Marxism without revolution: Class. I’ve mentioned Erik Olin Wright’s Envisaging Real Utopias a couple of times, and I’ve also been reading David Harvey’s Enigma of Capital and Jerry Cohen’s if You’re an Egalitarian How Come you’re so Rich.
In different ways, all these books raise the question: what becomes of Marxism if you abandon belief in the likelihood or desirability of revolution[1]? To give the shorter JQ upfront, there are lots of valuable insights, but there’s a high risk of political paralysis. I plan alliteratively, to organise my points under three headings: Class, Capital and Crisis, and in this post I’ll talk about class The analysis of economics and history in terms of class struggle is the central distinguishing feature of Marxism, and remains essential to any proper understanding. As Cohen puts it, the revolutionary working class postulated by Marx had to satisfy four conditions:
"The Idea of Communism" at Marxism 2010 (2/2)
Interstitial approach to politics (with Maxism #1) The interstitial approach to politics: taking advantages of the cracks Michel Bauwens 12th July 2010 If you want to know contemporary left thinking about social change, and how it takes into account the commons, then this is a quite extraordinary video.
It features three speakers: 1) Alex Callinicos, who in my view expounds the classic left view based on the primacy of struggle.