International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

Reassessing Trotsky's biography of Stalin

John Riddell — 2019-02-03T18:14:40Z

The new edition of Leon Trotsky's biography of Joseph Stalin, published in 2016 by Wellred Books, is a significant contribution to our understanding of Trotsky's thinking in the last years before his assassination in August 1940.

- Reviews section / Trotsky, Reviews, Historical events and figures

Leap Manifesto unites broad forces, builds climate justice campaigns

John Riddell — 2016-04-10T07:25:42Z

“The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has acknowledged shocking details about the violence of Canada's near past. Deepening poverty and inequality are a scar on the country's present. And Canada's record on climate change is a crime against humanity's future.” â€”The Leap Manifesto

- IV495 - April 2016 / Ecology and the Environment, Canada, Climate

The Second International and the First World War – Responding to capitalist global disaster: 1914 and today

John Riddell — 2014-08-14T10:19:35Z

The following talk was delivered to the Socialism 2014 conference in Chicago, June 28, 2014. It has been edited for publication in International Socialist Review. See also Riddells article “Capitalism's First World War and the Battle Against It“ here.

- IV475 - August 2014 / Historical events and figures

100 years ago: Capitalism's world war and the battle against it

John Riddell — 2014-08-12T12:54:26Z

John Riddell is the author and editor of numerous books, including, most recently, Toward the United Front: Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International, 1922 [1]. Here, he explains how the First World War broke out 100 years ago, how the socialist movement reacted, and how a revolutionary antiwar opposition emerged.

- IV475 - August 2014 / Historical events and figures

Clara Zetkin in the lion's den – Workers' unity and feminism at the 1921 Comintern congress

John Riddell — 2014-02-03T14:07:20Z

In 1921, when the Communist International (Comintern) held its Third World Congress, Clara Zetkin was the most widely respected Communist outside Russia. Yet she was the victim of vigorous efforts on the eve of the congress to vilify her and drive her out of the Comintern leadership, if not from the movement. Nonetheless, she ranks, together with Lenin and Trotsky, among the dominant intellectual figures at the congress.

- Sexual politics / Germany, Women, Historical events and figures, Sexual politics, Features

The Communist Women's Movement (1921-26)

John Riddell — 2013-03-07T17:29:44Z

The following working paper was presented to the Toronto conference of Historical Materialism on May 16, 2010. For Spanish-language translation, see IPS blog de debate. When we celebrate International Women's Day, we often refer to its origins in U.S. labour struggles early in the last century. Less often mentioned, however, how it was relaunched and popularized in the 1920s by the Communist Women's Movement. Moreover, this movement itself has been almost forgotten, as have most of its central leaders.

- Sexual politics / Women, Historical events and figures, Sexual politics

David Mandel's â€˜Labour After Communism'

John Riddell — 2005-02-26T20:42:07Z

David Mandel shares his unrivaled knowledge of the union movement in these countries, drawing on innumerable discussions with workers and worker activists.

- IV365 - March 2005 / Eastern Europe, Reviews