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 [...]
Posts under ‘Featured Essays’
John Steele: Marxism, Politics, and Evil
Is Marxism, or revolutionary politics generally, sufficient for human emancipation? In Ethical Marxism, Bill Martin argues that Marxism requires ethics as the necessary foundation of any politics which may actually be capable of leading to this goal. The following essay critically examines this book and this thesis. Khukuri features several essays by Bill Martin, and [...]
John Steele: Badiou — Another Take on Revolutionary Theory
By John Steele What about Alain Badiou, the contemporary philosopher? Like Zizek, he has attracted much attention among people looking for new avenues both intellectually and politically. A friend in Latin American studies has told me his name is everywhere in Latin American intellectual circles. Badiou’s background is within Marxism and Maoism. He was a [...]
John Steele: When Everything Seems to Change — Badiou and the Event
Both structure and conjuncture deeply impact politics — and the tension between them runs through revolutionary theory and debates. How much is it the very structure of class society that gives rise to a revolutionary people, and how much is it exceptional moments and crisis within particular societies? Why did a great eruption of consciousness [...]
John Steele: Revolutionary Faithfulness and the Radically New
“In many ways this is the crux of Badiou’s thinking and work, over the past 25 years: how to ‘keep the faith’ in a creative way; how to do justice, theoretically, to a greatly changed world while remaining true to the project of a politics of emancipation.” by John Steele Over the past week and [...]
Chris Day: The Historical Failure of Anarchism
The Historical Failure of Anarchism: Implications for the Future of the Revolutionary Project pdf version by Christopher Day (1996, Love and Rage Archive) In the Spring 1996 issue of Workers Solidarity (journal of Ireland’s Workers Solidarity Movement) there is a review by Conor McLoughlin of Ken Loach’s excellent film on the Spanish Revolution, Land and [...]
Pavel Andreyev: Avakian’s Assessment of Thomas Jefferson: A Critical Reading
Avakian’s Assessment of Thomas Jefferson: A Critical Reading By Pavel Andreyev Pavel Alexeyev is an historian and specialist on religion with a long acquaintance with the RCPand other Maoist organizations. The Revolutionary Communist Party describes Bob Avakian’s latest essay, Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy, as an “unsparing critique of the history…of American society” and is promoting [...]
J. Ramsey: Thoughts on Badiou’s HardTalk Interview
The following contribution was written as commentary on an interview philosopher Alain Badiou did with the BBC. The interview is a relatively accessible statement of his views on reclaiming communism — made for the broad television audience. We are reposting the video, and then below that, J.’s remarks. HardTalk with Alain Badiou: Some Thoughts on [...]
Bill Martin: Dear Professor Badiou… About That RCP Assault
Dear Professor Badiou: About the RCP Assault on Alain Badiou, Philosophy & (Ultimately) Communism Itself By Bill Martin Before we say more about this RCP polemic (“Why Alain Badiou is a Rousseauist… And Why We Should Not Be“) the first thing that needs to be said is that its guiding principle is: “Who needs this [...]
Eddy Laing: Why Historical Materialism Matters
Why historical materialism matters By Eddy Laing At the core of Marxism is the methodology of historical materialism (HM), which “regards every historically developed social form as in fluid movement, and therefore takes into account its transient nature not less than its momentary existence.” 1 As developed by Marx and Engels, the dialectical materialist conception [...]
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