The editorial board of marxy.com is proud to announce the publication of the 11th issue of ‘Freedom and Communism’, the Arabic-language magazine of the International Marxist Tendency. We publish the editorial here, translated into English for our international readership. [Click here to download the pdf]
Comrades, we are proud to announce the news of the publication of the eleventh issue of our magazine ‘Freedom and Communism’, which includes a number of articles discussing historical and scientific questions of great importance.
The first article is: Don Quixote – Spain in the age of Cervantes by Alan Woods, in which he discusses Cervantes’ masterpiece, Don Quixote de la Mancha, a novel that deservedly ranks among the greatest monuments that world literature has yet produce, managing to combine a high literary style with a deep analysis of the historical conditions of the Spanish society in the fifteenth century. At that time society was witnessing a new economic, social and political system (the capitalist system) fighting to be born in struggle against an old, decaying economic, social and political system, which refused to die (the feudal system). This novel is a brilliant analysis and criticism of the psychology, morals, religion and social relations of the time.
In this article, Alan analyses the novel in depth, brilliantly linking it to its historical and literary context, bringing out the similarities between Cervantes’ era (that of the transition from feudalism to capitalism) and our own (the era of transition from capitalism to socialism). Reading this article not only helps the reader Cervantes’ novel, in form and content, it also helps to unlock an understanding of the era in which the novel was written.
The issue also includes an article by two comrades: David García Colín and Vincent Angerer on the James Webb Telescope. In this piece, they discuss the impressive discoveries announced by NASA, based on images of the depths of the universe that the telescope has sent back to Earth.
This issue includes an article discussing the impressive discoveries announced by NASA, based on images of the depths of the universe that the James Webb Telescope has sent back to Earth / Image: Ball Aerospace, Flickr
The two comrades explain the crisis of the prevailing theory of cosmology, the Big Bang theory, which has been exacerbated by the discoveries, and the dilemma its supporters now find themselves in as they futilely cling to the old theory, despite the evidence against it. They explain how dialectical materialism has, once again, emerged victorious from another test, and its basic principle is confirmed: that matter cannot be created or destroyed, and that the universe did not come into existence from nothing – neither six thousand years ago, as Creationists claim, nor 13.5 billion years ago, as Big Bang theorists claim. Rather, our universe is eternal, with neither a ‘beginning’ nor an ‘end’.
The issue also includes another article dealing with science, by comrade Joe Attard, titled ‘New Scientist v.s reality’. The New Scientist magazine, considered one of the most prominent scientific magazines, attempts to simplify science in order to to make it accessible to non-specialists.
In this article, we see the idealist quagmire that the magazine has reached, such that it has taken to explicitly defending ideas that are absolutely unscientific, including the denial of the existence of an objective reality!
Comrade Joe Attard, in this article, links the magazine’s crisis with the crisis of bourgeois ideology in general. The decline of the capitalist system is not merely economic and political, but represents a general decline, affecting morals, literature, art, and philosophy.
He also explains the delusions affecting some of the greatest minds in the field of physics and other sciences to the effect that they do not need a coherent, conscious and deeply thought through philosophy, and thus they become victims of the worst forms of philosophical prejudice, imbibed from all sides (the family, school, religious institutions, media, etc.). They therefore fall into the worst mistakes when attempting to explain the amazing discoveries being made in the fields of physics and other sciences.
In this issue, we also see the idealist quagmire that the 'New Scientist' magazine has reached, such that it has taken to explicitly defending ideas that are absolutely unscientific / Image: In Defence of Marxism
In this issue, you will also find an article by comrade Muhammad Hussam on the coups in Latin America, entitled ‘Coups and mass struggle in Latin America’, in which he analyses the reaction of the terrified ruling classes in this part of the world, in the face of the rise of left-wing parties to power. Their reaction is not out of fear of these reformist leaders themselves, but rather towards their rise as an expression of the desire of the masses to find a solution to their pressing problems through the election of parties seen by them as expressing their concerns. This is animating social forces that neither the ruling nor their reformist agents can control.
In this piece, the formality and deception of bourgeois democracy is also exposed. From the point of view of the capitalist class, bourgeois democracy is useful only when it does not threaten their system and when it helps them to perpetuate their power and wealth. They always demonstrate their unhesitating readiness to get rid of it, in the most brutal ways, including bloody coups and the killing of unarmed demonstrators, when it threatens to run out of their control.
This issue provides proof, once again, of the erroneousness of the view that Marxism is merely an economic theory concerned with the analysis of wages and the discussion of bread and working conditions. On the contrary, it is a weapon in the hands of the working class to analyse reality in all its economic, political, historical and philosophical dimensions, in order to thus understand it and change it. Bourgeois philosophy, in its era of decline, is, as Joseph Detzgen explained, not a science, but rather a mere tool to fight against Marxism. The proletariat must, therefore, have its own philosophy, which is the most important weapon in our revolutionary arsenal.
Comrades, whoever advises you to turn away from serious education and the possession of revolutionary theory must be treated with the contempt they deserve. In reality, they want to draw you away from revolutionary work. Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement. So make sure to carefully study Marxist theory.
Read our literature and spread it in your universities and workplaces, and if you agree with us in our analysis and positions, join us in order that we might jointly build the revolutionary leadership that our class deserves.