Anti-communist Research Articles

Introduction to the Special Issue on Class Dynamics from Socialism to Post-Socialism

Introduction to the Special Issue on Class Dynamics from Socialism to Post-Socialism

Early Soviet Science Fiction and the Unevenness of Modernism: An Aerial View

In envisioning alternative futures—utopian, dystopian, cataclysmic—we historicize the present. Marxist critics like Fredric Jameson read science fiction as the new Lukácsian historical novel.[1] Others, turning to a further distant future, elaborate on the new perceptions of time and space offered in SF as visions that push toward cosmic and nonhuman scales.[2] As such, SF

M. R. Kukrit Pramoj’s theory of good governance and political change: the dialectics of Farang Sakdina

AbstractM. R. Kukrit Pramoj wrote Farang Sakdina in 1957–1958 as both a theoretical critique of western development planners, and the Marxist critics of Thai society like Jit Phoumisak. Kukrit’s critique was that both used only European examples to prescribe development policies for Thailand. By this he meant that the Americans insisted on modernization theory, and Soviet theoreticians insisted on Marx’s historical materialism. Kukrit responded that data developed from Europe is not applicable to Thailand because European feudalism had different attitudes toward land and labor than the ancient Thai “feudalism” known as sakdina. A textual analysis of Kukrit’s book Farang Sakdina reveals Kukrit proposes a dialectical theory of historical change in which the “contradictions” within society are continually resolved and reconstituted. Kukrit uses this data to analyze politics and kingship in England, Thailand, and implicitly, other countries.

Extractivist States: Contesting and Negotiating the “Commodities Consensus” in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Across Latin America

Extractivist States: Contesting and Negotiating the “Commodities Consensus” in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Across Latin America

Communists and Community: Activism in Detroit's Labor Movement, 1941–1956

Communists and Community: Activism in Detroit's Labor Movement, 1941–1956

Critical Marxism in Post-Soviet Russia

Critical Marxism in Post-Soviet Russia

Józef Tischner on Upbringing and Hope

The present article examines Józef Tischner’s idea of upbringing (wychowanie) in establishing the new awareness of solidarity among the Polish workers and people through an awakening to conscience. The present moment served as a revolutionary alternative to socialism. I look at Tischner’s critique of Marxism and the central issue surrounding base and superstructure. Then I turn to his recovery of the Polish tradition of ethical ideals, especially in the person of Maximilian Kolbe and John Paul II. The text provides a detailed analysis of the chapter on upbringing in The Spirit of Solidarity. Tischner’s notion that upbringing is a personal bond established in trust to live in hope for improvement in mind and heart is placed in the context of the solidarity as a social bond establishing an ethical community transcending the political quest for power and the need to find an enemy. The text analyzes the various counterfeit forms of education in order to deepen our awareness of the meaning of authentic upbringing. Salient points of his teaching are discussed in conclusion.

Alienation and action in the young Marx, Aristotle, and Arendt

Alienation and action in the young Marx, Aristotle, and Arendt

Reproductions

As a counterpart to the discussion of recent theories of “social reproduction” and their confrontation with the Marxian critique of political economy, this essay develops a genealogy of the concept of “reproduction” itself, from a semantic and historical point of view. Observing the intersection of problems coming from the realm of natural history and from classical political economy, which involve three different significations (remaining invariant despite displacements in their uses) and which we identify by means of the classical categories of mimesis (reproduction of a model), genesis (continuation of life), and poiesis (restoration of a stock), the essay is consequently able to compare strategies of crisis resolution and to reconstruct an imaginary of revolution based on mutation and interruption.

From Cinéfondation’s Résidence to film production: The experience of Brazilian filmmakers in an international labour market

Departing from the theoretical tradition of Marxist critique of Political Economy, the article depicts the objective working conditions of three Brazilian filmmakers in an international environment of film production. Also, by carrying out in-depth interviews with them, we analyse their responses to such conditions. We begin with their experience in Cinéfondation Résidence, a programme attached to the Cannes Film Festival dedicated to the development of a screenplay for a first or second long-feature film. In a second stage, we investigate how these professionals deal, after their stay in Résidence, with the contradictions of a labour market marked by precarity. Our conclusions point out the economic logic of a filmmaker’s residency like Résidence that functions as an intermediary between new talents and the film production market, but an intermediation not devoid of contradictions. Thus, we also expose how filmmakers must reconcile the contingencies of this market with their artistic and personal aims in order to make their films.

Cormac McCarthy: A Complexity Theory of Literature

Cormac McCarthy: A Complexity Theory of Literature

“HOPING AGAINST HOPE”: A MARXIST STUDY OF CAPITALIST FATALISM IN EUGENE O’NEILL’S WARNINGS

‘"Hoping against Hope”: A Marxist Study of Capitalist Fatalism in Eugene O’Neill’s Warnings’ presents the problem of a lower-class family, the Knapps, who suffer under the fatalistic capitalist system. The Knapps, as a part of the society, and the society as a whole, become potential victims of the capitalists and the bourgeoisie who work only for their own interests even if on the account of the poor. In such a socio-economic system, human beings are viewed as productive machines and possible consumers. Once they become old or disabled, they will be dismissed and replaced by younger ones. The paper, therefore, aims to analyse and interpret the above-mentioned themes in O’Neill’s Warnings in light of Marxist criticism and class conflicts between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. It is concluded that as long as capitalism is solely based on material benefits and is negligent of humanitarian concerns, disasters befalling the proletariat in particular and the whole society in general will be an inevitable fate. Witnessing the calamities that inflict the lower-class people in the play could alert readers/audience, including the capitalists and the bourgeoisie, to the detrimental consequences of embracing a purely materialistic worldview.

Becoming Utopian: The Culture and Politics of Radical Transformation

Becoming Utopian: The Culture and Politics of Radical Transformation

The Post-Soviet School of Critical Marxism (PSSCM): Particular Characteristics, Main Tendencies, and Its Place in the System of Marxist Studies in Post-Soviet Russia

The author characterizes the main stages in the rise of the Post-Soviet School of Critical Marxism (PSSCM) and highlights its most important features, distinguishing it from other tendencies of Marxist thought in Russia. The latter include the orthodox version of Marxism, the social democratic tendency, and the ‘Russophile’ tendency. In contrast to these trends, the PSSCM is oriented toward elaboration of a dialectical materialist methodology; toward development of creative Soviet and world traditions in the study of social alienation and de-alienation; toward the critical use of Marx and his followers’ achievements with the aim of developing the main elements of the ‘Capital’ of the 21st century; and toward studying the prospects for the future ‘realm of freedom’ (Marx) as the dialectical sublation not only of capitalism, but also of the entire system of relations of social alienation in the context of facing the contemporary global problems. A feature of the article is its extensive bibliography of works by Russian Marxists.

Capital of the 21st Century: From the Proletariat and Bourgeoisie to the Precariat and the Oligarchic-Bureaucratic Nomenklatura?

The article presents the research on the social and class structure of modern society from the positions of the Post-Soviet School of Critical Marxism. It is shown that late capitalism is characterised by the active formation of inter-class and intra-class layers. The article reveals the contradictions of the ‘creative class’. The ‘creative class’ is divided into (1) the people who are employed in the creatosphere and give rise to the phenomena of culture and the creative qualities of human beings and (2) those who ‘creatively’ produce useless goods. Then it is further divided into people employed in the (1) public and (2) commercial sectors. The author introduces the term ‘the socialiat’ to characterise the public-sector workers who comprise a protoclass within the creative class, shows the core and periphery of it, and provide the analysis of the precariat as the alter ego of the socialiat.

Society of Trauma as a Third Modality of Development (Debatable Problems of Russia’s Present and Future From the Standpoint of Critical Marxism)

The article makes an attempt to prove that along with the recognized concepts of the development of civilization—evolution and revolution—at the present time, it is necessary to talk about such a modality as a society of trauma. At present, 53 countries out of 192 members of the United Nations have been stagnating and recessing for many years, which manifested itself in the disorganization of the national economy, in political instability, in the growth of poverty, and social tension. Particular attention is paid to Russia, which can be attributed as traumatized society. The reasons for the formation of a society of trauma in Russia, its main features are analyzed: disproportions of the national economy, growth of social inequality, and attempts to implement new forms of class struggle. In conclusion, proposals are formulated for getting out of the traumatized state of society.

