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Marxist theory

Marxist theory is our sharpest weapon in the class struggle. Here, you can find our most recent theoretical articles. For historical articles, click here

You can also visit our education hub to find a selection of articles, books, talks and reading guides.

Socialism and Religion

Socialism and Religion

Socialist Appeal’s ongoing campaign to spread the christmas spirit today publishes Lenin, who wrote in 1905 that: "Those who toil are taught by religion to be submissive and patient while here on
earth, and to take comfort in the hope of a heavenly reward. But those who live
by the labour of others are taught by religion to practise charity while on
earth, thus offering them a very cheap way of justifying their entire existence
as exploiters and selling them at a moderate price tickets to well-being in
heaven."

Religion in the Soviet Union

Religion in the Soviet Union

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This article analyses the relationship between the Soviet state and the Russian Orthodox Church. There was a clear dividing line between Lenin’s approach to this question and the zig-zag policy later adopted by Stalin. First published in Workers International News, October 1945.

The Foundations of Christianity

The Foundations of Christianity

In the build up to Christmas, Socialist Appeal is contributing to the festive spirit by issuing some articles by Marxists  on the origins and significance of Christianity, which in its early period was a revolutionary movement of the oppressed. This article deals with the person of Christ and the historical evidence for his existence, which is taken from the first chapter of the ‘Foundations of Christianity’ by Karl Kautsky.

Christian fundamentalism – the theology and vision of Josef Ratzinger

Christian fundamentalism – the theology and vision of Josef Ratzinger

The present Pope, Ratzinger or Benedict XVI as he has chosen to
call himself, far from being a "transitional" Pope is not only following in the
footsteps of John Paul II, he is putting his foot on the accelerator of
Christian fundamentalism. While talking of reconciliation he promotes conflict,
backs reactionary politicians of the Bush type and condemns anyone who wants to
really change the material conditions of millions of poor and working class
people.

Marxism and multiculturalism

Marxism and multiculturalism

Most current debate on multiculturalism revolves
around fundamental conflicts within liberalism. The liberal hegemony has meant
that the intense and detailed debates that accompanied the evolution of Marxist
social democracy have been relegated to the historical margins. The Marxist debate starts from a very
different perspective. Its focus is not the individual, but society as a whole.
This article is a re-examination of these debates and of
their historical interpretations in order to throw a new light on issues today. 

Intelligent design in modern cosmology?

Intelligent design in modern cosmology?

During the 1980s
and 1990s, advances in chaos and complexity theory began to demonstrate a fact
understood more than a century and a half earlier by the founders of scientific
socialism, Marx and Engels, that systems which show an apparently high degree
of complexity or “design” do not require the hand of a creator but emerge naturally
from the apparently mundane interacting and contradictory forces at play inside
the system. It may come as a surprise to many then to find that in the field of
cosmology there are respected scientists groping towards the revival of the
mystical idea of intelligent design.

In memory of Phil Lloyd (1934-2007)

In memory of Phil Lloyd (1934-2007)

Comrade Phil Lloyd has died in Swansea at the age of 74. He joined the
tendency led by Ted Grant back in the 1950s. He was a pioneer of the Marxist
tendency and played a key role in its development. Alan Woods was one of the
youth that that Phil Lloyd helped to recruit and educate. Here Alan remembers
the man and fighter.

Ted Grant: In Defence of Trotskyism

Ted Grant: In Defence of Trotskyism

Just before the collapse of the Berlin Wall and later the Soviet Union,
Ted Grant delivered this speech on the crisis in the USSR. To deflect
any blame, Gorbachev and co. heaped blame on Stalin and Brezhnev, even
going so far as to rehabilitate some of the victims of the purge trials
– including those accused of "Trotskyism". But Trotsky was not
rehabilitated: he was still hated by the bureaucracy because they
feared the ideas he represented.

Leon Trotsky – revolutionary martyr

Leon Trotsky – revolutionary martyr

Leon Trotsky’s murder was no accident or spontaneous action by the dictator Stalin, but
a monstrous preconceived act that was the culmination of a murder campaign against
the whole of the old Bolshevik leadership of the revolution and those who stood
by the genuine ideas of Marxism. We republish this article published in Militant in 1985.

How it Happened

How it Happened

Today is the 67th anniversary of the death of Leon Trotsky. Together
with Lenin, Trotsky was one of the great Marxist theoreticians of the
20th century, who dedicated his life to the emancipation of the working
class. Not only did he work for the overthrow of capitalism, but also
for the overthrow of Stalinism, a monstrous totalitarian regime which
held the Russian working class in submission. As a consequence, Stalin
sought during the Purge Trials to murder the entire leadership of the
Bolshevik party, and ordered the assassination of Leon Trotsky. After
the failed attempt in May 1940, Stalins assassin eventually succeeded
in murdering Trotsky on the 20th of August in Mexico city. Today we
publish Natalya Sedov Trotskys original account of the assasination.

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