Part of a series on |
Marxism |
---|
Open Marxism is a collection of critical and heterodox Marxist schools of thought which critique state socialism [1] and party politics, stressing the need for openness to praxis and history through an anti-positivist method grounded in the "practical reflexivity" of Karl Marx's own concepts. [2] The "openness" in open Marxism also refers to a non-deterministic view of history in which the unpredictability of class struggle is foregrounded. [3]
It is very strongly anti-structuralist in both its Marxism–Leninist [4] and Althusserian [5] forms, and there is significant overlap with some schools of post-Marxism. [6] It often (though not always) aligns itself with humanist Marxism, and libertarian or left communism. [7]
Derrida describes an 'open' Marxist tradition in an interview from 1980. [8] Alvin Gouldner also describes 'Two Marxisms' in the 1980s; one scientific, and one critical. [9]
Originating from a term used by Agnoli in a debate with Ernest Mandel, Open Marxism began in the 80's as an effort to unite heterodox Marxist tendencies against the dogmatism of revisionist Marxism-Leninism, and mainstream sociological structuralist [10] versions of Western Marxism, such as Althusserian Marxism and Gramscian cultural studies. [11] Open Marxists returned to basic Marxist concepts such as value, labour and the state-form, [12] and argued against social-democratic state-led and Marxist-Leninist party-led utilisations of Marxism.
The sources of critical, Open Marxism (sometimes called the 'warm stream of Marxism' [13] ) are many, from György Lukács' return to the philosophical roots of Marx's thinking, to council communism, the New Left, elements of Autonomism and situationism and also the Neue Marx-Lektüre of 70s Germany. [14] Hegel is often the common thread within these tendencies. [3]
Intellectual affinities with autonomist Marxism were especially strong and led to the creation of the journal The Commoner (2001–2012) following in the wake of previous open Marxist journals Arguments (1958–1962) [15] and Common Sense (1987–1999).
In the 1970s and 1980s, state-derivationist debates around the separation of the economic and the political under capitalism unfolded in the working group Kapitalistate and the Conference of Socialist Economists [16] journal Capital & Class, involving many of the theorists of Open Marxism and significantly influencing its theoretical development. [17] Endnotes journal references itself as influenced by OM. [11]
Three volumes entitled Open Marxism were published by Pluto Press in the 1990s. A fourth volume, again published by Pluto, appeared in 2020. The authorship of the latest volume showed how far the influence of Open Marxism has spread from Europe to Latin America. [18]
Some scholars discuss the existence of an 'open Leninism', or a Neo-Leninism, [50] that is, a critical [51] Hegelian, or post-structural Leninism that is critical of Marxism-Leninism [52] as it existed in the 20th century. [53] [54] The work of Lars T. Lih, [55] Kevin B. Anderson, [56] Kai Heron, [57] Jodi Dean, [58] Andreas Malm, [59] Antonio Negri, [60] Alberto Toscano [61] and Slavoj Zizek [62] have been representative of this trend. Some 'open', critical Marxists have also been staunch Leninists, such as Theodor W. Adorno, [63] Antonio Gramsci, [64] György Lukács, [65] Henri Lefebvre, [66] Ernest Mandel [67] Victor Serge [68] and Evgeny Pashukanis [69]
Some critics have alleged that open Marxism is too open [70] - a charge of 'subjectivism' [71] and 'voluntarism' [72] is sometimes levelled, though its authors, particularly John Holloway have responded to this. [73]
Others claim that open Marxist accounts tend to treat the national capitalist state abstractly, without reference to uneven and combined development and international forms of class struggle in the capitalist "world-system". [74]
Like other forms of Marxism, it has been criticised for being totalising, universalising and Eurocentric. [75]
Open Marxism, whilst being fairly unified analytically, has very different political implications. Some, like Negri, argue for a revolution against capitalism. [76] Others, like Pitts, argue for quite mild social democracy against a more radical Left movement. [77] [78] Others, such as Hall, argue for a left populism and Eurocommunism [79] [80] [81]
The Frankfurt School is a school of thought in sociology and critical philosophy. It is associated with the Institute for Social Research founded at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1923. Formed during the Weimar Republic during the European interwar period, the first generation of the Frankfurt School was composed of intellectuals, academics, and political dissidents dissatisfied with the contemporary socio-economic systems of the 1930s; namely, capitalism, fascism, and communism.
Council communism is a current of communist thought that emerged in the 1920s. Inspired by the November Revolution, council communism was opposed to state socialism and advocated workers' councils and council democracy. It is regarded as being strongest in Germany and the Netherlands during the 1920s.
Fredric Jameson is an American literary critic, philosopher and Marxist political theorist. He is best known for his analysis of contemporary cultural trends, particularly his analysis of postmodernity and capitalism. Jameson's best-known books include Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991) and The Political Unconscious (1981).
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as "historical materialism," to understand class relations and social conflict. It also uses a dialectical perspective to view social transformation. Marxism originates from the works of 19th-century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism has developed over time into various branches and schools of thought, As a result, there is no single, definitive Marxist theory. Marxism has had a profound impact in shaping the modern world, with various left-wing and far-left political movements taking inspiration from it in varying local contexts.
John Holloway is a Marxist lawyer, sociologist and philosopher, whose work is closely associated with the Zapatista movement in Mexico, his home since 1991. It has also been taken up by some intellectuals associated with the piqueteros in Argentina; the Abahlali baseMjondolo movement in South Africa and the Anti-Globalization Movement in Europe and North America. He is currently a professor at the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences at the Autonomous University of Puebla.
