Karl Marx at 200: Aaron Bastani

picks five books to understand

Marxism
The post-crash era, political polarisation and tech revolution have revived big
ideas. Marxism is pivotal to leftwing thought, so here are some books to help
understand it

Aaron Bastani

Fri 4 May 2018 

 Protesters behind a banner reading ‘Marx Attack’ demonstrating at the annual May Day
march in Paris on 1 May. Photograph: Christophe Petit Tesson/EPA

The global financial crisis of 2008 was the catalyst for a number of trends whose
endpoints remain uncertain. One is a continuing crisis of the economic system:
previous growth levels have never recovered, particularly in Europe, while
wages have stagnated and living standards fallen. Home ownership is declining
in both Britain and the United States, with labour markets everywhere
increasingly precarious.

Another factor is the reemergence of political polarisation. In 2011, Time

magazine’s Person of the Year was “The Protester”. While dissent was primarily
limited to the streets for several years – including the Arab spring and
the Occupy movement – it would ultimately underpin the rise of politicians
whose radicalism and popular appeal were previously unimaginable. Step
forward Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders.

In the background was a revolution in technology and media consumption. Over

the last decade, more than 1bn iPhones have been sold, while a project started in
a Harvard dorm – Facebook – is now the world’s most successful media
company. Those changes, fused with a transformed political environment, have
signalled the return of big ideas – and in unexpected ways. While on the right
we’ve seen the rise of the online “manosphere” and the “alt-right”, on the left
there has been the unexpected revival of a thinker whose legacy endures even
after 150 years: Karl Marx.
 
In a world increasingly short on answers, Marx’s work always
implores us to challenge our own assumptions

For a generation of activists and academics their first real engagement

with Capital, was via the freely available video lectures of David Harvey’s course
at City University of New York. As an additional primer, Harvey wrote
his Companion to Marx’s Capital in 2010. A touchstone text for newcomers
to Marxist thought, it is the intellectual basis for the more radical elements of
left movements in the UK and US.

If Harvey is a good way to become acquainted with Marxist economics, Francis

Wheen’s Karl Marx allows the reader to situate his output within the context
of 19th-century Europe. While far from politically sympathetic, the biography is
informative and light, humanising a figure diminished for much of the last 100
years.

The Condition of the Working Class in England, written by Friedrich

Engels in the early 1840s, is based on personal observations in Manchester,
where he was a successful industrialist. It would influence Marx when they
finally met in 1844. For a glimpse of the city that would shape Marx’s mental
landscape like no other, and which last year erected a statue to his friend and
patron, it remains a vital point of reference.

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Even when his political conclusions were ignored, or viewed as confounded by

events, Marx’s contribution to history remained widely recognised. The
German Ideology, at more than 700 pages, is the definitive text. Fortunately,
a much shorter version, published by Lawrence & Wishart, will suffice.

It was because of his historical method that Louis Althusser once wrote of
Marx’s similarity to Thales and Galileo. Like them, he had “discovered” a new
continent for intellectual exploration. Just as Thales unearthed mathematics
and Galileo astronomy, he viewed Marx as responsible for revealing history not
as the result of fortune, providence or the deeds of great individuals, but the
unfolding of a material process that shapes our actions and is, in turn, shaped
by human agency. Much modern historical analysis rests on such conclusions,
from the “archeology” of Foucault to the world-systems theory of Immanuel
Wallerstein. It is the work of Silvia Federici, particularly her Caliban and
the Witch, that is perhaps most rewarding. Examining the witch trials
prevalent across much of early modern Europe, her Marxist-feminist approach
allows us to better understand the intimate relationship between modern
patriarchy, the rise of the nation state and the transition from feudalism to
capitalism.

In a world increasingly defined by political chaos, economic volatility and which

is short on answers – Marx’s work always implores us to challenge our own
assumptions while thinking, and acting, big. He may have been born 200 years
ago, but his key insights – a materialist view of history and a grasp of capitalism
as an inherently limited system – remain invaluable. And dangerous.
• Aaron Bastani’s Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto will be
published by Verso.

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Reading List

Key Marxist Thought

A list of key Marxist texts including the recently

released Marx: Towards the Centre of Possibility by leading
Japanese critical theorist Kojin Karatani.

Originally published in 1974, Kojin Karatani’s Marx: Towards the Centre of

Possibility has been among his most enduring and pioneering works in critical
theory. Written at a time when the political sequences of the New Left had
collapsed into crisis and violence, with widespread political exhaustion for the
competing sectarian visions of Marxism from 1968, Karatani’s Marx laid the
groundwork for a new reading, unfamiliar to the existing Marxist discourse in
Japan at the time.

You'll find everything from the first comprehensive collection of Marx's

political writings, Adorno’s classic text on fascism, a new edition of David
Harvey's Companion to Marx’s Capital, and Mario Tronti's first English
translation of Workers and Capital.

 
Marx
by Kojin Karatani

Classic study of Marx by Japan’s leading critical theorist.

Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche

by Henri Lefebvre

The great French Marxist philosopher weighs up the

contributions of the three major critics of modernity.

 
Workers and Capital
by Mario Tronti
“Every generation of revolutionary anti-capitalists has to come to terms with how to
read afresh the classic formulations of Marx and Lenin in ways appropriate to the
conditions of their times. How Tronti and some of his close colleagues did this in the
1960s is a spectacular and inspirational example of how to re-theorize class formation
and the practices of class struggle from a ground-up and workerist perspective. While
our contemporary world may be very different, there is much to be learned not only
conceptually but also methodologically from Tronti’s brilliant and incisive interventions
at all levels in the politics of his era.”

– David Harvey

The classic text of Italian workerism finally available in

English.

Old Gods, New Enigmas

by Mike Davis
“Old God, New Enigmas is a project that no one but Mike Davis could have conceived
and successfully executed: a systematic account of working-class politics on a global
scale that can serve as a worthy accompaniment to Marx’s Capital itself. Historical
sociology, cultural analysis, strategic handbook, and brilliant entrée to Marxist debates,
Davis’s book constitutes a weapon for action that is outrageously pleasurable to utilize.”

– Robert Brenner, author of The Economics of Global Turbulence

Marx has returned, but which Marx? Recent biographies have

proclaimed him to be an emphatically nineteenth-century figure,
but in this book, Mike Davis’s first directly about Marx and
Marxism, a thinker comes to light who speaks to the present as
much as the past.

The Political Writings

by Karl Marx

All of Marx’s essential political writing in one volume.

 
Minima Moralia
by Theodor Adorno

A classic of twentieth-century thought, Minima Moralia is

Adorno's literary and philosophical masterpiece.

Fortunes of Feminism
by Nancy Fraser

Charts the history of women’s liberation and calls for a

revitalized feminism.

 
On Ideology
by Louis Althusser

The classic analysis of how particular political and cultural

ideas come to dominate society.

The System of Objects

by Jean Baudrillard

A tour de force of the materialist semiotics of the early

Baudrillard.

The Return of the Political

by Chantal Mouffe

A powerful new understanding of citizenship, democracy and

pluralism.

A Companion to Marx’s Capital

by David Harvey
“David Harvey provoked a revolution in his field and has inspired a generation of
radical intellectuals. Read this book.”

– Naomi Klein

For nearly forty years, David Harvey has written and lectured
on Capital, becoming one of the world’s foremost Marx
scholars. Based on his recent lectures, this current volume—
finally bringing together his guides to volumes I, II and much of
III—presents this depth of learning to a broader audience,
guiding first-time readers through a fascinating and deeply
rewarding text. 

 
 The Origin of Capitalism
by Ellen Meiksins Wood
 P

“The Origin of Capitalism was one of those ‘Aha!’ moments. Wood was an

extraordinarily rigorous and imaginative thinker, someone who breathed life into
Marxist political theory and made it speak—not to just to me but to many others—at
multiple levels: historical, theoretical, political.”

– Corey Robin, Jacobin

How did the dynamic economic system we know as capitalism

develop among the peasants and lords of feudal Europe?

How to Be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty-First Century

by Erik Olin Wright
“Deserves to be widely read. In 150-odd pages, Wright makes the case for what’s wrong
with capitalism, what would be better, and how to achieve it. This is the rare book that
can speak to both the faithful and the unconverted. You could buy it for your skeptical
uncle or your militant cousin: there is something here for the reader who needs
persuading that another world is possible, and the reader who wants ideas for bringing
that world into being.”

– Ben Tarnoff, Guardian

What is wrong with capitalism, and how can we change it?

 
 Critique of Everyday Life
by Henri Lefebvre
 P “One of the great French intellectual activists of the twentieth century.”

