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The first book to offer a comprehensive exploration of Marx's relationship to republicanism, arguing that it is essential to understanding his thoughtIn Citizen Marx, Bruno Leipold argues that, contrary to certain interpretive commonplaces, Karl Marx's thinking was deeply informed by republicanism. Marx's relation to republicanism changed over the course of his life, but its complex influence on his thought cannot be reduced to wholesale adoption or rejection. Challenging common depictions of Marx that downplay or ignore his commitment to politics, democracy, and freedom, Leipold shows that Marx viewed democratic political institutions as crucial to overcoming the social unfreedom and domination of capitalism. One of Marx's principal political values, Leipold contends, was a republican conception of freedom, according to which one is unfree when subjected to arbitrary power.Placing Marx's republican communism in its historical context—but not consigning him to that context—Leipold traces Marx's shifting relationship to republicanism across three broad periods. First, Marx began his political life as a republican committed to a democratic republic in which citizens held active popular sovereignty. Second, he transitioned to communism, criticizing republicanism but incorporating the republican opposition to arbitrary power into his social critiques. He argued that although a democratic republic was not sufficient for emancipation, it was necessary for it. Third, spurred by the events of the Paris Commune of 1871, he came to view popular control in representation and public administration as essential to the realization of communism. Leipold shows how Marx positioned his republican communism to displace both antipolitical socialism and anticommunist republicanism. One of Marx's great contributions, Leipold suggests, was to place politics (and especially democratic politics) at the heart of socialism.

NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, and PUBLISHERS WEEKLY NATIONAL BESTSELLER If you don't understand communist revolutions, you aren't ready for what's coming. The old rules are over. The old order is over. Accusations are evidence. Activism means bigotry and hate. Criminals are allowed to roam free. Citizens are locked up. An appetite for vengeance is unleashed—to deplatform, debank, destroy. This is the daily news, yet none of it's new. Patterns from the past make sense of our present. They also foretell a terrifying future we might be condemned to endure. For nearly 250 years, far-left uprisings have followed the same battle plans—from the first call for change to last innocent executed, from denial a revolution is even happening to declaration of the new order. Unhumans takes readers on a shocking, sweeping, and succinct journey through history to share the untold stories of radical takeovers that textbooks don't teach. And there is one conclusion: We're in a new revolution right now. But this is not a book about ideology or politics. Unhumans reveals that communism, socialism, Marxism, and all other radical-isms are not philosophies but tactics—tactics that are specifically designed to unleash terror on everyday people and revoke their human rights to life, liberty, and property. These are the forces of unhumanity. This is what they do. Every. Single. Time. Unhumans steals their playbook, breaks apart their strategies piece by piece, and lays out the tactics of what it takes to fight back—and win, using real-world examples. Unhumans is an essential read for every concerned citizen both in the US and worldwide. We must stop what is coming.

From an award-winning historian, a new global history of Communism When the USSR collapsed in 1991, the world was certain that Communism was dead. Today, three decades later, it is clear that it was not. While Russia may no longer be Communist, Communism and sympathy for Communist ideas have proliferated across the globe. In To Overthrow the World, Sean McMeekin investigates the evolution of Communism from a seductive ideal of a classless society into the ruling doctrine of tyrannical regimes. Tracing Communism's ascent from theory to practice, McMeekin ranges from Karl Marx's writings to the rise and fall of the USSR under Stalin to Mao's rise to power in China to the acceleration of Communist or Communist-inspired policies around the world in the twenty-first century. McMeekin argues, however, that despite the endurance of Communism, it remains deeply unpopular as a political form. Where it has arisen, it has always arisen by force. Blending historical narrative with cutting-edge scholarship, To Overthrow the World revolutionizes our understanding of the evolution of Communism—an idea that seemingly cannot die.

Lifton's research for the book began in 1953 with a series of interviews with American servicemen who had been held captive during the Korean War. In addition to interviews with 25 Americans, Lifton also interviewed 15 Chinese who had fled their homeland after having been subjected to indoctrination in Chinese universities. From these interviews, which in some cases occurred regularly for over a year, Lifton identified the tactics used by Chinese communists to cause drastic shifts in one's opinions and personality and'brainwash'American soldiers into making demonstrably false assertions. This work has become a classic text in the field and continues to serve as a fundamental guide in the debriefing of former cult members.

This book examines how the democratic form and the struggle for democracy reflects, influences and shapes the struggle for social emancipation.In the context of increased exploitation, rising inequality, and intensified struggle for social justice in the aftermath of the economic crisis, the channelling of populism through liberal democratic institutions has had contradictory effects: giving rise to both Corbyn and Brexit, Sanders and Trump, Syriza and the Golden Dawn, to name but a few. How can we make sense of these developments? In response, this book approaches the idea of democracy from a socialist constitutionalist standpoint and explores institutional forms and principles that challenge and aim at the transformation of the extant social order. This process involves the challenging of well-established ideas of the liberal viewpoint, as well as an unwavering focus on the issue of class rule which enables the highlighting of limitations of -not only mainstream but also heterodox- contemporary approaches to constitutionalism and democracy. Ultimately, democracy is conceived as a process of struggle for creating the conditions, material as well as intellectual, for its actualisation.This significant work of legal and political theory will be of considerable interest to those working in these areas to make sense of contemporary developments, and to further the causes of social justice and social emancipation.

