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Anarcho-Communists, Platformism, and Dual Power Innovation Or Travesty?
The Anarchist Library (Mirror) Anti-Copyright Anarcho-Communists, Platformism, and Dual Power Innovation or Travesty? Lawrence Jarach Lawrence Jarach Anarcho-Communists, Platformism, and Dual Power Innovation or Travesty? www.geocities.com from Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed usa.anarchistlibraries.net power discourse is concerned with government, with how to cre- ate and maintain a set of institutions that can pull the allegiance of the governed away from the existing state. Unless the partisans of dual power have worked out a radically different understand- ing of what power is, where its legitimacy comes from, how it is Contents maintained, and — more importantly — how anarchists can possi- bly exercise it within a framework that is historically statist, the discussion of “anarchist dual power” is a mockery of the anarchist What is “anarchist dual power”? .............. 8 principle of being against government. Love & Rage and the influence and legacy of Leninism . 13 18 3 rity, a curio from anarchist history, something to titillate the trivia- minded. What made it worth rediscovering? The anarcho-communism of the Platformists is eerily similar to the authoritarian communism of various Leninist gangs. From a cursory examination of their published rhetoric, it is difficult not to conclude that they have taken the “successful” aspects of a Lenin- ist program, a Leninist vision, and Lenino-Maoist organizing, and more or less removed or modified the vocabulary of the more ob- viously statist parts. The promoters of this hybridized anarchism — should it be called anarcho-Leninism? — draw on the Platform the same way that the writers of the Platform drew on Leninism. -
The State and Revolution: Theory and Practice Contents
The State and Revolution: Theory and Practice Iain McKay This is almost my chapter in the anthology Bloodstained: One Hundred Years of Leninist Counterrrevolution (Oakland/Edinburgh: AK Press, 2017). Some revisions were made during the editing process which are not included here. In addition, references to the 1913 French edition of Kropotkin’s Modern Science and Anarchy have been replaced with those from the 2018 English-language translation. However, the bulk of the text is the same, as is the message and its call to learn from history rather than repeat it. I would, of course, urge you to buy the book. Contents The State and Revolution: Theory and Practice ......................................................... 2 Theory .................................................................................................................... 2 The Paris Commune ........................................................................................... 4 Opportunism ....................................................................................................... 7 Anarchism ......................................................................................................... 10 Socialism ........................................................................................................... 18 The Party .......................................................................................................... 20 Practice ................................................................................................................ -
The Critique of Real Abstraction: from the Critical Theory of Society to the Critique of Political Economy and Back Again
The Critique of Real Abstraction: from the Critical Theory of Society to the Critique of Political Economy and Back Again Chris O’Kane John Jay, CUNY [email protected] There has been a renewed engagement with the idea of real abstraction in recent years. Scholars associated with the New Reading of Marx, such as Moishe Postone, Chris Arthur, Michael Heinrich, Patrick Murray, Riccardo Bellofiore and others,1 have employed the idea in their important reconstructions of Marx’s critique of political economy. Alberto Toscano, Endnotes, Jason W. Moore and others have utilized and extended these theorizations to concieve of race, gender, and nature as real abstractions. Both the New Reading and these new theories of real abstraction have provided invaluable work; the former in systematizing Marx’s inconsistent and unfinished theory of value as a theory of the abstract social domination of capital accumulation and reproduction; the latter in supplementing such a theory. Yet their exclusive focus on real abstraction in relation to the critique of political economy means that the critical marxian theories of real abstraction -- developed by Alfred Sohn- Rethel, Theodor W. Adorno and Henri Lefebvre -- have been mostly bypassed by the latter and have largely served as the object of trenchant criticism for their insufficient grasp of Marx’s theory of value by the former. Consequently these new readings and new theories of real abstraction elide important aspects of Sohn-Rethel, Adorno and Lefebvre’s critiques of real abstraction; which sought to develop Marx’s critique of political economy into objective-subjective critical theories of the reproduction of capitalist society.2 However, two recent works by 1 Moishe Postone’s interpretation of real abstraction will be discussed below. -
Thoughts on Libertarian Municipalism
