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State Power and Class Interests
“Work done in the last fifteen years or so by people writing within a broad Marxist perspective on the subject of the state in capitalist society now fills a great many bookshelves; and however critical one may be of one or other article, book or trend, it is . . .” read more
A Statutory Right to Work
“It was widely believed after the Second World War in Britain that the ‘right to work’ had been generally won; the greatest economic evil of the prewar years seemed to have been overcome through reforms. Yet now, again, unemployment has returned in a seemingly permanent form and there . . .” read more
Monetarism in London
“In May 1979 when Mrs Thatcher came to power, there were 132,000 people unemployed in Greater London. In September 1982 there were 390,107. This amounts to a trebling of those without a job. For London as a whole, when allowance is made for unregistered women and for commuters, . . .” read more
Space and Agency in the Transition to Socialism
“It is now over a decade since John Saville’s survey of the Labour Party’s history led him to the view that ‘at least some things should become clearer as time moves along: that Labourism has nothing to do with Socialism: that the Labour Party has never been, nor . . .” read more
Iron Britannia (Special Issue)
“When history repeats itself, the first time is tragedy, the second farce. Despite its Marxist origin, the aphorism is now a received wisdom. Perhaps that alone is good reason to abandon the idea. Certainly we have gone beyond it. The British recapture of the Falkland Islands was obviously . . .” read more
The Crisis of the British State
“Ireland, mounting street violence in the greater English cities, the disintegration of the Labour Party (and hence of the old two-party stability), continuing separatist agitation in Wales and Scotland, a renewed economic crisis after the brief reprieve of North Sea oil—these may appear, at first sight, signs of . . .” read more
Latin America: Between Hobbes and Friedman
“In recent years a major preoccupation of everyone interested in Latin America has been the extreme fragility of its democratic institutions. This incurable weakness has even made itself felt in Chile and Uruguay—countries once celebrated as living proof of bourgeois democracy’s viability in peripheral capitalist societies. From a . . .” read more
Transition to the Transition
“Classical Marxism’s conception of the transition period contains a central, persistent and unresolved contradiction. Marx, for example, was a strong advocate of the progressive role of the centralized state, yet he was also a partisan of the decentralized and federalist Paris Commune. Lenin later popularized Marx’s writings on . . .” read more
Corporatism and Class Struggle
“Leo Panitch, in New Left Review 125, provides an interesting analysis of modern corporatism. However, he chooses to criticise a passage from a pamphlet I wrote on unemployment, and in doing this blemishes his analysis with no less than three non sequiturs. Neither the pamphlet as a whole, . . .” read more
Trade Unions and the Capitalist State
“It is a matter of considerable irony, as well as a cause for concern, that the otherwise valuable and exciting development of Marxist theorizations of the capitalist state in the past decade have only tangentially noted, and have largely failed to address systematically, one of the most significant . . .” read more
Classical Marxism and Proletarian Representation
“The names of Leon Trotsky and Rosa Luxemburg have often been linked, sometimes with good reason and sometimes also without. It has been said, wrongly, that they shared before 1917 a common view of revolutionary prospects in Russia, Luxemburg like Trotsky supporting the idea of permanent revolution. With . . .” read more
China’s Oppositions
“Since late 1978 an original dissident movement has sprung up in the main cities of China under the slogan Democracy and Science. This movement is still in its infancy, and the conditions under which it operates change from day to day. It is heterogeneous in composition, and it . . .” read more
Social Democracy as a Historical Phenomenon
“Not to repeat past mistakes: the sudden resurgence of a sympathetic interest in Social Democracy is a response to the urgent need to draw lessons from the history of the socialist movement. After several decades of analyses worthy of an ostrich, some rudimentary facts are finally being admitted. . . .” read more
Beyond Actually Existing Socialism
“‘Communism is not only necessary, it is also possible.’ The quiet words carry a major historical irony. For what has now to be proved, before an informed and sceptical audience, is indeed possibility. And this not only in the reckoning of strategic or tactical chances, which in these . . .” read more
Nicos Poulantzas: 'State, Power, Socialism'
“The unexpected and tragic death of Nicos Poulantzas, in Paris, in October of this year has robbed Marxist theory and the socialist movement of one of its most distinguished comrades. Though only 43 at his death, he had already established for himself a just reputation as a theoretician . . .” read more
The Problem of Reformism and Marx’s Theory of Fetishism
“The aim of this article is to explore the relationship between two apparently contradictory elements in Marx’s thought; namely, his belief that proletarian revolutionary consciousness will develop in a relatively straightforward way under capitalism, and his argument, in his later economic writings, that the fetishised nature of capitalist . . .” read more
The Politics of Austro-Marxism
