The Second International and the First World War – Responding to capitalist global disaster: 1914 and today
John Riddell
The Second International and the First World War – Responding to capitalist global disaster: 1914 and today
Table of contents:
On this day one hundred years ago, a Bosnian nationalist assassinated the crown prince of Austria-Hungary, setting in motion a chain of events that led a month later to the outbreak of the First World War. The war shattered the world socialist movement and unleashed an overwhelming social catastrophe in Europe, killing seventeen million soldiers and civilians. The resulting revolutionary struggles brought the war to an abrupt end in 1918, while toppling the continent’s three great empires and bringing workers and peasants to power in Russia. The war also contributed to a global rise of anti-colonial struggles.What does this unique cataclysm mean for us today? It is useful to compare World War 1 with the dangers posed today by climate change and environmental collapse.The world is still ruled by arrogant imperial powers, which wage and threaten wars in many continents. Still, these powers do not seem to be on the verge of hurling themselves at each other in a global war as they did in 1914. Meanwhile, the colonial empires have given way to new forms of domination. We face a looming environmental disaster, but it will mature over decades, not weeks. The socialist movement is far weaker and less militant than in 1914. The road to socialism now seems more extended than it did at that time.Yet many aspects of the socialist response to the First World War have resonance in our time. It is particularly helpful in defining the socialist response to climate change and in clarifying some disputed issues in this arena.
The United States cancelled the debts of some of its allies. The most obvious instance of this kind was the way the German debt was largely cancelled by the 1953 London Agreement. In order to make sure that the economy of West Germany would thrive and thus become a key element of stability in the Atlantic bloc, the creditor allies led by the United States made major concessions to German authorities and corporations - concessions that went beyond debt relief. A comparison between the way West Germany was treated after WWII and the current attitude to developing countries or to Greece today is a telling story.
As Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors of the Nazi genocide, we unequivocally condemn the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and the ongoing occupation and colonization of historic Palestine. We further condemn the United States for providing Israel with the funding to carry out the attack, and Western states more generally for using their diplomatic muscle to protect Israel from condemnation. Genocide begins with the silence of the world
July 17th witnessed one of the largest social protests in Serbia since the beginning of the global financial crisis. Around 10000 people, mainly public sector workers, marched through the streets of Belgrade against the “economic reform legislative package” including the latest incarnation of the Labour law. This will, among other things, severely deregulate the labour market, making it even easier for “entrepreneurs” (as capital owners and managers are lovingly referred to by the government controlled media) to sack workers and cut wages and severance pay (thus legalising practices already commonplace in contemporary Serbia), which has, in one form or another, been on the agenda of all post-Milosević governments in Serbia.
Michel Warschawski (né en 1949 à Strasbourg) est un journaliste et militant pacifiste d'extrême gauche israélien, cofondateur et président du Centre d'information alternative de Jérusalem et ancien président de la Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire Marxiste israélienne.
La aparición en la escena política de partidos ultraderechistas como Amanecer Dorado, la Liga Norte, el Frente Nacional Francés, PxC o España2000 en España, no hacen sino constatar, como ya resumió el dirigente británico del BNP, Nick Griffin, que las condiciones actuales representan la tormenta perfecta para su crecimiento.
China is not an “emerging country” but a power that has emerged. It is not a “sub-imperialism” ensuring order in its own region, but an imperialism “in formation.” The new Chinese bourgeoisie is aiming to play in the big league. The success of its enterprise is still far from assured, but this ambition determines its international policies, both economic and military.
Dans une Interview exclusive de Jean-Luc Mélenchon au site payant Hexagones [
An abridged version of this letter calling for the UN and governments to impose a military embargo on Israel was published in the Guardian on July 19 2014 [1].
L’équipe d’Algérie de football vient d’annoncer qu’elle donnerait l’ensemble de sa prime aux Palestiniens de Gaza. Combative et au jeu attractif, elle n’a malheureusement pas réussi à vaincre les États-Unis et dépasser ainsi les huitièmes de finale, mais ce geste envers la population martyre de Gaza la met sur le podium du championnat de la solidarité internationale.
Women in Black of Madrid remember the Cassandras of the Great War:
I can no longer stand by while Israeli politicians like Ayelet Shaked condone the deaths of innocent Palestinian women and children
Après 11 mois d’un long et âpre combat, limogées depuis septembre, mises sous statut de "disponibilité », soit licenciées au bout de huit mois, 595 femmes de ménage de la fonction publique sont devenues l’incarnation, le symbole, l’âme, la vie-même de la résistance la plus farouche contre la politique de rigueur en Grèce ! Ces femmes sont devenues tour à tour « sujet politique » et le leadership de toute la résistance actuelle contre la politique de la 
Depuis le 17 septembre 2013, en Grèce, 595 femmes de ménage du Ministère des Finances sont en lutte contre leur licenciement. Elles sont devenues un cas emblématique de résistance contre la 
Los ciudadanos y ciudadanas europeos, en su gran mayoría, asumen la idea de que la sociedad de consumo actual puede “mejorar” hacia el futuro (y que debería hacerlo). Mientras tanto, buena parte de los habitantes del planeta esperan ir acercándose a nuestros niveles de bienestar material. Sin embargo, el nivel de producción y consumo se ha conseguido a costa de agotar los recursos naturales y energéticos, y romper los equilibrios ecológicos de la Tierra.
Alrededor de 250 autores, entre ellos Ada Colau, Pablo Iglesias, Alberto Garzón, Cayo Lara, Joan Herrera, Florent Marcellesi, Juantxo López de Uralde, Teresa Forcades, Juan Diego Botto o Yayo Herrero, han hecho público un manifiesto en el que se reclama de manera urgente un cambio de modelo de consumo ante el probable "colapso civilizatorio" que traerá el siglo XXI.
Teresa Rodriguez is a member of Izquierda Anticapitalista (IA), the section of the Fourth International in the Spanish State, who was number 2 on the radical left list Podemos which had five deputies elected at the European parliamentary elections of May 25, 2014. This interview was conducted by Francisco Artacho and is translated from the online periodical Andaluces Diario.
Argentina afronta nuevamente un chantaje financiero, pero esta vez la extorsión no tiene precedentes. Los especuladores que compraron bonos por 48 millones de dólares lograron en Nueva York una sentencia de cobro por 1.500 millones.
As a coalition of Sunni-based forces, including the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS), took the major northern Iraqi city of Mosul and then most of the Sunni heartland in the north and west of Iraq, regional and western capitals went into crisis mode: the entire post-US occupation stabilisation had collapsed in a heap.
The stadium in Phokeng outside Rustenberg exploded in jubilation when the end of the longest strike in South African history was announced on June 23. Men and women waved their arms victoriously in the air and resounding ululations and cheering reverberated as a great burden of domestic hardship lifted. Workers had changed history. They had valiantly resisted the dogged state and corporate attempt to smash their strike despite the personal hardships that they had to endure to reach this point. It was they who dealt a blow to capital because it was they who held out determinedly and who accumulated five months of unpaid accounts, became black listed, kept their kids out of schools through necessity and went without food. They are indeed, the central heroes in this story.