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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political ideologies > Marxism & Communism
In this third decade of the 21st century, deep problems plague our
world. Many people lack adequate nutrition, health care, and
education, because-while there is enough wealth for everyone to
meet these basic needs-most of it is tightly controlled by precious
few. Global warming causes droughts, floods, rising sea levels, and
soon the forced migrations of millions of people. In this book,
philosopher Graham Priest explains why we find ourselves in this
situation, defines the nature of the problems we face, and explains
how we might solve and move beyond our current state. The first
part of this book draws on Buddhist philosophy, Marx's analysis of
capitalism, and their complementary role in explaining our present
crisis and the events that led us here. In the second part of the
book, Priest turns to the much harder question of how one might go
about creating a more rational and humane world. Here, he draws
again on Buddhist and Marxist ideas as well as some key aspects of
anarchist thought. His discussion of the need for bottom-up control
of production, power, ideology, and an emerging awareness of our
interdependence is a must-read for anyone who cares about the
future of the planet and our latent capacity to care for each
other. Key Features Explains the necessary elements of Marxist,
Buddhist, and anarchist thought-no background knowledge of
political theory or Buddhism is necessary Shows how Buddhist and
Marxist notions of persons are complementary Convincingly shows
capitalism's role in creating current socio-economic problems
Provides an analysis of the corrosiveness of top-down power
structures and why they should be eliminated in a post-capitalist
state Discusses capitalism's role in war, environmental
degradation, and race and gender-based oppression
This volume bases a clear and unbiased account of Communist
philosophy on the Marxian Materialist Concept of History and
Marxian Theory of Value. The spear-head of Marxism is its doctrine
of class-struggle and from this Laski sets out on in his exposition
of the Communist attitude. Although first published in 1927, the
intervening years have in no way detracted from the intrinsic value
of this enlightening study, regarded by many as the essential
textbook for the understanding of this subject.
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The Motorcycle Diaries
(Paperback)
Ernesto "Che" Guevara; Translated by Che Guevara Studies Center
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'A Latin American James Dean or Jack Kerouac' Washington Post 'It's
true; Marxists just wanna have fun... a revolutionary bestseller'
Guardian At the age of twenty-three, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara and his
friend Alberto Granado set out from their native Argentina to
explore their continent, with only a single 1939 Norton motorcycle
to carry them, nicknamed La Poderosa ('the powerful one'). They
travelled not to visit the usual tourist attractions, but to meet
ordinary people and understand Latin American life. In amidst the
tales of youthful adventures - of women, wine, thrilling escapes
and the power of friendship - the young Che also learns first-hand
about poverty, philosophy and philosophy and forms himself into the
man who would become the world's most famous and admired
revolutionary and freedom fighter. 'For every comic escapade of the
carefree roustabout there is an equally eye-opening moment in the
development of the future revolutionary leader. By the end of the
journey, a politicized Guevara has emerged to predict his own
legendary future' Time
The Twilight of World Trotskyism analyzes the reasons behind the
historic failure of the Trotskyist movement around the world. The
book begins this assessment by briefly recapitulating the origins
of Trotskyism, as a political current within the communist
movement, and elaborating its major elements, before describing the
historical development of Trotskyism in the four countries where it
has sunk the deepest roots and which house the clear majority of
the world's Fourth Internationals: Argentina, Britain, France and
the USA. It then proceeds to map the current state of the global
Trotskyist movement. Whatever their current size and status,
Trotskyist organizations aspire to become mass political parties
and lead revolutionary seizures of power. It is therefore
appropriate to examine them through the metrics applied to
mainstream parties, namely organization, membership and political
influence. The author looks at the dynamics of the Trotskyist
movement, focusing in particular on the supposedly harmful effects
of the communist movement before then turning to examine the role
of Trotskyist organizations in the many revolutionary situations
that have appeared since the 1920s and in the various 'cycles of
protest' that have occurred in the latter half of the 20th century
and the early years of the 21st century. The final section examines
the two success stories frequently cited in Trotskyist literature,
namely the cases of Bolivia and Sri Lanka. The book concludes by
setting out and examining a wide variety of explanations for the
chronic and sustained weaknesses of the Trotskyist movement,
including its flawed appraisals of contemporary politics and
economics, ultra-radical programmes and policies, failures in
understanding the dynamics of protest and the baleful legacy of
Soviet communism. It is argued that these weaknesses are rooted in
Trotskyist doctrine and are therefore integral, not peripheral,
features of world Trotskyism. This volume will be essential reading
for activists and scholars interested in the transnational history
and politics of the radical left.
