Bøger af Alan Woods

Lenin og Trotskijs ideer er uden tvivl de mest fordrejede og bagvaskede ideer i historien. I mere end 100 år har de været udsat for voldsomme angreb fra kapitalismens forsvarere. Deres ideer – bolsjevismen – er blevet fremstillet som både totalitære og den rene utopi. En hel industri voksede op med det formål at lægge skylden for stalinismens forbrydelser på det arbejderdemokrati, som eksisterede under Lenin og Trotskij. På den anden side har det stalinistiske bureaukrati ikke bare miskrediteret de marxistiske ideer men også systematisk forvansket det egentlige forhold mellem de to ledere af Oktoberrevolutionen, siden dets opfindelse af begrebet ”trotskisme” i 1924. Lenin og Trotskij – hvad de virkelig stod for blev oprindeligt skrevet i 1969 som et svar til Monty Johnstone, en ledende teoretiker i det britiske Kommunistparti. Den afmonterer alle de argumenter, som blev og bliver brugt til at miskreditere Trotskijs ideer samt hans rolle i revolutionen og opbyggelsen af Sovjetunionen. Målet med denne bog er at få folk til at studere både Lenin og Trotskijs ideer. ”Det er en pligt for alle kammerater [...]”, skrev forfatterne, ”at forberede sig teoretiske på de store opgaver, som ligger foran os”. Bogen indeholder også kildemateriale om Lenins kamp mod Stalin, samt appendiks med flere af Lenins sidste breve, som i mange år blev holdt hemmelige af det stalinistiske partiapperat.

The story of the Spanish revolution of the 1930s is quite well known to most people on the left, but there is a surprising level of ignorance concerning the events that occurred subsequently. History did not cease with the victory of Franco in 1939. And the story of how the Franco dictatorship was eventually brought down by the revolutionary movement of the Spanish workers is an inspiring one.Under the most difficult and dangerous conditions, Spanish workers launched a strike wave, which, in its intensity and duration, has no parallel anywhere. There was nothing remotely like this in Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy or Salazar's Portugal. This was a genuine revolution, which could and should have gone far further than it did. If it did not finally succeed, that was no fault of the working class. The Spanish revolution of the 1970s was shamefully betrayed by the leaders of the communist and socialist parties, who entered into an agreement with former fascists in order halt the movement in its tracks.Alan Woods participated personally in the last phase of this struggle and was a witness to some of its most decisive moments. Using a wealth of documentary material from the time and also new interviews with key participants in the events, he tears away the thick veil of lies, myths and half-truths to reveal what actually occurred.With new struggles and challenges on the order of the day in Spain and the rest of the world, it is the duty of all conscious workers and revolutionary youth to study the lessons of the past as a necessary precondition for victory in the future. This book is an important contribution to a necessary learning process and is obligatory reading for anyone who is interested in the struggle for socialism today.

"Marx was the best hated and most calumniated man of his time. Governments, both absolutist and republican, deported him from their territories. Bourgeois, whether conservative or ultra-democratic, vied with one another in heaping slanders upon him. All this he brushed aside as though it were a cobweb, ignoring it, answering only when extreme necessity compelled him. And he died beloved, revered and mourned by millions of revolutionary fellow workers - from the mines of Siberia to California, in all parts of Europe and America…"His name will endure through the ages, and so also will his work."Two hundred years after the birth of the great revolutionary Karl Marx, across the world, the capitalist system is in crisis and the working class are moving in to action to change their lives. In ruling class circles, no longer do they snidely declare the death of Marx. On the contrary, there is fear and consternation in their ranks. There has, therefore, never been a more urgent time to study his ideas.This short book, released for the two hundredth birthday of Marx, contains a series of articles on the man, his life, and his ideas: from an explanation of the philosophy of Marxism; to Marx's battles against petty-bourgeois anarchist ideas; to Trotsky's assessment of the Communist Manifesto. And much more!This book should be read by all class-conscious workers as the beginning of the study of the ideas of Marxism. As Lenin said, "without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement."

At the beginning of the 21st century, science and philosophy are at the crossroads. The achievements of science and technology in the previous century are unparalleled in history. They provide the potential for the solution of all the problems faced by the planet, and equally for its total destruction. Allegedly scientific theories are being used to "prove" that criminality is caused, not by social conditions, but by a "criminal gene." Black people are alleged to be disadvantaged, not because of discrimination, but because of their genetic make-up. Similar arguments are used for poor people, single mothers, women, and so on. Of course, such "science" is highly convenient for right wing politicians intent on ruthlessly cutting welfare. In the field of theoretical physics and cosmology there is a growing tendency towards mysticism. The "Big Bang" theory of the origin of the universe is being used to justify the existence of a Creator, as in the book of Genesis. For the first time in centuries, science appears to lend credence to religious obscurantism. Yet that is only one side of the story. A growing number of scientists are becoming discontented with the old outlook. The rapid rise of the theory of chaos and complexity is one of the most significant developments in science at the present time. Many of the ideas expressed by this new trend are strikingly similar to the theories of dialectical materialism worked out by Marx and Engels over 160 years ago. A significant part of this present work is devoted to an explanation of the relationship between Marxist philosophy and the new theories. Will this encounter provide the basis for a new and exciting breakthrough in the methodology of science?

