Marxism and WWI: Zimmerwald debates
About this session

World War I exposed a huge split in the international workers movement, between reformists who supported the war and revolutionaries who refused to back the mass slaughter. This session will discuss how revolutionaries tried to rebuild a new workers movement on the basis of anti-imperialist politics.

Recommended readings

From Marx to Lenin: Debates that forged the socialist approach to war by Mick Armstrong

War on War: Lenin, the Zimmerwald Left, and the Origins of Communist Internationalism by R. Craig Nation

The Fight for Workers Power by Tom Bramble and Mick Armstrong. Chapter 1

Understanding war: Lenin’s 'Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism'

Australia and the drive to war with China

We need a revolution to put an end to today’s wars