Autonomism, also known as Autonomist Marxism, is an anti-capitalist social movement and Marxist-based theoretical current that first emerged in Italy in the 1960s from workerism. Later, post-Marxist and anarchist tendencies became significant after influence from the Situationists, the failure of Italian far-left movements in the 1970s, and the emergence of a number of important theorists including Antonio Negri, who had contributed to the 1969 founding of Potere Operaio as well as Mario Tronti, Paolo Virno and Franco "Bifo" Berardi.
Marxism and Freedom: from 1776 Until Today is a 1958 book by the philosopher and activist Raya Dunayevskaya, the first volume of her 'Trilogy of Revolution'.
Marxism is a method of socioeconomic analysis that originates in the works of 19th century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism analyzes and critiques the development of class society and especially of capitalism as well as the role of class struggles in systemic, economic, social and political change. It frames capitalism through a paradigm of exploitation and analyzes class relations and social conflict using a materialist interpretation of historical development – materialist in the sense that the politics and ideas of an epoch are determined by the way in which material production is carried on.
Christian Lotz is a German-American professor of philosopher at Michigan State University. Lotz's work primarily focuses on 19th and 20th Century European philosophy, continental aesthetics, critical theory, Marxism, and contemporary European political philosophy.
Main Currents of Marxism: Its Origins, Growth and Dissolution is a work about Marxism by the political philosopher Leszek Kołakowski. Its three volumes in English are The Founders, The Golden Age, and The Breakdown. It was first published in Polish in Paris in 1976, with the English translation appearing in 1978. In 2005, Main Currents of Marxism was republished in a one volume edition, with a new preface and epilogue by Kołakowski. The work was intended to be a "handbook" on Marxism by Kołakowski, who was once an orthodox Marxist but ultimately rejected Marxism. Despite his critical stand toward Marxism, Kołakowski endorsed the philosopher György Lukács's interpretation of the philosopher Karl Marx.
In Marxist philosophy, reification is the process by which human social relations are perceived as inherent attributes of the people involved in them, or attributes of some product of the relation, such as a traded commodity.
Neo-Marxism is a collection of Marxist schools of thought originating from 20th-century approaches to amend or extend Marxism and Marxist theory, typically by incorporating elements from other intellectual traditions such as critical theory, psychoanalysis, or existentialism. Neo-Marxism comes under the broader framework of the New Left. In a sociological sense, neo-Marxism adds Max Weber's broader understanding of social inequality, such as status and power, to Marxist philosophy.
Post-Marxism is a perspective in critical social theory which radically reinterprets Marxism, countering its association with economism, historical determinism, anti-humanism, and class reductionism, whilst remaining committed to the construction of socialism. Most notably, Post-Marxists are anti-essentialist, rejecting the primacy of class struggle, and instead focus on building radical democracy. Post-Marxism can be considered a synthesis of post-structuralist frameworks and neo-Marxist analysis, in response to the decline of the New Left after the protests of 1968.
György Lukács was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, literary critic, and aesthetician. He was one of the founders of Western Marxism, an interpretive tradition that departed from the Soviet Marxist ideological orthodoxy. He developed the theory of reification, and contributed to Marxist theory with developments of Karl Marx's theory of class consciousness. He was also a philosopher of Leninism. He ideologically developed and organised Lenin's pragmatic revolutionary practices into the formal philosophy of vanguard-party revolution.
Orthodox Marxism is the body of Marxist thought which emerged after the death of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the late 19th century, expressed in its primary form by Karl Kautsky. Kautsky's views of Marxism dominated the European Marxist movement for two decades, and orthodox Marxism was the official philosophy of the majority of the socialist movement as represented in the Second International until the First World War in 1914, whose outbreak caused Kautsky's influence to wane and brought to prominence the orthodoxy of Vladimir Lenin. Orthodox Marxism aimed to simplify, codify and systematize Marxist method and theory by clarifying perceived ambiguities and contradictions in classical Marxism. It overlaps significantly with Instrumental Marxism.
Dialectical materialism is a materialist theory based upon the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that has found widespread applications in a variety of philosophical disciplines ranging from philosophy of history to philosophy of science. As a materialist philosophy, Marxist dialectics emphasizes the importance of real-world conditions and the presence of functional contradictions within and among social relations, which derive from, but are not limited to, the contradictions that occur in social class, labour economics, and socioeconomic interactions. Within Marxism, a contradiction is a relationship in which two forces oppose each other, leading to mutual development.
Western Marxism is a current of Marxist theory that arose from Western and Central Europe in the aftermath of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the ascent of Leninism. The term denotes a loose collection of theorists who advanced an interpretation of Marxism distinct from classical and Orthodox Marxism and the Marxism-Leninism of the Soviet Union.
History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics is a 1923 book by the Hungarian philosopher György Lukács, in which the author re-emphasizes the philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's influence on the philosopher Karl Marx, analyzes the concept of "class consciousness," and attempts a philosophical justification of Bolshevism.
Various Marxist authors have focused on Marx's method of analysis and presentation as key factors both in understanding the range and incisiveness of Karl Marx's writing in general, his critique of political economy, as well as Grundrisse andDas Kapital in particular. One of the clearest and most instructive examples of this is his discussion of the value-form, which acts as a primary guide or key to understanding the logical argument as it develops throughout the volumes of Das Kapital.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Marxism: