The uprising which shook France in May 1968 also had a revolutionary effect on the country's most prominent film journal. Under editors Jean-Louis Comolli and Jean Narboni, Cahiers du cinema embarked on a militant turn that would govern the journal's work over the next five years. Inspired by Marxist and psychoanalytic theory, the "red years" of Cahiers du cinema produced a theoretical outpouring that was seminal for the formation of film studies and is still of vital relevance for the contemporary audiovisual landscape. The Red Years of Cahiers du Cinema (1968-1973) gives an overview of this period in the journal's history and its aftermath, combining biographical accounts of the critics who wrote for Cahiers in the post 1968 period with theoretical explorations of their key texts.

Growing Up Communist in the Netherlands and Britain: Childhood, Political Activism, and Identity Formation documents communists' attempts, successful and otherwise, to overcome their isolation and to connect with the major social and political movements of the twentieth century. Communist parties in Britain and the Netherlands emerged from the Second World War expecting to play a significant role in post-war society, due to their domestic anti-fascist activities and to the part played by the Soviet Union in defeating fascism. The Cold War shattered these hopes, and isolated communist parties and their members. By analysing the accounts of communist children, Weesjes highlights their struggle to establish communities and define their identities within the specific cultural, social, and political frameworks of their countries.

In order to truly understand the emergence, endurance, and legacy of autocracy, this volume of engaging essays explores how autocratic power is acquired, exercised, and transferred or abruptly ended through the careers and politics of influential figures in more than 20 countries and six regions. The book looks at both traditional "hard" dictators, such as Hitler, Stalin, and Mao, and more modern "soft" or populist autocrats, who are in the process of transforming once fully democratic countries into autocratic states, including Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro, Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, Narendra Modi in India, and Viktor Orban in Hungary. The authors touch on a wide range of autocratic and dictatorial figures in the past and present, including present-day autocrats, such as Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, military leaders, and democratic leaders with authoritarian aspirations. They analyze the transition of selected autocrats from democratic or benign semi-democratic systems to harsher forms of autocracy, with either quite disastrous or more successful outcomes. An ideal reader for students and scholars, as well as the general public, interested in international affairs, leadership studies, contemporary history and politics, global studies, security studies, economics, psychology, and behavioral studies.

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

Using Marxist critique, this book explores manifestations of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Higher Education and demonstrates how it contributes to the functioning and existence of the capitalist university. Challenging the idea that AI is a break from previous capitalist technologies, the book offers nuanced examination of the impacts of AI on the control and regulation of academic work and labour, on digital learning and remote teaching, and on the value of learning and knowledge. Applying a Marxist perspective, Preston argues that commodity fetishism, surveillance, and increasing productivity ushered in by the growth of AI, further alienates and exploits academic labour and commodifies learning and research. The text puts forward a solid theoretical framework and methodology for thinking about AI to inform critical and revolutionary pedagogies. Offering an impactful and timely analysis, this book provides a critical engagement and application of key Marxist concepts in the study of AI's role in Higher Education. It will be of interest to those working or researching in Higher Education.

The project to create a ‘New Man’ and ‘New Woman’ initiated in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc constituted one of the most extensive efforts to remake human psychophysiology in modern history. Playing on the different meanings of the word ‘technology’ — as practice, knowledge and artefact — this edited volume brings together scholarship from across a range of fields to shed light on the ways in which socialist regimes in the Soviet bloc and Eastern Europe sought to transform and revolutionise human capacities. From external, state-driven techniques of social control and bodily management, through institutional practices of transformation, to strategies of self-fashioning, Technologies of Mind and Body in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc probes how individuals and collectives engaged with — or resisted — the transformative imperatives of the Soviet experiment. The volume’s broad scope covers topics including the theory and practice of revolutionary embodiment; the practice of expert knowledge and disciplinary power in psychotherapy and criminology; the representation and transformation of ideal bodies through mass media and culture; and the place of disabled bodies in the context of socialist transformational experiments. The book brings the history of human ‘re-making’ and the history of Soviet and Eastern Bloc socialism into conversation in a way that will have broad and lasting resonance.