The definitive introduction to history's most influential and controversial political document, updated for a new generation of readers.Since it was first written in 1848, The Communist Manifesto has been translated into more languages than any other modern text. All across the world—in countless places and idioms—it has been debated, shared, brandished, invoked, banned, burned, and even declared “dead.” But in an era of escalating political, economic, health, and environmental crises, Marx and Engels'fierce indictment of capitalism is more relevant than ever, and their Manifesto remains required reading from the classroom to the picket line.Scholar Phil Gasper draws on his decades of teaching and organizing experience to produce a beautifully organized edition of the Manifesto that brings the text to life. By fully annotating the Manifesto with clear historical references and explication, a glossary, and including additional related texts, Gasper provides an accessible and comprehensive reference edition suited to first-time readers and dedicated partisans alike.

Originally titled The Red Decade: Stalinist Penetration of America, this work describes a period in American history in the 1930s characterized by a widespread infatuation with communism in general and Stalinism in particular. Lyons believed this idolization of Joseph Stalin and of Bolshevik achievements to have reached its high point in 1938, running deepest amongst liberals, intellectuals, and journalists and even some government and federal officials. Of relevance today in light of the current interest in Socialism expressed by young voters and progressives in the U.S.

This scholarly book conducts an extensive exploration into the central ideas of Karl Marx, focussing on the key concepts that have defined his thought and legacy. Bringing together a wealth of internationally renowned contributors, across different generations, Marx: Key Concepts analyses in depth Marx's theories of (surplus) value, money, and capital, and their reception in classical and contemporary economic, sociological and philosophical debates. Chapters cover Marx's core writings on the meaning of critique of political economy, materialism, dialectical method, real abstraction, absolute value, money, automatic Subject, reproduction, original accumulation, material interchange, domination, social reproduction, and pre-capitalist modes of production.Rediscovering the theoretical stratified density of the basic notions in Capital, the book provides crucial insight into the complexity and global significance of Marx's ideas and their relevance for the understanding of contemporary society, politics and economy. This book will be essential reading for academics, scholars and researchers interested in the history and the methodology of economic thought, social science, political economy, sociology, and political theory.

In a characteristically explosive barrage, Ljubljana's most famous philosopher takes a passionate stance on the war in Ukraine, surveys the latest Hollywood blockbusters, and delivers detonations into a range of contemporary issues, from sexual politics in India to the prospects for a new Cold War. Ever attentive to moments where the bizarre and the epic join forces, among the questions Žižek considers here are: Is the giant orgy, planned to take place in Ukraine in the event of a Russian nuclear attack, really all that morbid? And what should society do, whether on the big screen or the battlefield, in preparation for the end of the world?Agree with him or not, Žižek rarely fails to provoke in a productive fashion. By examining matters through a lens that is bold and original, and often joyfully outlandish, Žižek helps us to better grasp a world in which, increasingly, the dominant motif is one of madness.

This volume straddles between being a compilation of chapters exploring the fundamental conceptual categories within Marxism while engaging with those categories at the same time demonstrating the dynamic ability of the Marxian theoretical paradigm to evolve. Challenging the misinterpretation of Marxian theory as rigid, deterministic and outdated it shows how the concepts used by the framework become relevant tools for understanding and analysing society. Divided across two parts the volume grounds the Marxian concepts in a concrete historico-material context of India.It will be an important source for any student interested in social theory in general and Marxism in particular.

China Miéville's riveting engagement with the Communist Manifesto offers a lyrical introduction and a spirited defense of the modern world's most influential political document.Few written works can so confidently claim to have shaped the course of history as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels's Manifesto of the Communist Party. Since first rattling the gates of the ruling order in 1848, this incendiary pamphlet has never ceased providing fuel for the fire in the hearts of those who dream of a better world. Nor has it stopped haunting the nightmares of those who sit atop the vastly unequal social system it condemns.In this strikingly imaginative introduction, China Miéville provides readers with a guide to understanding the Manifesto and the many specters it has conjured. Through his unique and unorthodox reading, Miéville offers a spirited defense of the enduring relevance of Marx and Engels'ideas.Presented along with the full text of the Communist Manifesto, Miéville's guide has something to offer first-time readers, revolutionary partisans, and even the most hard-nosed skeptics.

A new abridgement of Marx and Engels's 1846 reckoning with the philosophical tradition, edited and with an introduction by philosopher Tom Whyman.Edited and with an introduction by philosopher Tom Whyman, this new abridged version The German Ideology sheds new light on one of the most difficult, disputed texts in Marx's oeuvre.Written in 1846 and subsequently abandoned by Marx and Engels, only to be rescued in the 1930s by researchers in the USSR, The German Ideology is the high point of Marx's philosophical thought: a brilliantly insightful, still thrillingly radical work of materialist philosophical therapy. Yet there remains no wholly satisfactory stand-alone version in English, with only a heavily abridged 1970 edition edited by C.J. Arthur, or a facsimile edition taken from Vol. 5 of the Marx-Engels Collected Works, which does not include satisfactory scholarly notes, currently available. In this new Repeater Classics edition, Tom Whyman seeks to remedy this. By expanding on generally-available abridgements to include the bulk of the section on Max Stirner, as well as amending the translation, adding notes and providing a new critical introduction, this new edition of The German Ideology will allow non-specialists to engage with this critical work for the first time. At a time when interest in Marx's work is increasing, as people look for an alternative to our currently failing political system, this new edition of The German Ideology will bring Marx's most substantial vision of what communism might actually be like to a whole new audience.

