by Hillel Tiktin, 2008 The transition from a Stalinist economy to capitalism has been partial and has effectively failed, therefore, with global historic consequences. The reason lay partly in the hubris of the Western ruling class who subjected the Russian elite to a humiliating regime rather than assisting it, and partly in the nature of […]

The following is the first part of an essay by the late Loren Goldner concerning revolution and theoretical under-development in the Soviet Union. We are publishing it as the first in a series, and are hoping to reprint more extracts from this text in subsequent issues. – Edith Fischer, Content Editor In the 1870s, Karl […]

The Spartacist League of Australia’s responds to Anothony Furia’s (RCO) article, “Party first, then split the class,” in Partisan! No. 7, and the question of the road to a party. Re-printed from ‘Red Battler Supplement‘ 20/03/2025. We appreciate comrades of the Revolutionary Communist Organisation (RCO) taking the time to respond to our criticisms laid out […]

The Anti-Labour Party administration is holding a Productivity gabfest in Canberra, 19-21 August. Humphrey McQueen shows ‘productivity’ as a driver of the structured dynamics of how the exploitation of every wage-slave must be intensified if the rule of capital is to persist. The drive for so-called productivity raises a central aspect of Marxism, namely, surplus-value. […]

Anonymous, Online In the thirty years since its inception as ARPANET, the internet has become a fundamental element of human social reality across the globe. According to Statista, 5.56 billion people have access to the internet, and 5.24 billion of those people use the internet to access and contribute to social media platforms. These social […]

Simon Blow, Online In a recent letter published in Partisan #12, David McMullen takes issue with a revolutionary defeatist outlook on the Russo–Ukraine war. McMullen correctly states that if Ukraine were to be defeated, there would not be a class war but much more likely networks of guerrilla resistance. McMullen does not address why this […]

Sectarianism is endemic to the left, to the degree that it is often caricaturised. Porco writes on the history of sectarianism, what it is and isn’t, and how communists can ‘abolish’ it. Sectarianism A religious sect is a minuscule group of dogmatic worshippers. They have broken away from a larger tradition, refining their own beliefs […]

Stalin’s rise to power in the 1920s is mythologised by much of the Left (both pro- and anti-Stalin) as being inevitable. But, Mila Volkova writes, Stalinism was far from inevitable. In 1918, the German ambassador to the Soviets is shot and killed by the Bolsheviks’ coalition partners in the Left Socialist Revolutionaries (Left-SRs: a party […]

Broad parties are common across the global left, but their success has been limited. Why? Edith Fischer writes that we need a revolutionary mass party, not a broad party, to advance the Communist cause. What sort of party do we need? In the socialist left, outside of those who tail Laborism or support entry into […]

The Spartacist League of Australia has sent a letter to the Revolutionary Communist Organisation (RCO) calling for unity and stating their desire to join the RCO. Partisan publishes this letter in full below. Dear comrades of the RCO, We are living in a fast changing world where the international working class and oppressed are facing […]