Thoughts on Libertarian Municipalism Murray Bookchin Age, chronic illnesses, and the summer heat oblige me to remain at home—hence I am very sorry that I cannot participate in your conference on libertarian municipalism. I would like, however— thanks to Janet Biehl, who will read these remarks—to welcome you to Vermont and to wish you well during the course of your discussions over the next three days. Some issues have recently arisen in discussions of libertarian municipalism, and I would like to offer my views on them. One of the most important involves the distinction that should be drawn between libertarian municipalism and communitarianism, a distinction that is often lost in discussions of politics. Communitarianism By communitarianism, I refer to movements and ideologies that seek to transform society by creating so-called alternative economic and living situations such as food cooperatives, health centers, schools, printing workshops, community centers, neighborhood farms, “squats,” unconventional lifestyles, and the like. Allowing for the works of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, the notable spokespersons of communitarianism have been Martin Buber, Harry Boyte, and Colin Ward, among many others. The word communitarian is often interchangeable with the word cooperative, a form of production and exchange that is attractive because the work is not only amiably collective but worker-controlled or worker-managed. At most, communitarianism seeks to gently edge social development away from privately owned enterprises—banks, corporations, supermarkets, factories, and industrial systems of agriculture —and the lifeways to which they give rise, into collectively owned enterprises and values. It does not seek to create a power center that will overthrow capitalism; it seeks rather to outbid it, outprice it, or outlast it, often by presenting a moral obstacle to the greed and evil that many find in a bourgeois economy. -
Marxist Philosophy and Organization Studies: Marxist Contributions to the Understanding of Some Important Organizational Forms by Paul S
1 Marxist philosophy and organization studies: Marxist contributions to the understanding of some important organizational forms by Paul S. Adler Dept. of Management and Organization Marshall School of Business University of Southern California Los Angeles 90089-0808 Draft chapter for: Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Special Volume on Philosophy and Organization Theory, 2010, Guest editors: Haridimos Tsoukas and Robert Chia Version date: Feb 2, 2010 Author bio: Paul S. Adler is currently Harold Quinton Chair in Business Policy at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California.. He received his PhD in economics and management at the University of Picardie, France. His research and teaching focus on organization design, with a particular focus on technical, professional, and manufacturing operations. Acknowledgments Earlier drafts benefited from research assistance from Jade Lo and from comments by Michael Burawoy, Richard Delbridge, Steve Jaros, Martin Kenney, David Levy, Richard Marens, Mark Mizruchi, Craig Prichard, Mick Rowlinson, Paul Thompson, and Matt Vidal, even if there is much with which they still disagree. 2 Marxist philosophy and organization studies: Marxist contributions to the understanding of some important organizational forms Abstract This essay aims to how Marx’s ideas and subsequent Marxist-inspired scholarship have contributed to the analysis of the various forms of work organization. It summarizes Marx’s basic philosophy, theory of history, and critique of political economy; it distinguishes more critical and more optimistic variants of Marxist theory; and it then shows how these ideas have been used in the analysis of key organizational forms, contrasting Marxist versus non-Marxist approaches and critical versus optimistic versions of Marxism. -
At-Large Delegate Candidate Elections Packet
At-Large Delegate Candidate Elections Packet Voting is Open for DSA At-Large Delegates to the 2019 National Convention! Click here to vote How does voting work? There are 100 open positions for at-large delegates. We encourage you to read over the candidate bios and then to rank the candidates in order of your preference. Top Choice = 1, Second choice = 2, Third choice = 3, etc. This is a Borda style election. In a Borda election you have the option to rank all of the candidates. Your votes will be weighted so that your top choice has the most weight and last choice has the least weight. Although you can, you do not have to rank all of the candidates. For example, if you only like 10 of the candidates, you can choose to only include those people 1-10 and leave out the rest. You can find more information on Borda elections here Who can vote in the At-Large Delegate election? An At-Large DSA member is any member who does not belong to a chapter and who is current on their dues as of May 6th 2019 (or has made arrangements for the National Office to waive their dues). Based on DSA’s National Constitution and Bylaws, members of Organizing Committees are also considered At-Large Members of DSA. How do I find my voting code? If you receive DSA emails, your code was emailed to you on May 13. If you have opted out of DSA emails, or if we do not have a working email associated with your membership, your voting code was sent via paper mailing on May 13. -
Bookchin's Libertarian Municipalism