– David Harvey

Lefebvre's classic analysis of daily life under capitalism in one

complete volume.

The Progress of This Storm

by Andreas Malm
“Andreas Malm’s new masterpiece The Progress of This Storm fills an urgent need, as
did his seminal Fossil Capital in 2016. In his earlier book, he demonstrated that the
fossil capitalism was not preordained by God or Nature or Technology, and that the
answer is system change not climate change. In his new study, he teaches us how we
can transcend those fashionable, ecological philosophies, clouding our understanding,
that stand in the way of the unity of environmental theory and practice. No more
definitive work of its kind exists today.”

– John Bellamy Foster, editor of Monthly Review, author of Marx’s Ecology

An attack on the idea that nature and society are impossible to
distinguish from each other.

The Authoritarian Personality

by Theodor Adorno, Else Frenkel-Brunswik, et al.
“Adorno and his colleagues could easily have been describing Alex Jones’s
paranoid InfoWars rants or the racist views expressed by many Trump supporters.”

– Molly Worthen, New York Times

Hugely influential study of the psychology of authoritarianism.

Collected Works, Volume 1

by V. I. Lenin
 PaRe-launch of the Collected Works of the legendary

revolutionary in paperback.

Collected Works, Volume 2

by V. I. Lenin

This second volume contains Lenin’s works from 1895 to 1897.

Class, Race, and Marxism

by David R. Roediger
“No contemporary intellectual has better illuminated the interwoven social histories and
conceptual dimensions of race and class domination. With this stunning new collection
of essays, David Roediger once again demonstrates that he is a vital thinker for all of us
seeking to bridge the imperatives of economic and social justice.”

– Nikhil Singh, New York University

Founder of whiteness studies surveys the race/class

relationship.

China’s Revolutions in the Modern World

by Rebecca E. Karl
“Rebecca Karl brings to life in wonderful detail the successive revolutionary moments
that constituted modern China, illuminating their importance even when they failed to
achieve their goals. Although that modern world may now be behind us, Karl shows
how the modern Chinese experiments provide an essential basis for thinking revolution
in our future.”

– Michael Hardt, co-author of Assembly

A concise account of how revolutions made modern China and

helped shape the modern world.

 
The Philosophy of Marx
by Etienne Balibar
“A very intelligent and creative work—succinct and informative; it explores the ways
in which Marxism as such challenges traditional philosophy (and the problems the latter
possesses for it). It should certainly have a privileged place on the shelf of
contemporary studies of Marx.”

– Fredric Jameson

A rich and accessible introduction to Marx’s fundamental

concepts from a key intellectual—now updated.

State, Power, Socialism

by Nicos Poulantzas
“It is Poulantzas’s great virtue to have seen so clearly that an adequate Marxist theory of
politics must be able to deal with just those phenomena which non-Marxists have
regarded as decisive refutations of Marxism.”

– Times Literary Supplement

In State, Power, Socialism, the leading theorist of the state and

European communism advances a vigorous critique of
contemporary Marxist theories of the state.

Political Descartes
by Antonio Negri

A classic study of modern philosophy's founder, translated into

English for the first time.

 
A World to Win
by Sven-Eric Liedman
“Neoliberalism is increasingly exposed as a failed experiment and many people are now
exploring the tradition of radical politics for solutions to the challenges we now face.
This book brings to life the early history of the socialist tradition.”

– John McDonnell, MP Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer

The definitive biography of Karl Marx.

War and Revolution

by Domenico Losurdo
“Losurdo’s book, fruit of a continuous intertwining of historical investigations and
philosophical reflections, not only constitutes a criticism of historical revisionism but
also does not want to be just an invitation to look to the past to better understand the
century behind us: it contains precious tools for criticising the war ideology that the
West seems to want to reinstate today.”

– Stefano G. Azzarà & Leonardo Pecoraro, International Critical Thought

Author of the acclaimed Liberalism: A Counter-History dissects

the revisionist attempts to expunge or criminalize revolutions.

 
Marxism and the Philosophy of Science
by Helena Sheehan
“Sheehan’s book remains the single best secondary analysis of the debates over Marxist
philosophy of science from its creation in the late nineteenth century … until the close
of World War II. It is an indispensable reference to the polyglot efflorescence of
dialectical materialist thought across Europe, with especial emphasis on writings in
German, Russian, and English, though she impressively ventures even farther afield. It
is essential reading for anyone interested in these questions.”

– Marx & Philosophy

A masterful survey of the history of Marxist philosophy of

science.

Eleanor Marx
by Yvonne Kapp
“One of the few unquestionable masterpieces of twentieth-century biography.”
– Guardian

Yvonne Kapp’s monumental biography of the daughter of Karl

Marx who became a radical activist.

For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign

by Jean Baudrillard

A material analysis of the sign which deepens Marx’s critique

of political economy for spectacular times.

Reading Capital
by Louis Althusser, Etienne Balibar, et al.
“One of the central texts of French structuralism (and of modern Marxism as well). Its
critique of humanism and what Althusser called historicism remains relevant and ought
to be renewed in our time.”
– Fredric Jameson

A classic work of Marxist analysis, available unabridged for the

first time in this beautiful design.

Philosophy and Revolution

by Stathis Kouvelakis
“Quite simply the best study of the ‘young Marx’ (pre-1848) and his immediate
predecessors I have ever read.”

– Science & Society

A remarkable history of the formation of Marxist thought.

Women’s Oppression Today

by Michèle Barrett
 
“Michèle Barrett’s excellent and lucid discussion of the issues and debates within
contemporary feminist theory makes a major contribution to our understanding of the
nature of that oppression.”

– Mary Evans, London School of Economics

Women’s Oppression Today is a classic text in the debate about

Marxism and feminism, exploring how gender, sexuality and
the “family-household system” operate in relation to
contemporary capitalism.

Representing Capital
by Fredric Jameson

Representing Capital, Fredric Jameson's first book-length

engagement with Marx's magnum opus, is a unique work of
scholarship that records the progression of Marx's thought as if
it were a musical score. 

The Communist Manifesto / The April Theses

by Frederick Engels, V. I. Lenin, et al.
 HardbackA new beautiful edition of the Communist

Manifesto, combined with Lenin’s key revolutionary tract.

Proletarian Nights
by Jacques Rancière
“With its innovative approach, Rancière's difficult and provocative interpretation is
essential reading.”

– Choice

A classic text by Rancière on the intellectual thought of French

workers in the 19th century.
Radical Thinkers: Marx editions

 
On Karl Marx
by Ernst Bloch
 

Really Existing Nationalisms

by Erica Benner
 

From Marxism to Post-Marxism?

by Göran Therborn
 

The Theory of Need in Marx

by Agnes Heller

Re-published to coincide with Marx's bicentenary, these books are

essential reading on Marx. Includes: On Karl Marx by Ernst Bloch, Really
Existing Nationalisms: A Post-Communist View from Marx and Engels by
Erica Brenner, From Marxism to Post-Marxism? by Göran Therborn, and The
Theory of Need in Marx by Agnes Heller. Click on the links above to add to
your cart.

For Marx
by Louis Althusser
“One reads him with excitement. There is no mystery about his capacity to inspire the
intelligent young.”

– Eric Hobsbawm

A milestone in the development of post-war Marxist thought.

 

Valences of the Dialectic

by Fredric Jameson
“A genuinely monumental work that I expect to be referring to for many years.”

– Mark Fisher, author of Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?

A comprehensive analysis of the philosophy of the dialectic.

Late Capitalism
by Ernest Mandel
“Late Capitalism is the answer to how Marx might view the complex economic
phenomena of the 1970s. It is sophisticated, well written, impressively documented.
This volume is, indeed, one of the major contributions of the last decade to Marxist
economics.”

– Choice
Late Capitalism is the first major synthesis to have been
produced by the contemporary revival of Marxist economics.

Alternatives to Capitalism
by Robin Hahnel and Erik Olin Wright
“Many recognize that the various forms of ‘really existing capitalism’ have deficiencies
that range from harmful to lethal. Few have carefully thought through ‘really existing
alternatives’ that offer hope for escape from problems and dilemmas that are profound,
and imminent. Robin Hahnel and Erik Olin Wright are two of the most thoughtful and
perceptive analysts to have pursued this critically important course. Their reasoned and
informed interaction is a major contribution towards clarifying the paths forward.”

– Noam Chomsky

What would a viable free and democratic society look like? 

 
Comments on the Society of the Spectacle
by Guy Debord

First published in 1967, Guy Debord’s stinging revolutionary

critique ofcontemporary society, The Society of the
Spectacle has since acquired a cult status.

