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 Alain Krivine

Wednesday 16th March 2022

The organisations of the International Socialist Tendency were saddened to learn of the death at the age of 80 of the French revolutionary leader Alain Krivine. For us he always represented the indomitable spirit of the great revolt by French workers and students in May-June 1968. See the tribute from the British Socialist Workers Party here

Despite disagreements between the IST and the Fourth International, we had the opportunity to work together on many occasions. Alain was in London in 1968 actively supporting the LSE occupation and building the movement against the Vietnam war alongside IS comrades. Many decades later, we marched together in the streets of Genoa building the new anticapitalist movement.

But above all we are in debt to Alain and his comrades in the Jeunesse Communiste Révolutionnaire – the starting point of the LCR and now the NPA – for leading the way in reviving revolutionary ...

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IST statement on the war in Ukraine

Tuesday 15th March 2022

1. 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.

2. The inter-imperialist character of this conflict is confirmed by the policy of the Kyiv government, which is to draw the West into the shooting war. This is, ...

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IST statement on Ukraine crisis

Wednesday 16th February 2022

1- The crisis over Ukraine has brought Europe closer to a terrifying war. In its essence it is a conflict between the most powerful imperialist bloc in the world, the United States and its European allies, and Russia, a weaker but still vicious imperialist power. For both sides, Ukraine is merely a pawn. Working-class people have no interest in the victory of either side in this conflict. Revolutionary socialists in the states involved in this dispute must give priority to opposing their ‘own’ governments.

2- This particular crisis was sparked by the decision of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to concentrate troops on the border with Ukraine. He justified this threatening move partly by appealing to Great Russian nationalist mythology about the historic links between Russia and Ukraine and partly by repeating his long-standing grievances about the US policy of expanding NATO and the European Union eastwards. He ...

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Online conference: The Revolutionary Alternative to Capitalism’s Climate Disaster

Tuesday 19th October 2021

The conference is on Sunday 14th November.

Speakers so far include:

· Sabrina Fernandez (Brazil) · Alex Callinicos (Britain) · Özdeş Özbay (Turkey) · John Molyneux (Ireland) · Gyekye Tanoh (Ghana) · Michelle Robidoux (Canada) · Amy Leather (Britain) · Erima Dall (Australia) · Martin Empson (Britain)

Sessions include: The Limits of COP26 and Capitalist Solutions · Marxism, Class and Ecology · Stopping Environmental Destruction – Fighting for System Change

This November the UN COP26 climate conference will be in Glasgow. It will take place during a year of climate disaster and marks a quarter century of failure by mainstream politics to deal with the environmental crisis.

The free-market, neo-liberal solutions on offer at COP26 and its predecessor conferences will do nothing for ordinary people facing unprecedented disaster. Instead the powerful economies of the Global North will use COP26 to push their own agenda – solutions that enrich the 1% while failing the ...

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