Tag Archives: Marxism

Good analysis of utopian versus utopianism. Short and important. The difference is that between ideal and real.  If the core assumptions are unrealistic and infeasible, then the consequent conceptual model will be "utopian" in the pejorative sense, and the project unachievable — "pie in the sky." If there is a disconnect between the ideal and the real, then it's utopianism. If the assumptions are realistic and feasible, then the conceptual model will be "utopian" in the positive...

Review of Henryk Grossman, Capitalism’s contradictions: studies in economic theory before and after Marx, edited by Rick Kuhn, published by Haymarket Books.Michael Roberts BlogGrossman on capitalism’s contradictions Michael Roberts

Technological innovation increases productivity, decreasing the need for human work and increasing the opportunity for leisure. It's a distribution issue. The problem is that under capitalism, gains are capitalized and losses are socialized. Under socialism, gains are socialized and losses are minimized. Who is going to win this race, those aiming at the top or those racing to the bottom?NEOTechnology & The Marxism of Jack Ma Caleb Maupin

Chris Leslie tweeted yesterday that “Marxism should have no place in a modern Labour Party.” You’d expect me to disagree, and I do. But I want to point out that a Marxist point of view might be an asset for non-Marxists within the party. I say so for three reasons. First, Marxism draws our attention to the fact that politics is shaped by an economic base – by the nature of capitalism.... Herein lies another use of Marxism. It reminds us that the state in capitalism must fulfil two...

Communist Party members should study contemporary capitalism but must never deviate from Marxism, Chinese President Xi Jinping said... “If we deviate from or abandon Marxism, our party would lose its soul and direction,” Xi said. “On the fundamental issue of upholding the guiding role of Marxism, we must maintain unswerving resolve, never wavering at any time or under any circumstances.”Xi said the party should better integrate the basic tenets of Marxism with the “reality of contemporary...

Theresa May’s speech this morning was trailed as a defence of free market capitalism. If that’s what it was, it failed because she failed to answer the big questions.... Stumbling and MumblingDucking questions about capitalism Chris Dillow | Investors Chronicle

Today a new generation, experiencing major capitalist crises, increasingly concerned about its prospects and rising inequality, is powering radical movements in the homelands of capitalism behind figures and forces such as Sanders, Corbyn, Mélanchon, Die Linke, Podemos and Cinque Stelle. Will it bring Capital back into the history of these countries? Not before the burden of western misinterpretation that has accumulated over it for a century and a half, nearly crushing it, is removed. That...

In The Dialectical Imagination, Martin Jay says that economics was not a central part of Critical Theory, but that several scholars of the Frankfurt School worked in the area. One of the leading economists was Friedrich Pollock, especially after the Institute moved to New York. Like the other scholars of the Institute for Social Research, Pollock was trained in Marxist economics. This school mosttly followed Marx in thinking that capitalism would collapse under the weight of its own...

In part 1 here, the debate within the Socialist Party of America on mass immigration at their national convention in Chicago from 15–21 May 1910 was examined.In 1912, the Socialist Party of America held another national convention from 12–18 May in Indianapolis.Once again, the issue of mass immigration was discussed, and once again the committee on the immigration question produced a majority report.Remarkably, the majority report of 1912 was even more opposed to mass immigration than that...

The Socialist Party of America existed between the 29th July 1901 and the 31st December 1972. Before the party was repressed for its opposition to World War I and suffered splits over the question of Communist Russia, it was probably the most successful and largest radical party of the socialist Left in America, at least down to the 1920s.The Socialist Party of America was made up of Marxists, anarchists, some members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) union, democratic socialists...