The Origin of German Tragic Drama

by Walter Benjamin
“Walter Benjamin is the most important German aesthetician and literary critic of [the
twentieth] century.”

– Sunday Times

Benjamin's most sustained and original work, and one of the

main sources of literary modernism.

 
The Situationists and the City
Edited by Tom McDonough
“A highly readable and well-organised compendium that is likely to be fingered for
some time, it lays out neatly the movement's visionary take on the city (read Paris) 'as
the primary site of alienation in modern society.'”

– Art Review

Key Situationist texts on the city, strikingly illustrated.

The Philosophy of Praxis

by Andrew Feenberg
“Feenberg’s subtle and wide-ranging study of Lukács’ History and Class
Consciousness reaches forward to Marcuse and the Frankfurt School and backwards
into Marx’s 1844 manuscripts. The book offers a whole new framework in which to
grasp the history of Marxist theory, at the same time restoring Marcuse’s centrality in
it.”

– Fredric Jameson

The origins of "Western Marxism".

Considerations on Western Marxism

by Perry Anderson
“A splendid essay in intellectual history ... an elegant and acute, brilliantly laconic and
deeply-felt survey.”

– Eric Hobsbawm, New Statesman

This synoptic essay considers the nature and evolution of the

Marxist theory that developed in Western Europe, after the
defeat of the proletarian rebellions in the West and the isolation
of the Russian Revolution in the East in the early 1920s.

 
Late Marxism
by Fredric Jameson
“The most philosophically sophisticated and searching study of Theodor Adorno to
appear in English ... powerful and persuasive.”

– The Nation

A lively and lucid introduction to the work of Theodor Adorno.

Ideology
by Terry Eagleton
“An impressive, daunting work... a considerable accomplishment.”

– San Francisco Review of Books

The best guide available to this complex concept, newly

updated.

 
 Woman’s Consciousness, Man’s World
by Sheila Rowbotham
 Pap

“Rowbotham is one of Britain’s most important, if unshowy, feminist thinkers, and a

key figure of the second wave.”

– Melissa Benn, Guardian

Groundbreaking examination of the birth, development and

impact of Feminist consciousness.

The Anti-Social Family

by Michèle Barrett and Mary McIntosh
 Pape “An extremely brave, and with the benefit of hindsight, what must appear

to be a very daring critique of the family.”

– Sociology

Sensitive but uncompromising socialist-feminist critique of the

nuclear family.

Arguments Within English Marxism

by Perry Anderson
“Anderson evaluates the entire corpus of Thompson’s work as a historian and as a
socialist ... The result is a fascinating assessment of the man Anderson claims to be ‘our
finest socialist writer today.’ ... In so doing Anderson provides a superb essay in
historiography as well as an important chapter of the history of the left in England.”

– Time Out

“His argument ... takes on an exceptional fluency and subtlety,

touching many of the key points of socialist morality, socialist
history and the socialist future. Its core is a very elegant
restatement of the undogmatic essence of Marx.” – New
Statesman

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An intense and lively debate on literature and art between

thinkers who became some of the great figures of twentieth-
century philosophy and literature.
 

Marxism and Philosophy

by Karl Korsch

In Marxism and Philosophy Korsch argues for a reexamination

of the relationship between Marxist theory and bourgeois
philosophy, and insists on the centrality of the Hegelian
dialectic and a commitment to revolutionary praxis. 

Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory

by Ernesto Laclau

Analysis of the role of ideology in political movements.

Marx's Revenge
by Meghnad Desai
“… anti-globalization activists would do well to check out Marx’s Revenge, which is an
economic history aimed at the general reader.”

– Irish Times

In the triumphant resurgence of capitalism, the one thinker who

is vindicated is Karl Marx.

Communities of Resistance
by A. Sivanandan
“You can agree or not agree with Sivanandan (I agree nearly all the time) but what you
certainly can't ignore is the voice with which he writes. It has the warmth of the passion
of those who know they will never live to wield power, and the clarity of a demand for
justice that cannot be silenced. His is a voice that relays the voices of the poor, the salt
of the earth and the proud. The colour of his voice cannot be dismissed. Its unique tone
carries a reminder of what wealth inevitably loses, of what power based upon injustice
fears. Read, listen...”

– John Berger
A collection of incisive critiques of contemporary Marxism, of
post-colonial development and of the Eurocentric assessment of
imperialism.

The Formation of the Economic Thought of Karl Marx

by Ernest Mandel
“One of the most creative and independent-minded revolutionary Marxists of the post-
war world.”

– Guardian

A clear and compact guide to Marx’s road to Das

Kapital. Ernest Mandel traces the development of Marx’s
economic ideas from the Economic and Philosophical
Manuscripts to the completion of the Grundrisse. 

 
Marx on Money
by Suzanne de Brunhoff
“While Marxist theory and radical economists in general emphasize the real aspects of
economies, de Brunhoff has been a pioneer in this current of thought.”

– Michel Beaud and Gilles Dostaler in Economic Thought Since Keynes: A History and Dictionary of
Major Economists

The republication of Suzanne de Brunhoff’s classic

investigation into Karl Marx’s conception of “the money
commodity” shines light on commodities and their fetishism.

 
 A Theory of Capitalist Regulation
by Michel Aglietta
 Paperback

“One of the most important and stimulating books in Marxian political economy that
have appeared for many years.”

– Capital and Class

Michel Aglietta’s path-breaking book is the first attempt at a

rigorous historical theory of the whole development of US
capitalism, from the Civil War to the Carter presidency.

 
 Value
Edited by Diane Elson
 Paperback

 Ebook

Paperback with free ebook

£9.99£6.9930% off

186 pages / August 2015 / 9781784782290

Add to cart

“Elson has recently collected together a set of interesting essays (and added an
extraordinarily penetrating piece of her own) that explore the revolutionary aspects to
Marx’s theory in terms of the unity of rigorous science and politics. I have great
sympathy with these arguments and view my own work as an explanatory essay along
the lines that Elson has begun to define.”

– Sylvia Chant

These incisive and erudite texts provide a crucial introduction to

Marxist political economy, as well as advancing critical
arguments for those already well versed in the field.

 
 Reconstructing Marxism
by Andrew Levine, Elliott Sober, et al.
 Paperback

Paperback
£14.99£10.4930% off

216 pages / February 1992 / 9780860915546

Add to cart

Mapping out a future for Marxist theory.

Interrogating Inequality
by Erik Olin Wright
 Paperback

Paperback
£17.99£12.5930% off

288 pages / April 1994 / 9780860916338

Add to cart

Perceptive and thoughtful essays on the future of socialism and

Marxism.

The Melancholy Science

by Gillian Rose

 PaperbackThe Melancholy Science is Gillian Rose’s

investigation into Theodor Adorno’s work and legacy. Rose

uncovers the unity discernable among the many fragments of

Adorno’s oeuvre, and argues that his influence has been to turn

Marxism into a search for style. 

The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg

 
The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg, Volume I
by Rosa Luxemburg
 

The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg, Volume II

by Rosa Luxemburg

These first two volumes in Rosa Luxemburg’s Complete Works,

entitled Economic Writings 1 and Economic Writings 2 contains
some of Luxemburg’s most important statements on the
globalization of capital, wage labor, imperialism, and pre-
capitalist economic formations.

 
Politics and History
by Louis Althusser

Enlightenment advances towards a science of politics, and

Marx's relationship to Hegel.
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Marxism
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ested reading
 SOCIALIST APPEAL
Check out this selection of writings for an
excellent introduction to many of the
fundamentals of Marxist theory.
Marxist theory is the basis upon which our analysis,
perspectives, program, and participation in the
movement are based. It is our "guide to action". This
why Socialist Appeal places so much emphasis on
political education. To this end, we have created an
extensive Education Plan to assist comrades in their political
development. This is an important resource.

However, it's length and scope may seem daunting to new

comrades. With this in mind, Socialist Appeal has
compiled a shorter list of classic works and other important
writings we think will serve to lay a strong foundation in
the ideas and methods of Marxism. We would like to
encourage all our supporters and those interested in
learning more about Marxism to read (or re-read!) through
the works on this list.

This selection of writings is

an excellent introduction to many of
the fundamentals of Marxist theory. There are many other
writings that could be added, but this selection provides a
strong basis for those wishing to equip themselves with
the necessary ideas for the daily work of fighting for
socialism.