Between the two world wars, thousands of European antifascists were
pushed to act by the political circumstances of the time. In that
context, the Spanish Civil War and the armed resistances during the
Second World War involved particularly large numbers of
transnational fighters. The need to fight fascism wherever it
presented itself was undoubtedly the main motivation behind these
fighters' decision to mobilise. Despite all this, however, not
enough attention has been paid to the fact that some of these
volunteers felt they were the last exponents of a tradition of
armed volunteering which, in their case, originated in the
nineteenth century. The capacity of war volunteering to endure and
persist over time has rarely been investigated in historiography.
The aim of this book is to reconstruct the radical and
transnational tradition of war volunteering connected to Giuseppe
Garibaldi's legacy in Southern Europe between the unification of
Italy (1861) and the end of the Second World War (1945). This book
seeks to provide a comprehensive analysis of the long-term,
interconnected, and radical dimensions of the so called
Garibaldinism.
This book provides a comparative and transnational examination of
the complex and multifaceted experiences of anti-labour
mobilisation, from the bitter social conflicts of the pre-war
period, through the epochal tremors of war and revolution, and the
violent spasms of the 1920s and 1930s. It retraces the formation of
an extensive market for corporate policing, privately contracted
security and yellow unionism, as well as processes of
professionalisation in strikebreaking activities, labour espionage
and surveillance. It reconstructs the diverse spectrum of
right-wing patriotic leagues and vigilante corps which, in support
or in competition with law enforcement agencies, sought to counter
the dual dangers of industrial militancy and revolutionary
situations. Although considerable research has been done on the
rise of socialist parties and trade unions the repressive policies
of their opponents have been generally left unexamined. This book
fills this gap by reconstructing the methods and strategies used by
state authorities and employers to counter outbreaks of labour
militancy on a global scale. It adopts a long-term chronology that
sheds light on the shocks and strains that marked industrial
societies during their turbulent transition into mass politics from
the bitter social conflicts of the pre-war period, through the
epochal tremors of war and revolution, and the violent spasms of
the 1920s and 1930s. Offering a new angle of vision to examine the
violent transition to mass politics in industrial societies, this
is of great interest to scholars of policing, unionism and striking
in the modern era. The Open Access version of this book, available
at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429354243, has been
made available under a Creative Commons
Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
The Real Situation in Russia, first published in 1928, contains
three of Trotsky's harshest rebuttals of Stalin's takeover of the
Russian Revolution following the death of Lenin. The first part
contains a defence of the 'Opposition Platform' against the
Stalinist denunciation; the second details Trotsky's view of the
precise nature of the Stalinist program, as well as its disastrous
consequences for Russia; and the third demonstrates the unashamed
falsification of the history by Stalin with regard to the beginning
of the Revolution. Including a sympathetic, but nonetheless astute,
introduction to Trotsky's argument by the translator, The Real
Situation in Russia will prove to be of value to all students of
twentieth-century Marxism, and in particular to those interested in
the Russian Revolution - not only its origins and early
development, but also, perhaps, the reasons for its ultimate
failure.
A vital book for understanding the use of political violence in
pursuit of political ends, by one of the major French philosophers
of the 20th century Includes a fascinating chapter on Arthur
Koestler's famous novel about the 1930s 'show trials' in Moscow,
Darkness at Noon Extremely clearly written and still highly
relevant for dealing with questions of political power and
authoritarianism This Routledge Classics edition includes a new
foreword by William McBride, helpfully placing the book in the
context of Merleau-Ponty's thought as a whole
Conflict and Change in the Russian Industrial Enterprise focuses on
the new kinds of conflict that arise in the transition to a market
economy. Following an editorial introduction, two chapters develop
theories from new empirical research into patterns of conflict and
forms of trade unionism in Russian enterprises in the transition
period. These are followed by a detailed case study of the
development of an independent trade union in one large industrial
enterprise, and a chapter which explores changes in the status
hierarchy of the industrial enterprise. Two chapters then address
the much-neglected issue of gender differentiation in the work
place and both chapters question the supposed passivity of Russian
women workers. The two final chapters address the issue of conflict
and change in the external relations of enterprises through case
studies of the process of bankruptcy and of conflict between
insiders and outsiders.
First published in 1955 to wide acclaim, James Joll's introduction
to the history and development of International Socialism before
the First World War is of crucial importance for understanding the
development of Left-wing movements in the 20th century: the
difficulties posed by prominent anarchist groups, the ambiguities
of the scope of revolutionary activity, and the challenges posed by
the rise of nationalism. Incorporating insightful research into the
international links and the ideological structure of socialism, as
well as on the structure of individual parties and the actual
nature of their working-class support, The Second International
1889-1914 is a valuable resource for political historians and
students of socialist thought alike.
In the past two decades, Marxism has enjoyed a revitalization as a
research program and a growth in its audience. This renaissance is
connected to the revival of anti-capitalist contestation since the
Seattle protests in 1999 and the impact of the global economic and
financial crisis in 2007-8. It intersects with the emergence of
Post-Marxism since the 1980s represented by thinkers such as Jurgen
Habermas, Chantal Mouffe, Ranajit Guha and Alain Badiou. This
handbook explores the development of Marxism and Post-Marxism,
setting them in dialogue against a truly global backdrop.
Transcending the disciplinary boundaries between philosophy,
economics, politics and history, an international range of expert
contributors guide the reader through the main varieties and
preoccupations of Marxism and Post-Marxism. Through a series of
framing and illustrative essays, readers will explore these
traditions, starting from Marx and Engels themselves, through the
thinkers of the Second and Third Internationals (Rosa Luxemburg,
Lenin and Trotsky, among others), the Tricontinental, and Subaltern
and Post-Colonial Studies, to more contemporary figures such as
Huey Newton, Fredric Jameson, Judith Butler, Immanuel Wallerstein
and Samir Amin. The Routledge Handbook of Marxism and Post-Marxism
will be of interest to scholars and researchers of philosophy,
cultural studies and theory, sociology, political economics and
several areas of political science, including political theory,
Marxism, political ideologies and critical theory.
"On Anarchism" provides the reasoning behind Noam Chomsky's
fearless lifelong questioning of the legitimacy of entrenched
power. In these essays, Chomsky redeems one of the most maligned
ideologies, anarchism, and places it at the foundation of his
political thinking. Chomsky's anarchism is distinctly optimistic
and egalitarian. Moreover, it is a living, evolving tradition that
is situated in a historical lineage; Chomsky's anarchism emphasizes
the power of collective, rather than individualist, action.
The collection includes a revealing new introduction by journalist
Nathan Schneider, who documented the Occupy movement for "Harper's"
and "The Nation," and who places Chomsky's ideas in the
contemporary political moment. "On Anarchism" will be essential
reading for a new generation of activists who are at the forefront
of a resurgence of interest in anarchism--and for anyone who
struggles with what can be done to create a more just world.
This book assesses the underpinning role 'references to identity'
played and continue to play as the powerful mobilising force in
domestic politics across the East European region stretching from
Estonia to Bulgaria. The EU membership of postcommunist states was
to ensure stability, prevent conflict and eventually guarantee
equality of all citizens regardless of their political preferences
or ethnic identities. However, the promotion of such norms and
values has been secondary to consolidation of state institutions
and the societies they serve around ethnocentric narratives of
states' core ethnic groups. The sequel of financial, then 'refugee'
crises has further dented the appeal of the EU's norms across the
region. Even the rhetoric commitment to respect cultural diversity
and human rights has been promptly replaced with references to
identity and interests of politically relevant groups. Yet,
nativist and populist rhetoric has been the staple of politics
since before the EU accession. The chapters in this edited volume
zoom in on politics which forge and live-off their societies'
preoccupation with ethnocentric narratives, vesting national
identity with persistent relevance and considerable weight across
the postcommunist region. The chapters in this book were originally
published in the journal, East European Politics.
* Offers a practical overview of 28 crucial concepts in Marxist
theory as developed and integrated by Jacques Lacan. * Opens up new
possibilities of discourse within the academic field for
considering Marxist economic, philosophical, epistemological,
political and sociological concepts within the context of Lacan's
readings. * Demonstrates the importance of Marxist concepts to
Lacanian psychoanalytic practice. * Brings together a broad range
of international contributors on the cutting edge of researching
Marxist / Lacanian encounters. * Will appeal to psychoanalysts as
well as academics and researchers in a broad range of fields.
The Defence of Terrorism, originally written in 1920 on a military
train during the Russian Civil War, represents one of Trotsky's
most wide-ranging and original contributions to the debates that
dominated the 1920s and '30s. Trotsky's intention is "far away from
any thought of defending terrorism in general". Rather, he seeks to
promote an historical justification for the Revolution, by
demonstrating that history has set up the 'revolutionary violence
of the progressive class' against the 'conservative violence of the
outworn classes'. The argument is developed in response to the
influential Marxist intellectual Karl Kautsky, who refuted
Trotsky's 'militarisation of labour' and Lenin's wholesale
rejection of a 'bloodless revolution'. The introduction, written
for the second edition of 1935, presents Trotsky's reflections on
the similarities between Kautsky and the burgeoning British Labour
Party: specifically, it recapitulates Trotsky's belief that
revolution conducted according to the norms of Parliamentarianism
is no revolution at all.
John E. Roemer, one of the founders of analytical Marxism, draws on
contemporary mathematical economics to put forward a refined
extension of the Marxian theory of exploitation, labour value and
class.
The communists of East Central Europe came to power promising to
bring about genuine equality, paying special attention to achieving
gender equality, to build up industry and create prosperous
societies, and to use music, art, and literature to promote
socialist ideals. Instead, they never succeeded in filling more
than a third of their legislatures with women and were unable to
make significant headway against entrenched patriarchal views; they
considered it necessary (with the sole exception of Albania) to
rely heavily on credits to build up their economies, eventually
driving them into bankruptcy; and the effort to instrumentalize the
arts ran aground in most of the region already by 1956, and, in
Yugoslavia, by 1949. Communism was all about planning, control, and
politicization. Except for Yugoslavia after 1949, the communists
sought to plan and control not only politics and the economy, but
also the media and information, religious organizations, culture,
and the promotion of women, which they understood in the first
place as involving putting women to work. Inspired by the
groundbreaking work of Robert K. Merton on functionalist theory,
this book shows how communist policies were repeatedly undermined
by unintended consequences and outright dysfunctions.
The Real Situation in Russia, first published in 1928, contains
three of Trotsky's harshest rebuttals of Stalin's takeover of the
Russian Revolution following the death of Lenin. The first part
contains a defence of the 'Opposition Platform' against the
Stalinist denunciation; the second details Trotsky's view of the
precise nature of the Stalinist program, as well as its disastrous
consequences for Russia; and the third demonstrates the unashamed
falsification of the history by Stalin with regard to the beginning
of the Revolution. Including a sympathetic, but nonetheless astute,
introduction to Trotsky's argument by the translator, The Real
Situation in Russia will prove to be of value to all students of
twentieth-century Marxism, and in particular to those interested in
the Russian Revolution - not only its origins and early
development, but also, perhaps, the reasons for its ultimate
failure.
Part of a definitive English-language edition, prepared in
collaboration with the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Moscow, the
series contains all the works of Marx and Engels, whether published
in their lifetimes or since. It includes their complete
correspondence and newly discovered works.
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.
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.
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