The Arab Revolution represents a turning point in world history. The stormy events in the Arab world have inspired workers and youth everywhere. This book contains a selection of the main articles on the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt published on Marxist.com and socialist.net during the early months of 2011. It also contains key material on the explosive events in the rest of the Arab world.These articles provide a blow-by-blow account of these dramatic events. But they also contain an analysis of the social conditions and class forces that have propelled the revolution. They show that the Arab Revolution is not an isolated event but a manifestation of the general crisis of world capitalism.These articles are published here in their original form, written as events occurred on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis. They present a living struggle unfolding in real time.This book is not written for bourgeois academics but as a contribution to the class struggle. It is dedicated to those courageous class fighters who braved the bullets and batons of the repressive forces to change their lives. The authors are not merely observers but active participants in the worldwide struggle against oppression and exploitation.The struggle has not ended - this book and the Marxist ideas within presents a clear explanation of the way forward not only for the Arab masses but for the workers and youth of the world.

The book explains and defends the views of Marxists on: Philosophy and Science, Historical Materialism, Marxist Economics, the Economics of Socialism of the 21st Century, genuine Marxism vs. Stalinism, the Venezuelan Revolution and more.

The first complete Marxist history of the Roman Republic, providing a gripping and accessible analysis of the titanic struggles that shaped the Roman world, and continue to resonate today.

"The cause of labour is the cause of Ireland, the cause of Ireland is the cause of labour." - James ConnollyThe national liberation movement in Ireland stands once more at a crossroads. For thirty years, the Provisional IRA fought an armed struggle to eject British imperialism, without bringing Ireland one step closer to unification. Now, decades after the IRA declared a ceasefire and Sinn Féin politicians took up ministerial portfolios in the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Good Friday Agreement is tattered and failing.The armed struggle and the constitutional road to a United Ireland have both landed in dead ends. The question is now posed before socialist Republicans: in a period of unprecedented capitalist crisis, when all the old contradictions are bursting violently to the surface - where next?For more than 200 years, generation after generation of Irish men and women have fought for national liberation from British imperialism under the banner of the Irish Republic. In studying this rich revolutionary heritage, one lesson shines through, bought at an enormous cost of life and suffering: only through the socialist revolution is the attainment of complete national liberation and reunification of Ireland possible.

"One day I would like you to go to the places that I have been and to see the things that I have seen but without the nasty bits." Eighty years after World War Two, encouraged by his father's stories of survival and determination, a son travels to Poland to follow his father's experiences as a soldier and a Prisoner of War.Without the Nasty Bits weaves Norman's words with Alan's journey in a story that brings the past to life.

Denne bog blev skrevet mens det skete i 2011: Den arabiske revolution, der begyndte i Tunesien, og er fejet over hele den arabiske verden, er af verdenshisto­risk betydning. Revolutionen har væltet to diktatorer og rystet utallige regimer. Men frem for alt har den givet de arabiske masser – og undertrykte overalt – en tro på, at de kan være med til at bestemme over deres eget liv. De revolutionære folk har eftertrykkeligt og på modig vis modbevist de løgne, der er blevet spredt i Vesten, om at de er tilbagestående, reaktionære og apatiske. Kapitalismens verdensomspændende krise har lagt pres på leveforholdene for arbejdere, unge og fattige verden over. Den arabiske revolution er en eksplosiv begyndelse på en periode med stigende klassekamp, revolutioner og kon­trarevolutioner i hele verden. I den næste periode vil de samme spørgsmål, som de arabiske masser har stået overfor bliver aktuelle i alle lande. Bogen består af artikler, der er blevet udgivet af den Internatio­nale Marxistiske Tendens (IMT), som i Danmark repræsenteres ved Socialistisk Standpunkt. Dens indhold er blevet til i de stormfulde for­årsdage i 2011 og afspejler på den måde revolutionens levende udvikling. Konklusionen kan kun blive foreløbig, fordi det sidste kapitel vil blive skrevet af de revolutio­nære unge, arbejdere og fattige selv.

