Marxist Position Research Articles

What makes communism possible? The self-realisation interpretation

In the Critique of Gotha Programme, Karl Marx famously argues that a communist society will be characterised by the principle, ‘From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs!’ I take up a question about this principle that was originally posed by G.A. Cohen , namely: what makes communism (so conceived) possible for Marx? In reply to this question, Cohen interprets Marx as saying that communism is possible because of limitless abundance, a view that Cohen takes to be implausible for ecological reasons. I develop a new interpretation of Marx's position. On this interpretation, people in communist society achieve self-realisation through providing others with the goods and services required for their self-realisation. Coupled with a reasonably high (but not immense) development of productive power, self-realisation generates conditions in which people can produce according to their abilities and receive according to their needs. I defend this view as an interpretation of Marx and I argue that it represents a more plausible account of what makes communism possible than Cohen's interpretation in which technological advance and limitless abundance play the predominant role.

Editors’ introduction to the Special Section: The ethics and politics of the Anthropocene

Editors’ introduction to the Special Section: The ethics and politics of the Anthropocene

Analysis of Hartmut Rosa's Critical Theory of Social Acceleration

As human beings enter post-modern society, social life is highly fluid and tends to accelerate constantly, and therefore acceleration has become an issue of focus for various disciplines. This paper first explores the main components of Frankfurt School critical theorist Hartmut Rosa's theory of social acceleration: the connotation of acceleration theory, the inner mechanism, the way to produce new alienation, and the way to solve alienation, and summarizes and sorts out the theoretical results. Secondly, this paper compares the ideas of Rosa with those of the first three generations of Frankfurt School philosophers to find out the similarities and differences between Rosa and the Frankfurt School. Finally, the paper presents a critical view of the solution "resonance" proposed by Rosa to the acceleration of capitalist society and proposes a solution based on the Marxist position. It attempts to make a preliminary exploration of how to transcend the phenomenon of capitalist acceleration in order to better understand the secret of social acceleration.

Ecologically Unequal Exchange: Disagreements with Somerville

ABSTRACT Somerville's rejoinder highlights some fundamental divergences between ecologically unequal exchange theory and the classical Marxist position. This brief intervention addresses a few points in his rejoinder that are particularly illustrative of the incompatibility of the two frameworks. It is argued that historical materialism should acknowledge the materiality of world trade as foundational to global inequalities and unsustainability.

The Difficulty of Being a Marxist in Philosophy

Abstract This article seeks to locate Louis Althusser’s late preoccupation with the status of Marxists in philosophy through a survey of archival and marginal texts written on and amid struggles within the French education system. This material evidences that Althusser held a long-term ambition to reconcile the demands of being a Marxist in his professional life with the demands of being a philosopher in his political life. On this basis, this article offers an expanded contextualisation of the stakes that weighed upon Althusser’s shifting understanding and inhabitation of a Marxist position in philosophy. It aims to show that Althusser’s involvement with, and changing attitudes towards, the educational institution (and in particular the teaching of philosophy) played a significant role in forging the discontinuities in his conceptualisation of Marxist philosophy. The article additionally traces the afterlife of this practice in the work of Jacques Derrida and the Groupe de recherches sur l’enseignement de a philosophe (GREPH).

The Construction of Effective Model of Economics Course in Colleges and Universities from the Perspective of Red Education

During his inspection at Renmin University of China, President Xi Jinping emphasized the need to adhere to the leadership of the party, adhere to the guiding position of Marxism, inherit the red gene, take root in China to run a university, and blaze a new path to build a world-class university with Chinese characteristics. Starting from Chinese history, this paper first analyzes the necessity and feasibility of integrating economics courses into red education for college students, and points out that the integration of economics courses into red education for college students faces practical and practical difficulties, as well as the lack of practical funds for red education in economic colleges and universities, the social investment is seriously insufficient, the operation mechanism is not perfect and so on. Finally, this paper puts forward the countermeasures and suggestions for the integration of red education into the economics curriculum of colleges and universities.

The Influence of Consumerism Culture on the Ideology of College Students Under the Background of "Internet +" Impact and Response Research

As a value concept of Western capitalism, consumerism culture is the manifestation and new carrier of Western ideology in contemporary society. With the development of globalization, the characteristics of extreme individualism, hedonism, and commodity fetishism of consumerism culture have biased guidance and negative influence on the mainstream ideology of college students. As the main front of talent training, universities must adhere to the guiding position of Marxism in the field of ideology, avoid the multiple hidden penetration and diffuse transmission of consumerist ideology, and make full use of the communication advantages of "Internet +" to strengthen the mainstream ideology The guiding role of the students is to guide students to strengthen the "four self-confidence", form an internal ideological and cultural consciousness, and build a reasonable and scientific consumer culture atmosphere.