The Antifascist Chronicles of Aurelio Pego: A Critical Anthology collects and contextualizes Pego's 118 literary chronicles published between 1940 and 1967 in the periodical Espana Libre, New York. The satire of this household name in the US Spanish-language press lambasted Fascist Spain, lampooned American diplomatic relations with Francisco Franco, and mocked the Spanish exiles' unsuccessful efforts to liberate Spain from the dictator. Pego's journalism showed deep dedication to the public good with his publication of uncensored information about the regime that alerted readers of the civil rights infringements in Fascist Spain. However, Pego delivered the hard truths of Fascist Spain cloaked in mockery. Humor was crucial in this political culture not only because it facilitated communicating Spanish news but also avoided mythical and totalitarian rhetorical resistance. The fragility of the alternative periodicals' paper and the political persecution against dissident voices has caused that much of this antifascist print culture has been lost. However, Pego's chronicles prove that US Hispanic antifascism was vibrant. The anthology puts forward the understudied work of antifascists in the United States and provides evidence of their activism. Its preservation is an exercise of collective memory and a place of resistance to an elitist and fascist archive.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, considerable changes have taken place in Marxist theory, and the 21st century has seen the relevance of Marx called into question. Several wars, a global economic crisis, ecological disasters, political dysfunctions have either challenged, undermined, or strengthened various strands of leftist thought that emerged from Marxist thought. This collection of original essays by key thinkers in the field aims to update the literature on the state of Marxism today. It engages with significant areas of debates, from the political thought of Nussbaum and Zizek to the politics of development, liberalism, justice, the role of revolution, imperialism, and economic and technological determinism. A thorough investigation, it incorporates a diversity of approaches, including analytical philosophy (contribution from Norman Geras, e.g.) and postmodern influences (contributions from Ronaldo Munck or Stuart Sim). These different perspectives, which also correspond to the contrasting views on the nature of post-Marxist theory, will make this collection a valuable text for courses in political theory, Marxist studies, as well as international relations, post-colonialism, and development.

Victim of history," "a martyr from behind the Iron Curtain," "the Hungarian Gandhi" - these are just some of the epithets which people used to describe Cardinal Mindszenty, archbishop of Esztergom, who was the last Hungarian prelate to use the title of prince primate. Today, Mindszenty has been forgotten in most countries except for Hungary, but when he died in 1975, he was known all over the world as a symbol of the struggle of the Catholic Church against communism. Cardinal Mindszenty held the post of archbishop of Esztergom from 1945 until 1974, but during this period of almost three decades he served barely four years in office. The political police arrested him on December 26, 1948, and the Budapest People's Court subsequently sentenced him to life imprisonment. Based on the Stalinist practice of show trials, one of the accusations against Mindszenty, referring to his legitimist leanings, was his alleged attempt to re-establish Habsburg rule in Hungary. He regained freedom during the 1956 revolution but only for a few days. He was granted refuge by the US Embassy in Budapest between November 4, 1956 -September 28, 1971. In the fifteen years he spent at the American embassy enormous changes took place in the world while his personality remained frozen into the past. When in 1971 Pope Paul VI received the Hungarian foreign minister, he called Mindszenty "the victim of history". His last years were spent free at last, but far away from his homeland. In Hungary, the Catholic believers eagerly await his beatification.

This book puts forward a new perspective on the planned economies of communist Eastern Europe, demonstrating in detail how economic practice in such countries was shaped by the interplay among planners, managers and Party apparatchiks. Based on extensive original research, including interviews with former employees of industrial enterprises, the book argues that shortages, chronic over-capacities and erroneous planning decisions were present from the very beginning, rather than the consequences of later plan mistakes. They were the natural outcome of a profound conflict between leaders' attempt to adapt the basic laws of economics to their ideology and interests, and the requirements for rational bureaucracy of an increasingly sophisticated economy. The book discusses the evolution of and debates about the planned economy, considers the practice of plan development and implementation, and provides very detailed examples of how the planned economy actually worked at the level of the factory, at the point where plans and managers interacted with workers and production.

From a Marxist philosophical perspective, this collection of essays investigates the maturing self-consciousness and self-assertion of Chinese academia, especially within the humanities and social sciences, permitting more penetrating insights and critical engagement with the social reality of China. The author elaborates on the relationship between Hegel and Marx's philosophy and their concepts of reality, thereby accounting for the historic and philosophical conditions for the autonomy of Chinese academia. Drawing on intellectual resources from both Eastern and Western archives, including phenomenology, philosophical hermeneutics, Western Marxism, and China's pacifist tradition, the book refutes Huntington's speculation about Chinese imperialism and delineates how China's development can contribute to a fundamental critique of capitalist civilisation and a new paradigm of global governance. In addition, the book challenges the thinking of Chinese neo-liberals and nationalist-conservatives and their understandings of the history and social reality of China. Hence, the author advocates a reconstruction of the spiritual and intellectual realm within society based on Marxism, in order to counter Sinophobia, neo-liberalism, and nationalism at the same time. The book will appeal to readers interested in social and political philosophy, philosophy of history, Marxism, and China studies.

