The state and the crisis of bourgeois democracy

In this episode of Marxist Voice, Ben Gliniecki, General Secretary of the RCP, outlines the Marxist theory of the state, explains why the Epstein revelations have exposed the true nature of liberal democracy, and discusses how a working-class alternative to bourgeois rule can emerge through dual power. Drawing on Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky, Ben explains how the capitalist state was born to defend minority class rule, and why it has always relied on a "veil" of ideology and reform to disguise that fact. He looks at how decades of economic crisis have stripped that veil away, and how the Epstein scandal, implicating politicians, diplomats, and academics across the political spectrum, is a symptom of that collapse, not an isolated case of corruption. Ben also examines the theory and history of dual power, from the Councils of Action in the 1926 General Strike to the Russian Revolution, and explains why the reformist leadership of the labour movement remains the central obstacle to revolutionary change today.

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