Marxist Theory and Strategy: Getting Somewhere Better
In: Historical MaterialismSearch for other papers by Leo Panitch in
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The first three sections of this lecture address the need for better historical-materialist theorisations of capitalist competition, capitalist classes and capitalist states, and in particular the institutional dimensions of these – which is fundamental for understanding why and how capitalism has survived into the twenty-first century. The fourth section addresses historical materialism’s under-theorisation of the institutional dimensions of working-class formation, and how this figures in explaining why, despite the expectations of the founders of historical materialism, the working classes have not, at least yet, become capitalism’s gravediggers. While recognising that a better historical materialism along these lines will not necessarily provide us with a gps route to a socialist world beyond capitalism, it does suggest a number of guidelines for socialist strategy, with which the lecture concludes. This includes the need for building new institutions capable of defining, mobilising and representing the working class broadly, as well as recognising that the types of parties that can transform working classes into leading agents of social transformation have yet to be invented. A strategic priority must be to start anew at creating the kinds of working-class political institutions which can rekindle the socialist imagination, and develop the socialist capacities to get there.
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Baran Paul A. & Sweezy Paul M. Monopoly Capital: An Essay on the American Economic and Social Order 1966 New York Monthly Review Press
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Deutscher Isaac The Prophet Armed: Trotsky 1879–1921 1954 London Oxford University Press
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Galbraith John Kenneth The New Industrial State 1967 First Edition Boston Houghton Mifflin
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Gorz André Nicolaus Martin A. & Ortiz Victoria Strategy for Labour: A Radical Proposal 1967 Boston Beacon Press
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Gorz André Miliband Ralph & Saville John Brewster Ben ‘Reform and Revolution’ Socialist Register 1968 Volume 5 London Merlin Press
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Gramsci Antonio Hoare Quintin & Nowell-Smith Geoffrey Selections from the Prison Notebooks 1971 London Lawrence and Wishart
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Hilferding Rudolph Bottomore Tom Finance Capital: A Study in the Latest Phase of Capitalist Development 1981 [1910] London Routledge and Kegan Paul
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Laclau Ernesto & Mouffe Chantal Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics 1985 London Verso
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Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism Lenin: Selected Works 1963 [1917] Volume 1 Moscow Progress Publishers
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Lukács Georg Livingstone Rodney ‘Towards a Methodology of the Problem of Organization’ History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics 1971 London Merlin Press
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Marx Karl Engels Frederick Capital: A Critique of Political Economy 1959 Volume III Moscow Foreign Languages Publishing House
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Marx Karl Fernbach David ‘Conspectus of Bakunin’s Statism and Anarchy’ The First International and After: Political Writings 1974 Volume 3 New York Vintage
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Marx Karl The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, in Collected Works Marx and Engels: 1851–53 1979 Volume 11 New York International Publishers
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Marx Karl Comninel George C., Musto Marcello & Wallis Victor ‘Instructions for Delegates of the Provisional Council: The Different Questions’ Socialism and Democracy 2014 Volume 28 Issue 2 Philadelphia Taylor and Francis Special Issue: The International after 150 Years
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Marx Karl & Engels Frederick The Holy Family, in Collected Works Marx and Engels: 1844–45 1975 [1845] Volume 4 New York International Publishers
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Miliband Ralph The State in Capitalist Society 1969 London Weidenfeld and Nicolson
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Miliband Ralph Marxism and Politics 1977 Oxford Oxford University Press
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Miliband Ralph Class Power and State Power: Political Essays 1983 London Verso
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Panitch Leo ‘The State and the Future of Socialism’ Working Class Politics in Crisis: Essays on Labour and the State 1986 London Verso
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Panitch Leo & Gindin Sam The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire 2012 London Verso
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Piketty Thomas Goldhammer Arthur Capital in the Twenty-First Century 2014 Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press
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Poulantzas Nicos O’Hagan Timothy Political Power and Social Classes 1973 London New Left Books
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Poulantzas Nicos Fernbach David Classes in Contemporary Capitalism 1975 London New Left Books
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Poulantzas Nicos Swyer Rupert ‘The Capitalist State: A Reply to Miliband and Laclau’ New Left Review 1976 I 95 63 83
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Sweezy Paul ‘The Baran-Sweezy Letter Project, Letter Two: Paul M. Sweezy to Paul A. Baran, November 25, 1956’ Monthly Review 2014 65 available at: <http://monthlyreview.org/2014/03/01/baran-sweezy-letters-project/>.
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Thompson Edward Palmer The Poverty of Theory and Other Essays 1978 London Merlin Press
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Wood Ellen Meiksins ‘The Separation of the Economic and Political in Capitalism’ New Left Review 1981 I 127 66 95
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1
Panitch and Gindin 2012, p. 340.
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2
Marx and Engels 1975, p. 93.
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3
Lenin 1963.
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4
Hilferding 1981.
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5
Baran and Sweezy 1966.
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6
Galbraith 1967.
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7
Piketty 2014, p. 252.
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8
Marx and Engels 1996, p. 3.
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9
Miliband 1969, 1977 and 1983.
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10
Poulantzas 1975.
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11
Poulantzas 1973 and 1976.
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12
Wood 1981.
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13
Marx 1959, Part iii.
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14
Sweezy 2014, p. 39.
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15
Marx 1979, pp. 187–8.
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16
Marx 1996, p. 9.
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17
Marx and Engels 1996, p. 10.
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18
Marx and Engels 1996, p. 8.
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19
Thompson 1978, p. 253.
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20
Marx 2014, p. 47.
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21
Deutscher 1954, pp. 505–6.
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22
Gorz 1967 and 1968.
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23
See Panitch 1986, pp. 232–40.
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24
Marx 1974, pp. 336–7.
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25
Lukács 1971, p. 295.
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26
Gramsci 1971.
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27
Laclau and Mouffe 1985.
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Marxist Theory and Strategy: Getting Somewhere Better
In: Historical MaterialismSearch for other papers by Leo Panitch in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Sam Gindin in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
The first three sections of this lecture address the need for better historical-materialist theorisations of capitalist competition, capitalist classes and capitalist states, and in particular the institutional dimensions of these – which is fundamental for understanding why and how capitalism has survived into the twenty-first century. The fourth section addresses historical materialism’s under-theorisation of the institutional dimensions of working-class formation, and how this figures in explaining why, despite the expectations of the founders of historical materialism, the working classes have not, at least yet, become capitalism’s gravediggers. While recognising that a better historical materialism along these lines will not necessarily provide us with a gps route to a socialist world beyond capitalism, it does suggest a number of guidelines for socialist strategy, with which the lecture concludes. This includes the need for building new institutions capable of defining, mobilising and representing the working class broadly, as well as recognising that the types of parties that can transform working classes into leading agents of social transformation have yet to be invented. A strategic priority must be to start anew at creating the kinds of working-class political institutions which can rekindle the socialist imagination, and develop the socialist capacities to get there.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 2059 | 636 | 69 |
| Full Text Views | 714 | 51 | 9 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 824 | 89 | 11 |