Fifteen Years of the World Socialist Web Site 1998-2013

Australian SEP School March 30. 2013

Revolutionary Journalism of Marx and Engels

Marxs and Engels revolutionary journalism is an outstanding phenomenon. Their articles written more than a century ago about specific events and in a language not their own, have not lost their importance and interest for later generations. Their analysis of contemporary events showed up the causes and inner connections, explained their sometimes apparently fortuitous succession, and made clear their meaning in terms of contemporary history. Marx and Engels were not content with only superficial current information. Their articles reflect the results of many years of study in economics, politics, history, military science, and language. [Introduction to Volume XIII of Collected Works]

It was precisely Marx who had first discovered the great law of motion of history, the law according to which all historical struggles, whether they proceed in the political, religious, philosophical or some other ideological domain, are in fact only the more or less clear expression of struggles of social classes, and that the existence and thereby the collisions, too, between these classes are in turn conditioned by the degree of development of their economic position, by the mode of their production and of their exchange determined by it. This law, which has the same significance for history as the law of the transformation of energy has for natural science this law gave him here, too, the key to an understanding of the history of the Second French Republic. He put his law to the test on these historical events, and even after thirty-three years we must still say that it has stood the test brilliantly. [Engels, Preface to the Third Edition of The 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon]

Historical Materialism and the Theoretical Foundations of the WSWS

The generation of Marxists that entered into political activity in the closing years of the 19th century or the first years of the 20th expected revolution as the consequence of socio-economic contradictions that had been identified and analyzed. They conceived of their own, or their opponents, political work in terms of its ultimate consequences for the revolution. Only in this context is it possible to understand why such overriding importance was attached in Marxist polemics to uncovering the class interests served by different policies and identifying the class nature of political tendencies. [Leon Trotsky and the Fate of Socialism in the Twentieth Century, Lecture delivered at Australian SEP Summer School, January 1998]

Marxism as the Science of Perspective

the struggle for socialism requires that the tactics of the working class be based on a scientific understanding of the laws governing the world capitalist system, the international class struggle, and the forms of their reflection in mass consciousness. Herein lies the significance of perspective and the most exacting appraisal of the objective situation, upon which the Trotskyist movement traditionally has placed such intense emphasis. [Marxism, History and Socialist Consciousness, 2007]

Marxism as the Science of Perspective

Working class consciousness cannot be genuine political consciousness unless the workers are trained to respond to all cases of tyranny, oppression, violence, and abuse, no matter what class is affected The consciousness of the working masses cannot be genuine class-consciousness, unless the workers learn, from concrete, and above all topical, political facts and events to observe every other social class in all the manifestations of its intellectual, ethical, and political life; unless they learn to apply in practice the materialist estimate of all aspects of the life and activity of all classes, strata and groups of the population. [Lenin, 1902]

Political Exposures and Socialist Consciousness

 1923-1938: The struggle of the Left

Historical and Programmatic Foundations of the World Socialist Web Site

Opposition against the Stalinist betrayal of the program and principles of the October Revolution of 1917. Fourth International to the issuing of the Open Letter and the split with the Pabloites. FI, culminating in the victory of the orthodox Trotskyists of the ICFI. the ICFI in the aftermath of the split with the WRP and the development of the program of world socialist revolution.

1938-1953: From the founding of the

1953-1986: The Thirty Year War within the

1986-1998: The theoretical rearming of

 March 1992: Twelfth Plenum of the International Committee 1993: Launching of the International Offensive Against Post-Soviet School of Historical Falsification. Reworking of political line on national selfdetermination and trade unions. 1995: Transformation of Leagues into Socialist Equality Parties. 1997: Initiation of discussion on the transition to internet-based publication. January 1998: International School in Sydney

The Path to the World Socialist Web Site: 1992-1998

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The insistence of the ICFI on the primacy of internationalism as the basis of the political strategy and tactical organization of the working class. The uncompromising character of the struggle waged by the ICFI against the domination of the working class by the reactionary labor bureaucracies. The emphasis placed on the revival of a genuine socialist political culture within the working class as an essential intellectual and, one might add, spiritual premise of a new international revolutionary movement. This is the essential intellectual substance and precondition of socialist revolution. The struggle against spontaneism and political fatalism in relation to the development of the crisis of capitalism, the class struggle, and the socialist revolution. [Report to the 18th Plenum of the ICFI, July 1998]

Principles of the WSWS

Our web site provides a source of political perspective to those troubled by the monstrous level of social inequality, which has produced an ever-widening chasm between the wealthy few and the mass of the worlds people. As great events, from financial crises to eruptions of militarism and war, break up the present state of class relations, the WSWS will provide a political orientation for the growing ranks of working people thrown into struggle.

