Public domain image By Shiran Illanperuma On 16 August 1976, representatives from eighty-six countries met in Colombo, Sri Lanka, for the Fifth Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries. This was the first summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to be held in Asia and perhaps the largest international conference ever held in Sri Lanka. In her inaugural address to the summit, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike – the world’s first woman p

Göbeklitepe site in May, 2025 -- public domain image By Erdem Denk While shooting a documentary at Göbeklitepe, I encountered strikingly different historical interpretations of the site. An international group of New Age seekers seemed to be searching for extraterrestrial connections there, but when I pointed out that the enclosures had originally been roofed, they recast the T-shaped pillars as traces of humanity’s mystical past. Representatives of an NGO working with conser

Lenin in his study Originally published in English by the USSR Information Bulletin, 1947. Lydia Fotieva, the author of this article, worked with Lenin for a long time as his private secretary. These are her personal reminiscences of the great man with whom she worked in close association. IN the course of five years, Lenin's study in the Kremlin was the actual headquarters of the Revolution. I recall the furnishings of the room. Just opposite the door stood a writing table w

Fidel Castro in 1984 Revolutionary, Communist, Anti-Imperialist and Internationalist Whose Ideas Live On 13 August 1926 – 13 August 2026 On the occasion of the centenary of Fidel Castro’s birth, the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia (NKPJ) and the League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia (SKOJ) pay tribute to one of the most significant revolutionaries, communists and anti-imperialist statesmen of the twentieth century — a man whose life and political struggle became a symbol

Via the South African Communist Party Thursday, 13 August 2026: The South African Communist Party (SACP) joins the Communist Party of Cuba, the Cuban government and people, and progressive forces throughout the world in commemorating the centenary of the birth of Comrade Fidel Castro Ruz. Born on 13 August 1926, Fidel devoted his life to the liberation of the Cuban people, the construction of socialism and the worldwide struggle against colonialism, imperialism, racism and ca

On the 100th anniversary of Fidel Castro’s birth, I recall his friendship with Che Guevara. By Urariano Mota On the 100th anniversary of Fidel Castro’s birth, I recall his friendship with Che Guevara. The following remarks are based on statements Jon Lee Anderson made to the press and on the biography he wrote about Che. Here, in an interview published in Colombia’s *Semana*, Jon Lee Anderson talks about the deaths of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara - *Semana* “Che died young, a

Keynote Address by Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, at the opening of the 1st International Colloquium "Fidel: Legacy and Future," at the Convention Center, August 10th, 2026, "Year of the Centennial of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz", translated from the Spanish Dear sisters and brothers; Distinguished academics, intellectuals, artists, social and political leaders, y

General Secretary of the Communist Party of Turkey Kemal Okuyan’s speech at the First Fidel International Colloquium Dear comrade Diaz-Canel, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, the President of the Republic. The dedicated communists in the presidium. Comrades and friends of Cuba, Over the course of its long history, the communist movement has produced some truly great figures. The real burden always rested on the shoulders of the unnamed heroes, the working p

Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Genbaku Dome) -- Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons CPUSA Statement on Hiroshima Day (August 6) The United States, eighty-one years ago, carried out a surprise nuclear attack on the people of Hiroshima. Three days later, it dropped an even more powerful nuclear device on Nagasaki. Between the initial blasts, subsequent firestorms, and acute radiation exposure, the two bombs killed over 200,000 people by the end of 1945. Those who survived

Caetano Veloso -- image via X By Urariano Mota To our great surprise, Caetano Veloso turns 84 today. But 84?! If the seasons rule our lives, we can say of them what Nelson Rodrigues said about videotape during a discussion: “Time is stupid!” We say this because when we look at the faces of these artists, we see ourselves in them. Not so much because of their physical appearance—their features and bodies—which are in better shape than ours these days. Some of them, like Paulin

