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One of the great classics of Marxism
is the book by Frederick Engels entitled ‘The Origins of the Family,
Private Property and the State’. Engels applies the method of historical
materialism to this earliest period of pre-history to uncover the past.
As a contribution to International Women’s Day, we are republishing in
two parts an article by Mary Hansen and Rob Sewell which examines this
question.
Alan Woods contrasts the ideas and methods of Marxism with those of anarchism, focussing on questions like revolutionary leadership, spontaneity, and the state.
The crisis of capitalism is
accompanied by a crisis of bourgeois thought: philosophy, economics,
morality – all are in a state of ferment. In place of the earlier
optimism that stated confidently that capitalism had solved all its
problems, there is an all-pervading mood of gloom. Not so long ago,
Gordon Brown confidently proclaimed “the end of boom and bust”. After
the crash of 2008 he was forced to eat his words.
Five years ago today comrade Phil
Mitchinson passed away tragically at the age of 38. Phil was an
outstanding Marxist and a leader of the International Marxist Tendency.
He also edited the Socialist Appeal for a period.
“We are all Keynesians now.” So said Richard Nixon, the Republican and former President of the USA, in 1971. Forty years later, it seems that John Maynard Keynes is back in fashion, especially amongst the leaders of the British Labour movement. The reformist leaderships of the Labour Party and the trade unions cling to the Keynesian idea that the economy can simply be “stimulated” back in growing. But as the Marxists have explained before, the current economic crisis is not just part of some boom-and-slump, but is an organic crisis of capitalism, and growth cannot simply be created at will.
Whilst chatting with students at Worcester University, I was presented
with a flyer for a production of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
that night in the university, an opportunity not to miss. However my
expectation of a theatrical interpretation of this socialist classic by
just two actors was very low but this was blown away as soon as the
performance began.
The 4th October marks the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street, a momentous event in which the working people of London united to deliver a decisive blow against the menace of British fascism. In this article, Andy Southwark commemorates the brave stand of those workers who fought the Mosleyite thugs, while drawing important lessons for today’s struggles against the English Defence League and BNP.
In the
1950s, amid prosperity and a booming economy, Allen Ginsberg defied
conventions and the mainstream by openly standing forward as a
homosexual, a socialist and a sharp critic of the capitalist American
society he lived in. For this he was persecuted in a famous obscenity
trial, which he ended up winning. This is portrayed in the feature film Howl from 2010, now available here on DVD.
The Walton by-election, in Liverpool,
took place in July 1991, twenty years ago. It arose after the sudden
death of Eric Heffer, the left-wing Labour MP for Walton. At the time it
created quite a political stir. It was also a key factor in the demise
of the Militant, which had boasted it could win the seat, but
failed miserably.
In this article, Daniel Morley contrasts the ideas of Marxism and anarchism. Though sharing the same goal of a classless and stateless society, these two competing philosophies have vital differences, which must be understood by revolutionaries.
A new documentary produced by the BBC, called ‘The Secret Life of Chaos’ (it has now been taken down from iPlayer, but can still be seen here: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/secret-life-chaos/ ) has attempted, with a degree of success, to reveal how the latest developments in science through ‘chaos theory’ are finally beginning to make redundant any religious explanation of the workings of the universe and the emergence of intelligent life.
Earlier this year, it was announced by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) that inflation had risen from November to December, with the Consumer Prices Index going up from 3.3% to 3.7% and the Retail Prices Index (PRI) – which includes housing costs such as mortgage interest payments and council tax – rising from 4.7% to 4.8%. Inflation was persistently high throughout 2010, with an average RPI of 4.6% – the highest since 1991.