World Socialist Web Site Statement of Principles: February 14, 1998

History doesnt repeat itself, but it does rhyme. -Mark Twain

Fifteen Years in History 1898-1913 1998-2013

Eruption of Imperialist Colonialism Boer War 1899-1902 Suppression of the Boxer Rebellion 1900-01 Spanish-American War of 1898 US Suppression of Philippine Resistance 1899-1904 German Suppression of Hottentot Rebellions 1905-07 Italian Invasion of Libya 1911

1898-1913

Growing Geo-Political Instability and Exacerbation of Inter-Imperialist conflict Anglo-German Naval Arms Race 1898-1913 Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 First Moroccan Crisis of 1905-06 Bosnian Crisis of 1908 Second Moroccan Crisis of 1911 Balkan Wars of 1912-13

1898-1913

Revolutionary Upheavals Russian Revolution of 1905-07 Young Turk Revolt of 1908 Mexican Revolution of 1910 Chinese Revolution of 1911

1898-1913

Political realignment: Bernsteins repudiation of socialist revolution 1898 Luxemburgs defense of revolutionary perspective 1899 Lenin writes What Is To Be Done? 1902 Split at the Second Congress of the RSDLP 1903 Elaboration of the Theory of Permanent Revolution 1906 Adaptation of the German SPD to Trade Unions and the development of Kautskyian centrism 1905-1911

1898-1913

1898-1913 Fifteen Years of Intensifying Economic, Geo-Political, and Intellectual Crisis

The War of 1914 is the most colossal breakdown in history of an economic system destroyed by its own inherent contradictions. All the historical forces whose task it has been to guide the bourgeois society, to speak in its name and to exploit it, have declared their historical bankruptcy by the War. They defended capitalism as a system of human civilization, and the catastrophe born out of that system is primarily their catastrophe. . . . The revolutionary reaction of the masses will be all the more powerful the more prodigious the cataclysm which history is now bringing upon them. Capitalism has created the material conditions of a new Socialist economic system. Imperialism has led the capitalist nations into historic chaos. The War of 1914 shows the way out of this chaos by violently urging the proletariat on to the path of Revolution. Leon Trotsky, War and the International, 1915

World War I: The Outcome of Economic, Geopolitical and Social Contradictions of Capitalism

"What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government. [Francis Fukuyama, The End of History ,1989] The Collapse of the Soviet state must lead to a period of protracted instability not only in those areas which were once part of the Soviet Union. Rather, the breakup of the USSR must exacerbate the global contradictions of the imperialist system. [David North, The End of the USSR, 1991]

The Dissolution of the USSR: The End of History or a New Era of Crisis?

Collapse of Asian Bubble 1998 Collapse of Dot.com Bubble 2000 Collapse of Enron 2001 Collapse of Sub-Prime Mortgage Bubble and the start of the Great World Recession 2007Collapse of Greece and Cyprus 2012-13

Intensifying Systemic Economic Crisis

1998-2013

the chronic character assumed by the existing financial crisis only forebodes for it a more violent and destructive end. The longer the crisis lasts the worse the ultimate reckoning. Europe is now like a man on the verge of bankruptcy, forced to continue at once all the enterprises that have ruined him, and all the desperate expedients by which he hopes to put off and to prevent the last dread crash.

Marxs Appraisal of the Current European Economic Crisis

Volcanic Eruption of Imperialism and Neo 1998 Bombing of Iraq 1999 Bombing of Serbia 2001 Invasion of Afghanistan 2003 Invasion of Iraq 2006 Invasion of Lebanon 2011 Intervention in Libya 2011 Intervention in Syria 2013 Intervention in Mali and Niger

Colonialism

1998-2013

In the period of crisis the hegemony of the United States will operate more completely, more openly and more ruthlessly than in the period of boom. The United States will seek to overcome and extricate herself from her difficulties and maladies primarily at the expense of Europe, regardless of whether this occurs in Asia, Canada, South America, Australia, or Europe itself, or whether this takes place peacefully or through war. [Trotsky, Critique of the Draft Program, 1928]

Leon Trotskys Appraisal of US Imperialism in the First Decade of the 21st Century

Guantanamo Abu Ghraib Rendition Enhanced Interrogation Water Boarding Drones Targeted Killings

1998-2003 Counter-Revolution in Human Rights

 1998: The Impeachment of President Clinton 2000: The Theft of the Presidential Election

What the decision of this court will reveal is how far the American ruling class is prepared to go in breaking with traditional bourgeois-democratic and constitutional norms. Is it prepared to sanction ballot fraud and the suppression of votes and install in the White House a candidate who has attained that office through blatantly illegal and anti-democratic methods? A substantial section of the bourgeoisie, and perhaps even a majority of the US Supreme Court, is prepared to do just that. There has been a dramatic erosion of support within the ruling elites for the traditional forms of bourgeois democracy in the United States. [David North, Sydney Public Meeting, December 2000]

1998-2013 The Crisis of US Democracy

When democracies fight terrorism, they are defending the proposition that their political life should be free of violence. It may also require coercion, deception, secrecy and violation of rights. [Michael Ignatieff, The Lesser Evil, 2005]

The Liberal Defense of the State of Exception

1998-2013

It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws of the United States for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States. [Attorney General Eric Holder, Letter to Sen. Rand Paul, March 4, 2013]

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury . . . nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

The Fifth Amendment

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.