Perverse Politics, Postsocialist Radicality: Queer Marxism in China

Abstract This article offers a queer postsocialist lens to theoretical contestations around neoliberalism, socialist legacies, capitalist reform, and the Chinese state. I foreground a queer Marxist position by situating Chinese capitalist developmentalism in global racial capitalism. I examine a recent GLBTQ hiring event in Shanghai alongside publications and personal involvement with the socialist organization “Queer Workers.” Based on this analysis, I contend that, rather than taking the Chinese state’s leftist legacies for granted, queer Marxism should be read as critical Marxism in the global postsocialist present. In the Marxist perspective, the sexual politics of queer liberation is inherently anti-statist and anti-capitalist. Further, queer Marxism in China, while remaining tied to postsocialism and the afterlife of the Cold War, should be situated within the broader struggle against racial capitalism. Groups like Queer Workers should be taken seriously as they are actively making space for historically and geographically grounded postsocialist radicality on their own terms.

Scientific-technical revolution — important lessons of unimportant concept

This paper focuses on the concept of the scientific-technical revolution. This concept is relevant today most of all in the context of historiographic studies of the Soviet period or the reflection of contemporary technological transformation from the Marxist position. The article demonstrates its relevance in the context of important contemporary issues. For a conceptual framework, the author uses the works on the social history of science by J. D. Bernal, the contemporary studies of science, technology and society, and the critical theory of technology, which seeks to integrate the philosophy of science and technology into topical socio-political discussions. The author reveals the concept of the scientific-technical revolution as describing the radical transformations taking place since the beginning of the 20 th century in science, society, and technology. These transformations manifest the essential social and technological character of science and its previously hidden contradiction. The social character of science involves an increasing number of participants of these transformations, but the technological character leaves them passive objects of the efficiency requirements. However, the scientific-technical revolution offers a lesson in overcoming this contradiction, creating conditions for the activity of various participants — scientists, nature, lay experts, and technologies themselves. The emphasis on the radical revolutionary changes that have occurred with science allows us to keep in the spotlight the foundations of modern problems and how to solve them.

“Double Consciousness,” Cultural Identity and Literary Style in the Work of René Ménil

The notion of double consciousness, as a characterization of black subjectivity, is basic to Ménil’s critique of the alienated “mythologies” of Antillean life and its self-exoticizing literature. Double consciousness renders cultural identity deeply problematic. But it has other, more positive, manifestations, closer to a Bakhtinian idea of dialogism. Thus he praises Césaire’s use of irony as a dual voice. Ménil’s valorization of complexity and ambiguity in literature, against the simple naturalism favoured by the Communist Party but which he insists is not a truly Marxist position, is thus linked to his view of the necessary “doubleness” of Antillean consciousness. Conversely, the simplicity of folklore can offer a basis for cultural identity, but not for good literature. Although Ménil emphasizes the importance of Antilleans reclaiming their history, this is less about discovering one’s roots than providing a dynamic grasp of one’s ever-changing place in a social reality governed by the Marxist dialectic. “Double consciousness” precludes the comforts of fixed identities, but it is a dialectical, not a tragic condition.

МАРКСИЗМ: РАЗМЫШЛЕНИЯ ОБ ИСТОРИЧЕСКОЙ РОЛИ И ОГРАНИЧЕННОСТИ

The article comprehends Marxist views in the field of philosophy, political economy, socio-political sphere. It is shown that Marxism is not a monolith. Along with the undoubted advantages, the social doctrine of Marxism contains ideas and provisions that have not stood the test of time. But the costs of Marxism are not the supporting structures of this doctrine. The author is of the opinion that not confirmation of a number of provisions of authentic Marxism by socio - political practice of the XX-th and the passed years of the XXI-th century is connected with the fact that any social theory “works” in this way, as the implementation of such a theory takes place in line with the coherent concept of truth. Marxist doctrine was created in the era of early capitalism, which did not yet contain the necessary material for more accurate scientific positions and forecasts. In the article the author comes to the conclusion that a number of Marxist views, provided their authentic interpretation, remain relevant in our time. These include: unsurpassed by anyone criticism of capitalism; conclusion on the growth of inequality and income inequality between the strata of society; regulations on the adaptation of production relations to changing productive forces, on ensuring the basic needs of people with the help of new technologies, the development of social and industrial democracy; ideas about the dependence of material production on scientific knowledge, creative, spiritual activity of people, on the progress of technology; humanistic position of Marxism, expressed in the ideas of human liberation, social equality, justice, solidarity. The author believes that the urgent task of the intelligentsia is to preserve Marxism as an integral part of intellectual and political culture, as well as the development of Marxist doctrine in creative competition with other trends of social thought.

