In 1973, workers in the industrial port city of Durban embarked on a series of strikes, marking an end to a period of relative quiescence that came on the heels of tremendous state repression. The strikes began a process of unionisation that, within a decade, became the foundation of a wider mass democratic movement that mobilised millions of people in workplaces, communities, and educational institutions into the forms of counter power that brought apartheid to its knees. This dossier returns to the workers whose political contribution was, in the end, decisive.

This dossier examines the history of Christianity and the rise of fundamentalism in Latin America, from looking at its emergence in the United States and how it has served as a tool of an imperialist project to its insertion in politics in the region today and its misogynist, anti-communist, and anti-democratic manifestations.

In an interview with R. Chandra, this dossier discusses the strategic role of activist research in the All India Democratic Women’s Association’s fight against caste oppression, patriarchy, and economic exploitation. AIDWA’s survey and the campaigns that they generated deepened members’ understanding of the reality of caste oppression. In research, activists found a powerful tool to substantiate and systematise their own experiences on the ground, gain newer and broader insights, and understand the anatomy of gender oppression among different sections of women.

The asymmetrical power of the Global North over the Global South is expressed through a new logic of subordination and peripheralisation. Rather than being exclusively a question of the unequal exchange of manufactured goods versus primary goods, it is the control over the process of offshoring and the asymmetrical integration of different regions into global production networks that give rise to substantial distributive differences, even in the context of accelerated industrialisation processes in the periphery.

With the failure of capitalism to address the basic questions of our times, the obstinate facts of hunger and illiteracy that stare us in the face, it has become more urgent than ever to recover traditions that are grounded in a scientific approach and have a sincere desire to confront the dilemmas of humanity. Unpacking the traditions of national liberation Marxism in ten theses, dossier no. 56 unearths the foundations of revolutionary praxis that would allow for more factual assessments of our times, a closer rendition of contemporary imperialism that can advance the construction of a socialist world.