Sixth Amendment

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

The Eighth Amendment

Section 1. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

The Fourteenth Amendment

It was the culmination of years of painstaking intelligence work, intense deliberations by lawyers working for President Obama and turf wars between the Pentagon and the C.I.A., whose parallel wars converged on the killing grounds of Yemen. For what was apparently the first time since the Civil War, the United States government had carried out the deliberate killing of an American citizen as a wartime enemy and without a trial. [NY Times. March 9, 2013]

The US Government Murder of Anwar al-Awlaki

The missile strike on Sept. 30, 2011 that killed Mr. Awlaki a terrorist leader whose death lawyers in the Obama administration believed to be justifiable, also killed Mr. Khan, though officials judged he was not a significant enough threat to warrant being specifically targeted. The next month, another drone strike mistakenly killed Mr. Awlakis 16-year-old son. [NY Times]

The US Government Murder of Samir Khan

Bourgeois Medias Falsification of Constitution to Legitimize State Killings

the Constitution generally requires judicial process before the government may kill an American [NY Times]

nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. [Fifth Amendment]

Aware that Mr. Obama was closely following the hunt, agencies competed to get new scrapes about Mr. Awlaki into the presidents daily intelligence briefing At the White House, frustration was mounting. [NY Times]

The US Government Murder of Anwar al-Awlaki

Awlakis son, 16, was killed by a missile on October 14., 2011. It was a tragic error and, for the Obama administration, a public relations disaster. He had been born in Denver, said a certificate from the Colorado health department. In the United States, at the time his governments missile killed him, the teenager would have just reached his driving age. [NY Times]

The US Government Murder of Anwar al-Awlakis Son

The Due Process Clause would not prohibit a lethal operation of the sort contemplated here. The right not to be assassinated must be balanced against the governments interest in prosecuting war. Imminence... does not require the United States to have clear evidence that a specific attack on US persons and interests will take place in the immediate future.

Justice Department White Paper

I would like to urge the Left to learn to chew gum and walk at the same time [It]should avoid making foreign intervention an absolute taboo the way the Right makes abortion an absolute taboo if doing so makes us heartless To make anti-imperialism trump all other values in a mindless way leads to frankly absurd positions If NATO needs me, Im there. [Juan Cole, March 2011]

1998-2013 Political Realignment of the Petty-Bourgeois Pseudo-Left

The time for knee-jerk anti-imperialism has now passed. Not because US imperialism has disappeared from the Middle East, or shed its malevolent intent, but because the world has changed. [Corey Oakley, Socialist Alternative, August 2012]

1998-2013 Fifteen Years of Rising Social Inequality

1998-2013 Fifteen Years of Rising Social Inequality

1998-2013 Fifteen Years of Rising Social Inequality

1998-2013 Fifteen Years of Rising Social Inequality

1998-2013 Fifteen Years of Rising Social Inequality

1998-2013 An Historical Appraisal

A pre-revolutionary era of intensifying Economic, Political, Social and Intellectual Crisis

Karl Marx was supposed to be dead and buried. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and Chinas Great Leap Forward into capitalism, communism faded into the quaint backdrop of James Bond movies or the deviant mantra of Kim Jong Un. The class struggle that Marx believed determined the course of history seemed to melt away in a prosperous era of free trade and free enterprise

Marxs Revenge: How Class Struggle Is Shaping the World

Time Magazine March 27, 2013

Or so we thought. With the global economy in a protracted crisis, and workers around the world burdened by joblessness, debt and stagnant incomes, Marxs biting critique of capitalism cannot be so easily dismissed. Accumulation of wealth at one pole is at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation at the opposite pole, Marx wrote. A growing body of evidence suggests that he may have been right.

The emergence of a global labor market has defanged unions throughout the developed world. The political left, dragged rightward since the free-market onslaught of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, has not devised a credible alternative course. That leaves open a scary possibility: that Marx not only diagnosed capitalisms flaws but also the outcome of those flaws. If policymakers didnt discover new methods of ensuring fair economic opportunity, the workers of the world may just unite. Marx may yet have his revenge.

There is something in human history like retribution; and it is a rule of historical retribution that its instrument be forged not by the offended, but by the offender himself. [Karl Marx, 1856]

Build the Fourth International as the World Party of Socialist Revolution!