Marx's Critique of the Gotha Program is a revelation. It offers the fullest elaboration of his vision for a communist future, free from the shackles of capital, but also the state. Neglected by the statist versions of socialism, whether Social Democratic or Stalinist that left a wreckage of coercion and disillusionment in their wake, this new annotated translation of Marx's Critique makes clear for the first time the full emancipatory scope of Marx's notion of life after capitalism. An erudite new introduction by Peter Hudis plumbs the depth of Marx's argument, elucidating how his vision of communism, and the transition to it, was thoroughly democratic. At a time when the rule of capital is being questioned and challenged, this volume makes an essential contribution to a real alternative to capitalism, rather than piecemeal reforms. In the twenty-first century, when it has never been more needed, here is Marx at his most liberatory.

Choice Award 2022: Outstanding Academic Title Marx Matters is an examination of how Marx remains more relevant than ever in dealing with contemporary crises. This volume explores how technical dimensions of a Marxian analytic frame remains relevant to our understanding of inequality, of exploitation and oppression, and of financialization in the age of global capitalism. Contributors track Marx in promoting emancipatory practices in Latin America, tackle how Marx informs issues of race and gender, explore current social movements and the populist turn, and demonstrate how Marx can guide strategies to deal with the existential environmental crises of the day. Marx matters because Marx still provides the best analysis of capitalism as a system, and his ideas still point to how society can organize for a better world. Contributors are: Jose Bell Lara, Ashley J. Bohrer, Tom Brass, Rose M. Brewer, William K. Carroll, Penelope Ciancanelli, Raju J. Das, Ricardo A. Dello Buono, David Fasenfest, Ben Fine, Lauren Langman, Alfredo Saad-Filho, Vishwas Satgar, and William K. Tabb.

China Miéville's brilliant reading of the modern world's most controversial and enduring political document: The Communist Manifesto.'It's thrilling to accompany Miéville... as he wrestles – in critical good faith and incandescent commitment – with a manifesto that still calls on us to build a new world'Naomi Klein'Read this and be dazzled by its contemporaneity'Mike Davis'A rich, luminous reflection of and on a light that never quite goes out'Andreas Malm'Reading with [Miéville] today sharpens our senses to contemporary internationalist movements from below'Ruth Wilson Gilmore'[Written] with diligence and a ruthlessly critical eye worthy of Marx himself'Sarah JaffeIn 1848, a strange political tract was published by two German émigrés. Marx and Engles's apocalyptic vision of an insatiable system, which penetrates every corner of the globe, reduces every relationship to that of profit, and bursts asunder the old forms of production and of politics, remains a picture of our world. And the vampiric energy of that system is once again highly contentious. The Manifesto shows no sign of fading into antiquarian obscurity, and remains a key touchstone for modern political debate.China Miéville is not a writer hemmed in by conventions of disciplinary boundaries or genre, and this is a strikingly imaginative take on Marx and what his most haunting book has to say to us today. Like the Manifesto itself, this is a book haunted by ghosts, sorcery and creative destruction.

Since 1989, it has been possible to review what has been published both at home and abroad on the communist states of Central and Eastern Europe and, no less importantly, on the Soviet Union itself, from a new perspective. Few have chosen to engage in this Herculean task, whether out of a residual civility in not wishing to mock certain aging scholars whose research would appear curiously dated, or out of a sense of fatigue with the whole subject of casting aspersions on mistaken views. A New Europe for the Old? asks whether the master narratives that circulated so widely in the West in the half-century since 1945 remain valid. Stephen Graubard's volume raises pertinent questions regarding the current state of the European world as it has evolved since 1989. He includes contributions from important scholars around the world:'A New Europe for the Old?'by Martin Malia;'The Serbs: The Sweet and Rotten Smell of History'by Tim Judah;'Illyrianism and the Croatian Quest for Statehood'by Marcus Tanner;'To Be or Not to Be Balkan: Romania's Quest for Self-Definition'by Tom Gallagher;'Ukraine: From an Imperial Periphery to Sovereign State'by Roman Szporlunk;'Ethnic Nationalism in the Russian Federation'by Anatoly M. Khazanov;'Im Osten viel Neues: Plenty of News from the Eastern Lnder'by Barbara Ischinger;'Discourse and (Dis)Integration in Europe: The Cases of France, Germany, and Great Britain'by Vivien A. Schmidt;'The European Debate on Citizenship'by Dominique Schnapper;'Has the Nation Died? The Debate Over Italy's Identity (and Future)'by Dario Biocca; and'Postwar Europe'by Arne Roth. A New Europe for the Old? provides greater sympathy for the complexity of societies, and argues for greater tolerance of those that are small, and that do not cast a long shadow in the world of today. In the twenty-first as in the twentieth century, they may be engines of change, both as a result of the disorder that they produce as well as the ways in which their values, however seemingly antiquated, survive and prosper, and not only in their native lands. This volume will intrigue historians and European studies scholars alike.

