In How Language Informs Mathematics Dirk Damsma shows how Hegel's and Marx's systematic dialectical analysis of mathematical and economic language helps us understand the structure and nature of mathematical and capitalist systems. More importantly, Damsma shows how knowledge of the latter can inform model assumptions and help improve models. His book provides a blueprint for an approach to economic model building that does away with arbitrarily chosen assumptions and is sensitive to the institutional structures of capitalism. In light of the failure of mainstream economics to understand systemic failures like the financial crisis and given the arbitrary character of most assumptions in mainstream models, such an approach is desperately needed.

1. One of the most outstanding leaders within Second International Marxism, George Plekhanov has interested Western scholars primarily as a historical and political figure, specifically as the first full-fledged Marxist among the Russian intelligentsia. At the end of the nineteenth century he was the leader in putting Russian progressive culture in touch with Western Marxism, breaking away from Populism and, at the same time, resuming materialistic tradition within Russian progressive thought. Among Russian revolutionaries, a few others to be sure had been interested in Marx before Plekhanov. The translations of some of Marx' works into Russian show this clearly. In 1869 Mikhail Bakunin translated The Communist Manifesto. Three years later Nikolaj Daniel'son, a populist, completed the first foreign-language version of the first book of Marx' Capital and within six months about a thousand copies had been sold. In the middle of the 1870's, an 'academic' economist, N. !. Ziber, helped to spread Marx' economic ideas by teaching them in Kiev and writing articles in the journal Slovo, which to some extent influenced Plekhanov's later choices. But it was Plekhanov who first analyzed the Russian situation as a whole in Marxist terms, thereby earning renown as the "Father of Russian Marxism". 1 His writings became the school for a whole generation of revolutionaries. At the beginning respected and venerated, then rejected and criticized, Plekhanov for long held the leadership of Russian Marxism, as its best-known 'Master'.

'Without a revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement.' Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik Revolution and founder of the USSR, was profoundly aware of the power of words. As a zealous orator and prolific writer, he used his words to launch a soaring critique of imperialist society and to theorize the development of the world's first socialist state. Much of his writing was translated into English in order to further the Socialist cause. This book is a compilation of some of Lenin's most famous sayings, taken from speeches, tracts, letters and recorded conversations. They expose his views on topics ranging from democracy to terrorism, from religion to Stalin's untrustworthiness and from education to music. Accompanied by a range of arresting images, including contemporary propaganda posters, photographs, portraits, illustrations and Soviet art, these aphoristic proclamations offer an insight into the atmosphere of pre- and post-Revolutionary Russia and the mind of one of the twentieth century's most defining political figures.

This collection brings together the latest work of some of the world's leading Marxist philosophers and new young researchers. Based upon work presented at meetings of the Marx and Philosophy Society, it offers a unique snapshot of the best current scholarship on the philosophical aspects and implications of Marx's thought.

This book analyses racism in communist and post-communist contexts, examining the 'Red' promise of an end to racism and the racial logics at work in the Soviet Union, Central and Eastern Europe, Cuba and China, placing these in the context of global racialisation.

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.

Despite insoluble contradictions, intense volatility and fierce resistance, the crisis-ridden capitalism of the 21st century lingers on. To understand capital's paradoxical expansion and entrenchment amidst crisis and unrest, Mute Compulsionoffers a novel theory of the historically unique forms of abstract and impersonal power set in motion by the subjection of social life to the profit imperative. Building on a critical reconstruction of Karl Marx's unfinished critique of political economy and a wide range of contemporary Marxist theory, philosopher Soren Mau sets out to explain how the logic of capital tightens its stranglehold on the life of society by constantly remoulding the material conditions of social reproduction. In the course of doing so, Mau intervenes in classical and contemporary debates about the value form, crisis theory, biopolitics, social reproduction, humanism, logistics, agriculture, metabolism, the body, competition, technology and relative surplus populations.

This book offers a detailed examination of the interaction between socialism and feminism through the lens of one particular socialist organisation, the Communist Party of Great Britain, from its foundation in 1920 until the outbreak of the Second World War. The study of socialism and feminism in the CPGB can be divided into four major areas - the party's concept of socialism and the role of women in a future society; the party's relationship to the feminist movement; the work of the party in relation to specific women's issues; and how the sexual division of labour operated within the party. The author here defines and explains the socialist and feminist traditions in Britain and describes the ways in which they interacted, both at the level of theory and of practice. Sources from party press and reports to interviews with party members and non-party written and oral evidence and accounts feed into this thorough chronological treatment which outlays the changes within the CPGB during the 1920s and 30s in relation to feminism.

This book examines the course of official criticism of republican leaderships in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from Stalin's death until the collapse of central control in the late 1980s. It focuses upon five republics, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belorussia. The extraordinary power of the central leadership to replace particular republican leaders is contrasted with the continuing dominance of elite politics in these republics by local cliques with substantial and increasing autonomy from Moscow.

This book, originally published in 1949 (but here re-issuing the second edition of 1966) presents a history of international socialism, not just from the political but also the economic standpoint.

Modern political and social theory is fundamentally eurocentric, yet the critique of eurocentrism remains marginal to critical realist and marxist theory. The political and social structures of modernity are dominated by really eurocentric forms and relations, yet the theorisation of the eurocentricity of modernity is largely undeveloped.

In its attempt to tackle eurocentrism, Eurocentrism: A Critical Realist and Marxian Critique of Civil Society brings social theory up against the deeply embedded constraints that modern life places on historical and social reflexivity.

This book examines the powerful anti-eurocentric tendencies of critical realism and marxian critiques of civil society, and evaluates their potential as solutions to this eurocentrist dilemma. Could a more self-consciously anti-eurocentric approach from these fields help us to focus without this historical and social bias? Accomplishing this will significantly expand the potential to provide an adequate grounding for theories of the essentially Eurocentric structures of modern theory and social relations.

The book presents an analysis of the concept of rights and provides an illuminating expression of socialist ideals. The author outlines an analysis of fundamental human rights compatible with historical relativism and applies this to the political right of freedom of expression and the economic right to work. Finally he deploys the proposed analysis of socialist rights to explain the ambivalence of socialist thinkers towards welfare rights in contemporary capitalist states and to analyze the logic of assertions that welfare law is often counter-productive.

The book discusses the nature of Marxist theory of crisis and applies it to the global financial crisis which began in 2007. Is the contemporary crisis simply the usual periodic upturn and downturn or is there something more fundamental? Is there a structural crisis of capitalism, from which there is no immediate solution? Is capitalism managed and does it have a strategy? Is the financial crisis representative of a failure in capitalism itself to subject banks and other financial institutions to the overall economy? The book discusses Marx's view on crises, as well as ideas on money and finance. It considers the different modern Marxist ideas on the causes of crises - falling rate of profit, disproportionality and underconsumption. It goes into detail as to the nature of the present crisis, its course and causes in a spirited and independent manner. Apart from the United States, it considers the situation in the two countries, in which protests erupted: Iran and Greece. They are taken as examples of the effect of the crisis on the country, the society and the economy as well as its politics. This book was originally published as a special issue of Critique.

In modernizing Russia, obshchestvennost', an indigenous Russian word, began functioning as a term to illuminate newly emerging active parts of society and their public identities. This volume approaches various phenomena associated with the term throughout the revolution, examining it in the context of the press, public opinion, and activists.

This book is a key resource on the foundations of Marxist Internet and Digital Media Studies. It presents 16 contributions that show how Marx's analyses of capitalism, the commodity, class, labour, work, exploitation, surplus-value, dialectics, crises, ideology, class struggles, and communism help us to understand the Internet and social media in 21st century digital capitalism.

Erich Fromm and the Quest for Solidarity argues that Fromm's humanistic ethics provides a framework for the analysis of alienation in affluent societies and his exploration of the social forces capable of challenging that alienation. It examines his work on authoritarianism, the experience of work, the struggle against patriarchy, the dangers of consumerism and the manipulation of needs, the urgent need to revive democracy, and the challenge of the emerging 'one world'. Never losing sight of the ancient dream of human solidarity, Fromm's explicitly ethical approach exerts a compelling relevance to a range of issues in contemporary social and political theory.

Miroslav Hroch's Social Preconditions of National Revival has profoundly influenced the study of nationalism since it first appeared in English translation, particularly because of its famous three-phase model for describing and analyzing national movements in Eastern Europe. Contributors to this book explore Hroch's continued relevance to the field of nationalism studies with four case studies and two theoretical/historiographic essays. Two case studies apply Hroch's thinking to Eastern Europe in light of subsequent historiography, finding that Hroch's ideas remain useful for understanding national movements in Belarus and among the Kuban Cossacks. Two further studies apply Hroch's schema to the Mexican independence movement and contemporary Pakistan ? times and places that Hroch specifically excluded from his own considerations. The first theoretical contribution seeks to apply Begriffsgeschichte to Hroch's work; the second suggests that Hroch's phases form a useful typology of nationalism, thus facilitating communication between different branches of nationalism studies. Hroch ends the volume with his own commentary on the various contributions.

This book was published as a special issue of Nationalities Papers.

This book tells the dramatic story of the unexpected disintegration of the Soviet Union. The author draws on a wide range of sources to illustrate the growth of national awareness among the many subject peoples, partly promoted by the actions of the communists themselves. He concludes that, the efforts of Mikhail Gorbachev to reform the state he initially controlled, undermined and eventually destroyed the mechanisms that held the non-Russians in check.

With the recent revival of Karl Marx's theory, a general interest in reading Capital has also increased. But Capital - Marx's foundational nineteenth century work on political economy - is by no means considered an easily understood text. Central concepts such as abstract labor, the value form, or the fetishism of commodities, can seem opaque to us as first time readers, and the prospect of comprehending Marx's thought can be truly daunting. Until, that is, we pick up Michael Heinrich's How to Read Marx's Capital. Paragraph by paragraph, Heinrich provides extensive commentary and lucid explanations of questions and quandaries that arise when encountering Marx's original text. Suddenly, such seemingly gnarly chapters as "The Labor Process and the Valorization Process" and "Money or the Circulation of Capital" become refreshingly clear, as Heinrich explains just what we need to keep in mind when reading such a complex text. Deploying multiple appendices referring to other pertinent writings by Marx, Heinrich reveals what is relevant about Capital, and why we need to engage with it today. How to Read Marx's Capital provides an illuminating and indispensable guide to sorting through cultural detritus of a world whose political and economic systems are simultaneously imploding and exploding.

This work establishes the uniqueness of the Marxian category of Capital on the basis of the original texts by Marx. The study has been neglected in the existing literature. The wage-labor relationship is shown to be necessary and sufficient for the existence of capital(ism). Individual ownership is shown to be a particular form of capitalist private property which can also take the form of collective ownership. The author argues the capitalist character of the Soviet economy.

Cultures of Uneven and Combined Development seeks to explore and develop Leon Trotsky's concept of uneven and combined development. In particular, it aims to adapt the political and historical analysis which originated in Trotsky's Russia for use within the contemporary field of world literature. As such, it draws together the work of scholars from both the field of international relations and the field of literature and the arts. This collection will therefore be of particular interest to anyone who is interested in new ways of understanding world literary texts, or interested in new ways of applying Trotsky's revolutionary politics to the contemporary world order. Contributors: Alexander Anievas, Gail Day, James Christie, Kamran Matin, Kerem Nisancioglu, Luke Cooper, Michael Niblett, Neil Davidson, Nesrin Degirmencioglu, Robert Spencer, Steve Edwards.

..".this is a worthy analysis of the dangerous and ambiguous political liaisons of an important twentieth-century thinker. The argument is persuasive in showing that the subject of this book was separate and apart from what E.P. Thopson stigmatised as the 'shambles' of the 'tenacious posthumous Stalinism of the French Communist intelligentsia'" Labour History

..". an outstanding contribution to Sartre studies. There is nothing quite like it, and Birchall's scholarship is formidable ... The author has an impressive mastery of his topic, the deep intellectual and political background needed for this study, and has gone into the many sources needed to answer his questions." Ron Aronson, Wayne State University

"Th e] understanding and separation of different elements of the French left is one of the strengths of Birchall's book ... It] provides a useful and accessible historical analysis of Sartre's writing and politics, and offers a full, convincing and critical account of why Sartre should be reclaimed to an anti-Stalinist position...As a clear outline of Sartre's relation to the French left Sartre Against Stalinism is an interesting and informative read." International Socialism

"The question of what kind of politics and what kind of organisation the movement needs is practical and urgent. This] account of Sartre as a fighter for freedom - however flawed a fighter - is timely and invaluable." Socialist Review

Most critics of the political evolution of Jean-Paul Sartre have laid emphasis on his allegedly sympathetic and uncritical attitude to Stalinist Communism due, to a large extent, to their equation of Marxism with Stalinism. It is true that Sartre was guilty of many serious misjudgements with regard to the USSR and the French Communist Party. But his relationship with the Marxist Left was much more complex and co tradictory than most accounts admit. This book offers a political defence of Sartre and shows how, from a relatively apolitical stance in the 1930s, Sartre became increasingly involved in the politics of the Left; though he always distrusted Stalinism, he was sometimes driven to ally himself with it because of the force of its argument.