The Lao People's Democratic Republic is nearly fifty years old, and one of the few surviving one-party socialist states. Nearly five decades on from its revolutionary birth, the Lao population continues to build futures in and around a political landscape that maintains socialist rhetoric on the one hand and capitalist economics on the other. Contemporary Lao politics is marked by the use of cultural heritage as a source of political legitimacy. Researched through long-term detailed ethnography in the former royal capital of Luang Prabang, itself a UNESCO-recognized World Heritage Site since 1995, this book takes a fresh look at issues of legitimacy, heritage, and national identity for different members of the Lao population. It argues that the political system has become sufficiently embedded to avoid imminent risk of collapse but suggests that it is facing new challenges primarily in the form of rising Chinese influence in Laos.

Genocide denial not only abuses history and insults the victims but paves the way for future atrocities. Yet few, if any, books have offered a comparative overview and analysis of this problem. Denial: The Final Stage of Genocide? is a resource for understanding and countering denial. Denial spans a broad geographic and thematic range in its explorations of varied forms of denial-which is embedded in each stage of genocide. Ranging far beyond the most well-known cases of denial, this book offers original, pathbreaking arguments and contributions regarding: competition over commemoration and public memory in Ukraine and elsewhere transitional justice in post-conflict societies; global violence against transgender people, which genocide scholars have not adequately confronted; music as a means to recapture history and combat denial; public education's role in erasing Indigenous history and promoting settler-colonial ideology in the United States; "triumphalism" as a new variant of denial following the Bosnian Genocide; denial vis-a-vis Rwanda and neighboring Congo (DRC). With contributions from leading genocide experts as well as emerging scholars, this book will be of interest to scholars and students of history, genocide studies, anthropology, political science, international law, gender studies, and human rights.

This book evaluates the promise of human progress and secularism in grand political narratives of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, comparing counter-narratives of South Asia within the context of a fast-changing twenty-first century. The book embraces a broad range of sources and theoretical approaches that include political philosophy, film, and ideological discourse analysis. In the twenty-first century, global inequality and significant growth of religious and majoritarian nationalisms have been appended with a protracted economic slowdown and recession in many countries. Examining what went wrong in terms of secularism and distributive justice in India, this book critiques the Euro-American visions of democracy, global capitalism, and their so-called universality. As an alternative, it proposes a progressive politics of radical democracy for the Indian people. Reconsidering alternatives to capitalism, western secularism and the radical possibilities of Islamism, Political Theory and South Asian Counter-Narratives will appeal to students and scholars of political theory, international relations, global history, and South Asian politics.

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.

The Grundrisse is widely regarded as one of Marx’s most important texts, with many commentators claiming it is the centrepiece of his entire oeuvre. It is also, however, a notoriously difficult text to understand and interpret. In this — the first guide and introduction to reading the Grundrisse — Simon Choat helps us to make sense of a text that is both a first draft of Capital and a major work in its own right. As well as offering a detailed commentary on the entire text, this guide explains the Grundrisse’s central themes and arguments and highlights its impact and influence. The Grundrisse’s discussions of money, labour, nature, freedom, the role of machinery, and the development and dynamics of capitalism have influenced generations of thinkers, from Anglo-American historians such as Eric Hobsbawm and Robert Brenner to Continental philosophers like Antonio Negri and Gilles Deleuze, as well as offering vital insights into Marx’s methodology and the trajectory of his thought. Contemporary examples are used throughout this guide both to illuminate Marx’s terminology and concepts and to illustrate the continuing relevance of the Grundrisse. Readers will be offered guidance on: -Philosophical and Historical Context -Key Themes -Reading the Text -Reception and Influence

This volume: * presents a comprehensive understanding of the basic theories and concepts of Marx * evaluates Marx as a political philosopher for present times * will be a key text for scholars and students of politics, philosophy, economics and history

This volume: * presents a comprehensive understanding of the basic theories and concepts of Marx * evaluates Marx as a political philosopher for present times * will be a key text for scholars and students of politics, philosophy, economics and history

Hope lies in our richness, in the joy of our collective creativity. But that richness exists in the peculiar form of money. The fact that we relate to on another through money causes tremendous social pain and destruction and is dragging us through pandemics and war towards extinction. Richness against money: this battle will decide the future of humanity. If we cannot emancipate richness from money-capital-profit, there is probably no hope. Money seems invincible but the constant expansion of debt shows that its rule is fragile. The fictitious expansion of money through debt is driven by fear, fear of us, fear of the rabble. Money contains, but richness overflows. In this final part of his ground-breaking trilogy, John Holloway expertly fuses anti-capitalism and anti-identitarianism, and brings hope into the critique of political economy and revolutionary theory, challenging us to find hope within ourselves and channel it into a dignified, revolutionary rage.

