“Do I really need to read long theoretical books to be a communist?” This is a common question among class fighters today. In our final episode of the season, we make the case that, in order to change the world, it is first necessary to understand it. And for that, we need a philosophy!
The American trade unionist Bill Haywood once said: “I’ve never read Marx's Capital, but I've got the marks of capital all over my body!” While it’s true that working people don’t need to pick up any books to understand through bitter experience the horrors of capitalism, is life experience enough?
After all, if the experience of exploitation was sufficient to bring about revolutionary change, surely capitalism would’ve been brought down long ago?
If we look at the bafflement of the liberals and cynicism of the reformists in the face of politics today, we see the consequences of failing to scratch the surface to the deeper truth of what is going on.
Just as a surgeon would not attempt to operate through intuition and guesswork alone, if we are serious about ending capitalism, we first need to diagnose why it is in crisis and determine what we can replace it with.
Marxist philosophy is the most powerful tool we have for this purpose. But Marxism is itself the culmination of millennia of philosophical development. It is no accident that Vladimir Lenin steeled himself, not only in Marx, but also the great German philosopher Hegel!
Leading communist and host of the Against the Stream podcast, Hamid Alizadeh takes us on a whistle-stop tour of the history of thought, from Plato to Marx, to illustrate the advantages of developing a philosophical outlook, rather than relying on mere ‘common sense’.
It was precisely the worked-out philosophical perspective of the leadership of the Bolshevik Party, Lenin and Trotsky in particular, that allowed them to understand the dynamics of history that gave rise to the Russian Revolution, and play a leading role in ensuring its victory. As Trotsky wrote:
“It is historical experience that the greatest revolution in all history was not led by the party which started out with bombs but by the party which started out with dialectical materialism.”
By the end of this video, we hope you will not only be convinced of the value of studying theory, but eagre to take it up!
As Marx once said: “ignorance never yet helped anybody!”
This is the final Spectre of Communism season four. We will be back later in the year for a new season! Please like, share and subscribe, and let us know in the comments what you thought about this season, all feedback is appreciated!
In the meantime, check out our sister show, Against the Stream, which provides rolling analysis of the world situation from a Marxist point of view every Thursday. See you soon!
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Sources:
Lenin Collected Works: Volume 38, (Philosophical Notebooks), https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/cw/volume38.htm
Anti-Dühring, Friedrich Engels, https://marxist.com/classics-anti-duehring.htm
Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy, Friedrich Engels, https://marxist.com/classics-ludwig-feuerbach-and-the-end-of-classical-german-philosophy.htm
‘How Lenin studied Hegel’, Hamid Alizadeh, https://marxist.com/how-lenin-studied-hegel.htm
‘Lenin in a Year: In Defence of Materialism’, Alan Woods, https://marxist.com/materialism-and-and-empirio-criticism-introduction-by-alan-woods.htm
‘In defence of theory — or ignorance never yet helped anybody’, Alan Woods, https://marxist.com/defence-theory-ignorance-never-helped.htm
‘Marxism versus postmodernism’, Daniel Morley and Hamid Alizadeh, https://marxist.com/marxism-versus-postmodernism.htm
‘Aristotle’s Metaphysics’, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-metaphysics/
The Republic, Plato, https://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.html
‘An Open Letter to Comrade Burnham’, L. Trotsky, https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/idom/dm/14-burnham.htm
What is fascism and is it a threat today? In this episode of the Spectre of Communism podcast, we discuss the history of fascism’s rise to power in the 1930s, to learn the lessons for our movement.
Our guest, Niklas Albin Svensson, is a leading member of the Revolutionary Communist International and the editor of a brand new collection of articles by Leon Trotsky and Ted Grant: ‘Democracy, Bonapartism and Fascism: Class Struggle in the 1930s’.
The book is available to pre-order from Wellred Books here: https://wellred-books.com/democracy-bonapartism-fascism/
The media is full of blood-curdling comparisons between the political situation today and the 1930s, equating current politicians with the likes of Adolph Hitler. But whatever one thinks of Donald Trump, there is a clear difference between America in 2025 and Germany in 1933!
The main purpose of such comparisons, Niklas argues, is to prettify ’normal’ capitalist politicians and democracy under the likes of Joe Biden and Keir Starmer, who have carried out vicious attacks on working people and facilitated genocidal imperialist policies abroad.
We must not be diverted by this scaremongering. Communists must have a sober view and a scientific understanding of what fascism is and what it is not, because this guides the way we act.
Capitalism has always treated fascism as a reserve weapon in its back pocket. In times of intense class struggle, with revolution on the cards, it is an instrument of last resort that the ruling class can deploy to physically destroy the organisations of the working class, eradicate their democratic rights, and force them into subjugation.