Many of these are smaller books or pamphlets; some are

more lengthy books; and others are just short articles. This
list should therefore be more digestible than the full
Education Plan, particularly those with busy work or
school schedules. All of them are available to be read
online for free (links are provided), and many of them
have already been published by Wellred and are available
at www.wellredbooks.net.

To help comrades with their reading of these Marxist

classics, we have produced reading guides for many of
these texts, which can help you to digest the key ideas
contained with them.

The following texts, books, and introductory articles

below provide a good overview of the key ideas of
Marxism:

Theory of Marxism (Anti-Duhring) Click here to order.

What is Marxism? (by Alan Woods and Rob Sewell)

The ideas of Karl Marx (by Alan Woods)

What is Dialectical Materialism? (by Rob Sewell)

Why we are Marxists

The revolutionary ideas of Karl Marx

The myths about Marxism

 
What will socialism look like?

Why you should be a socialist

The need for a revolutionary international

Before starting on these classic Marxist texts and key

articles, you might also like to visit our Marxism 101 section in
order to find answers to the most commonly asked
questions about Marxism, socialism, and revolution.

Finally, the following videos are highly recommended as

an introduction to Marxism and an explanation of
socialism:
The relevance of Marxism today
What is Capitalism? What is
Socialism?
Capitalism and Revolution
Capitalism and Crisis
The need for a Revolutionary Party
Enjoy!

The Fundamentals of Marxism

The ABCs of Marxism
 Why We Are Marxists by Alan Woods
A short introduction to the basic elements of
Marxism and why socialism is the only way forward
for humanity.

o Read it here
 The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of
Marxism by V.I. Lenin
 This short article outlines the most basic—but
fundamental—elements of Marxism: its philosophy,
understanding of history, and analysis of economics.

o Read it here
 The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels
The founding document of the Communist
movement. More relevant today than when it was
first written over 170 years ago. Although it is
relatively short, every line is dense with content and
some find it difficult to read. But once you work
through it carefully, you will find the ideas start
falling into place. Like a good song, the Manifesto is
worth re-reading time and time again—there is
something "new" in it every time you read it!
o Read it here | Purchase this as part of the Classics
of Marxism Vol 1 here
o View our reading guide  | Download the reading guide as
a PDF

Introduction to Marxist Philosophy: Dialectical

and Historical Materialism
 Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Friedrich Engels
Socialism existed long before Marx and Engels, but it
remained just “a good idea,” until their development
of scientific socialism. Engels discusses the various
Utopian socialist movements of the past and their
limitations.
 o Read it here | Purchase this as part of the Classics
of Marxism Vol 1 here
o View our reading guide  | Download the reading guide as
a PDF

Marxism and the state, anarchism, and

reformism
 State and Revolution by V.I. Lenin
State and Revolution was written to prepare the
Bolshevik party for their task in 1917 of leading the
Russian working class to power. It analyzes the
origins of the state, its role in maintaining the rule of
capital, the need for the revolutionary overthrow of
the bourgeois state, how a workers' state must be
used by the working class to defend the socialist
revolution, and how the state as an instrument of
the rule of one class over another would "wither
way" in the transition from socialism to communism,
as a result of the gradual dissolution of classes. In
this short book, Lenin also takes up the views of the
anarchists and the reformists on this question, and
exposes their limitations.
o Read it here | Purchase this as part of the Classics
of Marxism Vol 1 here
o View our reading guide  | Download the reading guide as
a PDF

The Transitional Method

  The Transitional Programme by Leon Trotsky
How do Marxists use programmatic demands to win
the working class to the cause of revolutionary
socialism? Trotsky explains the need to use
transitional demands to bridge the gap between
“minimum demands” and “maximum demands”;
between the the present consciousness of the
working class and the need for the socialist
transformation of society; and between the
revolutionary party and the advanced workers.
o Read it here | Purchase this as part of the Classics
of Marxism Vol 1 here
o View our reading guide  | Download the reading guide as
a PDF

The Mass Organisations of the Working Class

 "Left-Wing" Communism - an Infantile Disorder by
V.I. Lenin
The Communist International which was created
after the Russian Revolution was formed mostly
from left-wing splits in the Socialist International.
Many had ultra-left positions as a reaction to
decades of the reformist leadership of the Socialist
parties. Lenin used this book to educate the young
cadres of the Comintern in the methods of
Bolshevism and the relation between the class, the
party, and the leadership. It is a masterpiece of
Marxism, applying the basic tenets already outlined
in the Manifesto: "The Communists do not form a
separate party opposed to the other working-class
 parties; They have no interests separate and apart
from those of the proletariat as a whole; They do not
set up any sectarian principles of their own, by which
to shape and mold the proletarian movement."
o Read it here | Purchase this as part of the Classics
of Marxism Vol 2 here
o View our reading guide  | Download the reading guide as
a PDF

What About the Soviet Union?

 The Revolution Betrayed by Leon Trotsky
Why did the Soviet state degenerate into the
monstrous bureaucratic regime of Stalin? Leon
Trotsky analyzes how it came about, the Soviet state
as it was in in the 1930s, the potential for genuine
socialism hinted at by the advances of the USSR in
spite of the bureaucracy, and what the tasks of the
Marxists were in relation to it. He predicts in
advance that if a political revolution did not succeed
in overthrowing the bureaucratic regime and
replacing it with workers' democracy, that capitalism
would eventually be restored, with tragic
consequences for the Soviet and world working
class.
o Read it here | Purchase it here

Introduction to Marxist Economics

 Wage Labour and Capital by Karl Marx
In this short book, Marx explains in everyday
 language how labor creates value, how capital
exploits labor, and how wages are determined in
capitalism. An excellent introduction to Marxist
economics.

o Read it here | Purchase this as part of the Classics

of Marxism Vol 2 here
 Value, Price, and Profit by Karl Marx
In this work, Marx explains how prices relate to a
commodity's value and shows where profits actually
come from. Another great introduction to Marxist
economics.

o Read it here | Purchase this as part of the Classics

of Marxism Vol 2 here

Imperialism and War

 Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism by V.I.
Lenin
Capitalism once played a progressive historic role in
dragging humanity out of the impasse of feudalism.
By developing the productive forces to previously
unheard of levels, it has laid the material basis for
socialism. But as the system began to reach its limits,
this was reflected in the development of imperialism
and the outbreak of world war. This classic work was
written in the midst of World War I, and served to
train a new layer of Marxists after the betrayal of
many of the leaders of the Socialist International,
who had capitulated to "their" national capitalist
 classes. It explains how industrial capital came to
dominate merchant capital, only to be further
dominated by finance capital. It also details the rise
gigantic monopolies concentrating enormous wealth
in a few hands. In addition, it explains how
imperialist nations dominate others through the
export of capital, terms of trade that favor the more
powerful country, and the use of military power to
impose their will.
o Read it here | Purchase it here

The Historical Origins of Class Society

 Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the
State by Friedrich Engels
How did the early primitive communist societies lead
to the eventual rise of class society? What is the
state and where did it come from? By examining the
best-available anthropological and historical
research of the time, Engels analyzes the rise of
classes and the changing forms of the family, private
property, and the state over the course of human
history. Only by fully understanding the past can we
correctly analyze the present and act to change the
future course of human development.
o Read it here

If you have read through all of these works and feel you
have a handle on the basics, it's time to explore the many
classics available in our more complete Education Plan, and to
keep up with current events and the application of the
Marxist method by regularly
visiting www.socialist.net and www.marxist.com.

Socialist Appeal are proud to publish this education guide to help

focus your studies of Marxist theory and practice. Visit the various
tabs below to find links to introductory articles, classic texts, videos
and audio talks for different topics. Read More


Educate Yourself
 Marxism 101
 Fundamentals of Marxism
 Dialectical Materialism
 Historical Materialism
 Marxist Economics
 Stalinism and the Soviet Union
 The State
 Anarchism
 Identity and Oppression
 Fascism
 The National Question
 Imperialism and War
 Revolutionary History
 Revolutionary Strategy

John Jabez Edwin Mayal/Wikimedia Commons

 Karl Marx: ten things to read if
you want to understand him
May 4, 2018 9.40am EDT

Authors

1. James Muldoon
Lecturer in Political Science, University of Exeter

2. Robert Jackson
Lecturer in Politics, Manchester Metropolitan University

Disclosure statement

James Muldoon is a member of the British Labour Party.

Robert Jackson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization
that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Partners

Manchester Metropolitan University provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK.

View all partners

As the world reflects on 200 years since the birth of Karl Marx, his
writings are being sampled by more and more people. If you’re new
to the work of one of the greatest social scientists of all time, here’s
where to start.