Today we live as prisoners consigned to a permanent death row, having organized our world not around a commitment to collective sanity, safety, and security but around the perpetual preparation for collective destruction. Public domain image. By Eric Ross, Common Dreams It has been 81 years since the atomic bombings delivered an unmistakable message. From the ruins of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, humanity was faced with a choice that Martin Luther King, Jr. would later describe as

Lenin directing the Bolshevik uprising from Smolny, illustration from a Soviet history book, 1968 By Alexandra Kollontai, published in English in 1947 Kollontai was a famed Bolshevik revolutionary leader, Marxist thinker, women's rights advocate and diplomat. You can learn more about her at: Remembering Alexandra Kollontai b. March 31, 1872. This is her remembrance of Lenin in the early days of the Revolution: If someone were to ask me what hour of my life I cherished most an

From the PRC Press: Chairman Mao, our most respected and beloved great leader, had a good swim in the Yangtse River, braving the wind and waves on July 16 last year (1966). It left on indelible, happy memory in our minds and greatly inspired, the people throughout China and the world to go forward courageously in the storms of class struggle. Translation of the poem first published in English in 1967. Swimming to the melody Shui Tiao Keh Tou (2) I have just drunk the waters o

Gorky and Lenin in conversation, sketch USSR 1947 An English translation released in the Soviet Press, 1947: I EXPECTED Lenin to be different. To me something seemed to be lacking in him. He blurred his r's and, thumbs stuck under his armpits, stood with arms akimbo. And, all in all, he was somehow too plain; you felt nothing of the "leader" in him. I am a literary man. My profession obliges me to observe petty details and this duty has become a habit, sometimes even a tireso

A poem written by Rewi Alley in memory of Edgar Snow after his death in 1972. Looking out at me from the morning's paper the quiet steady face the understanding eyes of the American dreamer who saw how dreams could be made come true and who caught some of the fire of the Chinese Revolution and its leadership so that along with them, as they so incredibly fought, did he fight with his pen for all he came to believe in. Yes, he suffered all right, not simple to face those wild

The desire to stylize a mark is older than writing itself, and the typefaces of today shape what we remember, feel, and trust whenever we read. Blombos Cave ochre and artefacts, photo: Henning, © Chris Henshilwood, CC-BY-2.5; Released under the GNU Free Documentation License. By Irina Matuzava The oldest known engravings consist of zigzag patterns and parallel lines, carved into freshwater mussel shells at Trinil on the island of Java, Indonesia. These grooves, made by Homo e

Arkaio Nomisma, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Gary M. Feinman As democracies around the world face mounting challenges and pressures, discussions about autocracy often focus on personalities and ideologies or tend to link governance practices to differences among specific cultural traditions. Yet a growing body of comparative historical research has provided evidence that a more fundamental question deserves attention: How was and how are governments funded? Across t

From the Civil War and World War I to the ongoing conflict in Iran, America’s and other nations’ expectations of war have repeatedly been challenged by the realities that emerge once fighting begins. U.S. Marines in their gas masks during a gas mask drill, France, WWI, 1917 By John P. Ruehl A nominal ceasefire reached in April 2026 has done little to halt the escalation in the Persian Gulf. After Iran’s “attempted surprise attack” against US forces on July 28, the US retaliat

From Tricontinental Magazine, 1981 a look at the great revolutionary victory at the Bay of Pigs. Cuban writers H. Zumbado and Arnaldo Tacoronte who fought at Playa Giron, are co-authors of the book Company, Attention!, which won the 26th of July Contest sponsored by the Cuban Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces in 1975. This is an excerpt: THE battle began in the early morning of Monday, April 17. 1961, when the Second Infantry Battalion of mercenary troops landed at P

The People's Liberation Army should be a great school. In this school, our army should study politics and military affairs, raise its educational level, and also engage in agriculture and side-occupations and run small or medium-sized factories to make products for its own needs or for exchange with the state against equal values. Our army should also do mass work and participate in the socialist education movement in the factories and the villages. When the socialist educati