Alan Woods - editor of In Defence of Marxism - discusses the political earthquakes that have shattered the status quo and shaken the Establishment in country after country: from the victory of Donald Trump, to the Brexit vote.

The year 2016 ended with two more dramatic and bloody occurrences: the assassination of the Russian ambassador in Istanbul and the brutal murder of people in Berlin who were peacefully enjoying preparations for Christmas. These events were linked to the bloody morass in the Middle East and more specifically to Syria.

The massive wave of defiance against Donald Trump’s election shows that millions of youth and workers will resist his government. Trump cannot resolve the crisis of capitalism and the poverty, bigotry, and instability that come with it. The Democrats and labor leaders have rolled over and offered to work with him. The International Marxist Tendency (IMT) has a different perspective. We are confident that Trump’s anti-worker agenda can be stopped in its tracks. This is our proposal for a program to fight and beat Trump.

In the same week that Donald Trump is set to become the 45th president of the United States, a maverick of a different sort is threatening to destabilise the whole West African region.

The spectre of Lehman Brothers is haunting Europe.

"As in the entire third world, women, especially poor women workers of Pakistan, are suffering. Sometimes I feel that they need a socialist revolution more than anyone. It is the only way to freedom! "(Anam Patafi)

The grisly images on television and social media are unrelenting: car bombings, nightclub massacres, killer cops, and cop killers. It is what Lenin called capitalist “horror without end”—without end. Not only in “far away” Iraq, Afghanistan, and Mexico, but in some of the most prosperous cities in the richest country on earth. This is the gruesome face of the capitalist crisis, the crisis of a system that threatens to take the entire human species down with it.

Over the last few days the Southern African country of Zimbabwe have experienced escalating protests which shook the Mugabe regime to its core. Sporadic protests have broken out over the last few weeks because of a severe shortage of cash. But over the last few days these protests have increased in intensity.  Dramatic scenes have played themselves out as  workers, civil servants and small traders took to the streets to protest against the latest crisis. This culminated in a national stay away on 6 July by public sector workers who have not received their wages for June.

In this meeting of Socialist Appeal supporters in London, Alan Woods - editor of In Defence of Marxism - discusses the political earthquake of the Brexit vote, which has sent shockwaves across Britain, Europe, and the whole world.

Britain is in a state of turmoil. There is a political crisis, which will be followed by a constitutional crisis. Independence is again on the cards in Scotland. There is fear in European establishment that Brexit could spark a continent-wide revolt.

The fat is on the fire. A right-wing coup is under way to oust Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader. This shabby coup, instigated by Labour's Tory Tendency, has been prepared a long time ago by those who never accepted his democratic election by an overwhelming majority. They are the Blairites: right-wing Tories who infiltrated the Labour Party to further their careers. They are indistinguishable from the Tories in their dress, manners, outlook and ideas.

The results are in from the final state primaries and the outcome is no real surprise. With the media, the Democratic Party machine, and big money behind her, Hillary Clinton has more pledged delegates than Bernie Sanders, and with the hundreds of superdelegates in her pocket, is all but the party’s nominee. Nonetheless, Bernie Sanders won primaries and caucuses in 22 states and more than 11 million votes. Sanders’ strong showing, including his latest victories in North Dakota and Montana, is proof that millions do not want to settle for Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump.