Despite an anti-religious reputation and the anti-religious worldview of many members, the American Socialist movement held a primarily religious and moral attraction for a small but highly articulate group of American Christians of diverse religious tradition. This study explores the dramatic and at times dangerous lives of individuals who found in the vibrant, growing socialist movement before World War I the grounds for hope that the biblical ideals of human worth and economic justice would at last be fulfilled. Its subjects are male and female, black and white, native- and foreign-born, clergy and lay people, and products of Christian traditions ranging from African-American Baptist to Episcopalian. Readers will find not Milquetoasts standing hesitantly on the sidelines, but Christians with an unequivocal commitment to the complete socialist program who made major contributions to socialist work as authors, political candidates, and party leaders. Biographical chapters examine the interaction between their subjects' experiences amidst the suffering of an urban-industrial society and their religious commitments, the perspectives on the meaning of socialism they brought to their work for the Socialist Party of America, and their careers after war and the rise of communism shattered the socialist movement. These biographies and an introductory chapter on the wider relationships between religion and socialism in Progressive-era America demonstrate that Christians made quite substantial contributions to the party, and that, far from being a monolithic group, they spread out across the spectrum of socialist ideology and tactics. Other issues include attempts to spread socialism within the churches, the Socialist Party's debates over religion, Roman Catholic efforts to prevent Catholic workers' acceptance of socialism, and the ethical qualities that made socialism appealing to Christians.

Part of a definitive English-language edition, prepared in collaboration with the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Moscow, which contains all the works of Marx and Engels, whether published in their lifetimes or since. The series includes their complete correspondence and newly discovered works.

Designed for student research, this one-stop resource contains a wealth of information, reference material, and analysis of the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union. Combining narrative description, analytical essays, lengthy biographical profiles, and the text of key primary documents, Watson examines the reasons for the decline and fall of the Soviet Union and its ruling Communist party in 1991. Five essays provide a historical overview of the rise and fall of the Soviet brand of communism; the evolution of GorbacheV's perestroika reform policies; the costly Soviet imperial legacy and the ten-year Afghan war; nationalism and the dissolution of Soviet unity; and post-Soviet Russia under the leadership of Boris Yeltsin. Ready-reference features include: a timeline of key events; biographical profiles of 15 leaders involved in the decline and fall of Soviet communism; the text of 22 documents including writings by Gorbachev, Yeltsin and other key figures; a glossary of terms; and an annotated bibliography of print and video materials. Photos and maps complement the text.

Five essays examine how costly internal and external imperial policies, a poorly functioning economy, and rising nationalism among subject populations contributed to the demise of the Soviet empire. Watson shows that GorbacheV's perestroika reforms, intended to reform the party and the nation, ironically hastened the end, and that the August 1991 coup attempt sealed the fate of Soviet communism. The documents illustrate the reform attempt by Gorbachev and his trail-blazing economic advisors; party opposition to his reforms; the August 1991 coup attempt; the subsequent collapse of the party and the Soviet Union; and the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The biographies explain the careers of individuals involved in the decline and fall of Soviet communism, including the last four Soviet leaders, whose policies inadvertently led to the demise of the system; the principal opponents of the reform; the leaders of the August 1991 coup attempt; the first post-Soviet leader of Russia, Boris Yeltsin; and the first post-Soviet Communist party leader in Russia, Gennady Zyuganov. This comprehensive resource is ideal for student research.

This book analyses existing work on Marxism and criminological theory, then discusses the main concepts available for further work in this area.It shows how Marxism is still relevant after the fall of the Soviet Union. It puts Marx back into criminological thinking. It shows how an understanding of Marx is invaluable in the study of crime and criminal justice.This volume looks at Marxist thought in criminology, the work of Willem Bonger, Georg Rusche and Otto Kircheimer, and assesses the role of Marxist analysis in areas such as Critical Criminology and Left Realism. Arguing that Marxism is relevant in the post-Soviet era, it offers a 'toolkit' of Marxist theories and how to use them.

Part of a definitive English-language edition, prepared in collaboration with the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Moscow, which contains all the works of Marx and Engels, whether published in their lifetimes or since. The series includes their complete correspondence and newly discovered works.

The best-selling radical diary and weekly planner is back for the new year! The 2022 Verso Radical Diary and Weekly Planner is a beautifully designed week-to-view planner where you can keep track of your coming year. Alongside illustrations, it features significant dates in radical history, drawn from events such as the English Civil War and Black Panther movement, through to the protests of 1968 and feminist emancipation, touching on the lives of revolutionaries such as Angela Davis, Rosa Luxemburg and Martin Luther King Jr., and includes movements such as Black Lives Matter and the Suffragettes.