'A powerful case for the persistent questioning and existential interruption that accompanies that pursuit of [happiness and revolution], and fuels it, and constitutes and ruptures its vagrant, open end.'—Fred Moten, author of In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition'It is hard today to escape the perception that financial violence and fascism are suffocating every possibility of happiness…There Is No Unhappy Revolution shows a possible way out from this despair.'—Franco'Bifo'Berardi, author of Futurability: The Age of Impotence and the Horizon of Possibility. In a time of ongoing political, economic, and climate crisis can we afford our collective unhappiness any longer? There Is No Unhappy Revolution gives expression to the age of revolution unfolding before us. With equal parts sophistication and raw urgency, Marcello Tarì identifies the original moments as well as the powerful disruptive and creative content haunting our times like a specter. The age of revolution is back, and with it, instability and uncertainty as major markers of our times. There is a renewed faith in popular rebellion as a means to enact sorely needed systemic change. At the heart of these dynamics rests a new theory of social change and societal well-being. Happiness is collective, not individual, as Marcello Tarì explains, and our collective desire for happiness is a revolutionary force that cannot and should not be contained. One hundred years after the October Revolution, amidst our current civilizational crisis, is it still possible to think and build communism? Yes, Tarì responds, provided we radically rethink the tradition of revolutionary movements that have followed one century to another. Offering both a militant philosophy and a philosophy of militancy, he deftly confronts the different contemporary movements from the Argentinean insurrection of 2001 to Occupy Wall Street, the Spanish Indignados, the French movement against the labor law, and the Arab Spring, resurrecting and renewing a lineage of revolutionary thought, from Walter Benjamin to Giorgio Agamben, that promises to make life livable.

Why has communism's humanist quest for freedom and social justice without exception resulted in the reign of terror and lies? The authors of this collective volume address this urgent question covering the one hundred years since Lenin's coup brought the first communist regime to power in St. Petersburg, Russia in November 1917. The first part of the volume is dedicated to the varieties of communist fantasies of salvation, and the remaining three consider how communist experiments over many different times and regions attempted to manage economics, politics, as well as society and culture. Although each communist project was adapted to the situation of the country where it operated, the studies in this volume find that because of its ideological nature, communism had a consistent penchant for totalitarianism in all of its manifestations. This book is also concerned with the future. As the world witnesses a new wave of ideological authoritarianism and collectivistic projects, the authors of the nineteen essays suggest lessons from their analyses of communism's past to help better resist totalitarian projects in the future.

Throughout his career Stuart Hall engaged with Marxism in varying ways, actively rethinking it to address the political and cultural exigencies of the moment. This collection of Hall's key writings on Marxism surveys the questions central to his interpretations of and investments in Marxist theory and practice. It includes Hall's readings of canonical texts by Marx and Engels, Gramsci, and Althusser; his exchanges with other prominent thinkers about Marxism; his use of Marxist frameworks to theorize specific cultural phenomena and discourses; and some of his later work in which he distanced himself from his earlier attachments to Marxism. In addition, editor Gregor McLennan's introduction and commentary offer in-depth context and fresh interpretations of Hall's thought. Selected Writings on Marxism demonstrates that grasping Hall's complex relationship to Marxism is central to understanding the corpus of his work.

Karl Marx is the most important modern philosopher. His work has radically changed the course of world history, continental philosophy, political theory, literary criticism, and cultural studies. The sheer range of his achievements, and the depth of his critical insights, continue to speak to our present moment. This book places Marx's writings in their historical context, providing a clear guide to his key ideas and intellectual legacy. Written for both students and scholars, it illustrates Marx's ideas with examples drawn from William Shakespeare, Herman Melville, Leo Tolstoy, Bertolt Brecht, Theodor Dreiser, Thomas Pynchon, Toni Morrison, Sally Rooney, Claude McKay, Tennessee Williams, Mad Men, and Margin Call.Key ideas discussed in this guide include: Tracing historical contexts and developments in Marx's work over his lifetime Focusing on Marxism as an interpretative strategy, paying special attention to its impact on literary criticism and cultural studies Examining recent developments in Marxist theory, such as a stronger focus on the environment, climate crisis, and world ecology Exploring the continued relevance of Marx and Marxism today. This Routledge Critical Thinkers guide will enable readers to critically assess and interpret Marx's major works, while also introducing his methods of critical analysis. Preparing readers to approach his original texts, this guide ensures that readers of all levels will find Marx accessible, challenging, and of continued relevance.Andrew Rowcroft offers a comprehensive introduction to Marx's revolutionary ideas, examining the influence Marx had on literary studies, cultural studies, modernism, and philosophy.

This work explores the question of defining ideology from a Marxist perspective. Advancing beyond the schemas of discussion presented in current Marxist literature, the author offers an account of how the concept of ideology should be defined and what role it plays within historical materialism. Through a close reading of Karl Marx's relevant writings, this volume demonstrates that while there is no coherent, single account of ideology in Marx's work, his materialist framework can be reconstructed in a defensible and ‘non-deterministic'way. The definition of ideology presented is then articulated through a close reading of Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks. Efforts are also made to demonstrate that Gramsci's interpretation of historical materialism is indeed consistent and compatible with Marx's. A systematic articulation of a theory of ideology that combines the works of Marx and Gramsci, as well as adding elements of Pierre Bourdieu's social theory and William James's psychology, this volume will appeal to scholars of social and political theory with interests in political economy and Marxist thought.