Looking at the history of Mussolini and Hitler’s conquest of power, as Niklas explains, we find the primary responsibility lies with the politicians and wealthy industrialists who funded and abetted their movements as a ‘lesser evil’ to communism (as stated bluntly by no less than Winston Churchill).
But the errors and crimes of the leaders of the workers’ movement are also a factor. The Social Democrats found themselves constantly propping up the ‘lesser evil’, ultimately paving the road for the greatest possible evil. Meanwhile, the Communist leaders pursued sectarian policies that equated the Social Democrats with the fascists, preventing a united struggle against a common enemy.
While fascism is not in power or on the brink of power anytime soon, fascist groups do exist and pose a serious threat to workers and oppressed communities at a local level. They must be met with the overwhelming strength of the organised working class and driven off, wherever they raise their heads.
The tragedies of the 1930s are an object lesson in the lengths capitalism will go to preserve its rule, and in the dangers of dividing and confusing the working class at the pivotal moment. These are harrowing but invaluable insights for class fighters today. Ultimately, the only way to guarantee the nightmares of the past are never repeated is to bring down capitalism and create a socialist alternative, before it is too late.
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Sources:
Democracy, Bonapartism and Fascism: Class Struggle in the 1930s, Leon Trotsky and Ted Grant, pre-order: https://wellred-books.com/democracy-bonapartism-fascism/
‘Trump's first weeks as president have been enough to give the nightmare of America's turn to fascism a feeling of reality’, Le Monde article (criticised in the podcast) https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2025/03/02/trump-s-first-weeks-as-president-have-been-enough-to-give-the-nightmare-of-america-s-turn-to-fascism-a-feeling-of-reality_6738723_23.html
‘The rise of Fascism in Italy: 100 years since the March on Rome’, Sinistra Classe Rivoluzione, https://marxist.com/the-rise-of-fascism-in-italy-100-years-since-the-march-on-rome.htm
‘White supremacists and militias have infiltrated police across US’, Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/27/white-supremacists-militias-infiltrate-us-police-report
The Second World War is one of the most-mythologised events in history. In the West, we are led to believe that Winston Churchill and Roosevelt single-handedly led the Allies in a struggle for democracy against the fascist totalitarianism of Nazi Germany. But what’s the real story of WWII: the one they don’t teach you at school or on the History Channel?
We welcome Marxist theorist, revolutionary and historian Alan Woods onto the Spectre of Communism to talk about the war, which in the last analysis came down to single combat between Nazi Germany, with all the productive forces of Europe behind it, and the might of the USSR and its planned economy. Thankfully for all of humanity, the latter emerged victorious.
The fact that Soviet Russia was chiefly responsible for Hitler’s defeat is often buried in the ‘official’ histories. So too is the fact that the European imperialists (Churchill and the British ruling especially) not only allowed Hitler to run roughshod over Europe for years (indeed, many of the British elite were sympathetic with fascism), but hoped for the collapse of the USSR, whose ‘communism’ they feared more the Nazis.
Alan dispels all the lies and historical mythology surrounding WWII, and explains why even today it is invoked by the bloated, half-blind imperialist politicians to puff themselves up on past glories, even as they blunder from one disaster to another on the world stage.
—
The latest issue of the In Defence of Marxism theoretical magazine is out now, and is focused on the Second World War.
Alongside articles about the betrayed revolutionary struggles in Italy and the France; an analysis from Marxist theorist Ted Grant in 1945 about the changed balance of world relations; and an investigation into postwar Italian neorealist cinema, the issue opens with an editorial by Alan Woods which offers some more detail about the topic of this podcast episode.