In Marxism and America, an accomplished group of scholars reconsiders the relationship of the United States to the theoretical tradition derived from Karl Marx. In brand new essays that cover the period from the nineteenth century, when Marx wrote for American newspapers, to the present, when a millennial socialism has emerged inspired by the presidential campaigns of Bernie Sanders, the contributors take up topics ranging from memory of the Civil War to feminist debates over sexuality and pornography. Along the way, they clarify the relationship of race and democracy, the promise and perils of the American political tradition and the prospects for class politics today. Marxism and America sheds new light on old questions, helping to explain why socialism has been so difficult to establish in the United States even as it has exerted a notable influence in American thought. -- .

This book introduces the background of China's issue of nationality from the very beginning. Throughout the country's history, all the nationalities that lived and prospered on Chinese land created a pattern of cultural diversity within national unity through their interaction and integration. The formation of this pattern is due not only to the geographical fact that China covers a broad expanse on the Asian continent but also to the historical fact that it is home to disparate and ancient human heritages, and to culturally diverse historical sources.The book's five chapters explain the evolution of the CPC's policy towards nationalities. At the time of the PRC's founding, the Common Program (in essence an interim Constitution) passed by the Chinese People's Political Consultative Congress (which was composed of people from all sectors of society and all of China's nationalities) not only declared that people of all China's nationalities had equal rights, but also stipulated that: regional national autonomy would be practiced in all areas where minority nationalities were concentrated; that all nationalities had the right to develop their native languages and culture and to maintain or reform their customs and religious beliefs; and also mandated that people's governments support the development of minority nationalities in the areas of politics, the economy, culture and education.In the final section, the book demonstrates that the subject of how the CPC addresses nationality-related issues is a dynamic one that encompasses the past, present and future, and is simultaneously an answer, a process and a question.

Marx expected the working class to create 'a movement of immense majority, in the interests of immense majority'. However, there is not and never has been such a movement. At least a part of the reason is that the traditional Marxist picture of a two-class polarisation bears little resemblance to the diverse and complex society of today's Western world. In this book, Michal Polak attempts to move beyond the austerity of the two-class model to come closer to the empirical realities. In the process, the author re-examines the very foundations of the Marxist theory, demonstrating how an important critique of the theory can in fact be fruitfully interpreted as a generalisation of it. While remaining true to the Marxian spirit, he comes up with original and innovative extensions of the traditional concepts, which finally allow for the explanation of the diverse class map of the advance capitalist societies.

This book analyzes key aspects of Marx's Capital with an eye towards its relevance for an understanding of issues confronting us in the 21st Century. The contributions to this volume suggest that while aspects of Marx's original analysis must be adjusted to take into account changes that have occurred since its initial publication in 1867, his overall perspective remains necessary for understanding the nature of crises in 21st century. Part I emphasizes the central concepts Marx employed in Capital, including exploitation, capital accumulation, commodity fetishism, and his use of dialectics as a method for baring the underlying relations that define capitalism. Parts II and III extend that focus by addressing the concept of value, fictitious capital, credit and financialization. Parts IV and V offer analyses of several concrete manifestations of contemporary crises from national contexts (Europe, Latin America, China, and the United States). The volume argues that we have to combat the imperatives of capitalism to move towards a more humane and egalitarian future.

This title offers a Marxist take on a selection of artistic and cultural achievements from the rap music of Tupac Shakur to the painting of Van Gogh, from HBO's Breaking Bad to Balzac's Cousin Bette , from the magical realm of Harry Potter to the apocalyptic landscape of The Walking Dead , from The Hunger Games to Game of Thrones .

Using Marxist theory, Rikowski and Green examine the dialectic between race and power in education. This book launches their forthcoming series on Marxism and Education which is designed to attract educationists, whether teachers, researchers, policy makers and administrators, as well as activists of various kinds who consider the Marxist tradition still to be a valuable resource and important point of reference.

Since the collapse of the USSR there has been a growing interest in the Stolypin Land Reform as a possible model for post-Communist agrarian development. Using recent theoretical and empirical advances in Anglo-American research, Dr Pallot examines how peasants throughout Russia received, interpreted, and acted upon the government's attempts to persuade them to quit the commune and set up independent farms. She shows how a majority of peasants failed to interpret the Reform in the way its authors had expected, with outcomes that varied both temporally and geographically. The result challenges existing texts which either concentrate on the policy side of the Reform or, if they engage with its results, use aggregated, official statistics which, this text argues, are unreliable indicators of the pre-revolutionary peasants reception of the Reform.

"A classic on post-Cold War Cuba. . . . Azicri evidences Cuba's expanding external relations with the papacy, the Economic Union, and Latin America and argues that Cuba has begun internal changes that could later create an all-national rather than a solely communist party. . . . This work is essential reading for D.C., Havana, and Miami--and is likely to anger all three."--"Choice"

"A masterful and provocative summary, analysis, and evaluation of political, economic, and cultural developments in Cuba, as well as the international relations of Cuba, in the tumultuous decade following the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the process, Azicri gives a unique insight into how and why Cuban socialism, though greatly modified in the 1990s, continues to survive."--Sinan Koont, Dickinson College

Unlikely to gratify those with strong views on either side of the political divide, Azicri's study provides an intelligent, scholarly response to the current questions posed by the Cuban Revolution.