El presente libro Socialismo, historia y utopía busca hacer un balance filosófico e histórico de la tradición socialista para entender su legado, en busca de ideas que tengan relevancia y potencial para los retos de la sociedad presente. Haciéndose eco de la actitud de Hegel ante la Revolución Francesa, el libro propone que los fracasos y tragedias del socialismo durante el siglo XX fueron tal vez inevitables dadas las condiciones del momento pero, precisamente por esa misma especificidad histórica, en la sociedad actual las ideas socialistas pueden ser una guía valiosa para la acción en un mundo cada vez más complejo sin que por ello se vaya a repetir el pasado. Antes bien, las transformaciones del capitalismo moderno, especialmente en una era de globalización y de crisis ambiental de carácter planetario, hacen que sea cada vez más plausible y más viable retomar la agenda de solidaridad y responsabilidad compartida que forma parte de la tradición socialista desde sus orígenes hace ya más de dos siglos.

In the four volumes of The Development Trajectory of Eastern Society and the Theories and Practices of Socialism, the author re-examines Marx and Engel's theories on the development trajectory of the Eastern societies by integrating theoretical analysis of Marxist theories and a historical investigation of socialist revolution and construction around the world.This volume discusses the victories and failures of the 100-year trajectory of socialism. Since the Russian Revolution of October 1917, socialism has been practiced for nearly a hundred years in countries at various stages of development. The author provides a proper synthesis of the lessons derived from socialism's first hundred years as well as China's reforms and interaction with the world. In addition, he analyzes Marx and Engels'socialist theories and their significance for contemporary social development in Eastern societies.Readers who study Marxism, Marxist philosophy, philosophical history and the history of philosophy will find this volume of immense interest.

“The Conquest of Bread” is an 1892 work by Peter Kropotkin. Kropotkin outlines what he believes are the main problems with both feudalism and capitalism, and explains why they require and encourage poverty and scarcity through the description of a future society based on liberty, equality and fraternity. A must-read for those with an interest in anarchy, communism, or libertarianism. Contents include: “Our Riches”, “Well-Being for All”, “Anarchist Communism”, “Expropriation”, “Food”, “Dwellings”, “Clothing”, “Ways and Means”, “The Need for Luxury”, “Agreeable Work”, “Free Agreement”, “Objections”, “The Collectivist Wages System”, “Consumption and Production”, “The Division of Labour”, etc. Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (1842–1921) was a Russian writer, activist, revolutionary, economist, scientist, sociologist, essayist, historian, researcher, political scientist, geographer, geographer, biologist, philosopher and advocate of anarcho-communism. He was a prolific writer, producing a large number of pamphlets and articles, the most notable being “The Conquest of Bread and Fields, Factories and Workshops” and “Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution”. This classic work is being republished now in a new edition complete with an excerpt from “Comrade Kropotkin” by Victor Robinson.

Over the last sixty years many radicals have had their eyes opened by the writing of Maurice Brinton. The most prolific writer of the British Solidarity group, which existed from 1961 to 1992, his work slaughtered countless sacred cows of standard leftist thinking. For Brinton, “actually existing socialism” did not, in fact, exist. He wrote with passion, clarity, and consistency on behalf worker self-activity and self-management and to decry those who reinforced passivity, apathy, cynicism, pecking orders, and alienation among workers. This oppressive behavior was, to him, as prevalent among state socialists and communist parties as it was among capitalists, because it enabled rulers, and would-be rulers, of every political stripe to deceive and manipulate those in whose name they claimed to act. Today, when a new crop of so-called democratic socialists are seeking state power, allegedly on behalf of working people, Brinton's work is more relevant than ever.

Advocating nuclear war, attempting communication with dolphins and taking an interest in the paranormal and UFOs, there is perhaps no greater (or stranger) cautionary tale for the Left than that of Posadism. Named after the Argentine Trotskyist J. Posadas, the movement's journey through the fractious and sectarian world of mid-20th century revolutionary socialism was unique. Although at times significant, Posadas'movement was ultimately a failure. As it disintegrated, it increasingly grew to resemble a bizarre cult, detached from the working class it sought to liberate. The renewed interest in Posadism today - especially for its more outlandish fixations - speaks to both a cynicism towards the past and nostalgia for the earnest belief that a better world is possible. Drawing on considerable archival research, and numerous interviews with ex- and current Posadists, I Want to Believe tells the fascinating story of this most unusual socialist movement and considers why it continues to capture the imaginations of leftists today.

Exploring the meanings and powers of love from ancient Greece to the present day, Richard Gilman-Opalsky argues that what is called “love” by the best thinkers who have approached the subject is in fact the beating heart of communism—understood as a way of living, not as a form of government. Along the way, he reveals with clarity that the capitalist way of assigning value to things is incapable of appreciating what humans value most. Capitalism cannot value the experiences and relationships that make our lives worth living and can only destroy love by turning it into a commodity. The Communism of Love follows the struggles of love in different contexts of race, class, gender, and sexuality, and shows how the aspiration for love is as close as we may get to a universal communist aspiration.

Two decades after the publication of The Black Book of Communism, nearly everyone is or at least should be, aware of the immense evil produced by that devilish ideology first hatched when Karl Marx penned his Communist Manifesto two centuries ago. Far too many people, however, separate Marx the man from the evils wrought by the oppressive ideology and theory that bears his name. That is a grave mistake. Not only did the horrific results of Marxism follow directly from Marx's twisted ideas, but the man himself penned some downright devilish things. Well before Karl Marx was writing about the hell of communism, he was writing about hell. “Thus Heaven I've forfeited, I know it full well,” he wrote in a poem in 1837, a decade before his Manifesto. “My soul, once true to God, is chosen for Hell.” That certainly seemed to be the perverse destiny for Marx's ideology, which consigned to death over 100 million souls in the twentieth century alone. No other theory in all of history has led to the deaths of so many innocents. How could the Father of Lies not be involved? At long last, here, in this book by Professor Paul Kengor, is a close, careful look at the diabolical side of Karl Marx, a side of a man whose fascination with the devil and his domain would echo into the twentieth century and continue to wreak havoc today. It is a tragic portrait of a man and an ideology, a chilling retrospective on an evil that should have never been let out of its pit.