“Today Austro-Marxism is experiencing a certain renaissance, after being forgotten for several decades. Nor is this renewed interest confined to the German-speaking world, where the writings of Otto Bauer, Max Adler and Karl Renner have been reprinted, let alone simply Austria, where the Social-Democratic leaders now appeal more . . .” read more
The Winter '79 Strikes in Camden
“Revolutionary socialists have traditionally assumed that it is among the strongly organised industrial workers that the first stirrings of a revolutionary consciousness would emerge and have identified this group as the backbone of the revolutionary process. This approach has often made them unable to appreciate the significance of . . .” read more
A Modest Contribution to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Tenth Anniversary
“It has been Holy Unity week. The official ceremonies organized around the tenth anniversary of May ’68 brought together everyone in this country with a name, a status or a decoration and saturated every medium of communication. From left to right, yesterday’s enemies and tomorrow’s friends, the best . . .” read more
Introduction to Habermas
“In nlr 67 Göran Therborn argued that Jürgen Habermas, ‘the most celebrated of the successors of the Frankfurt School’, had elaborated a theory which represented a ‘development away from the Marxist positions of the founders of the School’. Habermas claimed to re-state what was valid in Marx . . .” read more
The Future of Britain’s Crisis
“‘The outstanding feature of the British situation since the Second World War has been unreality . . . On balance the wonder is that the system has remained afloat and changed course to the extent that it has. So far the repeated lesson of history that the loss . . .” read more
The State and the Transition to Socialism
“If by ‘socialism’ we mean what Marx used to call the higher stage of communist society, the question of the political superstructure that would be adequate to it is raised neither in theory nor in practice. In theory, because this society—to everyone according to his needs—is a classless . . .” read more
Literature of Revolution
“Are we sensible enough of all the sources of our own literary heritage? The question is suggested to me by some of the writings of the young Trotsky. Upon reading them, it is quickly evident, even from the accessible fraction of a much larger output belonging to the . . .” read more
The Travail of Latin American Democracy
“The shifting complexity of Latin American politics baffles the observer, frustrates the theoretician and challenges both the committed endurance and the tactical subtlety of the revolutionary. Continent of military coups and dictators—but also of (male) bourgeois democracies as old or even older than some West European or North . . .” read more
An Argument with Gramsci in 1924 (Sraffa)
“Piero Sraffa contributed a number of translations, and notes to readers on foreign publications, to the first Ordine Nuovo (1919–20). At the time he was a student at Turin University, and having been introduced to Gramsci by Professor Umberto Cosmo—who had taught him at high school—he quickly became . . .” read more
Ideology and Class Politics: A Critique of Ernesto Laclau
“Ernesto Laclau’s Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory contains four interconnected, but relatively self-contained essays. Two of these had already been published, indeed had been quite influential. Laclau’s critique of Gunder Frank’s theory of underdevelopment, and especially of his definition of capitalism in market rather than production terms, . . .” read more
Socialist Revolutions and Their Class Components
“The starting-point for any attempt to theorize socialist revolution must be the point at which conditions of exploitation are converted into the practice of class struggle. Socialist revolutions in the twentieth century have unfolded as complex processes decisively dependent on the emergence and growth of a revolutionary political . . .” read more
Eurocommunism, Socialism and Democracy
“As is well known, a reassessment of the relationship between Democracy and Socialism lies at the heart of Eurocommunism’s theoretical aggiornamento, underpinning the strategy of ‘democratic roads’ to socialism and the conception of a ‘State of advanced democracy’. This reassessment, which is explicitly presented as a revision of . . .” read more
Towards a Democratic Socialism
“The question of socialism and democracy, of the democratic road to socialism, is today posed with reference to two historical experiences, which in a way serve as examples of the twin limits or dangers to be avoided: the traditional social-democratic experience, as illustrated in a number of West . . .” read more
Eurocommunism: Left and Right Variants
“Fernando Claudin was a leader of the Spanish Communist Party until his expulsion in 1964, and is the author of the already classic The Communist Movement: from Comintern to Cominform. The analysis of Eurocommunism and its relation to socialism put forward in his new book is very timely—both . . .” read more
On the Nature of the Soviet State
“The sixtieth anniversary of the Russian revolution was celebrated this year. It was also the fortieth anniversary of the publication of Trotsky’s The Revolution Betrayed, which analysed the Soviet Union as a degenerate workers’ state. Many historic events have occurred during the past four decades. We have seen . . .” read more
'Labour and Monopoly Capital'
“In a recent issue of nlr, Bob Rowthorn called Harry Braverman’s Labour and Monopoly Capital ‘one of the two most important works of Marxist political economy to have appeared in English in the last decade’. The book’s apparently untheoretical approach is deceptive. In a simple style, but . . .” read more