This book is a thematic history of the communist movement in Kerala, the first major region (in terms of population) in the world to democratically elect a communist government. It analyzes the nature of the transformation brought about by the communist movement in Kerala, and what its implications could be for other postcolonial societies. The volume engages with the key theoretical concepts in postcolonial theory and Subaltern Studies, and contributes to the debate between Marxism and postcolonial theory, especially its recent articulations. The volume presents a fresh empirical engagement with theoretical critiques of Subaltern Studies and postcolonial theory, in the context of their decades-long scholarship in India. It discusses important thematic moments in Kerala's communist history which include - the processes by which it established its hegemony, its cultural interventions, the institution of land reforms and workers' rights, and the democratic decentralization project, and, ultimately, communism's incomplete national-popular and its massive failures with regard to the caste question. A significant contribution to scholarship on democracy and modernity in the Global South, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of politics, specifically political theory, democracy and political participation, political sociology, development studies, postcolonial theory, Subaltern Studies, Global South Studies, and South Asia Studies.

More than 30 years after their momentous book "Projekt Mitteleuropa", which had been written before the fall of the Iron Curtain, Emil Brix and Erhard Busek revisit the political space between Germany, Russia and the Mediterranean. The volume explores the role of Central Europe in the 21st century, the importance of the European Union, the significance of a transforming Central Europe for European unity, and what happens when we marginalise Central Europe. The view of the authors is unequivocal: European integration will only succeed when the Central European countries from Poland to North Macedonia, from the Czech Republic to Romania and Moldova, will be seen as being at the heart of Europe. The European Union needs to build more common and fair ground between "old" and "new" member states. According to the authors, any further move towards a "Europe of two speeds" would lead to a break-up of the EU.

Marxism and Decolonization in the 21st Century is a ground-breaking work that highlights the resurgence and insurgence of Marxism and decolonization, and the ways in which decolonization and decoloniality are grounded in the contributions of Black Marxism, the Radical Black tradition, and anti-colonial liberation traditions. Featuring leading and young scholars and activists, this book is a practical scholarly intervention that shows how democratic Marxism and decoloniality might converge to provoke planetary decolonization in the 21st century. At the centre of this process, enabled by both increasing human entanglements and the resilience of racism, the volume's contributors analyse converging forces of anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism, anti-patriarchy, anti-sexism, Indigenous People's movements, eco-feminist formations, and intellectual movements levelled against Eurocentrism. This book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and intellectuals interested in Marxism, decolonization, and transnational activism.

This book tells the story of the dissident imaginary of samizdat activists, the political culture they created, and the pivotal role that culture had in sustaining the resilience of the oppositional movement in Poland between 1976 and 1990. This unlicensed print culture has been seen as one of the most emblematic social worlds of dissent. Since the Cold War, the audacity of harnessing obsolete print technology known as samizdat to break the modern monopoly of information of the party-state has fascinated many, yet this book looks beyond the Cold War frame to reappraise its historical novelty and significance. What made that culture resilient and rewarding, this book argues, was the correspondence between certain set of ideas and media practices: namely, the form of samizdat social media, which both embodied and projected the prefigurative philosophy of political action, asserting that small forms of collective agency can have a transformative effect on public life here and now, and are uniquely capable of achieving a democratic new beginning. This prefigurative vision of the transition from communism had a fundamental impact on the broader oppositional movement. Yet, while both the rise of Solidarity and the breakthrough of 1989 seemed to do justice to that vision, both pivotal moments found samizdat social media activists making history that was not to their liking. Back in the day, their estrangement was overshadowed by the main axis of contention between the society and the state. Foregrounding the internal controversies they protagonized, this book adds nuance to our understanding of the broader legacy of dissent and its relevance for the networked protests of today.

The book is part of the recent effort to catch up with the research on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Despite its omnipresence and pivotal role in running the country, there has been a conspicuous shortage of references to the Party in most studies related to China. In its stead, the academic literature as well as popular discussions has too often treated the CCP as a type of regime destined to the dustbin of history. The inadequacy of research in this area is understandable because CCP is a tightly organised Leninist party which has kept much of its internal affairs confidential. This book examines the key aspects of the transformation of CCP in the rapidly changing national and global context. It highlights the problems faced by the ruling Leninist party in adapting to a capitalistic environment that its organisations cannot fully control and its ideology cannot effectively rationalise. It also examines CCP's strategies for adaptation in the areas of ideological reformulation, party-society relations and the ways of exercising power and maintaining internal cohesion. In addition to helping the readers understand how China is ruled and how the Chinese system operates, the book also highlights the evolutionary dynamics of Chinese politics in the environment created by CCP's reform and open-door policies.