Marx’s own writing

James Muldoon, University of Exeter
The long history of brutal, totalitarian “Marxist” regimes around the
world has left many people with the impression that Marx was an
authoritarian thinker. But readers who dive into his work for the first
time are often surprised to discover an Enlightenment humanist and a
philosopher of emancipation, one who envisaged well-rounded human
beings living rich, varied and fulfilling lives in a post-capitalist society.
Marx’s writings don’t just propose a revolutionary political project;
they offer a moral critique of the alienation of individuals living in
capitalist societies.

1. An Introduction to a Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s

Philosophy of Right (Available here)
Originally published in 1844 in a radical Parisian newspaper, this
fascinating short essay captures many of Marx’s early criticisms of
modern society and his radical vision of emancipation. It also
introduces several of the key themes that would shape his later
writings.

Marx claims that the bourgeois revolutions of the 18th century may
have benefited a wealthy and educated class, but did not challenge
private forms of domination in the factory, home and field. Marx
theorises the revolutionary subject of the working class, and proposes
its historic task: to abolish private property and achieve self-
emancipation.

2. Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of

1844 (Available here)
Not published within his lifetime, and only released in 1932 by officials
in the Soviet Union, these notes written by Marx are an important
source for his theory of capitalist alienation. They reveal the essential
outline of what “Marxism” is, and provide the philosophical basis for
humanist readings of Marx.

In these manuscripts, Marx analyses the harmful effects of the

organisation of labour in modern industrial societies. Modern workers,
he argues, have become estranged from the goods they produced, from
their own labour activity, and from their fellow workers. Rather than
achieving a sense of satisfaction and self-actualisation in their labour,
workers are left exhausted and spiritually depleted. For Marx, the
antidote to modern alienation is a humanist conception of communism
based on free and cooperative production.

3. The Communist Manifesto (Available here)

 The Communist Manifesto in its original edition.  Wikimedia
Commons

Opening with the famous line, “a spectre is haunting Europe – the

spectre of communism”, the Communist Manifesto has become one of
the most influential political documents ever written. Co-authored with
Friedrich Engels, this pamphlet was commissioned by London’s
Communist League and published on the cusp of the various
revolutions that rocked Europe in 1848.

The manifesto presents Marx’s materialist conception of history and

his theory of class struggle. It outlines the growing tensions between
the bourgeoisie and the proletariat under capitalist relations of
production, and predicts the triumph of the workers.

4. The German Ideology (Available here)

For anyone seeking to understand Marxism’s deeper philosophical and
historical underpinnings, this is one of his most important texts.
Written in around 1846, again with Engels, The German
Ideology provides the full development of the two men’s
methodology, historical materialism, which seeks to understand the
history of humankind based on the development of its modes of
production.

Marx and Engels argue that individuals’ social consciousness depends

on the material conditions in which they live. He traces the
development of different historical modes of production and argues
that the present capitalist one will be replaced by communism. Some
interpreters view this text as the point where Marx’s thought began to
emerge in its mature form.

5. Capital (Volume 1) (Available here)

Published in 1867, Capital is Marx’s critical diagnosis of the capitalist
mode of production. In it, he details the ultimate source of wealth
under capitalism: the exploited labour of workers. Workers are free to
sell their labour to any capitalist, but since they must sell their labour
in order to survive, they are dominated by the class of capitalists as a
whole. And through their labour, workers reproduce and reinforce both
the economic conditions of their existence and also the social and
ideological structure of their society.

Capital, volume 1. Dive in. Wikimedia Commons

In Capital, Marx outlines a number of capitalism’s internal

contradictions, such as a declining rate of profit and the tendency for
the formation of capitalist monopolies. While certain aspects of the text
have been questioned, Marx’s analysis informs economic debate to this
day. For anyone trying to understand why capitalism keeps falling into
crisis, it’s still hugely relevant.

On Marx and Marxism

Robert Jackson, Manchester Metropolitan University
1. A Companion to Marx’s Capital – David Harvey
From social movements to student reading groups, from Thomas
Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century to articles in the Financial
Times, Marx’s economic writings are at the centre of debate once again.
And one of the figures most associated with these discussions is the
geographer David Harvey.

Based on his popular online lecture series, Reading Capital with David

Harvey, this book makes Marx’s Capital accessible to a broader
audience. Guiding readers through Marx’s challenging (but rewarding)
study of the “laws of motion” of capitalism, Harvey provides an open
and critical reading. He draws out the connections between this world-
changing text and today’s society – a society which, after all, is still
shaped by the economic crisis of 2008.

2. Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life – Jonathan Sperber

For Jonathan Sperber, a historian of modern Germany, Marx is “more
a figure from the past than a prophet of the present”. And, as its title
suggests, this biography places Marx’s life in the context of the 19th
century. It’s an accessible introduction to the history of his political
thought, particularly as a critic of his contemporaries. Sperber
discusses Marx in his many roles – a son, a student, a journalist and
political activist – and introduces the multitude of characters
connected with him. While Francis Wheen’s well-known Karl Marx: A
Life is a more freewheeling account, Sperber’s writing is both highly
readable and more deeply rooted in historical scholarship.

3. From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation – Keeanga-

Yamahtta Taylor
Writing about the US just over 150 years ago, Marx noted that: “Labour
in a white skin cannot emancipate itself where it is branded in a black
skin.” And the influence of his ideas about the relationship between
race and class is visible in debates right up to the present day.

Penned by academic and activist Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, who came

to popular prominence in the recent #BlackLivesMatter movement,
this is a timely read for those interested in the various ways Marx’s
thought is being rebooted for the 21st century. A penetrating book, it
connects the origins of racism to the structures of economic inequality.
With plenty of Marxist ideas (among others) in her toolbox, Taylor
critically examines the notion of a “colour-blind” society and the US’s
post-Obama order to great effect.

4. Why Marx was Right – Terry Eagleton

A call to reconsider the widely accepted notion that Marx is a “dead
dog” from renowned literary theorist Terry Eagleton. In
this provocative and highly readable book, Eagleton questions the
plausibility of ten of the most common objections to Marx’s thought –
among them, that Marx’s ideas are outdated in post-industrial
societies, that Marxism always leads to tyranny in practice, that Marx’s
theory is deterministic and undermines human freedom. Always witty
and passionate, Eagleton peppers his spirited defence (with some
reservations) of Marx’s ideas with his own literary and cultural
insights.

5. Jacobin magazine – edited by Bhaskar Sunkara (available online)

In the era of the Occupy movement, “taking a knee” and #MeToo, the
discussion of Marx’s ideas has gained an increasing presence on the
internet. One of the most notable examples is the socialist magazine
and online platform Jacobin, edited by Bhaskar Sunkara, which
currently reaches around 1m viewers a month.

Covering topics from international politics and environmental

movements to the recent education strikes in Oklahoma and West
Virginia and Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign, it’s a lively source
for anyone who wants to see an analysis of contemporary politics that’s
influenced by Marx’s thought.

A People's Guide to Capitalism

An Introduction to Marxist Economics
by Hadas Thier
PAPERBACK, 300 PAGES
ISBN: 9781642591699
August 24, 2020
Forthcoming
A lively, accessible, and timely guide to Capitalism for those who want to
understand and dismantle the world of the 1%
Economists regularly promote Capitalism as the greatest system ever to grace the planet. With
the same breath, they implore us to leave the job of understanding the magical powers of the
market to the “experts.&rdquo

Despite the efforts of these mainstream commentators to convince us otherwise, many of us

have begun to question why this system has produced such vast inequality and wanton disregard
for its own environmental destruction. This book offers answers to exactly these questions on
their own terms: in the form of a radical economic theory.

