right to self-determination. For Ukrainians it is a war of national self-defence. At the same time from the side of Western imperialist powers led by the United States and organised through NATO it is a proxy war against Russia. The war is both an imperialist invasion of a former colony and part of an inter-imperialist conflict between the US and Russia with their allies. We are against both imperial powers. We express our solidarity with the Ukrainian people, supporting their right to resist the invasion. While doing so, we also oppose NATO and its expansion to the East.’ https://internationalsocialists.org/announcements/ist-statement-on-the-war-in-ukraine

2. Developments over the past year have vindicated this analysis. ...

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IST STATEMENT ON EARTHQUAKES IN TURKEY AND SYRIA

Sunday 12th February 2023

1. We declare our solidarity with all the victims of the terrible earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday 6 February. This is a huge human catastrophe. The death toll has already reached over 33,000, but insurance companies are assuming as many as 200,000 deaths. But this is not a ‘natural disaster’. Earthquakes are inevitable in regions such as this where they have been taking place since antiquity. The terrible death toll, however, is a consequence of human action and inaction, shaped by a capitalist system based on exploitation and driven by the competitive accumulation of capital.

2. Action – the government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, based on the neoliberal Islamist AKP but now in coalition with the fascist MHP, has been in power in Turkey for more than 20 years. The economic growth of which Erdoğan boasts has been driven by a construction boom that has enriched ...

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After COP27: Climate catastrophe & the need for revolution

Sunday 4th December 2022

An online event hosted by the International Socialist Tendency. Speakers include:

· Muzan Alneel, Sudan
· Tuna Emren, Turkey
· Camilla Royle, Britain
· Gyekye Tanoh, Ghana

This year the UN’s climate conference COP27 takes place in the luxury resort of Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt and will be chaired by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. Sisi’s counter-revolutionary regime has viciously repressed protesters and activists. His regime helped destroy the Egyptian Revolution which gave millions of people hope when it brought down the dictator Mubarak in 2011.

Delegates will meet in the midst of a deepening climate crisis. From famine in the Horn of Africa, floods in Pakistan and Nigeria to wildfires in Europe and hurricanes in the Americas, 2022 has seen environmental disasters in almost every part of the world, which have hit the poorest people first and hardest, impacting across lines of class, race and gender.

Today, environmental movements cannot have any illusions ...


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