At the dawn of 2022, the cries of “Happy New Year” have an empty ring for most people, because most people are not happy at all. In the past, in troubled times, they looked for consolation in religion. But nowadays, the churches stand empty. Instead, people have tended to take refuge in their local pub, or perhaps in the cinema, which have become something like a modern opium of the people. But given that many of these are closed, many have nowhere else to seek comfort than in their television set.

The Sudanese Revolution has taken a new turn. 28 days after the coup that removed him from power, Abdalla Hamdock was reinstated as Prime Minister by the military junta. The streets, which have fought and shed blood for a month to win civilian rule, have met this news, not with jubilation – but rage.

The strategists of the bourgeoisie had imagined that the Covid-19 shutdowns had merely put an already fragile world economy on pause. Once the economy reopened, it would merely be ‘unpaused’ and would proceed to stagger on as before. This is far from how things have turned out in reality. The world economy is now in the grip of chaos.

One year after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a war against the rebellious Tigray region, his army is on the verge of defeat and the Tigrayan forces are marching on the capital Addis Ababa. The federal government declared a national state of emergency on Tuesday.

Four million people hit the streets of Sudan yesterday in a national demonstration against Monday’s military coup. At the same time, a general strike crippled the entire country, as dozens of trade unions and professional organisations came out in solidarity. This was met with ruthless violence by the counter revolution, resulting in heavy casualties and forcing the masses to retreat. We are now facing a decisive moment for the Sudanese revolution. Either it will go onto the offensive or it could face a bloody defeat. From here, no quarter can be asked or given.

Sudan’s transitional government has been toppled by a military coup. This long-threatened putsch was the inevitable consequence of attempted reconciliation between the leaders of the 2019 uprising and forces of counter-revolution. The enraged masses have returned to the streets in huge numbers, showing that the reserves of the Sudanese Revolution are not exhausted. What is required now is a relentless struggle to defeat the reactionary military leaders, once and for all. Read also our article from 2019, which predicted these events.

Squid Game is the latest production from South Korea that brilliantly exposes the brutal reality of capitalism – that of extreme competition. As the series tops the Netflix charts worldwide, Korean workers are preparing for a general strike.

In the past months, the world economy has been creeping towards a state of disarray. Shops have been running out of goods, gas stations have been running out of gas, energy prices have shot up and major western harbours have become completely clogged up with swarms of ships queuing up, sometimes having to wait weeks to unload. Just as we were told that the Covid crisis was over and that life was bouncing back to normal, the world market is feeling the drag of a series of converging crises.

The recent agreement between Australia, the UK and the US has caused a crisis in international relations. With France temporarily recalling its ambassador from Washington and China issuing a protest, the new agreement has upset feelings across the board. This deal, however, merely constituted one more step in a wider realignment among the imperialist powers.

The following is a transcript of a lead off by marxist.com editor, Alan Woods, at the world perspectives discussion at the 2021 congress of the International Marxist Tendency. In this speech, Alan lays out the most fundamental processes unfolding in a global situation marked by unprecedented crisis and dislocation at every level. Capitalism has never been more unstable, nor the potential for class struggle greater. The missing element is a bold, revolutionary leadership to show the workers, youth and poor of the world a way out of this morass.

In the past two months, the regime of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has taken drastic measures that have shocked society and have triggered widespread speculation. The state has disciplined a number of large private corporations while instituting wide-ranging regulations on the entertainment industry. The motivation behind these measures was eerily summed up by an obscure blog post that was promoted by all major state media outlets, proclaiming that “everyone can feel that a profound transformation is underway!” But is the CCP state actually leading a social transformation? Or are these measures aimed at defending the foundations of capitalism in China?

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