It is an unfortunately common thought within the timeline of communist movements that a focus on individual advantages of workers could lead to “fair production and distribution” in a socialist society. Prominent revolutionaries, who are lost to a path of revisionism greet us at every turn. Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping or Nikita Khrushchev; just to […]
[Torkil Lauesen is a long time anti-imperialist organizer and activist, former member of the Danish Communist Working Circle [KAK] and later Manifest-Communist Working Group [MKA], and author of Det Globale Perspektiv (the Global Perspective), awaiting publication in English. The story of the MKA and its members’, including Lauesen’s, daring acts of illegal practice for the […]
Review: The Worker Elite: Notes on the Labor Aristocracy The Worker Elite by Bromma, recently published by Kersplebledeb, is a must-read essay that offers a corrective lens to both normative First Worldism and ‘crude Third Worldism.’ While the book is lacking in a few areas, it offers a clear and concise argument which will likely […]
In Marxist theory and analysis, the proletariat is a social category that is a central topic of analysis and discussion. Nevertheless, confusion abounds among Marxists over what exactly the proletariat is. In fact, much to the consternation of many normative Marxists, RAIM has developed a line which unequivocally states that a majority of the workers […]
In 4 paragraphs and 376 words from the book “Anarchism – Arguments For & Against”, the anarcho-communist theoritician Albert Meltzer, following a long tradition of anarchist shallowness of critique, tried to take down the Marxist concept of the vanguard. He made the following arguments: The vanguard party was conjured by Lenin in a country where […]
In the vulgar economics department, the word capital is lightly thrown around as a synonym of the concept of the instruments of labor; that is, every factor utilized in a productive process that isn’t labor. According to this tale, capital and labor, by being so simplistically defined, have a transhistorical character; they have always existed […]
From the “Decree of the VTZIK of January 1, 1931, published in the Collection of Laws and Regulations, No. II, Part I of March 26, 1931”. The powers and authorized functions of the village soviet in the USSR are elaborately set forth in the decree of the Central Executive Committee of January 1, 1931, of […]
This is an extract from the Regulations of City Soviets of October 24, 1925, published by the Communist Academy of Moscow, 1927. 45. In order to attract all members of the Soviet, and also wide masses of workers to the practical work of the city Soviets and its organs, the city Soviets are divided up […]
World history would indeed be very easy to make, if the struggle were taken up only on condition of infallibly favorable chances. It would, on the other hand, be of a very mystical nature, if “accidents” played no part. These accidents themselves fall naturally into the general course of development and are compensated again by […]
Black Panther liberation school, a main instrument of counter-hegemony in African-American communities. Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement. This idea cannot be insisted upon too strongly at a time when the fashionable preaching of opportunism goes hand in hand with an infatuation for the narrowest forms of practical activity. – Vladimir Lenin, […]
Recently, the British television series, Fall of Eagles, was uploaded onto Youtube. Originally aired in 1974, the 13-part series mainly dramatizes power and romantic intrigues of eastern European monarchies leading up to their collapse in the early 20th century. Of particular interest is episode six, ‘Absolute Beginners,’ which stars Patrick Stewart as the exiled Russian […]
In his book Imperialism, Lenin remarked: “The concentration of production; the monopolies arising therefrom; the merging or coalescence of the banks with industry – such is the history of the rise of finance capital and such is the content of that concept”. This quote encapsulates the dynamic of capitalism in the past century and is […]
Bangla, Italian, Spanish, and Turkish translations included.
It is with great pleasure that we announce a new release that MIM(Prisons) is adding to the labor aristocracy section of our must-read list. Divided World Divided Class by Zak Cope contributes up-to-date economic analysis and new historical analysis to the MIM line on the labor aristocracy. I actually flipped through the bibliography before reading the book […]
Marx defined productive labor as that which produces surplus value. Under these conditions, laborers whose work does not produce surplus value for a capitalist are not exploited in any technical sense. Not so much Marx’s error, but that of whose who claim his legacy, is to conflate the realization of value with the production of […]
In light of all the hoopla around the election and specifically in response to all the ‘leftist’ and ‘socialist’ tailing and support for Barry Obama and the Demoncratic Party, is it appropriate to repost this short article by V.I. Lenin, entitled ‘Imperialism and the Split in Socialism.’ Lenin was prescience in regards to a phenomena, the ‘labor aristocracy,’ […]
November 7th marks is 95th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Led by the Bolshevik Party, the Russian Revolution was the first clearly proletarian revolution in which state power was seized, reactionaries vanquished, and socialism built among the hardships of civil conflict and imperialist aggression. Though the history of the Soviet Union, which the Russian Revolution founded, was […]
Accusations against Barack Obama by the political right in the US, recent media coverage of protest movements like Occupy Wall Street, and increased exposure for pop-philosophers like Slavoj Zizek have all brought the topic of Marxism back in the spotlight of popular attention in the west. In the process, little explanation has been given as to what Marxism is.
This essay will trace the philosophical foundations of Marxism and outline the most significant and relevant features of its historical development. My hope is to shed an incisive light on the topic of Marxism, specifically in a way that gets passed its employment as a buzzword or slogan by either the political right or ‘left.’ Marxism, as we shall see, is a rich philosophical “guide to action” grounded in the long-standing struggle against capitalist-imperialism and for proletarian revolution.
“To tell the workers in the handful of rich countries where life is easier, thanks to imperialist pillage, that they must be afraid of ‘too great’ impoverishment, is counter-revolutionary. It is the reverse that they should be told. The labour aristocracy that is afraid of sacrifices, afraid of ‘too great’ impoverishment during the revolutionary struggle, cannot belong to the Party…”— V. I. Lenin; ‘On the Terms of Admission into the Communist International’.
A portion of the following quote from Lenin’s 1902 essay, What Is To Be Done, is widely cited as an insight into his thought on revolutionary struggle. Hence, the following excerpt is posted for critical discussion. What did Lenin mean here? Were these casual references to something otherwise apparent today? Or do his statements reflect […]