Praxis, the Body, and Solidarity: Some Reflections on the Marxist Readings of Phenomenology in Poland (1945–1989)

The article presents main tendencies in the reception of phenomenology in the light of Marxism in Poland in the post-war period. As it is argued, although phenomenology was marginalized and even refused from the Marxist position, a dialogue between both traditions established interesting developments, especially with regard to the problem of the body, and constitution of solidarity as a social phenomenon. The main thesis of the study is that the confrontation with Marxism enabled phenomenologists a problematization of the phenomenon of work as a specific way of being. The article is divided into three parts. First, the author defines main ideological points of the Marxist critique of phenomenology, i.e., a critique of phenomenology as a bourgeois philosophy that cannot offer anything to the communist society since it abandons the sphere of praxis. Next, positive developments of the phenomenological method are to be reconstructed; moreover, the author analyzes Szewczyk’s original reading of Husserl, and his analysis of experience of the body. Finally, the article points out a Marxist background of some thoughts of Wojtyła and Tischner, including Tischner’s ethics of solidarity, and Wojtyła’s emphasis on human dignity.

Karl Marx y la cuestión colonial

Este trabajo es una respuesta a dos críticas desarrolladas por la teoría poscolonial y decolonial a la posición de Karl Marx sobre la cuestión colonial: 1) la idea de que la historia se mueve de manera progresiva y lineal y 2) la idea de que Marx analiza la cuestión de las colonias desde una mirada o posición eurocéntrica; con el fin de demostrar las limitaciones de ambas críticas para la comprensión de la obra de Marx sobre este problema.

Localization of Marxism in China: History, Theory and the Challenge

Marxism is the science of universal standard. The truth, practicality, scientific of Marxism has been proved by history. But with the development of practice, the development of Marxist theory itself is facing a new opportunity, also faced with unprecedented challenges. How to effectively cope with the challenges？Such as: Is communism a utopia? The labor theory of value is effective? Socialist country is democracy? And so on. All these problems are the socialist system and Marxist must think and answer.
 
 As a Marxist, how to truly stand in the position of Marxism, using the Marxist method and point of view to observe the social and economic development and the progress of human civilization and world history, is the problem of contemporary Marxists has to think about. Or it will lose vitality, and will be out of date, and possible failure. The most familiar example is the socialist power caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union and its consequences.
 
 As important heritage and development of Marxist theory, the Communist Party of China has always been guided by the Marxism theory, whether in revolution, construction and reform, or the governing principle politics today. Can say, not only accumulated a very valuable historical experience, but also enriched and developed Marxism, the Communist Party of China have a say in the history of Marxist development.
 
 So, we need to discuss three questions, the effectiveness of the Marxist theory, and understanding of Marxist trajectory of the Communist Party of China, the challenge for the Marxism theory and how to deal with.

Lithuanian theatre criticism in Soviet period: freedom and captivity of discourses

The article analyses the attitude of Lithuanian theatre criticism in the Soviet period. The discourse theory (Foucault) and critical discourse analysis method (Van Dijk) are used to find out how the official ideological and political discourse affected the language and aesthetical doctrine of theatre criticism. It is shown that the history of the Lithuanian theatre after 1945 was written according to the Soviet theatre history. Critics in their articles used party directives and tried to emphasize the social realistic aesthetics of the theatrical performances. Comparing the volumes (published in 1979 and 1987) of academic Lithuanian theatre history shows that the similarity of their language is paradoxical, even thoughthese texts are written in different periods. One of the most interesting example is “Herkus Mantas” (1957) by playwright Juozas Grušas and director Henrikas Vancevičius, the first performance of Khrushchev Thaw period on the Lithuanian stage, which was analyzed using double significance: as a heroic, epic, monumental, romantic and poetic national tragedy and as a social, atheistic, people tragedy based on Marxist position. “Herkus Mantas” was the first historical tragedy after the forced social realism and Stalinist Non-conflict Theory in 1945–1956, but critics even in the 8th and 9th decades still compared the performance with the Soviet heroic revolutionary plays. Criticism saw the peculiarity and importance of “Herkus Mantas” but it was judged by the rhetoric of ideologically legitimate discourse, emphasizing the aesthetics of the performance with the official doctrine. This example shows that the discourse of criticism was dependent on ideology, but it was free to manipulate the language and form of ideological discourse. This manipulation, or mimicry of the Lithuanian theatre critics in early and late Soviet times makes criticism an unreliable source of historical research, but it also shows an empty form of the official discourse itself in which new (and random) content could have appeared. This new content could have been given by choosing the “reading code”.

