‘THE PAST WE INHERIT, the future we build’, is a well-known slogan from trade union banners. Workers learn from the struggles, campaigns and issues of the past in order to understand the present and to fight for a better future. That’s even true of the round of labour movement annual general meetings, commonly held early in each New Year, when “the past” is generally quite recent. A number of the contributions in this edition of CR take such a ‘looking back to look forward’ approach.

‘The Marxist Interpretation of the Public Library’, may at first seem a strange choice for a cover feature, given the many pressing issues today. But actually it’s very much part of the cultural struggle which needs to be waged if the working class is to establish its hegemony, as exemplified at the Communist Party of Britain (CPB)’s ‘Class & Culture’ conference held in Barnsley on 2 November. In this first part of their article, Joe Pateman and John Pateman show that public libraries were founded as instruments of class control, though later they became instruments of class exclusion – “promoted primarily by the middle classes for themselves.” In contrast, under socialism, the public library is community-led, with enhanced resources, and then becoming needs-based. The struggle for socialism requires a struggle to democratise and broaden the public library. “The more democratic the public library, the clearer will workers see that the root evil is capitalism, not a lack of education or culture.”

We follow that with Part 2 of Jerry Jones’ contribution on what drives, and what holds back, economic development. Using the concept of surplus labour, introduced in Part 1, Jerry examines both ‘Keynesian’ and then neoliberal policies adopted by governments since the Second World War. He shows how neoliberal policies have led to increased appropriation of surplus labour, and are “pushing the current capitalist/imperialist system towards an even bigger crisis than that of 2007-09”. What has been keeping the crisis at bay is credit, but the greater the amount of it, the more severe the crisis. And “the real crisis is that nobody seems to know what to do.” Part 3 will look to a more equitable future as the solution.

As pointed out in our last edition, the People’s Republic of China celebrated its 75^th birthday on 1 October 2024. To mark that, we included in CR114 a chapter from the book, People’s China at 75: The Flag Stays Red. To follow that up, we publish here two articles based on presentations at the September 28 celebratory conference organised by the Friends of Socialist China in association with the CPB. In the first of those articles, Jenny Clegg points out that the world is turning, with: a developing multipolarity and the rise of the Global South; China’s enormous economic advances; and the 4^th industrial revolution, driven by AI and renewable energy. In this situation, “amidst danger and competition, the BRICS are emerging as a platform for the launch of a more stable multipolarity.” In the following article, Francisco Dominguez hails the significance of the Chinese Revolution for socialist transformation in underdeveloped countries, and spells out the massive growth in trade between China and Latin America.

Two articles in this edition, by Belgian writers, deal with key contemporary international issues. Tragically, the Israeli massacre of the Palestinians in Gaza continues unabated, and Charles Ducal looks at why such a genocide is “less evil when committed by our friends”. It is, he says, because the dominant narrative is that “Israel … belong[s] to ‘us’, the Western world of democracy and enlightenment”. A false narrative, yet we must not despair. “[Y]ou see and hear how the Palestinians in Gaza survive and know that renouncing resistance is not an option.”

That’s the case even though Donald Trump will shortly be back in the US White House. Marc Vandepitte examines Trump’s speeches and actions against nine characteristics of historical fascism under Hitler and Mussolini, and then leaves it to the reader to decide whether Trump can be regarded as fascist. Whatever, the world is entering very dangerous times, and the maximum unity of labour and progressive movements around a programme of peace will be required.

Two young writers make significant short contributions to this edition of CR. First, we are very pleased to print the prize-winning essay in the first Young Writers Competition organised by the Young Communist League. Ismail Budak’s account of ‘Why I joined the YCL’ is truly inspiring. Then, in a contribution to the discussion on Progressive Federalism, launched in CR113, Vyshack Thalyil writes about the successes of the ‘People’s Plan’ initiative, with community participation at the heart, instituted by the Left Front government in the Indian state of Kerala.

In the Political Education column, Ruth Pitman asks “Is Marxism scientific?”, then proceeds to answer it in the affirmative, by measuring Marxism against what is meant by science and its methodology. She says that the question is important “because taking a consciously scientific approach enhances our ability as Communists to understand the world that we want to change.”

We have managed to find space for one book review in this issue. Roger McKenzie looks at Kevin Ochieng Okoth’s Red Africa: Reclaiming Revolutionary Black Politics, which “identifies a Red Africa that encompasses both Marxism and Black radicalism as part of the movement for Black freedom.”

Finally, Fran Lock’s Soul Food column mourns the recent closure of poetry publisher Smokestack books, pointing out that “this [is] at a time [when] we need fearless poets, and fearless poetry publishers, more than ever.” To exemplify such “fearless poets”, she includes a couple of cracking poems from Martin Hayes and Fred Voss.

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