Reviews
 "When Marxist economics becomes
usable by the people most threatened
by capitalism—that is when it
becomes great and dangerous.
Hadas Thier's urgently needed book
strips away jargon to make Marx's
essential work accessible to today's
diverse mass movements." —Sarah
Leonard, contributing editor to
the Nation

"As the world descends into a

financial and public health crisis, the
savage inequalities of capitalism are
being laid bare. Hadas Thier’s new
book A People’s Guide to Capitalism,
has arrived right on time to clearly
explain why the poor and working
class always bear the brunt of
capitalism’s crises. Erudite and sharp,
Thier unpacks the mystery of
capitalist inequality with lucid and
accessible prose. As we all enter into
a world of new realities, we will need
books like A People’s Guide to help us
make sense of the root causes of the
financial crises that shape so many of
our struggles today." —Keeanga-
Yamahtta Taylor, author of From
#BlackLivesMatter to Black
Liberation and Race for Profit: How
Banks and the Real Estate Industry
Undermined Black Homeownership

"Economists have every incentive to

mystify their craft and to dress up
their political judgments as scientific
fact. Hadas Thier's A People's Guide to
Capitalism is a thorough and
 accessible corrective, and sure to be
an important primer for generations of
activists." —Bhaskar Sunkara,
founding editor of Jacobin

“A People’s Guide to Capitalism is a

breath of fresh air on the left.
Avoiding the obscure jargon of
economics, Hadas Thier provides a
rich, accessible introduction to how
capitalism works. Ranging from
exploitation at work to the operations
of modern finance, this book takes
the reader through a fine-tuned
introduction to Marx’s analysis of the
modern economy. Along the way,
Thier combines theoretical
explanation with contemporary
examples to illuminate the inner
workings of capitalism. In addition, A
People’s Guide to Capitalism reminds
us of the urgent need for alternatives
to a crisis-ridden system.” —David
McNally, Cullen Distinguished
Professor of History and Business at
the University of Houston

“Times of economic instability,

pandemics, and rising fascism have
people looking for understanding.
Luckily, radical traditions offer helpful
tools. Hadas Thier's book offers a
brisk and manageable introduction to
many of these ideas, and is unusually
playful about it. A great book for
proletarian chain-breaking.” —Rob
Larson, Economics professor and
author of Bit Tyrants: The Political
Economy of Silicon Valley

10 Things You Should

Know About Socialism
BY RICHARD D. WOLFF
  10 MIN READ
JAN 30, 2020

Homesteaders, relocated by the U.S. Resettlement Administration, a federal agency under the New Deal,
working at a cooperative garment factory in Hightstown, New Jersey, in 1936.

PHOTO BY UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP/GETTY

IMAGES

What do we mean when we talk about “socialism”? Here are

ten things about its theory, practice, and potential that you
need to know.

Over the last 200 years, socialism has spread across the world. In every
country, it carries the lessons and scars of its particular history there.
Conversely, each country’s socialism is shaped by the global history,
rich tradition, and diverse interpretations of a movement that has been
the world’s major critical response to capitalism as a system.

We need to understand socialism because it has shaped our history and

will shape our future. It is an immense resource: the accumulated
thoughts, experiences, and experiments accomplished by those yearning
to do better than capitalism.

In my latest book, Understanding Socialism (Democracy at Work,

2019), I gather and present the basic theories and practices of socialism.
I examine its successes, explore its challenges, and confront its failures.
The point is to offer a path to a new socialism based on workplace
democracy. Here are 10 things from this book that you should know.
1. Socialism is a yearning for something better
than capitalism
Socialism represents the awareness of employees that their sufferings
and limitations come less from their employers than from the capitalist
system. That system prescribes incentives and options for both sides, and
rewards and punishments for their behavioral “choices.” It generates
their endless struggles and the employees’ realization that system change
is the way out.

In Capital, Volume 1, Karl Marx defined a fundamental injustice—

exploitation—located in capitalism’s core relationship between employer
and employee. Exploitation, in Marx’s terms, describes the situation in
which employees produce more value for employers than the value of
wages paid to them. Capitalist exploitation shapes everything in
capitalist societies. Yearning for a better society, socialists increasingly
demand the end of exploitation and an alternative in which employees
function as their own employer. Socialists want to be able to explore and
develop their full potentials as individuals and members of society while
contributing to its welfare and growth.

Karl Marx, date unknown. Photo from Bettmann/Getty Images.

Socialism is an economic system very different from capitalism,

feudalism, and slavery. Each of the latter divided society into a dominant
minority class (masters, lords, and employers) and a dominated majority
(slaves, serfs, employees). When the majority recognized slavery and
feudal systems as injustices, they eventually fell.

The majorities of the past fought hard to build a better system.

Capitalism replaced slaves and serfs with employees, masters and lords
with employers. It is no historical surprise that employees would end up
yearning and fighting for something better. That something better is
socialism, a system that doesn’t divide people, but rather makes work a
democratic process where all employees have an equal say and together
are their own employer.

2. Socialism is not a single, unified theory

People spread socialism across the world, interpreting and implementing
it in many different ways based on context. Socialists found capitalism to
be a system that produced ever-deepening inequalities, recurring cycles
of unemployment and depression, and the undermining of human efforts
to build democratic politics and inclusive cultures. Socialists developed
and debated solutions that varied from government regulations of
capitalist economies to government itself owning and operating
enterprises, to a transformation of enterprises (both private and
government) from top-down hierarchies to democratic cooperatives.

Sometimes those debates produced splits among socialists. After the

Russian Revolution of 1917, socialists supporting the post-revolutionary
Soviet Union underscored their commitment to socialism that entailed
the government owning and operating industries by adopting the new
name “communist.” Those skeptical of Soviet-style socialism tended
increasingly to favor state regulation of private capitalists. They kept the
name “socialist” and often called themselves social democrats or
democratic socialists. For the last century, the two groups debated the
merits and flaws of the two alternative notions of socialism as embodied
in examples of each (e.g. Soviet versus Scandinavian socialisms).

Early in the 21st century, an old strain of socialism resurfaced and

surged. It focuses on transforming the inside of enterprises: from top-
down hierarchies, where a capitalist or a state board of directors makes
all the key enterprise decisions, to a worker cooperative, where all
employees have equal, democratic rights to make those decisions,
thereby becoming—collectively—their own employer. 

3. The Soviet Union and China achieved state

capitalism, not socialism
As leader of the Soviet Union, Lenin once said that socialism was a goal,
not yet an achieved reality. The Soviet had, instead, achieved “state
capitalism.” A socialist party had state power, and the state had become
the industrial capitalist displacing the former private capitalists. The
Soviet revolution had changed who the employer was; it had not ended
the employer/employee relationship. Thus, it was—to a certain extent—
capitalist.

Lenin’s successor, Stalin, declared that the Soviet Union had achieved

socialism. In effect, he offered Soviet state capitalism as if it
were the model for socialism worldwide. Socialism’s enemies have used
this identification ever since to equate socialism with political
dictatorship. Of course, this required obscuring or denying that (1)
dictatorships have often existed in capitalist societies and (2) socialisms
have often existed without dictatorships.
After initially copying the Soviet model, China changed its development
strategy to embrace instead a state-supervised mix of state and private
capitalism focused on exports. China’s powerful government would
organize a basic deal with global capitalists, providing cheap labor,
government support, and a growing domestic market. In exchange,
foreign capitalists would partner with Chinese state or private capitalists,
share technology, and integrate Chinese output into global wholesale and
retail trade systems. China’s brand of socialism—a hybrid state
capitalism that included both communist and social-democratic streams
—proved it could grow faster over more years than any capitalist
economy had ever done.

4. The U.S., Soviet Union, and China have more in

common than you think 
As capitalism emerged from feudalism in Europe in the 19th century, it
advocated liberty, equality, fraternity, and democracy. When those
promises failed to materialize, many became anti-capitalist and found
their way to socialism.

Experiments in constructing post-capitalist, socialist systems in the 20th

century (especially in the Soviet Union and China) eventually incurred
similar criticisms. Those systems, critics held, had more in common with
capitalism than partisans of either system understood. 

Self-critical socialists produced a different narrative based on the failures

common to both systems. The U.S. and Soviet Union, such socialists
argue, represented private and state capitalisms. Their Cold War enmity
was misconstrued on both sides as part of the century’s great struggle
between capitalism and socialism. Thus, what collapsed in 1989 was
Soviet State capitalism, not socialism. Moreover, what soared after 1989
was another kind of state capitalism in China.

5. Thank American socialists, communists, and

unionists for the 1930s New Deal
FDR’s government raised the revenue necessary for Washington to fund
massive, expensive increases in public services during the Depression of
the 1930s. These included the Social Security system, the first federal
unemployment compensation system, the first federal minimum wage,
and a mass federal jobs program. FDR’s revenues came from taxing
corporations and the rich more than ever before.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, center, and his New Deal

administration team on September 12, 1935. Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images.

In response to this radical program, FDR was reelected three times. His
radical programs were conceived and pushed politically from below by a
coalition of communists, socialists, and labor unionists. He had not been
a radical Democrat before his election. 

Socialists obtained a new degree of social acceptance, stature, and

support from FDR’s government. The wartime alliance of the U.S. with
the Soviet Union strengthened that social acceptance and socialist
influences.

6. If 5 was news to you, that’s due to the massive

U.S.-led global purge of socialists and communists
after WWII
After its 1929 economic crash, capitalism was badly discredited. The
unprecedented political power of a surging U.S. left enabled government
intervention to redistribute wealth from corporations and the rich to
average citizens. Private capitalists and the Republican Party responded
with a commitment to undo the New Deal. The end of World War II and
FDR’s death in 1945 provided the opportunity to destroy the New Deal
coalition. 