Covering the turbulent period of the 1990s, the book examines such issues as the impact on Cuba of the Soviet Union's collapse, the country's social malaise under economic scarcity, the reorganization of its economy, changes in its political system, problems in its relations with the United States, and the renaissance of Cuban religious life in the aftermath of the pope's visit.

Azicri offers an objectively researched study that addresses many of the assumptions made by partisan participants. Demonstrating how Cuba's ongoing reform process has allowed it to avoid the fate of other Soviet bloc regimes, he maintains that Havana has continually reinvented the nature of Cuban socialism. Drawing on original sources and scholarly studies from Cuba, the United States, and elsewhere, he argues that a more restrained and limited socialism is suitable to today's Cuba and explains why such a system probably will prevail beyond Castro.

Max Azicri, professor of political science at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, is the author of "Cuba: Politics, Economics and Society" and of numerous articles on Cuban politics, society, culture, and international relations.

China's Rise to Power: Conceptions of State Governance examines how a twenty-first century contradiction-the country's combination of authoritarian rule and a market-oriented economy in state-led capitalism-has proven simultaneously appealing and a source of domestic dissatisfaction. Balancing policy analysis with detailed investigation of escalating popular unrest, this essay collection explores the discontent that stems from the Communist leadership's obsession with growth and control, and anticipates new space for alternative governance. As the sixth-generation leaders come of age at this critical juncture, the way out of internal crises will not necessarily be the way of the Chinese Communist Party..

Examining the past, current, and potential future roles of the Communist Party in governing China The Chinese Communist Party and its polices touch nearly every aspect of life in China and dominate some. An often-quoted current phrase-one with roots in the era of Mao Zedong-says "the Party leads all." Under the leadership of Xi Jinping, the Party determines much of what is permitted and prohibited in the country's social, economic, and political activity, as well as China's increasingly consequential foreign relations. Even so, the Communist Party always has faced limits on what it can control, and it may encounter new obstacles ahead. This book addresses important questions about the current and future roles of the party: Has Xi's tenure brought a qualitative increase in the pursuit, or achievement, of party control? How is party rule shaped and exercised by internal party dynamics, the party's control over the state, society, economy, foreign affairs, government institutions and rules, and ideology? How serious are the threats to party strength and success posed by Xi's approach to power, corruption in the party's ranks, a rapidly changing society, a fraught international environment, or a possibly overly ambitious agenda for party control? Leading scholars examine these questions from several disciplinary perspectives, each focusing on a key area of the party and its efforts to lead, control, or influence the world around it. This book offers the most comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the party's roles in China's economy, government, civil society, legal system, military affairs, and foreign policy. It does so at a critical moment, with the full contours of the Xi Jinping era in China becoming more evident and as the CCP reaches its 100th anniversary and nears three-quarters of a century in power. It will be essential reading for all scholars, students, and policy-makers interested in contemporary China.

What ought the political role of the intellectual to be? What challenges does the post-structuralist project present for Marxist accounts of the intellectual? What is the relationship between the university and the wider society of which it is part? This text, which includes important contributions from authors such as Warren Montag and Sean Sayers, considers different attempts by Marxist and post-Marxist writers to theorize these and other important related questions.

This book is the product of many years’ research by Lodge, whose Black Politics in South Africa since 1945 (1983) established him as a leading commentator on South African politics, past and present.

2021 will mark the centenary of the foundation of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) and today’s South African Communist Party (SACP, founded in 1953 after the proscription of the CPSA) will be extremely fortunate to have the milestone marked by a scholarly work of this calibre. Since 1994, many memoirs have been written by communists, and private archives have been donated to university and other collections. Significant official archives have been opened to scrutiny, particularly those of South Africa and the former Soviet Union. It is as if a notoriously secretive body has suddenly become confiding and confessional! While every chapter draws upon original material of this sort, such evidence is supported, amplified, illuminated and challenged by the scholarship of others: the breadth of secondary sources used by the author reflects what may well be an unrivalled familiarity with the scholarly literature on political organisations and resistance in twentieth century South Africa.

Lodge provides a richly detailed history of the Party’s vicissitudes and victories; individuals – their ideas, attitudes and activities – are sensitively located within their context; the text provides a fascinating sociology of the South African left over time. Lodge is adept at making explicit what the key questions and issues are for different periods; and he answers these with analyses and conclusions that are judicious, clearly stated, and meticulously argued.

Without doubt, this book will become a central text for students of communism in South Africa, of the Party’s links with Russia and the socialist bloc, and of the Communist Party’s changing relations with African nationalism – before, during and after three decades of exile.

This volume explores current interventions into the digital labour theory of value, proposing theoretical and empirical work that contributes to our understanding of Marx's labour theory of value, proposes how labour and value are transformed under conditions of virtuality, and employ the theory in order to shed light on specific practices.