The 2026 West Bengal Assembly election was possibly the most important, not just for the province of West Bengal, but with an all-India significance. The Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies had found in the 2024 Parliamentary elections that they had gone over the peak and were in a decline. With the bulk of India’s TV channels and much of the print media owned by a small number of houses all aligned with dominant capitalist groups that support the Modi government, the predictions had been for a massive BJP and NDA sweep. Some Exit Polls even gave them close to 400 seats in the 543 member parliament. In reality the BJP won 240 seats, less than a majority, and even with all its allies it had just 293 seats. It was evident that the fascist chariot was slowing down.
War, economic crisis, and discontent in Putin’s Russia
8 June, by ,Vladimir Putin’s regime is beginning to show signs of frailty amidst its ongoing imperialist war on Ukraine. Kyiv has fought the regime to a standoff, Russia’s casualties mount to about 1.2 million dead and wounded, and Russia’s economy, despite the temporary sugar rush of increased oil prices, faces mounting problems. Here Tempest’s Ashley Smith interviews the editors of Posle, a Russian socialist website, about Putin’s war, regime, popular grievances, and the challenges of resistance under autocracy.
Anticolonial fraud: The Kremlin in Africa
8 June, byThe Kremlin is exploiting anti-imperialist sentiment in Africa to advance its own imperial ambitions.
The 1926 General Strike in Britain
8 June, by ,This 1976 pamphlet first appeared as a series of articles in the Workers News, a fortnightly journal of socialist news and analysis.
The political economy of Ukraine’s war and the politics of a coming bad peace
29 May, byWhat Moscow expected to be a war of weeks is now into its fifth year. Ukrainian railway workers, miners and energy crews keep the country running under Russian bombardment while Ukraine’s oligarchic state will not ask the rich to pay for defence. This article documents the price the Ukrainian working class is paying, the feminised volunteer infrastructure carrying what the state will not, the mass anti-corruption mobilisations, and the stakes of a reconstruction now being designed in donor conferences.
Affordability or Crisis of Social Reproduction?
29 May, by“Right now, we are seeing an upswing in left and progressive movement activity in the fight against Trump, with No Kings Day, May Day Strong, and Anti-ICE activity, as well as significant union growth, tenants’ unions, and the proliferation of union reform caucuses (among others). But there is the danger that—like the short-lived upsurge around Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, and the resistance during Trump’s first term in office—much of this activity will burn out for lack of solid grassroots organization, only to leave another trail of undemocratic advocacy NGOs and a tiny number of socialist “electeds” swimming against the current in the Democratic Party.”
Power and urgency in the ecological crisis
20 May, by ,The urgency of the global crisis of capitalism, particularly because of the ecological crisis, is undeniable. Answering this question requires a clear vision of the question of power and the transition to another society.
Learning & Advancing from Setbacks
20 May, by“Fighting for race and gender equality and justice is part of the process of uniting the working class.”
The Self-Emancipation of Workers and the Oppressed: Lessons from the German and Spanish Revolutions
20 May, by“‘The emancipation of the working class will be the work of the workers themselves’. I consider this proposal to be the most fundamental rupture, the most decisive turning point between the conception of socialism borne by Marxism and all the revolutionary thought that preceded it.”
Leftist studies in China and the United States
20 May, by ,“Shi’s experiences reflect the latent dissatisfaction of Chinese intellectuals with mainstream ideology.”
