On Walter Rodney: Pan-Afrikanism, Marxism and the next generation

by Julian Lahai Samboma

Pambazuka News | April 14, 2019

Image source: Guyana Times

The author reports on the Walter Rodney conference, which took place in March 2019 at the London’s School of Oriental and African Studies and whose theme was “On Walter Rodney: Pan-Afrikanism, Marxism and the Next Generation”.

“Learn from life, learn from our people, learn from books, learn from the experience of others. Never stop learning. ” – Amilcar Cabral, freedom fighter.

Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa had a profound influence on my ideological development growing up in Sierra Leone.  It exposed neo-colonialism as a process of active, on-going underdevelopment, a process with an historical starting point and an end, i.e. a motive, which is the theft of Africa’s labour and material resources for the development of Europe and North America. Although I have re-read it on many occasions since then, I must admit that I have not paid this great teacher the proper attention he deserves.  

Hugo Chávez Frías: When a friend departs

by Raúl Antonio Capote

Granma | March 08, 2019

Chávez was the Venezuelan people, he was one of them, he was born of them, and he maintained that spirit of origin. Photo: AVN

Ignacio Ramonet, in the book My First Life, an extended interview with Hugo Chávez, describes how: “We had arrived at the center of the infinite Venezuelan plains the day before (…) the cracked, hardened earth around us was dotted with colorful bushes, splendid giant fruit trees flowering.” They were in the land of Chávez, the boy who sold dulce de lechosa (papaya in syrup), the man who embodied Venezuela’s longing for freedom, and set out to raise a rebellious continent and lead it on the path to its second independence.

Rosa Luxemburg’s struggle and the parallels with today

by Steve Johnson

Morning Star | February 10, 2019

ON THE 100th anniversary year of the murders of the outstanding German revolutionaries Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg it is fitting that the London Morning Star Readers and Supporters Group should be having its relaunch with a screening of Margarethe von Trotha’s classic film The Patience of Rosa Luxemburg.

Hammers will never kill the ideas and inspiration of Karl Marx

by Peter Frost

Morning Star | February 08, 2019

Marx’s tomb at Highgate cemetery

IT IS hard to understand what the fascist idiot who attacked Karl Marx’s tomb with repeated frenzied hammer blows last weekend thought they might achieve.

Over the years the impressive monument has had more than its share of attacks from hammers, paint and even bombs but Marx’s ideas and philosophy live on to inspire working people all over the world.

George Fernandes: The Descent from Idealism to Vanity

by Abheek Barman

The Wire | January 30, 2019

George Fernandes. Credit: Reuters

George Fernandes died age 88, on January 29, of complications related to a virulent flu. A decade earlier, he had slipped below the radar of politics. Most Indians under 45 will respond with blank stares at the mention of his name. Few recall his ascent as a scruffy, scrappy anti-authority figurehead in the 1970s, and his later, loving embrace of the seductive charms of Delhi’s right-wing politics.

Trade unionists celebrate Eleanor Marx’s 164th birthday

by Marcus Barnett

Morning Star | January 17, 2019

YOUNG trade unionists and Labour members celebrated Eleanor Marx’s 164^th birthday in London last night.

Eleanor, the youngest daughter of Karl Marx, was one of the founding organisers of the National Union of General Workers, which merged into the general union GMB.

One, Two, Many Rosa Luxemburgs

by Ines Schwerdtner

The Wire | January 17, 2019

Rosa Luxemburg. Credit: Flckr

Hardly any figure in the history of socialism represents such an impressive combination of sharp-minded theoretician and rhetorically explosive politician as did Rosa Luxemburg. Her almost daily newspaper articles, her speeches at party and trade union meetings, her letters and theoretical writings all show us as much.