The strategy hinged on demonizing the coalition’s component groups,

above all the communists and socialists. Anti-communism quickly
became the strategic battering ram. Overnight, the Soviet Union went
from wartime ally to an enemy whose agents aimed “to control the
world.” That threat had to be contained, repelled, and eliminated. 

U.S. domestic policy focused on anti-communism, reaching hysterical

dimensions and the public campaigns of U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
Communist Party leaders were arrested, imprisoned, and deported in a
wave of anti-communism that quickly spread to socialist parties and to
socialism in general. Hollywood actors, directors, screenwriters,
musicians, and more were blacklisted and barred from working in the
industry. McCarthy’s witch hunt ruined thousands of careers while
ensuring that mass media, politicians, and academics would be
unsympathetic, at least publicly, to socialism.
 U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy led a campaign to put prominent government
officials and others on trial for alleged “subversive activities” and Communist Party membership during the height of
the Cold War. Photo by Corbis/Getty Images.

In other countries revolts from peasants and/or workers against oligarchs

in business and/or politics often led the latter to seek U.S. assistance by
labeling their challengers as “socialists” or “communists.” Examples
include U.S. actions in Guatemala and Iran (1954), Cuba (1959-1961),
Vietnam (1954-1975), South Africa (1945-1994), and Venezuela (since
1999). Sometimes the global anti-communism project took the form of
regime change. In 1965-6 the mass killings of Indonesian communists
cost the lives of between 500,000 to 3 million people.

Once the U.S.—as the world’s largest economy, most dominant political
power, and most powerful military—committed itself to total anti-
communism, its allies and most of the rest of the world followed suit.

7. Since socialism was capitalism’s critical shadow,

it spread to those subjected by and opposed to
capitalist colonialism 
In the first half of the 20th century, socialism spread through the rise of
local movements against European colonialism in Asia and Africa, and
the United States’ informal colonialism in Latin America. Colonized
people seeking independence were inspired by and saw the possibility of
alliances with workers fighting exploitation in the colonizing countries.
These latter workers glimpsed similar possibilities from their side.

This helped create a global socialist tradition. The multiple

interpretations of socialism that had evolved in capitalism’s centers thus
spawned yet more and further-differentiated interpretations. Diverse
streams within the anti-colonial and anti-imperialist tradition interacted
with and enriched socialism.

8. Fascism is a capitalist response to socialism

A fascist economic system is capitalist, but with a mixture of very heavy
government influence. In fascism, the government reinforces, supports,
and sustains private capitalist workplaces. It rigidly enforces the
employer/employee dichotomy central to capitalist enterprises. Private
capitalists support fascism when they fear losing their position as
capitalist employers, especially during social upheavals. 

Under fascism, there is a kind of mutually supportive merging of

government and private workplaces. Fascist governments tend to
“deregulate,” gutting worker protections won earlier by unions or
socialist governments. They help private capitalists by destroying trade
unions or replacing them with their own organizations which support,
rather than challenge, private capitalists.

Frequently, fascism embraces nationalism to rally people to fascist

economic objectives, often by using enhanced military expenditures and
hostility toward immigrants or foreigners. Fascist governments influence
foreign trade to help domestic capitalists sell goods abroad and block
imports to help them sell their goods inside national boundaries. 

Blackshirts, supporters of Benito Mussolini who

founded the National Fascist Party, are about to set fire to portraits of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin in Italy in May
1921. Photo by Mondadori/Getty Images.

Usually, fascists repress socialism. In Europe’s major fascist systems—

Spain under Franco, Germany under Hitler, and Italy under Mussolini—
socialists and communists were arrested, imprisoned, and often tortured
and killed.

A similarity between fascism and socialism seems to arise because both

seek to strengthen government and its interventions in society. However,
they do so in different ways and toward very different ends. Fascism
seeks to use government to secure capitalism and national unity, defined
often in terms of ethnic or religious purity. Socialism seeks to use
government to end capitalism and substitute an alternative socialist
economic system, defined traditionally in terms of state-owned and
-operated workplaces, state economic planning, employment of
dispossessed capitalists, workers’ political control, and internationalism.

9. Socialism has been, and still is, evolving

During the second half of the 20th century, socialism’s diversity of
interpretations and proposals for change shrank to two alternative
notions: 1.) moving from private to state-owned-and -operated
workplaces and from market to centrally planned distributions of
resources and products like the Soviet Union, or 2.) “welfare-state”
governments regulating markets still comprised mostly of private
capitalist firms, as in Scandinavia, and providing tax-funded socialized
health care, higher education, and so on. As socialism returns to public
discussion in the wake of capitalism’s crash in 2008, the first kind of
socialism to gain mass attention has been that defined in terms of
government-led social programs and wealth redistributions benefitting
middle and lower income social groups.

The evolution and diversity of socialism were obscured. Socialists

themselves struggled with the mixed results of the experiments in
constructing socialist societies (in the Soviet Union, China, Cuba,
Vietnam, etc.). To be sure, these socialist experiments achieved
extraordinary economic growth. In the Global South, socialism arose
virtually everywhere as the alternative development model to a
capitalism weighed down by its colonialist history and its contemporary
inequality, instability, relatively slower economic growth, and injustice.

Socialists also struggled with the emergence of central governments that

used excessively concentrated economic power to achieve political
dominance in undemocratic ways. They were affected by criticisms from
other, emerging left-wing social movements, such as anti-racism,
feminism, and environmentalism, and began to rethink how a socialist
position should integrate the demands of such movements and make
alliances.
10. Worker co-ops are a key to socialism’s future
The focus of the capitalism-versus-socialism debate is now challenged
by the changes within socialism. Who the employers are (private citizens
or state officials) now matters less than what kind of relationship exists
between employers and employees in the workplace. The role of the
state is no longer the central issue in dispute.

A growing number of socialists stress that previous socialist experiments

inadequately recognized and institutionalized democracy. These self-
critical socialists focus on worker cooperatives as a means to
institutionalize economic democracy within workplaces as the basis for
political democracy. They reject master/slave, lord/serf, and
employer/employee relationships because these all preclude real
democracy and equality.

Homesteaders, relocated by the U.S. Resettlement Administration, a federal agency under the New Deal, working at
a cooperative garment factory in Hightstown, New Jersey, in 1936. The U.S. Resettlement Administration relocated
struggling families to provide work relief. Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty
Images.

For the most part, 19th and 20th century socialisms downplayed
democratized workplaces. But an emerging, 21st century socialism
advocates for a change in the internal structure and organization of
workplaces. The microeconomic transformation from the
employer/employee organization to worker co-ops can ground a bottom-
up economic democracy.

The new socialism’s difference from capitalism becomes less a matter of

state versus private workplaces, or state planning versus private markets,
and more a matter of democratic versus autocratic workplace
organization. A new economy based on worker co-ops will find its own
democratic way of structuring relationships among co-ops and society as
a whole. 

Worker co-ops are key to a new socialism’s goals. They criticize

socialisms inherited from the past and add a concrete vision of what a
more just and humane society would look like. With the new focus on
workplace democratization, socialists are in a good position to contest
the 21st century’s struggle of economic systems.

RICHARD D. WOLFF  is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts,

Amherst, and a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New
School University, NYC. He taught economics at Yale University, the City University of New York,
and the University of Paris. Over the last 25 years, in collaboration with Stephen Resnick, he has
developed a new approach to political economy that appears in several books co-authored by
Resnick and Wolff and numerous articles by them separately and together. Professor Wolff's
weekly show, “Economic Update,” is syndicated on over 90 radio stations and goes to 55 million
TV receivers via Free Speech TV and other networks.

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A última crise mortal do
capitalismo?
LUIS JÚDICE·QUINTA-FEIRA, 5 DE SETEMBRO DE 2019·TEMPO DE LEITURA: 7 MINUTOS

A teoria marxista das crises do capitalismo

Por: Mesloub, 02.09.2019

Que a teoria marxista tenha sido odiada, fustigada, escarnecida, declarada mil
vezes agonizante pelo pensamento burguês (seus intelectuais orgânicos:
professores, políticos, jornalistas), é apenas a expressão normal de uma luta
ideológica conduzida pelos defensores do capital.

Que a teoria marxista foi corrompida, falsificada, alterada, distorcida pelas

muitas correntes do movimento de esquerda (partidos reformistas, social-
democratas, socialistas, revisionistas, etc.), isso também faz parte das
vicissitudes da luta de classes histórica.