Buy your copy of IDoM issue 49: ‘1945: Liberation, Revolution and Betrayal’ HERE: https://marxist.com/magazine.htm
Read Alan’s editorial online here: https://marxist.com/the-second-world-war-setting-the-record-straight.htm
Sources:
‘D-Day and the truth about the Second World War’, Alan Woods, https://marxist.com/wwii-anniversary-one210704.htm
‘Ted Grant Writings: Volume One’, https://marxist.com/ted-grant-writings.htm
‘Ted Grant Writings: Volume Two’, https://marxist.com/ted-grant-writings-world-war-two.htm
‘The Battle of Stalingrad – How the Soviet Union defeated the Nazis’, Alan Woods, https://marxist.com/seventy-years-since-the-battle-of-stalingrad-how-the-soviet-union-defeated-the-nazis.htm
‘Hitler's war on the Soviet Union and how Stalin prepared the way for it’, Andrew Wagner, https://marxist.com/operation-barbarossa-stalin-s-bloody-catastrophe.htm
‘History of British Trotskyism’, Ted Grant, https://marxist.com/history-british-trotskyism-ted-grant.htm
‘The Treaty of Versailles - the Peace to end all Peace’, Alan Woods, https://marxist.com/treaty-of-versailles-to-end-all-peace.htm
Karl Marx was a German philosopher, economist and journalist, and above all a revolutionary. He continues to haunt the nightmares of the rich and powerful, just as he inspires workers, the poor and youth to struggle for a future without exploitation and oppression. The popular CrashCourse channel has attempted to explain Marx’s theories and their continued relevance, but we think we can do better…
CrashCourse (established by the Green Brothers) is an educational YouTube channel that provides introductory videos about various topics, including politics and philosophy. A few months ago, they released a video called ‘Who Was Karl Marx? And Why Is Everyone Still Talking About Him?’ (linked below).
The video correctly points out that the powers-that-be still invoke Marx’s name as a bogeyman, 150 years after his death: a fact that tells us something about the power of his ideas. CrashCourse says that we need to have an honest discussion about Marx’s actual beliefs, which they attempt to provide in an accessible form.
While we agree with the sentiment, we have some issues with the way CrashCourse characterises Marxism and its so-called ‘limitations’. For example, was Marx wrong to call for revolution, when perhaps we can simply reform capitalism into a kinder, friendlier form? Are aspects of his analysis ‘outdated’? Did he focus on the plight of the working class to the point of ‘ignoring’ the oppression of women and minority groups?
To fill in some of the gaps left by CrashCourse, and deal with some of their misrepresentations, we are delighted to have Josh Holroyd, a leading member of the Revolutionary Communist International, on the Spectre of Communism. Josh gives a more complete overview of what Marx really stood for, and why we communists still study his ideas today.
As a body of thought, Marxism is the sharpest weapon we have in the fight against capitalism. After all, as Marx writes, “philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it!”
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Listen on Spotify, Apple and anywhere else you get your podcasts here: https://linktr.ee/specom
Sources:
‘Who Was Karl Marx? And Why Is Everyone Still Talking About Him?’, CrashCourse, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3imIf8NAcWQ
‘A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy’, Karl Marx, https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1859/critique-pol-economy/index.htm
‘Communist replies to MORE right-wing lies’, Spectre of Communism Podcast, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKY5gL5-YvY
‘The Civil War: America's second revolution’, John Peterson, https://marxist.com/idom-the-us-civil-war-america-s-second-revolution.htm
‘The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State’, F. Engels, https://marxist.com/classics-the-origin-of-the-family-private-property-and-the-state.htm
‘Mondragon through a Critical Lens’, Jill Bamburg, https://www.fiftybyfifty.org/2017/10/mondragon-through-a-critical-lens/
‘On Cooperation’, V. I. Lenin, https://marxist.com/on-cooperation-lenin1923.htm
‘Socialism: Utopian and Scientific’, F. Engels, https://marxist.com/classics-socialism-utopian-and-scientific.htm
The Chinese Revolution is condemned as a bloody tragedy by bourgeois historians. But if it was all simply a disaster, then how do we explain China going from a backward colonial holding to the second world power today? In this episode, we deal with the truth about the Chinese Revolution of 1949.
We welcome Daniel Morley from the Executive Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party in Britain to talk about the history of the Chinese Revolution and Mao Zedong’s rise to power.
He explains that the victory of Mao’s peasant army was based on the rottenness of the capitalist regime of Chiang Kai-shek, which looted China’s wealth, starved its masses, and utterly failed to defend it from Japanese invasion, instead obsessively hunting the communists.
While Mao and the Red Army eventually soared to power on a wave of revolution that swept the country after WW2, it was not their intention to expropriate capitalism. But were compelled to do so given the utter bankruptcy of Chinese capitalism.
On the basis of the planned economy, there were huge advances for the Chinese people in terms of living conditions; the rights of women, workers and peasants; and the modernisation of the country.
However, the peculiar nature of the Chinese Revolution, which was not led by a workers’ party but a peasant army, meant the regime that was established (in the image of Stalinist Russia) did not base itself on workers’ democracy, but rather military-style commandism.
This created many problems for China (including severe famine) that were not the result of communism, but rather the failure to establish the democratic planning necessary for real socialism and communism. This in turn laid the basis for the eventual restoration of capitalism.
Despite this, we genuine Marxists defend the legacy of the Chinese Revolution, which liberated hundreds of millions from the yoke of imperialist domination and ushered China into the modern world. The tasks of the revolution today remain incomplete!
Sources:
‘Stalinist land programme wins peasants: Chiang’s conscripts roped to prevent escape’, Ted Grant, https://www.marxists.org/archive/grant/1949/01/china.htm
‘The Chinese Communist Party 1927-37 – The development of Maoism’, Daniel Morley, https://marxist.com/chinese-comminist-party-1927-37-part-1.htm
‘The Chinese Communist Party 1937-49 – The Unfolding of Historical Necessity: China’s Great Revolution’, Daniel Morley, https://marxist.com/the-chinese-communist-party-1937-49-the-unfolding-of-historical-necessity-chinas-great-revolution-part-one.htm
‘Peasant War in China and the Proletariat’, Leon Trotsky, https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1932/09/china.htm
‘On Contradiction’, Mao Tse-tung, https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-1/mswv1_17.htm
‘Is China Communist?’, Spectre of Communism, https://marxist.com/audio-and-video/podcast-is-china-communist
‘The Legacy of Mao Zedong is Mass Murder’, Lee Edwards, https://www.heritage.org/china/commentary/the-legacy-mao-zedong-mass-murder (criticised in episode)
Is communism against ‘human nature’? Would workers in charge inevitably be ‘corrupted by power’? Do communists ‘oppose free speech’? Watch a leading communist answer some more typical right-wing talking points!
A couple of weeks ago, Fred Weston (a member of the International Secretariat for the Revolutionary Communist International) was on the show replying to slanders about communism from Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, Elon Musk and Alice Weidel. But there are plenty more lies to deal with!
Watch Fred face off against Charlie Kirk, Jordan Peterson (again), Peter Hitchens and Donald Trump, defending communists’ ideas and programme from common right-wing lies.
Sources:
Previous episode: 'Communist replies to right-wing LIES', Spectre of Communism, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOQqVXzgt2g
‘The Psychological Benefits of Volunteering’, Mindstate Psychology, https://www.mindstatepsychology.com.au/blog/the-psychological-benefits-of-volunteering
’New paper reveals impact of first lockdowns on depression and anxiety diagnosis’, University of Bath, https://www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/new-paper-reveals-impact-of-first-lockdown-on-depression-and-anxiety-diagnosis/
‘Prehistory: The Making of the Human Mind’ (2007), Colin Renfrew
‘The Evolution of Culture: The Development of Civilisation to the Fall of Rome’ (1959), Leslie White
‘The State and Revolution’, V.I. Lenin, https://marxist.com/the-state-and-revolution.htm
‘We produce enough food to feed 1.5 (times) the global population’, Thin Ink, https://news.thin-ink.net/p/we-produce-enough-food-to-feed-15
‘Statistics on unemployment and labour underutilisation’, International Labour Organisation, https://ilostat.ilo.org/topics/unemployment-and-labour-underutilization/
‘The 6 Companies That Own (Almost) All Media’, https://www.webfx.com/blog/internet/the-6-companies-that-own-almost-all-media-infographic/
'British state arrests pro-Palestine communist – We won’t back down!', The Communist, https://communist.red/british-state-arrests-pro-palestine-communist-we-wont-back-down/
'Free Mahmoud Khalil! Only class struggle can ensure freedom of speech!', Martín las Hoces, https://marxist.com/free-mahmoud-khalil-only-class-struggle-can-ensure-freedom-of-speech.htm
‘Woodrow Wilson and the Decision to Intervene in Russia: A Reconsideration’, Eugene P. Train, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1878747
Max Hayward quoted in ‘Communists say: capitalism is incompatible with free speech!’, Joe Attard, https://marxist.com/communists-say-capitalism-is-incompatible-with-free-speech.htm
‘Bolshevik decriminalisation of homosexuality – intentional or oversight?’, Fred Weston, https://marxist.com/bolshevik-decriminalisation-of-homosexuality-intentional-or-oversight.htm
Who was Joseph Stalin and what is the legacy of his leadership? In this episode of the Spectre of Communism, we weigh the evidence, based on historical fact and the principles of Marxist theory, to give Stalinism a fair trial.
The USSR achieved great things, thanks to the superiority of the planned economy. It defeated the Nazis, expropriated capitalism on a sixth of the earth’s surface and built a superpower in just a few decades. Genuine Marxists celebrate all of these accomplishments.
However, we must also acknowledge that there were many mistakes, and many crimes. A line of blood separates Stalinism, by which we mean the bureaucratic counterrevolutionary dictatorship at the head of the workers’ state, from the real principles of Bolshevism and Marxism.
