We need a politics we haven’t got John Steele In another context in which I’m involved the subject has come up, sometimes rather heatedly, of the critique of Marxism from an anarchist perspective. Now this is a debate I’ve heard for 40+ years, from both sides, and usually posed in the same rather abstract terms. [...]
Posts under ‘Authors’
Doesn’t the class struggle affect economic developments?
We’ve posted a number of essays on this site relating to analyses of the current crisis, the trans-nationalization of capital (etc.), their effects on social structures and the conditions of the people, and the implications of all of this for politics and class struggle. But don’t implications run both ways? Nat W. has been an [...]
What is Badiou’s communism?
The following essay by J. Ramsey is expanded from remarks delivered at the Platypus Society Convention in April, as part of a panel on Badiou and Post-Maoism: Marxism and Communism Today. Other speakers were Chris Cutrone of Platypus (whose paper can be found here), Mike Ely of Kasama (whose remarks can be found on Kasama), [...]
Does contemporary capitalism tend toward fascism?
We’ve had posts and discussions here on the existence, configuration and functioning of a transnational capitalist class (TCC), mostly on a fairly theoretical plane (as befits khukuri’s function). But, presuming we accept the TCC thesis, what are the effects on a more current-event and political level? Robinson’s essay sketches a series of theses along these [...]
John Steele: Why is Badiou of political value?
Following is the paper I gave yesterday at the Platypus convention in Chicago, as part of a panel titled Badiou and Post-Maoism: Marxism and Communism Today. Other panelists were Chris Cutrone of Platypus, Mike Ely of Kasama, and Joe Ramsey. Cutrone’s paper strongly attacked Badiou, whom he characterized as a typical ’60s new leftist, deeply [...]
‘Students of these movements, not their stupid professors’
What was it that began in Tunisia this year, and ramified in different forms across the Arab world? Is there a comparison to be drawn between these eruptions and the mass action we saw in the Wisconsin state capitol (which has also had its echos elsewhere? Too often the response to these upsurges has been a [...]
On the concept of class truth – III
The first and second parts of this essay, published over the past two days, appear below. This is the third and final installment, and includes the bibliography for the whole. Class Truth — An Essential Concept: Part 3 by Vern Gray Interpreting or Contemplating the World, and Changing It Class truth is part of both; [...]
On the concept of class truth – II
The second part of Vern Gray’s essay. The first, appearing yesterday, can be found below. The third and final part will be published tomorrow. Class Truth — An Essential Concept: Part 2 by Vern Gray Class Truths in the Natural Sciences It has often been assumed that, among the various spheres of thought, only the [...]
On the concept of class truth – I
A defining characteristic of Marxism, philosophically, has been its emphasis on the close connection of theory and practice, between truth and practical human activity: The question whether objective truth can be attributed to human thinking is not a question of theory but is a practical question. Defining this connection more closely, however, and tracing its [...]
Transnational capital and the current crisis
We’ve had a continuing interest on this site in questions raised by the transnationalization of capital, and particularly that of a transnational capitalist class (TCC), and we’ve reproduced pieces by some of the chief academic exponents and investigators of the TCC thesis, including Leslie Sklair, William K. Carroll, Jerry Harris, and William Robinson. In the [...]
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