Birth rates are decreasing around the world, and the ruling classes in capitalist countries have begun to see it as a crisis. Socialists should reject this view — falling fertility results from the mounting crises of capitalism itself and is nothing to panic over. Instead we must objectively analyze the causes and take a class-struggle approach to the issue.
Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic mayoral primary in New York City has caused excitement on the left due to his democratic-socialist politics and his support for Palestine. Such excitement has historically led to disorientation and disillusionment when reformist Democrats — such as AOC and Brandon Johnson — inevitably betray the left. Revolutionaries must retain our opposition to all Democrats and executives of the capitalist state.
The political mainstream is dominated by philosophies that promote idealism or dualism, which are ultimately irrational views of the universe. A new book by Canadian Marxists Murray E. G. Smith and Tim Hayslip argues eloquently for a monist or non-dualist dialectical materialist approach to politics — the only rational approach to solving the world’s crises and the only path to socialism.
It is often the case that newly radicalizing Marxists end up confused about our relationship to Maoism. Is it just “Marxism in China” or “socialism with Chinese characteristics”? Is it a newer form of Marxism which we can learn from and engage with? What Maoist ideas,...