This exploration of Soviet communist political maneuvering was written in 1962 at the height of the Cold War by the then professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania and the former leader of the American Communist Party. With examples from recent history the authors show how the inner workings of the Soviet machine differ from the popular idea of how communists proceed. The book also details how the Western World could formulate counter-strategies to the Communist political attacks, assaults and infiltrations.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The New York Times bestselling author of The Great Reset arms you to the teeth with information necessary to debunk the socialist arguments that have once again become popular, and proves that the free market is the only way to go.With his trademark humor, Beck lampoons the resurgence of this bankrupt leftist philosophy with thousands of stories, facts, arguments and easy-to-understand graphics for anyone who is willing to ask the hard questions. He shows that this new shiny socialism is just the same as the old one: a costly and dangerous failure that leaves desperation, poverty, and bodies in its wake.

In 1919, Bolshevik Russia and its followers formed the Communist International, also known as the Comintern, to oversee the global communist movement. From the very beginning, the Comintern committed itself to ending world imperialism, supporting colonial liberation, and promoting racial equality. Coinciding with the centenary of the Comintern's founding, Left Transnationalism highlights the different approaches interwar communists took in responding to these issues. Bringing together leading and emerging scholars on the Communist International, individual communist parties, and national and colonial questions, this collection moves beyond the hyperpoliticized scholarship of the Cold War era and re-energizes the field. Contributors focus on transnational diasporic and cultural networks, comparative studies of key debates on race and anti-colonialism, the internationalizing impulse of the movement, and the evolution of communist platforms through transnational exchange. Essays further emphasize the involvement of communist and socialist parties across Canada, Australia, India, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, Latin America, South Africa, and Europe. Highlighting the active discussions on nationality, race, and imperialism that took place in Comintern circles, Left Transnationalism demonstrates that this organization - as well as communism in general - was, especially in the years before 1935, far more heterogeneous, creative, and unpredictable than the rubber stamp of the Soviet Union described in conventional historiography. Contributors include Michel Beaulieu (Lakehead University), Marc Becker (Truman State University), Anna Belogurova (Freie Universitat Berlin), Oleksa Drachewych (University of Guelph), Daria Dyakonova (Université de Montréal), Alastair Kocho-Williams (Clarkson University), Andrée Lévesque (McGill University), Lars T. Lih (Independent Scholar), Ian McKay (McMaster University), Sandra Pujals (University of Puerto Rico), John Riddell (Ontario Institute of Studies in Education), Evan Smith (Flinders University), S.A. Smith (All Souls College, Oxford), Xiaofei Tu (Appalachian State University), and Kankan Xie (Peking University).

From Cuba to Vietnam, from China to South Africa, the October Revolution inspired millions of people beyond the territory of Russia. The Revolution proved that the masses could not only overthrow autocratic governments, but also form an opposing government in their own image. The new idea that the working class and the peasantry could be allied, combined with the clear strength and necessity of a vanguard party, guided multiplying revolutions across the globe. This book explains the ideological power of the October Revolution in the Global South. From Ho Chí Minh to Fidel Castro, to reflections on polycentric Communism and collective memories of Communism, it shows how, for a brief moment, another world was possible. It is not a comprehensive study, but a small book with a large hope – that a new generation will come to see the importance of this revolutionary spirit for the working class and peasantry in the parts of the world that suffered under the heel of colonial domination for centuries.

A dramatisation of Martin Monath's short life (1913-1944) would need little artistic embellishment; his identity shrouded in mystery, and executed by the Gestapo - twice - the historical record reads like a detective novel. Pieced together for the first time by Wladek Flakin, this biography tells the story of the Jewish socialist and editor of Arbeiter und Soldat ('Worker and Soldier'), and his efforts to turn German rank-and-file soldiers against their Nazi officers in occupied France. Born in Berlin in 1913, Martin Monath was a child of war and revolution. In the 1930s he became a leader of the socialist Zionist youth organisation Hashomer Hatzair in Germany. Fleeing from Berlin to Brussels in 1939, he joined the underground Trotskyist party led by Abraham Leon, and soon became a leading member of the Fourth International in Europe. His relocation to Paris in 1943 saw the birth of Arbeiter und Soldat and his work organising illegal cells of German soldiers for a revolutionary struggle against the Nazis. Drawing on extensive archival research, Flakin uses letters, testimonies and unpublished documents to bring Monath's story to life - weaving a tale rich with conviction and betrayal, ideology and espionage.

All of Marx's essential political writing in one volumeKarl Marx was not only the great theorist of capitalism. He was also a superb journalist, politician, and historian. This book brings together all of his essential political and historical writings in one volume for the first time. These works allow us to see the depth and range of thought in the mature Marx, covering a period from the tumultuous revolutions of 1848 that rocked Europe through to the end of his life. With a foreword by Tariq Ali, and including The Communist Manifesto, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, The Class Struggles in France, and The Critique of the Gotha Programme, this volume shows Marx at his most astute, analysing the forces of global capitalism as they played out in the world around him.

