The 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 ha...

There have been many books and potted histories of the Russian Revolution, either written from an anti-Bolshevik perspective, or its Stalinist mirror image, which paint a false account of the rise of Bolshevism. For them, Bolshevism is either a historical "accident" or "tragedy." Or it is portrayed erroneously as the work of one great man (Lenin) who marched single-minded toward the October Revolution. Author Alan Woods* reveals the real evolution of Bolshevism as a living struggle of vari...

Alan Woods outlines the development of philosophy from the ancient Greeks, all the way through to Marx and Engels who brought together the best of previous thinking to produce the Marxist philosophical outlook, which looks at the real material world, not as a static immovable reality, but one that is constantly changing and moving according to laws that can be discovered.It is this method which allows Marxists to look at how things were, how they have become and how they are most l...

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 individuals play an important role in history, to explain events such as wars, one must look at deeper causes.As well as dealing with the...

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,...

"The Republic was dying on its feet because its social basis had ceased to exist.This fact expressed itself in continuous political crises and convulsions in the capital, party strife, revolutions and counter-revolutions."In the first complete Marxist history of the Roman Republic, Alan Woods provides a gripping and accessible analysis of the titanic struggles that shaped the Roman world, and continue to resonate today.Spanning more than a thousand years of developme...

Marxism and the USA by Alan Woods was the first title produced by Wellred USA.The book was written at a time when George W. Bush was president, a time when many around the world – including many on the left – considered the U.S. to be one reactionary bloc, devoid of class struggle or revolutionary potential. Woods' aim was to dispel these misconceptions, draw on the marvelous traditions of struggle throughout U.S. history, and inspire those new to the ideas of Marxism to learn more...

"The millions of people who have come out onto streets and squares around the world in recent years to oppose the policy of cuts and austerity do not trust politicians and trade union leaders. This shows a revolutionary instinct. Those who sneer at the movement as "merely spontaneous" display their ignorance of the essence of a revolution, which is precisely the direct intervention of the masses in politics. This spontaneity is an enormous strength—but at a certain point it will become a f...

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 into 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 se...

This book, originally published in May 2005, is a collection of articles written by Alan Woods and covers the momentous events of the Bolivarian revolution from the April 2002 coup which was defeated by the masses, up until 2005 when president Chavez declared that the aims of the Venezuelan revolution could only be achieved by abolishing capitalism.Alan Woods writes not from the point of view of an outside observer, but also from the point of view of someone who has energetically e...

The declarations of Hugo Chavez in favour of socialism have provoked an important debate in Venezuela and internationally. However some have concluded that the 'old' ideas of Marxism are no longer valid and that it is necessary to invent a completely new and original theory of Socialism of the 21st century. This book is a reply to that view - expressed by Heinz Dieterich amongst others - and a defence of the fundamental ideas of Marxism and scientific socialism against these revisionist ar...

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 Gr...