Eighteen years after it was first published, Wellred Books proudly presents the second edition of Bolshevism: The Road to Revolution."The history of the Bolshevik party contains valuable lessons for today's struggle for socialism, and Alan Woods has performed a service by making this history accessible to a new generation of militants." Revolutionary HistoryThere have been a multitude of histories of Russia, either written from an anti-Bolshevik perspective, or its Stalinist mirror image, which both paint a false image of Bolshevism. For them, the Russian Revolution was either an historical 'accident' or 'tragedy', or is presented as the work of one great man (Lenin), who marched single-mindedly towards October.Using a wealth of primary sources, Alan Woods reveals the real evolution of Bolshevism as a living struggle to apply the method of Marxism to the peculiarities of Russia. Woods traces this evolution from the birth of Russian Marxism, and its ideological struggle against the Narodniks and the trend of economism, through the struggle between the two strands of Menshevism and Bolshevism, and up to the eventual seizure of power.On the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, this book, which represents the authoritative work on the building of the Bolshevik Party, can be used as a handbook for those involved in the movement today.

"What passing bells for those who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns." -Wilfred Owen, 'Anthem for Doomed Youth'On 28 June 1914, two pistol shots shattered the peace of a sunny afternoon in Sarajevo. Those shots reverberated around Europe and shattered the peace of the whole world. This was the beginning of the Great Slaughter. Could it have been avoided?Alan Woods uses the method of Marxism to answer this question. He explains that, actually, whilst the individual can often play a role in history, to explain events such as wars, you must look at deeper causes.As well as dealing with the origin of the war, Woods traces the conflict through its development, looking at the role of all the major actors, and their imperialist aims. He shows how, in the midst of the despair of the trenches and the home front, a new consciousness was formed.He also makes the case that it was the German Revolution that brought the war to an end, and how a revolutionary wave swept across Europe. The book also looks at the Treaty of Versailles and how the victorious powers imposed the deal on not just Germany but the rest of Europe.Given the amount of nationalistic mystification from all sides about the First World War, a history of the subject from the standpoint of the world working class is essential.

The ideas of Lenin and Trotsky are without doubt the most distorted and slandered ideas in history. For more than 80 years, they have been subjected to an onslaught from the apologists of capitalism, who have attempted to present their ideas - Bolshevism - as both totalitarian and utopian. An entire industry was developed in an attempt to equate the crimes of Stalinism with the regime of workers' democracy that existed under Lenin and Trotsky.It is now more than thirty years since the publication of the first edition of this work. It was written as a reply to Monty Johnstone, who was a leading theoretician of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Johnstone had published a reappraisal of Leon Trotsky in the Young Communist League's journal Cogito at the end of 1968. Alan Woods and Ted Grant used the opportunity to write a detailed reply explaining the real relationship between the ideas of Lenin and Trotsky. This was no academic exercise. It was written as an appeal to the ranks of the Communist Party and the Young Communist League to rediscover the truth about Trotsky and return to the original revolutionary programme of Lenin.Also included in this new edition is Monty Johnstone's original Cogito article, as well as further material on Lenin's struggle with Stalin in the last month of his political life. The foreword is written by Trotsky's grandson, Vsievolod Volkov.

The debate between Marxism and Anarchism is decades old. It is no accident that when the class struggle again boils to the surface this debate is revived. This collection of classic and contemporary writings will go a long way toward clarifying the Marxist perspective on Anarchist theory and practice, and the need for a revolutionary party. Its publication marks an important step forward in the theoretical arming of a new generation of class fighters in the US - in preparation for the momentous struggles ahead. This volume includes essays by Engels, Lenin, Trotsky and others on various topics related to anarchism, among them: - Marx vs Bakunin - Engels on Authority - Why Marxists Oppose Individual Terrorism - Direct Action - Anarcho-Syndicalism - Kronstadt - The Spanish Revolution

Ted Grant was a well-known figure in the international Marxist movement. He had a significant impact on British politics. When he died all the most important newspapers carried extensive obituaries that recognised this fact. This is a remarkable work that comprehensively covers the development of Ted's life and ideas, starting from his early family background in Johannesburg right up to his death in London in 2006 at the age of 93. From his earliest youth in South Africa Ted Grant dedicated his life to the struggle for the emancipation of the working class. Moving to Britain in 1934 to seek new horizons, within a decade he had become the leading theoretician of the Trotskyist movement. The book deals with the launch of the Fourth International and Ted's battle to defend the ideas of Trotsky, which brought him into conflict with the leaders of the International after the Second World War. It explains the important theoretical questions and debates of this period and it outlines Ted Grant's important theoretical contribution to Marxism. Ted was the founder and theoretical inspirer of the Militant Tendency, which Michael Crick once described as the fifth political party in Britain. The book traces the rise and fall of Militant. It provides a fascinating insight into a subject that remains a closed book to most political analysts even now. This is a truly amazing story of a truly amazing man, told with style, colour and wit. At the end you will feel that you have known Ted Grant all your life. The author, Alan Woods, has written many books on Marxism, was influential in the political evolution of Hugo Chávez and is the editor of the widely read website Marxist.com. He is a leading figure in the Socialist Appeal and the International Marxist Tendency.