Cedric Robinson was one of the most important and influential Black radical scholars of recent times, best known for the pathbreaking Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. In this late major work, he turns his attention to European radical traditions and explores a genealogy of emancipatory thought and practice that predates Marxism and capitalism itself, and which continues to guide struggles for liberation today. Accompanied by a foreword by H. L.T. Quan and a preface by Avery Gordon, this invaluable text reimagines the communal ideal from a broader perspective that transcends modernity, industrialisation and capitalism.

What is the relationship between Marxist ideology and the politics of the contemporary West? The contributors to this book treat this question expansively, examining Marxism and the activities of European and Latin American communist parties in the broad context of contemporary Western politics. Their discussion encompasses not only political and p

Among the most influential political and social forces of the twentieth century, modern communism rests firmly on philosophical, political, and economic underpinnings developed by Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, later known as Lenin. For anyone who seeks to understand capitalism, the Russian Revolution, and the role of communism in the tumultuous political and social movements that have shaped the modern world, the works of Lenin offer unparalleled insight and understanding.This second volume contains Lenin's works from 1895 to 1897. Included are Lenin's early economic and political writings, as well as his prescriptions for the program and strategy of Russian Marxism.

This edited volume opening the new series Revisiting Communism: Collectivist Economic Thought in Historical Perspective focuses on the concepts of ownership, the cornerstone of political economy in Soviet-type societies. The authors'main objective is to contribute to the still unwritten chapter on collectivism in the history books of modern economic thought. They trace the lengthy evolution of economic ideas of property reform under communism leading from the doctrine of blanket nationalization to projects of moderate privatization in eight countries of Eastern Europe and China.The comparative analysis sheds light upon the tireless attempts of reform-minded economists in communist countries to populate the no man's land of “social property” with quasi-private economic actors such as bodies of workers'self-management and managers of state-owned companies. For a long time, these were expected to crowd out the communist nomenklatura from its actual ownership position without challenging the primacy of collective property rights. The fact that even the most radical reformers came to the conclusion that such surrogate owners would not be able to break the power of the ruling elite only on the eve of the 1989 revolutions demonstrates the immense strength of collectivist ideas. The authors coin the term “trap of collectivism” to warn those demanding nationalization or other forms of non-private ownership today: it is rather easy, even with the best intentions, to walk into this trap but it may take long decades to break out from it.

In 2017, the anniversary of the Russian Revolution was commemorated across the world. It marked the first political implementation of Communism in November 1917 - of an ideology that was highly idealistic and ambitious to improve people's lives on the one hand, while providing the justification for massive violence and oppressions on the other hand. In both respects, Communism had an immense impact on the 20th century and it still deeply affects both modern Russia and Germany. This collection of short essays is the result of an exchange between students of history and related subjects from Berlin and Moscow on the occasion of the anniversary in November 2017. It is a reflection on how Communism shaped our world – politically, culturally and intellectually – and how it is remembered and commemorated in contemporary Russia and Germany today.

ON July 14, 1951 an American business man sat down to write a letter to a friend. It was a letter that took some thirty days, and ran to thirty-seven typewritten pages. In these pages, Robert H. W. Welch, Jr., set forth brilliantly and convincingly a straightforward clarification of some important recent history in Asia. At the same time he poured into paragraph after paragraph his indignation at the stupidity and suspicions of treason revealed by this history, and his alarm at the continuing course of events. This book is his letter, now published only after his friends had distributed several thousand mimeographed copies.Robert H. W. Welch, Jr., gives here the historical background of events which culminated in the dismissal of General MacArthur. Using on the public information available to him, he goes back twenty-five years to the first Communist uprising in China, Step by step he traces the blunders, betrayals, and deceptions which formed the United States foreign policy, the policy which led to sweeping Communist victories in China. As a concise, thorough summary of these events this book is invaluable.The final part of the book is a short biographical sketch of Chiang Kai-Shek (1887-1975), leader of the Republic of China between 1928-1975, first in mainland China until 1949 and then in Taiwan until his death. “Your treatise is just the kind of concise exposition of a whole picture which, as a publisher, I was constantly seeking and so seldom found. It presents for the first time in brief compass, with convincing honesty, crucial and appalling facts of a foreign policy that has led from one Communist victory to another; a foreign policy that, in spite of all revelations of stupidities and betrayals, has not been corrected and is still heading in the same direction. If your small book is read widely enough it can have far-reaching results.”—W. T. COUCH, Former Director, University of Chicago Press

In this wide-ranging and insightful work, Soma Marik defends the legacy of the Bolshevik Revolution, arguing against many of its detractors that the early communist regime was centrally concerned with both the liberation of women and the expansion of democracy.Soma Marik teaches Women's Studies and History at Jadavpur University.

Since beginning publication in1964, The Socialist Register has been one of the most important sources of engaged, critical, and influential theoretical interventions on the socialist left. Released as an annual with a focus on publishing rigorous, sustained pieces that take up particular themes, it has always been committed to developing an independent, nonsectarian relationship with Marxism.This volume—the Register's first-ever reader—grapples with the question of whether political organization is a necessary part of the struggle by the working-class to overthrow capitalism. In pieces published over the course of publication's entire history contributors, from Ralph Miliband to Jean-Paul Satre, examine various aspects of this theme.

