Post-Marxism

Abstract

Since its inception Latin American Perspectives has recognized many Marxisms and a Marxist tradition of many contending theories and strategies. More important, the journal represents the view that no single tendency within Marxism should dominate its pages, and that Marxism is not reducible to the conceptualization of class, relations of production, or mode of production, but that all of these concepts are fundamental in understanding the problems of contemporary capitalist society. It is also evident that attention to individual, group, and class interests may be relevant to analysis of struggles that seek political equality, resolution of human needs, and a fair distribution of available resources. Marxism today, however, is in a period of crisis, provoking a rethinking of its premises and usefulness but also leading some left theorists to search for a new understanding as they move on to a post-Marxist terrain. This journal issue explores the implications of this crisis and the turn of some intellectuals away from Marxism in their retreat from analysis of class and class struggle in Latin America. The intent is not only to invite dialogue on this question, but also to challenge the premises of the new thinking. Among questions asked of contributors were: To what extent did Latin American intellectuals exiled in Europe associate with the thought of Gramsci, Poulantzas, Althusser, and others? Did Eurocommunism of the late 1970s influence their thinking? What has been the impact of dictatorship and repression upon the new thinking as discussion moves from rural and urban guerrilla warfare to issues of political culture, pluralist democracy, and reformism? What has been the significance of the split in the Communist movement since the 1960s, especially among currents that sought collaborative political arrangements and alliances with social democratic and liberal currents? What has happened to the political parties as they came to dominate