ШТРИХИ ДО ПОРТРЕТУ РАДЯНСЬКОГО ІСТОРИКА Н.І. МЕЖБЕРГА

The article is dedicated to the study of the fragments of the intellectual biography of the historian N.I. Mezhberh on the basis of the first introduced to the scientific circulation of documentary material of the five funds of the State Archives of the Odessa region. As a result of the study, it was possible to identify four main stages of his biography. The main stages of the biography of the scientist coincide with the time of formation of the "early Soviet" generation of historians of the USSR. As a historian of the Soviet formation in the study of individual fragments of socio-economic and socio-political life of the Odessa region at the beginning of the 20th century he used the Marxist methodology and vocabulary inherent in the Soviet humanities of the 1930’s. The orthodox Marxist position of the intellectual biography of N.I. Mezhberh was formed under the influence of the revolutionary ideas and events that he was party to, and under the pressure of the existing dictatorship of the Bolsheviks and the totalitarian regime of the USSR. Despite many years of political persecution, he remained faithful to his left conviction, and in the 1960’s he continued to study various aspects of revolutionary events in the USSR. One of the works of the last period was a logical result of the historian's dedication to the ideals of the Communist Party and Soviet power. The intellectual biography of N.I. Mezhberh is subordinated to the unity of life as a moral experience and intellectual requests of time, the socio-political background of the era. In general, this study revealed the great importance of the Marxist orientation in the Soviet historiography of the 1920’s-1930’s and in the formation of the "early Soviet" generation of historians of the USSR.

Modern Capitalism and Modern Marxism

In this essay, we offer our views on some of the fundamental issues involved in creating a revolutionary Marxist position, which we feel must be involved in any adequate systematic analysis of the current development of capitalism and distinguish it from a Keynesian analysis whose inevitable politics are at best Social Democratic. We are not interested in boilerplate Marxism but rather in a sharp and clear analysis of the present day conjuncture as viewed through a historical materialist lens

A Twofold Perspective on Research on Marx and Engels’ Classic Texts

Study of the classic texts of Marx and Engels should employ two perspectives: Marxist philosophical history and Marxist philosophical principles. The two cannot be separated, still less contradictory. In dealing creatively with these classic works, we must firmly uphold the methodology of historical materialism, read them in accordance with the authors’ original intentions and approach them creatively. We need to oppose research styles that place undue emphasis on the researcher’s own interpretations and constructions. Research on Marxist philosophy should develop on the basis of respect, study and correct understanding of Marx and Engels’ classic works; different readings of these texts must not be allowed to construct a pluralist Marxism. This is of great importance for consolidating the leading position of Marxism in the sphere of ideology.

The continuing relevance of old debates

How carefully my paper was read is in question. Some of the claims made both mystify and dismay. There is also a general bemusement as to why I wanted to reopen this debate but some of the responses suggest that it was indeed needed. Critical realism usefully opened up a number of important methodological issues. These included ones of abstraction, internal relations, emergence and the nature of causation. The Marxist position on these was always quite different and has received very little attention in the geographic literature. The distinctions are reiterated in this response because the critical comments seem to indicate a continuing bafflement. A critique of critical realist research in which the author was involved is then described to demonstrate the difference in approaches to the question of causality. The author rejects the view that these issues should no longer be of interest in human geography.

Universalism in cultural history and the meaning of the Russian Revolution: on some aspects of cultural theory in the work of Mikhail Lifšic

Mikhail Lifsic (1905–1983) is one of the most contradictory and to this date poorly understood authors of the Soviet era. He represented an independent Marxist position, but one internally characterized by the tense relationship between Marxism and the philosophy of Hegel. This relationship, concerning historical philosophical questions, is the subject of this essay. In the 1930s, as “historical materialism” was canonized in the USSR, a development that Soviet civilization understood as the “beginning of the end of (universal) history”, Lifsic drafted a different, skeptical summary of the revolutionary era. However, he remained loyal to both the concept of universal history and the examination of Russian-Soviet cultural history within the framework of this concept. With the help of a text from Lifsic from the 1930s as well as his later (early 1980s) reflection and remembrance of the ideological debates of the 1930s, this essay will show that Lifsic’ reconstruction of idealism in Marxism was no accident, but rather a necessary movement in thought. This, in turn, enabled him to give a new account of the historical experience of the October Revolution.