BOOKCHIN’S LIBERTARIAN MUNICIPALISM Janet BIEHL1 ABSTRACT: The purpose of this article is to present the Libertarian Municipalism Theory developed by Murray Bookchin. The text is divided into two sections. The first section presents the main precepts of Libertarian Municipalism. The second section shows how Bookchin’s ideas reached Rojava in Syria and is influencing the political organization of the region by the Kurds. The article used the descriptive methodology and was based on the works of Murray Bookchin and field research conducted by the author over the years. KEYWORDS: Murray Bookchin. Libertarian Municipalism. Rojava. Introduction The lifelong project of the American social theorist Murray Bookchin (1921-2006) was to try to perpetuate the centuries-old revolutionary socialist tradition. Born to socialist revolutionary parents in the Bronx, New York, he joined the international Communist movement as a Young Pioneer in 1930 and trained to become a young commissar for the coming proletarian revolution. Impatient with traditional secondary education, he received a thoroughgoing education in Marxism-Leninism at the Workers School in lower Manhattan, immersing himself in dialectical materialism and the labor theory of value. But by the time Stalin’s Soviet Union formed a pact with Nazi Germany (in the sum- mer of 1939), he cut his ties with the party to join the Trotskyists, who expected World War II to end in international proletarian revolutions. When the war 1 Janet Biehl is an American political writer who is the author of numerous books and articles associated with social ecology, the body of ideas developed and publicized by Murray Bookchin. -
Agrarian Anarchism and Authoritarian Populism: Towards a More (State-)Critical ‘Critical Agrarian Studies’
The Journal of Peasant Studies ISSN: 0306-6150 (Print) 1743-9361 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/fjps20 Agrarian anarchism and authoritarian populism: towards a more (state-)critical ‘critical agrarian studies’ Antonio Roman-Alcalá To cite this article: Antonio Roman-Alcalá (2020): Agrarian anarchism and authoritarian populism: towards a more (state-)critical ‘critical agrarian studies’, The Journal of Peasant Studies, DOI: 10.1080/03066150.2020.1755840 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2020.1755840 © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group Published online: 20 May 2020. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 3209 View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 4 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=fjps20 THE JOURNAL OF PEASANT STUDIES https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2020.1755840 FORUM ON AUTHORITARIAN POPULISM AND THE RURAL WORLD Agrarian anarchism and authoritarian populism: towards a more (state-)critical ‘critical agrarian studies’* Antonio Roman-Alcalá International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, Netherlands ABSTRACT KEYWORDS This paper applies an anarchist lens to agrarian politics, seeking to Anarchism; authoritarian expand and enhance inquiry in critical agrarian studies. populism; critical agrarian Anarchism’s relevance to agrarian processes is found in three studies; state theory; social general areas: (1) explicitly anarchist movements, both historical movements; populism; United States of America; and contemporary; (2) theories that emerge from and shape these moral economy movements; and (3) implicit anarchism found in values, ethics, everyday practices, and in forms of social organization – or ‘anarchistic’ elements of human social life. -
Towards a Unified Theory Analysing Workplace Ideologies: Marxism And
Marxism and Racial Oppression: Towards a Unified Theory Charles Post (City University of New York) Half a century ago, the revival of the womens movementsecond wave feminismforced the revolutionary left and Marxist theory to revisit the Womens Question. As historical materialists in the 1960s and 1970s grappled with the relationship between capitalism, class and gender, two fundamental positions emerged. The dominant response was dual systems theory. Beginning with the historically correct observation that male domination predates the emergence of the capitalist mode of production, these theorists argued that contemporary gender oppression could only be comprehended as the result of the interaction of two separate systemsa patriarchal system of gender domination and the capitalist mode of production. The alternative approach emerged from the debates on domestic labor and the predominantly privatized character of the social reproduction of labor-power under capitalism. In 1979, Lise Vogel synthesized an alternative unitary approach that rooted gender oppression in the tensions between the increasingly socialized character of (most) commodity production and the essentially privatized character of the social reproduction of labor-power. Today, dual-systems theory has morphed into intersectionality where distinct systems of class, gender, sexuality and race interact to shape oppression, exploitation and identity. This paper attempts to begin the construction of an outline of a unified theory of race and capitalism. The paper begins by critically examining two Marxian approaches. On one side are those like Ellen Meiksins Wood who argued that capitalism is essentially color-blind and can reproduce itself without racial or gender oppression. On the other are those like David Roediger and Elizabeth Esch who argue that only an intersectional analysis can allow historical materialists to grasp the relationship of capitalism and racial oppression. -
