OUTLINE
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Conditions: Problem(s) we face, relevance of Marxism
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Marx & Engels: particularly drawing from Theses on Feuerbach, AntiDuhring, Dialectics of Nature, far from comprehensive
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Limitations of Marx
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Expansions and contradictions of historical materialism: VI Lenin,
Alexandra Kollontai, Antonio Gramsci
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Degeneration of actually-existing socialism: some perspectives
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Importance of historical materialist analysis today
PROBLEMS WE FACE:
UNJUST SYSTEM
PROBLEMS WE FACE:
IDEOLOGICAL IMPASSE
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Legacy of states such as the Soviet Union: widespread skepticism,
especially in the West, about Marxism
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Many do not want to identify with a political label (feminism, socialism, left,
right)
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Two questions:
• i) are labels such as “socialist” or “capitalist” useful?
• ii) What is Marxism and is it relevant?
WHAT IS MARXISM:
MARX & ENGELS
WHAT IS MARXISM:
SOCIALISM
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“The condition of the working-class is the real basis and point of departure of all social
movements of the present because it is the highest and most unconcealed pinnacle of the
social misery existing in our day. French and German working-class Communism are its direct,
Fourierism and English Socialism, as well as the Communism of the German educated
bourgeoisie, are its indirect products.”
-Frederick Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England
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Marxism is not the only worldview to proceed from this recognition, but it is central to our
outlook
WHAT IS MARXISM:
DIALECTICS
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Greek philosopher Heraclitus considered an early dialectical thinker: “Everything flows and
nothing stays,” “Cold things grow hold, a hot thing cold, a moist thing withers, a parched thing is
wetted.”
Recognition of the unity of opposites, how contradictions resolve into something new, the
capacity for change and motion
German philosopher Hegel developed a highly influential theory of dialectics, which Marx and
Engels drew from
However Hegel proceeded from the Idea, and saw the material as a reflection of this. Hegel did
not focus on production, class, exploitation.
Theses on Feuerbach: “The question whether objective truth can be attributed to human
thinking is not a question of theory but is a practical question. [People] must prove the truth —
i.e. the reality and power, the this-sidedness of [their] thinking in practice.”
WHAT IS MARXISM:
MATERIALISM
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Marx and Engels sought to synthesise dialectics (which is about change) with materialism
(which is about existing reality)
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Classic materialism was seen as too fixed, too rigid, not human enough
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Theses on Feuerbach begins: “The chief defect of all hitherto existing materialism… is
that the thing, reality, sensuousness, is conceived only in the form of the object or of
contemplation, but not as sensuous human activity, practice, not subjectively.”
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"The materialist doctrine... forgets that circumstances are changed by [people] and that it
is essential to educate the educator.“
WHAT IS MARXISM:
DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM
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Engels’ Dialectics of Nature is the first major work to try and define ‘dialectical materialism’
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Engels distinguishes between “objective dialectics,” the existing world, and “subjective
dialectics,” our description and understanding of the world
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“This problem is one that no single individual will ever be able to solve.”
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“Labour is the source of all wealth, the political economists assert. And it really is the source –
next to nature, which supplies it with the material that it converts into wealth. But it is even
infinitely more than this. It is the prime basic condition for all human existence, and this to such
an extent that, in a sense, we have to say that labour created [humanity itself.]”
-Frederick Engels, Dialectics of Nature
LIMITATIONS OF MARX & ENGELS
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As 19th Century European males, they didn’t deal sufficiently with colonisation (which was
in its early stages) with women’s oppression (although they supported suffrage and
Engels’ Origins of the Family, Private Property and the State lays a basis for Marxistfeminist analysis) or with many other forms of specific oppression
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Later volumes of Capital aimed to flesh out a Marxist theory of the state, but this was not
completed (Marx being mortal)
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Science has developed substantially since their era, for example measuring global
warming
DEVELOPMENT OF “MARXISM”
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VI Lenin developed theory of the state, theory of the party, and identified imperialism as
the highest stage of capitalism
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Alexandra Kollontai critiqued the increasing dominance of party bureaucrats, also
developed the analysis of women’s liberation and the family
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Antonio Gramsci developed theory of hegemony, the way ideology reproduces itself in
non-revolutionary periods
MARXIST CRITIQUES OF
SOCIALIST ATTEMPTS
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Trotskyist: Bureaucracy took power and socialism degenerated. Collective property is
progressive, but needs to be backed by workers’ democracy and internationalism.
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Maoist: During transition to socialism, party contains reactionary elements. Needs to be a
struggle within Marxist parties against “capitalist roaders” (bureaucrats.)
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Key point: capitalism took centuries to establish, establishing socialism is a complex longterm process not an event
RELEVANCE TODAY?
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Important to name the problem, to understand it
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Capitalism is sophisticated and capable of co-opting struggle
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Must be internal struggle, willingness to revise ideas, engagement with changing
conditions
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Marxists can act as a “memory of the class”