Virtually the entire leadership of Lenin’s party that won power for the Russian workers and peasants in 1917 were killed in the frame ups of the 1930s, along with countless others. Meanwhile, the leaders of the USSR actively wrecked revolutionary struggles abroad and sought alliances with imperialism to secure their positions.
How do we explain this? Jorge Martin, leading member of the Revolutionary Communist International, makes the case that Stalin and the clique around him were not guided by Marxist theory, but by the narrow interests of defending their privileges and positions. Their outlook was one of empiricism and cynical ‘pragmatism’, which was entirely contrary to the way Lenin built the Bolshevik Party.
But in the end, we are only presenting the evidence: you can be the jury! Let us know what you think in the comments. Is Stalinism ‘guilty’ of betraying the world revolution?
Sources:
‘Revolution Betrayed’, Leon Trotsky https://marxist.com/classics-the-revolution-betrayed.htm
‘Stalinism and Bolshevism’, Leon Trotsky https://marxist.com/stalinism-bolshevism-trotsky.htm
‘Marxism and the National Question’, Joseph Stalin https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1913/03a.htm
‘The April Theses (The Tasks of the Proletariat in the Present Revolution)’, V.I. Lenin https://marxist.com/the-april-theses-the-tasks-of-the-proletariat-in-the-present-revolution.htm
‘Is Socialism in One Country Possible? A reply to the YCL’, Spectre of Communism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdIM6mnoBrM
‘What is the Permanent Revolution?’, Spectre of Communism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z44RMQMJlRQ
‘How the Spanish Revolution was betrayed’, Spectre of Communism, https://marxist.com/podcast-how-the-spanish-revolution-was-betrayed.htm
‘Lenin and Trotsky: What They Really Stood For’, Alan Woods and Ted Grant, https://marxist.com/lenin-trotsky-stalinism-johnstone.htm
‘Once Again: The USSR and its Defence’, Leon Trotsky, https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/11/ussr.htm
‘Stalin’s responsibility in the creation of Israel and its disastrous consequences’, Fred Weston, https://marxist.com/stalin-and-the-founding-of-israel.htm
Did communism kill 100 million people? Was Hitler really a communist? Is there no difference between Lenin and Stalin? Right-wing pundits and politicians always throw blood-curdling statistics and historical ‘facts’ to prove that communism is pure evil, while capitalism is the best system that could ever exist. In this video, leading communist Fred Weston takes on three popular right-wing commentators, and separates fact from fiction.
Some of these reactionary culture warriors have made entire careers out of ‘proving’ that communism could never work; and has caused chaos, death and misery whenever it has been tried. There are whole libraries of history and political theory books filled with bile ‘proving’ that communism is synonymous with terror and dictatorship. Elon Musk, the richest man on earth with the ear of the President of the USA, spends nearly all of his time demonising socialism and boosting right-wing politicians on the social media platform that he owns.
Especially in times such as these, with inequality, war and poverty rampant, the capitalists need to smear and discredit any possible alternative to their rotten system: revolution and communism most of all. But looking at the facts not only demolishes these slanders, it reveals that capitalism is the deadliest system ever to exist, responsible for death on a scale that dwarfs even the most outlandish anti-communist propaganda.
Watch as Fred takes on Ben Shapiro, Elon Musk, Alice Weidel and Jordan Peterson, answering their reactionary lies with communist facts and logic!
Skip to:
00:04:32 Ben Shapiro: “Capitalism is the best possible system and communism killed 100 million people.”
00:32:53 Elon Musk and Alice Weidel: “Hitler was a communist.”
00:52:28 Jordan Peterson: “Lenin was no better than Stalin.”
Sources:
Deaths from poverty under capitalism:
https://www.cdc.gov/global-water-sanitation-hygiene/about/about-global-hygiene.html
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deaths-caused-by-vaccine-preventable-diseases-over-time
https://www.unicef.org.uk/campaign-with-us/child-health-report/
Declassified Soviet figures on gulag deaths and purge victims:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jul/10/russia.lukeharding
Eyewitness account of Trotskyist at Vorkuta:
https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/isr/vol24/no03/vorkuta.htm
The truth about the Black Book of Communism and the Black Book of Capitalism:
https://jacobin.com/2025/01/black-book-communism-courtois-history
https://libcom.org/article/interview-black-book-capitalism-robert-kurz
Hitler on Marxism and communism:
https://famous-trials.com/hitler/2529-1923-interview-with-adolf-hitler
Capitalist’s support for Hitler:
Political persecution of communists by Nazi regime:
White, Joseph Robert (2009). "Introduction to the Early Camps". Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA).
Lenin on Stalin and the Soviet bureaucracy:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1923/mar/02.htm
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1922/dec/testamnt/index.htm