Engels, Trotsky and the Natural Sciences: a Case Study in Cosmology
LA ÚLTIMA MORADA DE TROTSKY GABRIELA PÉREZ NORIEGA http://dx.doi.org/10.23925/1982-6672.2020v13i38p19-49 Engels, Trotsky and the natural sciences: a case study in cosmology Alex Steinberg1 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2842-5687 Abstract: The topic of this essay is Trotsky’s approach to dialectical philosophy and the natural sciences. We will first summarize the tradition whose mantle Trotsky inherited as it was developed by Engels. We will then consider Trotsky’s relationship to the natural sciences. Trotsky, echoing Engels proclamations decades earlier, maintained that a dialectical philosophy is an essential guide to the work of the scientist while at the same time granting the autonomy and 19 freedom of scientists to pursue their research. Trotsky had a lifelong interest in following the developments in the natural sciences. He also had an intuitive grasp of some important developments in the natural sciences that would only come to fruition decades after his death. We will then present a case study of how a dialectical approach to nature can assist in overcoming a crisis that is plaguing contemporary physics. Specifically we will discuss how a dialectical approach to nature can inform cosmology in the 21st century and avoid the philosophical pitfalls and dead–ends that mark the contemporary crisis in physics. Keywords: Human Sciences; Marxism; Social History; Dialectical Materialism; Philosophy of Nature. 1 Alex Steinberg has taught classes on Hegel, Marxist philosophy, the dialectics of nature, and other topics at the Brecht Forum, the New Space and the Marxist Education Project. He has been a presenter and panelist at Socialist Scholars Conference, the Left Forum and Historical Materia- lism. -
Trotsky and the Problem of Soviet Bureaucracy
TROTSKY AND THE PROBLEM OF SOVIET BUREAUCRACY by Thomas Marshall Twiss B.A., Mount Union College, 1971 M.A., University of Pittsburgh, 1972 M.S., Drexel University, 1997 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2009 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Thomas Marshall Twiss It was defended on April 16, 2009 and approved by William Chase, Professor, Department of History Ronald H. Linden, Professor, Department of Political Science Ilya Prizel, Professor, Department of Political Science Dissertation Advisor: Jonathan Harris, Professor, Department of Political Science ii Copyright © by Thomas Marshall Twiss 2009 iii TROTSKY AND THE PROBLEM OF SOVIET BUREAUCRACY Thomas Marshall Twiss, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2009 In 1917 the Bolsheviks anticipated, on the basis of the Marxist classics, that the proletarian revolution would put an end to bureaucracy. However, soon after the revolution many within the Bolshevik Party, including Trotsky, were denouncing Soviet bureaucracy as a persistent problem. In fact, for Trotsky the problem of Soviet bureaucracy became the central political and theoretical issue that preoccupied him for the remainder of his life. This study examines the development of Leon Trotsky’s views on that subject from the first years after the Russian Revolution through the completion of his work The Revolution Betrayed in 1936. In his various writings over these years Trotsky expressed three main understandings of the nature of the problem: During the civil war and the first years of NEP he denounced inefficiency in the distribution of supplies to the Red Army and resources throughout the economy as a whole. -
Dialectical Materialism: Marx's Method in Human Geography?
Dialectical materialism: Marx’s method in human geography? Ipsita Chatterjee Department of Geography and the Environment University of North Texas [email protected] Waquar Ahmed Department of Geography and the Environment University of North Texas [email protected] Abstract Dialectical materialism, we argue is a philosophical praxis that guided Marx’s critique of capitalist political economy. In this article, we have attempted a self- critique of human geography by explicating that dialectical materialism has been largely used as a metaphor within the discipline. The article has been inspired by the over-whelming use of the terms ‘dialectics’ and ‘dialectical’ in human geography. The purpose has been to lay down some of the basic tenets of dialectical materialism in Marx’s work, and then lay down some human geography research that engages with dialectical materialism. We believe that philosophical introspection on methodology, particularly within the Marxist circles, is scarce. We argue that to develop a truly dialectical materialist human geography we must push dialectal materialism from metaphor to methodology. We also think that methodology and philosophy are inseparably tied and therefore, choice of research methodology is a reflector of the researcher’s philosophy about reality and hence research praxis should be an important matter of discussion and introspection. Published with Creative Commons licence: Attribution–Noncommercial–No Derivatives ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 2019, 18(2): 364-393 365 Keywords Materialism; human geography; radical geography; methodology; praxis Introduction The beliefs upon which we rest the objectives of our study form our philosophy, our own individual view of life and living.