Fundamentals of Marxism

Fundamentals of Marxism

Marxism provides the tools for comprehending society, nature and the class struggle. If you want to develop your revolutionary understanding, start here!

Dialectical Materialism

Dialectical Materialism

Dialectical materialism is the philosophy or methodology of Marxism. We must seek to understand the laws of society and nature in order to change them.

Historical Materialism

Historical Materialism

Historical materialism is the theory of how and why society develops as it does. Each social system has inherent laws that drive it forward, and eventually spell its undoing.

Marxist Economics

Marxist Economics

Marxist economics is the study of the laws of motion of capitalist production and society, allowing us to understand why capitalism perpetually goes into crisis.

Marxism and the State

Marxism and the State

The state is an instrument of class rule. We must understand the state’s role by analysing it scientifically, from its first emergence out of class society, to the present day.

Bolshevism

Bolshevism

The Russian Revolution of 1917 is the greatest event in world history. For the first time working people took power into their own hands and began the gigantic task of the socialist reconstruction of society.

Stalinism

Stalinism

The Russian Revolution was betrayed and degenerated under a counter-revolutionary bureaucracy, led by Stalin. Understanding why this happened is critical for Marxists.

The National Question

The National Question

Marxists are internationalists, who fight for world revolution. We also stand for the liberation of oppressed nationalities as part of this struggle.

Anarchism

Anarchism

Marxists share anarchists’ objective of overthrowing the bourgeois state. But the anarchist understanding of power and the state is abstract, rather than scientific - and therefore limited.

Imperialism and War

Imperialism and War

Imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism, and war is the extreme expression of capitalism's contradictions and rapacious hunt for profit.

Identity and Oppression

Identity and Oppression

Marxists are irreconcilably opposed to oppression and fight determinedly for the liberation of marginalised groups, which can only be achieved through class struggle.

Fascism

Fascism

The madness of fascism in the 1930s expressed the historic crisis and dead-end of capitalism, and could have been averted through revolution. But is fascism a major threat today? And how can it be combatted?

Religion

Religion

Marxism rejects superstition, but religion cannot be overcome by recourse to argument alone; we must instead attack its social foundation: the class system itself.

Environment

Environment

The capitalists and their political representatives are completely incapable of saving the planet from environmental disaster. System change, not climate change!

Art

Art

Art under capitalism is shackled to the profit motive, and the majority of people are denied the opportunity to experience and develop culture to its fullest. Only socialism can liberate the arts.

Science and Technology

Science and Technology

Capitalism is supposed to drive innovation, technological sophistication and scientific advancement. But in fact, it has become a brake on progress.

Workers' control

Workers' control

Under capitalism, a minority runs production for their narrow interests. We advocate workers seizing control of their workplaces, and running them for the common good.

In Defence of Genuine Marxism

In Defence of Genuine Marxism

There have been countless attacks, falsifications and distortions levelled against Marxism over the years. It is our duty as Marxists to set the record straight.

Revolution — the locomotive of history

Ancient history

Ancient history

The history of the ancient world is ripe with lessons about the development of class society and the heroic struggle of the early oppressed classes against their masters.

English Revolution

English Revolution

The Civil War in England was a revolutionary clash by the rising bourgeois class of English merchants and bankers, led by Oliver Cromwell, against the rotten feudal regime of Charles I.

French Revolution

French Revolution

In the Great French Revolution of 1789, the revolutionary bourgeoisie and popular masses overthrew the decrepit Ancien Regime, creating an earthquake that shook the world.

Paris Commune

Paris Commune

For a tragically brief period in 1871, the workers of Paris began the tremendous task of replacing the capitalist state with the dictatorship of the proletariat.

First International

First International

The first international proletarian organisation, with the participation of Marx and Engels, paved the way for the development of organised working-class struggle worldwide.

Second International

Second International

The Second International was a formidable bastion of working-class internationalism until it descended into national chauvinism and opportunism. Its history is rich with lessons.

World War I

World War I

To understand the causes of the great slaughter, it is necessary to lay bare the real mainspring of war in the modern epoch: the contradiction between the interests of different capitalist states.

German Revolution

German Revolution

After the Russian Revolution, the German proletariat entered the scene of history and brought an end to WW1 - but their revolution was sadly defeated.

Third International

Third International

The Third (Communist) International was a vital school of revolutionary ideas and strategy, which degenerated with the rise of Stalinism.

Fourth International

Fourth International

The history of the Fourth International was a struggle (led by Leon Trotsky) to keep the genuine traditions of Bolshevism alive, against colossal odds.

Spanish Revolution

Spanish Revolution

The Spanish masses strived towards socialist revolution in the 1930s, but were strangled by the class collaboration of their leadership, paving the road to fascist victory.

World War II

World War II

Although WW2 is often portrayed in the history books as a clash between ‘democracy’ and Hitler’s Germany, the war was mostly a titanic struggle between fascism and the USSR in which the latter triumphed.

Chinese Revolution

Chinese Revolution

The Chinese Revolution saw the heroic masses throwing off the yoke of imperialism, although the revolution degenerated along Stalinist lines, culminating in capitalist restoration.

Cuban Revolution

Cuban Revolution

On 1 January 1959, the brutal Cuban dictator Batista fell to the guerrillas of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Within three years, capitalism had been abolished on the island.

Colonial Revolution

Colonial Revolution

In the colonial and ex-colonial countries, the post-war period saw unprecedented upheaval, characterised by famine, social unrest, wars, revolution and counter-revolution.

Revolutionary 1968

Revolutionary 1968

The year 1968 saw one revolutionary eruption after another worldwide, including the greatest general strike in the post-war period in France, which almost toppled Charles de Gaulle.

Ireland and Republicanism

Ireland and Republicanism

The national struggle and the class struggle in Ireland have always been closely connected. Today, the struggle for a united Ireland is bound up with the struggle for a workers’ republic.

British Labour Movement

British Labour Movement

Despite its conservative reputation, Britain’s history is full of class struggle: from Chartism to the foundation of the Labour Party, to the general strike of 1926, to the Miners’ Strike of the 1980s.

Class Struggle in the USA

Class Struggle in the USA

The history of the class struggle in the United States illustrates that the ideas of Marxism, socialism and communism aren't at all alien to "the land of opportunity."

Black Struggle

Black Struggle

Racism is hardwired into the capitalist system, serving as a convenient weapon of divide and rule to keep the exploited masses from uniting against their shared oppressors.

Deformed Workers' States

Deformed Workers' States

A revolutionary wave swept Europe after the Red Army’s victory over fascism in WW2, but the new regimes established were deformed workers’ states modelled on Stalinist Russia.

Arab Revolution

Arab Revolution

In 2011, a tremendous revolutionary tsunami swept the Arab world, bringing down multiple dictatorships. Sadly, a lack of revolutionary leadership opened the door for counter-revolution.

Venezuelan Revolution

Venezuelan Revolution

The Bolivarian Revolution led by Hugo Chavez defied imperialism and carried out huge reforms for the workers and poor, but its failure to break with capitalism led to compromise and crisis.

Perspectives

Perspectives

The purpose of Marxist perspectives is to provide a guide to action based on scientific analysis of the main processes in society. These documents ask: where is world politics going?