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 ‘Marxism’
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 [...]
Assessing Mao and the Chinese Revolution
Mao Zedong has suffered, perhaps more than any other great revolutionist of the 20th century, from a long history (or campaign) of opprobrium linked with a lack of understanding (or refusal to really investigate), which has spanned most of the left as well as much of the academic world. For the latter it’s been the [...]
Marx’ theory and the crisis this time
As this review of his two most recent books observes, David Harvey has been engaged in constructing a synthesis of Marx’ views on the causes of capitalist crises for several decades, and has, in The Enigma of Capital, written the first “book-length example of Marxian crisis theory addressed to the current situation.” This appeared in [...]
Zizek and Badiou
It has seemed to me for some time now that Zizek has been drawing his political inspiration and some of his main themes from Badiou (and I’d be anxious to hear others’ thoughts on this). But in Zizek these themes acquire a different spin and go in quite another direction than that which they have [...]
A de-dogmatized Marx
The Marx Engels Gesamtausgabe [MEGA] — Gesamtausgabe means an edition of the complete works or output of an author — is a project dating back to the 1920s, when it was begun in Moscow by the great Marx scholar David Riazanov (who was later, along with other Soviet and German editors, imprisoned and died during [...]
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 [...]
Causes of capitalist crises — and this one
Let’s continue to talk a little more about capital and the crisis. We’ve featured David Harvey previously, but the following gives perhaps a more overall sketch of his theory of the present crisis and of capitalist crises in general, which he sees as potentially arising from any of a number of possible blockage points in [...]
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