Mas hoje, a teoria marxista das crises triunfa contra os seus detractores

De facto, a actual crise do modo de produção capitalista lembra-nos quanto as

teorias económicas burguesas (designadas, pomposamente, por " ciências
económicas"), forjadas há dois séculos nunca foram capazes de impedir a
recorrência de recessões e crises profundas. O capitalismo nunca teve um período
de prosperidade permanente. Desde a sua criação, foi marcado por ciclos de
expansão e depressão. De resto, mais singularmente, há mais de um século, o
capitalismo opera no modo tríptico:

Crise / guerra / reconstrução

Durante o século XX, e por duas vezes, para resolver de maneira imperialista as
crises económicas, causou duas chacinas mundiais. Como resultado, a gigantesca
destruição de biliões de dólares em infraestruturas e o massacre de milhões de
proletários (20 milhões na primeira e 60 milhões na segunda).

No final da Segunda Guerra Mundial, após um período de menos de 30 anos de

reconstrução (os famosos gloriosos Trintas, como os economistas burgueses os
designavam, que aconteceram graças a uma exploração feroz das poucas forças
produtivas e imigrantes europeias sobreviventes e pela expansão imperialista do
modo de produção), o capitalismo entrou em crise novamente no início dos anos
setenta. Desde então, todas as soluções reformistas tentadas para coibir ou
reverter a tendência não retardaram a aceleração e o aprofundamento da crise. A
consequência é o encerramento de centenas de milhares de empresas e o
despedimento de milhões de funcionários.

Sem entrarmos numa rigorosa análise marxista da origem da crise atual, não é
inútil recordar algumas bases explicativas das crises.

O modo de produção capitalista baseia-se na extracção da mais-valia extraída dos

trabalhadores, a principal fonte de acumulação. Mas, sob o efeito combinado do
aumento do capital constante, com desempenho cada vez maior (produtivo e não
produtivo) e da concorrência exacerbada, o lucro médio continua em declínio.
Nesta fase de desenvolvimento, a crise já é permanente. A contradição central.

Finalmente, o capitalismo sempre acolheu uma espécie de morbidez congénita:

produz abundantemente uma toxina que o seu organismo não pode controlar: a
superprodução (uma consequência do aumento da produtividade do
trabalho assalariado - e não do produtivismo). O capital nacional fabrica
mais bens do que o seu mercado pode absorver. Nesta segunda etapa, a da
circulação de mercadorias, a crise é permanente.

Além disso, para buscar infalivelmente a sua acumulação, o seu

desenvolvimento, a sua valorização, o capital deve, portanto, encontrar
consumidores fora da esfera estreita de trabalhadores e capitalistas "nacionais" ou
mesmo continentais (Europa-América do Norte etc.). Por outras palavras, ele
deve envolver-se imperativamente na busca (imperialista) de pontos de venda
(mercados) fora da sua rede inicial (do seu país) representada anteriormente pelas
nações colonizadas, neo-colonizadas, pós-colonizadas etc., que registam uma
saturação de bens não vendidos, o que leva ao congestionamento do mercado. É
então a crise da superprodução em toda a sua destruição - que os economistas
burgueses chamam A GUERRA, sem saber de onde vem (sic). Nesta fase final, é
a crise explosiva e destrutiva, a guerra comercial primeiro e depois militar.

Último subterfúgio: para superar a falta de solvência restringida pelas leis

económicas inerentes a esse modo de produção, o capitalismo recorre ao crédito.
Por mais de 40 anos, o capitalismo usou e abusou desse paliativo. Já na década
de 1970, o sistema adoptou uma política suicida de recurso ilimitado ao crédito.
Como resultado, o endividamento das famílias e estados explodiu: alcançou
somas astronómicas. De facto, nas últimas décadas, o capitalismo sobreviveu
graças ao crédito. Mas esse remédio é pior que a doença. Acelera e acentua a
doença do capitalismo.

Para ilustrar a nossa análise, adoptemos esta imagem médica: a dívida é para o
capitalismo o que a morfina é para o paciente condenado. Certamente, ao recorrer
a ele, o sofredor supera temporariamente as suas crises. Graças à absorção
permanente da sua dose de morfina, a sua dor diminui e se acalma. Mas pouco a
pouco, a dependência dessas doses diárias aumenta. O produto, na primeira
economia, torna-se prejudicial até à overdose. A fase da overdose financeira é de
grande precisão e é muito rápida. O grande capital financeiro transforma-se no
principal perigo mortal para o sistema capitalista. A dívida e a especulação
financeira completarão e potenciarão o corpo doente do capitalismo. Não é a
religião o ópio do povo, mas a dívida e o crédito.

Hoje, em todos os países desenvolvidos, principalmente nos Estados Unidos e na

China, a crise económica está a piorar. O descontentamento do investimento
industrial, que é a única fonte de acumulação de mais-valia extraída do trabalho
assalariado humano, está a aumentar. A principal actividade do capitalismo é
assegurada pela esfera financeira por meio de especulações nas bolsas de valores.
Os investidores afastaram-se totalmente da esfera produtiva. O jackpot deles é
apenas um lixo que a auto-designada esquerda politica quer estupidamente.
Aplica os seus biliões de dinheiro no jogo do monopólio, coisa que o proletariado
não pode fazer.

Tendência de queda na taxa de lucro, superprodução, endividamento, guerra

económica entre as muitas potências, destruição de fábricas, desemprego
endémico, tensões comerciais imperialistas: o capitalismo nunca passou por uma
crise tão séria desde o final da Segunda Guerra Mundial. Claramente, as actuais
tensões comerciais entre as principais potências prenunciam conflitos armados
generalizados.

"Uma epidemia que, em qualquer outro momento, pareceria um absurdo,

recai sobre a sociedade - a epidemia de superprodução. A sociedade é
subitamente reduzida a um estado de barbárie temporária; parece que uma
fome e uma guerra de extermínio cortaram todos os seus meios de
subsistência; a indústria e o comércio parecem frustrados. E porquê?

Porque a sociedade tem muita civilização, muitos meios de subsistência,

muita indústria, muito comércio", Karl Marx.

A nossa era abriu assim um novo capítulo na história da decadência do

capitalismo que começou em 1914 com a Primeira Guerra Mundial.

Uma coisa é certa: actualmente, a capacidade da burguesia de circunscrever e

retardar o desenvolvimento da crise recorrendo a um uso inesgotável do crédito
está a acabar. A partir de agora, os choques económicos e as tensões comerciais
vão suceder-se sem que haja entre eles nem descanso nem reavivar real. E a
turbulência política em muitos países, na França com os coletes amarelos, na
Argélia com Hirak, em Hong Kong, Costa Rica, são a expressão dessa crise
sistémica do capitalismo.

Seja como for, a história recente destas últimas décadas, marcada por crises
económicas recorrentes, prova-nos isso mesmo, especialmente desde a crise de
2007/2008: a burguesia hoje é incapaz de encontrar uma solução eficiente e
perene para crise económica do sistema. Não porque de repente se tornou
incompetente, mas por causa de uma contradição insolúvel. A crise do
capitalismo não pode ser resolvida pelo capitalismo. Ainda menos pelos
especialistas e professores charlatães de uma "ciência" económica desprovida de
qualquer eficiência. A economia é a única disciplina ainda a ser ensinada, apesar
das suas falhas e imprecisões. Se a medicina científica actual causasse tanto dano
e morte quanto a economia, seria interditada por um longo período de tempo
(como entenderá, não é a ciência económica burguesa que provocou as crises
económicas - essa ciência nem consegue explicar as crises repetitivas).

De fato, a "ciência económica burguesa" é uma disciplina necrológica: fica

contente por estudar o número de cadáveres produtivos massacrados pelo capital;
o número de fábricas fechadas, o número de trabalhadores despedidos, para
elogiar a especulação financeira, esta esfera estéril da economia, para aconselhar
os seus mestres a preservar os seus interesses. É uma "ciência" da morte e não da
vida. É uma "ciência" destinada a desaparecer com o seu sistema macabro.
Este sistema mortal está agora falido. Uma coisa é certa: o capitalismo não
hesitará em arrastar a humanidade para a Terceira Guerra Mundial
(inevitavelmente nuclear), se não agirmos imediatamente para aniquilá-la. A
única perspectiva para a crise desse sistema é, portanto, abolir os próprios
fundamentos do capitalismo.

O capitalismo está a morrer: para o bem da humanidade, vamos ajudá-lo a que

isso aconteça.