Socialism
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Academic Marxism will never provide the answers needed to free workers
This article was inspired by a debate on the Academia website around a conciliatory piece by Fred Mosely. This piece and most of the comments show that Academic Marxism plays the same role as the Young Hegelians did in Marx’s day. They treat Marxism as a theoretical science not a practical science geared towards action.… Continue reading
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The Historical Challenges Facing the Socialist Movement
On February 16, 2015, István Mészáros sent me a letter addressing the history of the Latin American Spanish edition of Beyond Capital and its reception by President Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, along with a narrative of the origins of his close friendship with Chávez. In that letter, he explained that Vadell Hermanos, the publisher of the Spanish edition, had “asked me to… Continue reading
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Labour time is the visible hand guiding production and consumption
This article reviews the thesis presented by the Group of International Communists, titled the “Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution”. It was written in 1930, when Stalin, donning the mantle of the Russian Revolution and having anointed himself as chief revolutionary, was crushing debate within the European left and disorientating the movement to honour… Continue reading
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Timothée Parrique, Giorgos Kallis – Degrowth: Socialism without Growth
People appear to understand the abstract concept of “limitless”, but it is more difficult to understand that the concept cannot and should not be applied to growth. Even socialists must shake off the idea that quantity can improve, when only quality counts. Continue reading
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The only thing worse than predicting the future is being trapped by the past
By workers government, this article understands such a category to represent the dictatorship of the proletariat, that is after workers have successfully conquered state power and subdued the capitalist class and their agents. It is not interpreted as a government where workers are in office while the parties of the capitalist class are in opposition,… Continue reading
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Marx Didn’t Invent Socialism, Nor Did He Discover It
Revered as the Father of Socialism, in popular conception Karl Marx (1818–1883) is the originator of socialist theory, the creator of a plan implemented thereafter by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and other socialist nations. He remains one of the most cited authors of all time, and his writings are endlessly scrutinized and analyzed.… Continue reading
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Friedrich Engels at 200: A Revolutionary Historian
28 November 2020 marks the bicentenary of the birth of Friedrich Engels. The German revolutionary philosopher made pathbreaking and profound contributions to modern social and political theory, playing a critical role in the forging and development of classical Marxism. The renewed relevance of many of his ideas in our crisis-ridden world of late capitalism, where… Continue reading
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Socialism’s Increasing Popularity Doesn’t Bring Media Out of McCarthy Era
Socialism is more popular among people of color, younger people, people with more education and people with less money (Pew, 6/25/19). Continue reading
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Alexandra Kollontai: The Struggle for Proletarian Feminism and for Women in the Party
Editor’s note: The following is the first of a two-part article based on a talk the author gave at the People’s Forum in July 2020. This first part focuses on Kollontai’s struggle for proletarian feminism against bourgeois feminism as well as her struggle to center gender equality within the party’s platform. Part two, which we… Continue reading
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Cuba and the complex relationship between the individual and the collective
The Revolution… must act in such a way that the entire gamut of artists and intellectuals who are not genuinely revolutionary, find that within the Revolution they have an arena in which to work and to create; and that their creative spirit, even if they are not revolutionary writers or artists, has the opportunity and… Continue reading
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Facing the ecosocial crisis: Is a socialist planning of the economy feasible?
The current ecological and social crisis, a crisis which has seen its effects increased by a public health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, is a crisis that raises serious concerns over environmental sustainability and social polarization. It has a fundamental cause: the blind logic pursued by our economic system, where everything is secondary to… Continue reading
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Book: The Return of Nature
Twenty years ago, John Bellamy Foster’s Marx’s Ecology: Materialism and Nature introduced a new understanding of Karl Marx’s revolutionary ecological materialism. More than simply a study of Marx, it commenced an intellectual and social history, encompassing thinkers from Epicurus to Darwin, who developed materialist and ecological ideas. Now, with The Return of Nature: Socialism and… Continue reading
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Socialism rises like a phoenix to haunt America
The race for Democratic Nomination in the upcoming US presidential election in November has electrified with the huge victory by Bernie Sanders in the Nevada primary on Saturday. The race has crossed a critical milestone. The primaries so far gave us a sampling of the trend in two regions of America — the American heartland… Continue reading
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Marxism and the Climate Crisis: African Eco-Socialist Alternatives
Introducing an important book series on Democratic Marxism in Africa, Vishwas Satgar explains that the project is premised on a rejection of the authoritarianism of vanguardist politics and the need to learn critical lessons from all the left projects of the 20th century. There is a rich inheritance of emancipatory Marxism in Africa, which includes… Continue reading
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Chile: On the Road to Revolution or Paradigm Shift?
For more than three months since October 18, 2020, the Chilean people have been resisting and the government of Chile has been ignoring their demands: a decent salary, beyond the crumbs it has given them, the end of the AFP, free and dignified health care for the people, free education for all young people, free… Continue reading
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Understanding socialism
The New York Times magazine has described Richard Wolff as “probably America’s most prominent Marxist economist”. And that is probably not an exaggeration as a description of this emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and visiting professor at the New School University in New York. Continue reading
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Movie Review: The struggle to live in the present
Many of my friends disliked it, and not without reason. And yet Raoul Peck’s film The Young Karl Marx seemed to me to get the essential thing right.1 I saw it as a film about the struggle to live in the present. As such, it’s a film that can help us do exactly that. The Young… Continue reading
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Hollywood reboots Russophobia for the New Cold War By Max Parry
It is an age-old question as to the extent art reflects the world we live in. Bertolt Brecht allegedly said to the contrary that art was “not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.” Continue reading
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‘Dual Power,’ Then… and Now? By Richard Fidler
Global capitalist crisis, impending ecological disaster, and new responses by popular movements in some regions, particularly in Latin America, inspire radical thinking about the need to go “beyond capital.” But how to attain the desired “system change” – today, an ecosocialist regime in place of capitalist rule – continues to be a matter for debate… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 