Soviet and Post-Soviet Marxism: Braving the Challenges of the Technological Revolution

The article is devoted to the study of the Soviet and post-Soviet Marxists’ views on the problem of technical and economic transformations. The stages in the development of Soviet thought in this matter are systematized, and the potential of applying the authors’ key ideas in the context of the challenges brought in by modern technological shifts is shown. With regard to the period after the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the emphasis is on the developments of researchers belonging to the post-Soviet school of critical Marxism, as well as colleagues acting in an active dialogue with this focus area. What is emphasized is the high potential of the Marxist tendency in further studies of the contradictions of the economic system caused by technological transformations.

Why Do Middle‐Class Positions Matter? The Alignment of Short‐Term Rental Suppliers to the Interests of Capital

AbstractUnderlying the idea of the middle classes there is a contradictory positionality, the relations of which ultimately enhance capital accumulation. By opening Marxist critique to Weberian approaches to class, we explain how the self‐ascription of short‐term rental (STR) suppliers to the middle‐class idea boosts exploitation and accumulation. Housing income, and recently that originating in STRs, has been used to maintain the symbolic and material status of the so‐called middle classes in Spain, and specifically in Palma. Based on statistical data analysis and interviews with STR suppliers, managers and workers, we analyse the contradictory class positionality of STR suppliers in Palma (Majorca, Spain). First, we argue, that STR suppliers are part of the middle classes since they bear attributes of rent, labour and also capital, as they employ workers to produce a tourism commodity. Second, we contend that STR overnight stays should not only be considered as land rent payments, but also as the sale of a tourism commodity. Third, we claim that the contradictory positionality of the middle classes fuels self‐exploitation, for STR suppliers misalign their interests with those of capital.

Crossfire: postcolonial theory between Marxist and decolonial critiques

ABSTRACT This article stages a confrontation between postcolonial theory and the decolonial option on the terrain of their respective engagements with Marxism. While prominent decolonial critics accuse postcolonial theory of relying too much on ‘Eurocentric’ theories, including Western Marxism, the article argues that this critique ignores what has been in fact a long-standing debate between postcolonial theory and its Marxist critics. Thus, the article questions this decolonial characterization and locates postcolonial theory itself in the crossfire of Marxist and decolonial critiques. First, it outlines the main objections that Marxist critics have formulated against postcolonial theory. Next, it discusses the decolonial critiques of postcolonial theory with an emphasis on the role played by Marxism in this confrontation. Finally, it proposes a ‘relinking’ between postcolonial theory and Marxism, understood not as a closure of the debate between these two theoretical formations but rather as an effort to hold that debate open. The article identifies the space of this open debate between postcolonial theory and its Marxist critics as a vantage point from which to articulate a critical response to the decolonial intervention.

A modern monetary theory advocate’s response to ‘modern monetary theory on money, sovereignty, and policy: A marxist critique with reference to the Eurozone and Greece’ by Costas Lapavitsas and Nicolás Aguila (2020)

The purpose of this paper is to provide a robust defence of Modern Monetary Theory’s (MMT’s) approach to money. It is argued here that, when compared to the commodity variant of the Marxist theory of money, the insights of MMT provide a superior basis from which to develop economic knowledge. In contrast to Lapavitsas and Aguila, the paper provides arguments in support of MMT’s approach which is both theoretically sound and provides satisfying explanations which are in accord with the evidence. This article also highlights the significant mischaracterisation of MMT’s approach in Lapavitsas and Aguila and shows how the authors’ failure to present an accurate picture of the MMT argument results in their critique missing the mark. Effectively, their criticism applies only to an MMT of their own creation. When Lapavitsas and Aguila turn their attention to Greece, they fail to appreciate the value of the insights provided by MMT and their lack of a detailed understanding of monetary operations in the Eurosystem leads them to make several notable errors.