Many of Gramsci’s concerns as an active revolutionary are those he took with him into prison as the leader of the Communist Party and throughout his life: combating the determinism of Second International Marxism, and emphasizing the importance of human agency in transforming society.
This is a modified version of a presentation delivered at the ISO’s 2015 national convention by Paul D’Amato, and appeared that year in an internal bulletin. Though there were a number of members who disagreed with its main arguments, no responses were written, and the debate came to an abrupt […]
The argument that Trump’s base consists largely of rust-belt industrial is a flimsy argument based on false assumption, stereotypes, and false data.
“Unity” is a tricky slogan. Every trade unionist knows that the foundation for a successful strike is unity in the ranks—if a majority supports the strike, all workers, no matter how they voted, must honor the picket line and not cross. That’s a pretty clear-cut case where unity advances the […]
After the big mobilizations against Nazi hate in Boston and the Bay Area last month, there has been a flurry of attacks against violence. Not against far right violence—instead, the attacks have been against those committed to stopping the Nazis. Hard as it is to believe after the string of […]
In all past revolutions, the universal goals expressed by its participants masked underlying differences. General appeals to the interests of humanity, “the people” or the nation covered over the fact that in these struggles there were different class forces with differing ideas about what the revolution meant. In the […]
THE MASS outpouring of protest against Donald Trump and his policies has been inspiring, drawing out hundreds of thousands of people and creating a situation in which the possibilities for solidarity–in defending every group Trump attacks–have become more tangible. There is not only anger against Trump–and, of course, a great […]
I hope that the reader will not object if, to end this book, I attempt, without fear of repetition, to formulate succinctly my principal conclusions. 1. The theory of the permanent revolution now demands the greatest attention from every Marxist, for the course of the class and ideological struggle has […]
In an English preface to one of his most important works, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, Engels summed up succinctly what he and Marx meant by “historical materialism”: “I use… the term ‘historical materialism’… to designate that view of the course of history which seeks the ultimate cause and the great […]
