Tagged with Marxism

Inspiration from the anonymous revolutionary, aged 16

Cd6mbSwW4AADy30If you need inspiration, try this. The words of published author (of The Anonymous Revolutionary) and blogger (on the themes of Marxism, communism, their significance and their relevance today) and Tweeter, Max Edwards, diagnosed with terminal cancer 5 months ago, aged 16, published yesterday in the Guardian.

Readers of this blog won’t necessarily agree with every word Max says. His views are described in his own words as follows:

I am a Marxist, Leninist, Bolshevist and internationalist. I’d consider myself a Marxist in the orthodox sense, which is to say that I uphold the traditional view that the tyrannies of capitalism shall only be quashed through class struggle. In that sense, I’m also an anti-revisionist and am opposed to tendencies like Post-Marxism.

They are set out in weekly postings on his blog. But beware, as he admits, they change over time: “For example, I once referred to myself as a Trotskyist. No longer the case.” Continue reading →

Socialism is not a dirty word: A reply to the Guardian’s Jonathan Jones

Karl MarxAs if proof were needed that stupidity isn’t the sole preserve of the right, along comes Jonathan Jones with a new angle in the anti-Corbyn effort. His target is the slight whiff of Marxism surrounding Jeremy’s campaign. Because – gasp – the ‘s’ word is getting more traction these days, it’s time we “have to face up to what was done in the name of an extreme version of socialism in the 20th century.” Quite what the road to the gulag has to do with the Labour leadership contest beats me. Continue reading →

Inequality and British Capitalism

As we saw the other day, inequality has become so pathological that capitalism could seize up. When lucrative markets are locked down, when governments bow and scrape to big business, when social mobility is choked off, and the unobtainable opulence of the vanishingly few is crassly paraded in front of the many, capitalism is going out of its way to court an existential crisis. Though, of course, there is no one as such to blame for this state of affairs. And that’s the most terrifying thing about the system. Capitalism is blind. Market-driven production for profit means our economics are only interested in basic human needs if there’s money to be made. It’s how hunger in the advanced nations can co-exist with Google Glass. It’s how worsening climate change runs alongside the “greenest government ever” making it even easier to allow fracking. Forget the invisible hand – we need to talk about the invisible wrecking-ball. This is why the likes of Nick Hanauer has to pen memos to his fellow plutocrats about inequality, because left to its own devices capitalism will drive itself off a cliff. Continue reading →

In the Belly of the Beast

The 2014 issue of journal Socialist Register is the 50th since the journal was founded by Ralph Miliband – together with John Saville – in 1964. Tomorrow will see a discussion in Parliament, chaired by John McDonnell MP, on the legacy and ongoing relevance of the political project he initiated (see details below)

The concern to interpret anew, but rigorously and relevantly, the politics of Marx became the hallmark of the politics of the Register: theory, by all means, but theory that bore relevance to the editors’ preoccupations with contemporary politics”. (Marion Kozak) Continue reading →

George Osborne and ruling class decadence

George_Osborne_in_ChinaIf you think this is about the chancellor’s youthful larks with Natalie Rowe, you will surely be disappointed. What’s more important – and far more damaging – from the standpoint of British capital is his current game of footsie with the Chinese Communist Party. The very notion that not only is he letting the Chinese state build and run a cornerstone of Britain’s electricity generating capacity at Hinkley Point C, but will also be shovelling hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ cash their way as a sweetener is flabbergasting.

Forget the EU and its silly rules about straight bananas, if I was a UKIP’er I’d be hopping about in a panic because the chancellor has handed over a large chunk of British sovereignty to a COMMUNIST power! In fact, what is interesting about this deal is how the hard right, those doughty defenders of this sceptred isle, that die-in-a-ditch-for-queen-and-country brigade haven’t so much as raised a murmur of protest. Instead, it has been the liberal-left Keynesian Will Hutton to jab the boot in. Continue reading →