Today, March 5, at 4.25 pm local time, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez died. This was announced by Vice President Maduro.

The Syrian revolution that broke out in March 2011 was part of the wider wave of revolution that spread across the whole of the Arab world. The International Marxist Tendency supported the revolution without reservations in spite of its shortcomings. Since then, however, due to the lack of a revolutionary leadership, what was a genuine expression of the masses, has now been hijacked by reactionary elements that have a very different agenda.

In a period of crisis and decline of capitalism, to many people religion is the one certainty to cling on to. But if the Pope himself is no longer convinced he can keep his position until his death, this illusion of solidity begins to break down. The effect of the surprise announcement of his retirement by Pope Benedict XVI on the consciousness of over a billion Roman Catholics is going to be that of a spiritual earthquake, and it is surely going to have political consequences too.

As we explained in Part One, the Arab Revolution brought down several despotic regimes, but due to the lack of a clear revolutionary workers’ alternative, the vacuum was filled by Islamist parties. But once in power, these forces soon began to expose their true reactionary nature, and thus prepared the ground for a second wave of mobilisations. How did all this affect Syria and other countries in the region?

Two years since the Egyptian revolution and we have seen many killed on the streets of Cairo in clashes between the revolutionary youth and workers and the Islamists of the regime. This is an indication of the situation as it stands today in the Arab world. The revolution brought down the Mubarak and Ben Ali regimes, but did not solve any of the underlying social problems that were the fundamental cause of the revolution. [A statement based on a discussion by the International Executive Committee of the IMT at its recent January meeting].

Continued from part one

At its recent meeting in January the International Executive Committee of the IMT discussed the situation in Europe, highlighting the growing level of class struggle on the continent as the effects of the austerity measures being applied everywhere begin to be felt by the workers and youth. We are publishing a slightly edited version of the points raised in the discussion.

The recent criminalisation case of comrade Sultoni Farras, a worker activist from Progresif Union and Sekber Buruh, who is being sued with “Unpleasant Action” law by the bosses, puts forward a question that at first seems petty but if we look further turns out to be quite fundamental in the workers’ struggle. This relates to the question of “pleasantness” and “unpleasantness”. (Note: in Indonesia, the word “pleasantness” can also mean “happiness”)

In this third part of the article on Keynes, Hayek and Marx, the author deals with the shortcomings of Hayek's economic analysis and shows the utopian character of modern Keynesianism. Only socialism can provide a positive way out of the present crisis.

In this second part of his article on Keynes, Hayek, and Marx Adam Booth deals with the limitations of Keynes' economic theory.