A new biography of Karl Marx, tracing the life of this titanic figure and the legacy of his work Karl Marx remains the most influential and controversial political thinker in history. He died quietly in 1883 and a mere eleven mourners attended his funeral, but a year later he was being hailed as'the Prophet himself'whose name and writings would'endure through the ages.'He has been viewed as a philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, even a literary craftsman. But who was Marx? What informed his critiques of modern society? And how are we to understand his legacy? In Marx and Marxism, Gregory Claeys, a leading historian of socialism, offers a wide-ranging, accessible account of Marx's ideas and their development, from the nineteenth century through the Russian Revolution to the present. After the collapse of the Soviet Union his reputation seemed utterly eclipsed, but now a new generation is reading and discovering Marx in the wake of the recurrent financial crises, growing social inequality, and an increasing sense of the injustice and destructiveness of capitalism. Both his critique of capitalism and his vision of the future speak across the centuries to our times, even if the questions he poses are more difficult to answer than ever.

If we are serious about finding a different way to run the post-credit crunch society, we must start by introducing alternatives to undergraduates. Kieran Allen begins the task with an accessible and comprehensive look at the ideas of Karl Marx. Dispensing with the dryness of traditional explanations of Marx, Allen shows how Marx's ideas apply to modern society. The first section briefly outlines Marx's life and the development of his work, then goes on to clearly explain his key theories, including historical materialism and surplus value. The second section examines alternatives to capitalism, the concept of'anti-capitalism'and provides concrete, contemporary examples of Marx's theories being put into practice in today's world.

Contrary to the American public image of international communism as monolithic, the history of communism has been one of increasingly frequent deviation and dissension - punctuated by a process of defection and expulsion of individuals and entire national parties. In examining the fragmentation of communism as a movement, Bernard S. Morris focuses on the breakdown of its structure of authority as exercised through the organs of control. He analyzes factors contributing to the initial cohesion and later disintegration of the communist movement. The author demonstrates how the artificial attempt to maintain the Marxian vision of world revolution through the agency of the Soviet system faltered and ultimately failed. He shows how tensions between communist doctrine and foreign policy, coupled with the unexpected viability of the capitalist system in the West, accelerated pluralism within the communist movement. This led to Yugoslavia's assertion of independence, the rise of polycentrism in the post-Stalinist era, and the Russo-Chinese split. As we have seen, it ultimately led to the demise of the Soviet Union itself. Morris contends that the collapse of international communist unity underscores the inexorable hold of nationalism on human loyalties. He points out that American policy's obsession with international communism frustrated the development of a realistic policy toward radical nationalist movements which, because they were identified with communism, became equally suspect. Written by an experienced scholar and political analyst, this highly informative work skillfully balances a chronological account with a searching examination of the evolution and gradual disintegration of the dream of world revolution.

Re-launch of the Collected Works of the legendary revolutionary in paperback Among the most influential political and social forces of the twentieth century, modern communism rests firmly on philosophical, political, and economic underpinnings developed by Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, later known as Lenin. For anyone who seeks to understand the twentieth century, capitalism, the Russian Revolution, and the role of Communism in the tumultuous political and social movements that have shaped the modern world, the works of Lenin offer unparalleled insight and understanding. Taken together, they represent a balanced cross-section of his revolutionary theories of history, politics, and economics; his tactics for securing and retaining power; and his vision of a new social and economic order. This first volume contains four works (“New Economic Developments in Peasant Life,” “On the So-Called Market Question,” “What the ‘Friends of the People'Are and How They Fight the Social-Democrats,” “The Economic Content of Narodism and the Criticism of It in Mr. Struve's Book”) written by Lenin in 1893–1894, at the outset of his revolutionary activity, during the first years of the struggle to establish a workers'revolutionary party in Russia.

Essential essays on key Marxist writers from a leading political thinkerLiterature of Revolution explores the pivotal texts and topics in the Marxist tradition, drawing on the works of Marx, Trotsky, Luxemburg, Lenin, and Althusser. In close dialogue with common themes and arguments in revolutionary Marxist thought, Geras brings some of his persistent preoccupations to the fore: the relationship between Marxism and justice; the debates on political organization; and the role of revolutionary mass action and party pluralism; as well as an enthralling exploration into the literary power of Trotsky's writing.

The Russian Revolution may well be the most misunderstood event in modern history. In this fast-paced introduction, Neil Faulkner debunks the myths that continue to shroud it, showing how a mass movement of millions, organised in democratic assemblies, mobilised for militant action and destroyed a regime of landlords, profiteers and warmongers. Faulkner rejects caricatures of Lenin and the Bolsheviks as authoritarian conspirators,'democratic-centralists'or the progenitors of Stalinist dictatorship; though short-lived, the Revolution of October 1917 was an explosion of democracy and creativity. Crushed by bloody counter-revolution, its socialist vision was ultimately displaced by a monstrous form of bureaucratic state-capitalism. Laced with first-hand testimony, this history rescues the democratic essence of the revolution from its detractors and deniers, offering a perfect primer for the modern reader. Published in partnership with the Left Book Club.

•Winner of the New York Times Book Covers of the Year, 2017•'Workers of the world, Unite!'The Communist Manifesto is arguably the world's most influential political manuscript. Surviving through countless decades of revolution and counter-revolution, Marx and Engels'incendiary treatise remains as essential today as it was in 1848: providing a framework for the people's liberation as they struggle against systems of extreme oppression across the globe. Urgent and alarmingly well-written, The Communist Manifesto resonates beyond the confines of history and political theory - issuing a call-to-arms in the fight to end crisis-ridden capitalism.