The Alternative in Eastern Europe
“I would like to start by discussing my book’s point of departure and purpose. Its original title was ‘A Contribution to the Critique of Socialism as it Actually Exists’—perhaps somewhat old-fashioned. Now this is simply the subtitle. It is deliberately reminiscent of Marx’s celebrated analysis of social formations, . . .” read more
Democracy and Dictatorship in Lenin and Kautsky
“As G. D. H. Cole rightly said in his History of Socialist Thought, after the Russian Revolution Kautsky became the ‘principal theoretical antagonist of Bolshevism’. The Dictatorship of the Proletariat, published in September 1918, and Terrorism and Communism, which appeared about a year later, are the two basic . . .” read more
Engels and the Genesis of Marxism
“Since his death in London in 1895, it has proved peculiarly difficult to arrive at a fair and historically balanced assessment of Engels’s place in the history of Marxism, both within the Marxist tradition and outside it. Engels was both the acknowledged co-founder of historical materialism and the . . .” read more
Marxism and the National Question
“I believe that a little philosophy is needed on the subject of the nation. It was the nation which first led me to question Marxism seriously. This was the real breach in the walls which let me make an outside tour of the fortress, rather than go on . . .” read more
Some Reflections on 'The Break-up of Britain'
“Nationalism has been a great puzzle to (non-nationalist) politicians and theorists ever since its invention, not only because it is both powerful and devoid of any discernible rational theory, but also because its shape and function are constantly changing. Like the cloud with which Hamlet taunted Polonius, it . . .” read more
Stalin, Lenin and 'Leninism'
“It has been rightly said that the relationship between Lenin and Stalin ‘is certainly one of the most complex problems that has to be faced’ in studying Soviet history and analysing Stalinism. However, the principal difficulty is not in understanding how deep the differences are between Lenin’s conceptions . . .” read more
The Rule of Capital and the Rise of Democracy
“The relationship between advanced capitalism and democracy contains two paradoxes—one Marxist and one bourgeois. Any serious Marxist analysis has to confront the following question: How has it come about that, in the major and most advanced capitalist countries, a tiny minority class—the bourgeoisie—rules by means of democratic forms? . . .” read more
Reply to Critics
“Albert Szymanski’s attempted refutation of our thesis on the reconsolidation of us imperialism presents a ‘summary’ which does not in fact correspond to what we actually argued; offers statistical data that is largely irrelevant to the issues at stake; ignores important aspects of our position; and is . . .” read more
Is US Imperialism Resurgent?
“The Petras and Rhodes article in nlr 97, ‘The Reconsolidation of us Hegemony’ argues that, contrary to the view of many, the United States is not on the decline as a world power. It states: 1. that although the usa suffered some relatively minor setbacks . . .” read more
The Twilight of the British State
“‘External conflicts between states form the shape of the state. I am assuming this “shape” to mean—by contrast with internal social development—the external configuration, the size of a state, its contiguity (whether strict or loose), and even its ethnic composition . . . We must stress that in . . .” read more
Rosa Luxemburg: A Re-assessment
“In an essay which she wrote in 1903 (‘Progress and Stagnation in Marxism’), Rosa Luxemburg showed how certain of Marx’s texts are discovered or forgotten according to the stage of the struggle of the proletariat. The same analysis may be applied to her own political and theoretical legacy: . . .” read more
Althusser and Stalinism
“The purpose of the following article and its sequel (which will appear in nlr 103) is simply to add a further exploratory contribution, once again partial and full of gaps, to my long-standing research on the genesis of contemporary Marxism. Apart from obvious personal limitations, which naturally . . .” read more
The Antinomies of Antonio Gramsci
“Today, no Marxist thinker after the classical epoch is so universally respected in the West as Antonio Gramsci. Nor is any term so freely or diversely invoked on the Left as that of hegemony, to which he gave currency. Gramsci’s reputation, still local and marginal outside his native . . .” read more
Introduction to Sartre
“Jean-Paul Sartre’s Critique de la Raison Dialectique appeared in France in 1960. It was entitled Volume i—‘A Theory of Practical Ensembles’. Its object was the abstract relationships between individuals, groups, series and collectives which Sartre called the ‘formal elements of any history’, in a world dominated by . . .” read more
Revolutionary Strategy in Europe--A Political Interview
“The revolutionary Left, and especially the Fourth International, is often accused—for example, by the leaderships of the PdUPC in Italy or the PSU and CFDT in France—of mechanically superimposing onto the reality of the advanced capitalist countries of Western Europe a ‘model’ derived from the Russian revolution: breakdown . . .” read more
Marxist Analysis and Post-Revolutionary China
“The Communist Party of China’s triumph in 1949 was an event of momentous importance. It put an end to the century of foreign intervention in China that had begun with the Opium War of 1840, and liberated a quarter of the world’s population from control by capitalism. The . . .” read more