r/AcademicMarxism Apr 15 '15

Please tag any new submissions with a relevant academic discipline

6 Upvotes

Hello everyone!

We'd like to encourage posters to tag new submissions with a relevant discipline to make our subreddit easier to search and work with.

For example, when coming up with a title for your submission regarding Andrew Kliman's book, 'The Failure of Capitalist Production' something like:

[Political Economy] The Failure of Capitalist Production by Andrew Kliman

or, if you have a question regarding Marxist Historiography something like

[History] What is Marxist Historiography?

This is not a hard and fast rule but a suggestion to help people utilize this subreddit for finding content they're interested in. Thanks for your participation!


r/AcademicMarxism Mar 26 '24

Did Che have Maoist tendencies?

7 Upvotes

I recently heard that Che had Maoist tendencies and that, among other things, this is one of the reasons he distanced himself from Fidel.


r/AcademicMarxism Mar 21 '24

Why does Lenin say that imperialism is the final stage of capitalism?

4 Upvotes

I understand that Lenin provides certain characteristics to specify what he means by imperialism. However, why would this be the final stage of capitalism and the beginning of communism? What scientific arguments does he offer for such a statement?

I am not an expert in theory and I am interested in learning. Please, respond in a scientific manner.


r/AcademicMarxism Mar 21 '24

Why is Vargas Llosa a liberal?

3 Upvotes

I suppose this question could be extended to more than one intellectual. I'm not sure if it's something innocent or an appeal to authority, but... why isn't someone who is a walking, talking library and who, I have no doubt, has at least out of curiosity explored Marxist texts, a revolutionary?

I'm not an expert in theory. Is it because, being an intellectual, he mentally wanders into issues unrelated to class struggle? Is it because he has personal interests unrelated to the workers' struggle? Is it simply due to ignorance and not having thoroughly and carefully reviewed Marxism?


r/AcademicMarxism Jan 12 '24

New reading group on Sartre’s Volume I of Critique of Dialectical Reason

4 Upvotes

Just thought I mention here that the Institute for the Radical Imagination is beginning a reading group called Sartre with Marx on January 31st. If your interested you can get the details at https://radicalimagination.info. Seems like there’s a donation but I’m sure if you email they’d let you join.


r/AcademicMarxism Jan 01 '24

Is there any revolutionary stance regarding tattoos?

0 Upvotes

Hello. I'm not sure, but I seem to recall an old video of Roberto Vaquero (Marxist-Leninist) where he explained that someone had once confronted him about his tattoos, and he responded that it wasn't something anti-revolutionary.

My memory might be false. But... Is there any revolutionary stance regarding tattoos?


r/AcademicMarxism Dec 27 '23

From a Marxist perspective, what should be done when a homeless person asks for money?

8 Upvotes

I'm sorry if this sounds like a strange or morbid question. I'm not an expert in Marxism. The situation is as follows:

In my city, there aren't any strong communist organizations, and there are several homeless people (many of whom are disabled) who, I imagine, survive on what they can collect in a day.

From a Marxist point of view, what should be done?

I am aware that giving a few coins doesn't actually solve anything, at least in terms of society. On the other hand, I think that if I don't give them a coin, am I favoring contradictions in society and therefore acting in favor of advancing towards socialism?

As I said, I'm not an expert in Marxism. What should be done in these cases?


r/AcademicMarxism Nov 06 '23

On Modernization

3 Upvotes

I've recently noticed the nature of Marxian economics using logic and observations rather than strict assumptions and mathematics.

For example, the labor theory of value is supported by the material fact that workers are needed to bring profits to a company, but orthodox economics would rather utilize presumptive mathematic methods to explain the phenomenon. Marx used objective reality while someone like Smith used theoretics and armchair thinking.

To elaborate, let's compare the methodology of Karl Marx and Adam Smith; Marx would venture out into the great outdoors and apply his dialectical materialism to everyday life. This might be subjective, but it did reveal a lot about our world. Smith on the other hand was the opposite, literally thinking a mystical force would ensure the greed populace was well-fed. We can see drastic dissimilarities between these two, even if they agreed on some things.

Academics can be Marxist, even if modern economic establishmentarians disagree with him. While I'm personally inclined towards Marx's emancipatory politics, the validity of his economic theory require modernization.

Yes, the economic establishment is divvyed up into free-marketeers and social democrats. The disestablishmentarian schools of economics (aka "heterodox economics") tend to fall under the "ignored" or "untested" categories of economic analysis. Marxian economics, hanging onto dear life thanks to people like Professor Wolff, have become a rotting corpse of what it once was.

If we wish to keep the study and application of this revolutionary philosophy alive, we must modernize it with mathematics and empirical evidence. That means giving modern examples of Marxism, applying modern economic arithmetic to things such as the LToV, and arguing against the dogmatically assumptive nature of economics (e.g., "why has science proven that humans are cooperative? What does economic assumptions about humans' nature say?).

I, a leftist, am not an academic, but I do hope that Marx's economics can take hold and prove that leftism is not a counterfactual metanarrative to the world.


r/AcademicMarxism Jul 27 '23

Paresh Chattopadhyay (1927–2023): Singleness Of Purpose - by Bernard D’Mello

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2 Upvotes

r/AcademicMarxism Jun 22 '23

Please register here for the CPUSA International Conference 2023, which premieres Jul 29, 2023 at 11:00 AM EST (United States and Canada). We're international so any foreigners to the United States are welcome. The Communist Party of China will be there as well as other communist parties. Join in!

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1 Upvotes

r/AcademicMarxism Jun 14 '23

Join Lemmygrad, an alternative to Reddit for Marxist-Leninists; click the link and then click the top right-hand corner of the screen on the web page. Sick of the API debacle? Then join here and help grow the community even more than it has in the past couple of days.

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2 Upvotes

r/AcademicMarxism Apr 28 '23

Bukharin's Positions on the Soviet NEP: the Peasant Question and Industrialization

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6 Upvotes

These are excerpts from "Bukharin's Alternative to Stalin: Industrialisation Without Forced Collectivisation" by Nirmal Kumar Chandra: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-Qwp-aDjXzTJhq50kLIyr0dzVHZLHVu-/view?usp=drivesdk


r/AcademicMarxism Apr 28 '23

Counterfactuals of Capital: The Possibilities of Inevitability in Marx' Law of the Tendential Fall in the Rate of Profit

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1 Upvotes

r/AcademicMarxism Apr 21 '23

Miklós Haraszti’s A Worker in a Worker’s State: A Dissident Contribution to the Neue Marx Lektüre?

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5 Upvotes

r/AcademicMarxism Apr 17 '23

A Century of Violence: Frantz Fanon, Colonialism, and "The Wretched of the Earth" — An online conversation and audience Q&A hosted by The Philosopher on Tuesday April 18, open to everyone

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3 Upvotes

r/AcademicMarxism Apr 16 '23

Future of Marxism?

1 Upvotes

I have a few questions related to the future of Marxism:

1. In the event that predictions about AI and robots replacing human workers in the near or distant future come true, regardless of whether such a future is utopian or dystopian, what can Marxism offer to such a society?

In other words, in a society where there are no workers, there will be no working class. What happens to Marxism (socialism, communism) in such a scenario? Does it still serve a purpose, and if so, how?

An example of such a society is capitalism, in which scientific and technological advancements have led to the rejection of the need to employ workers. Instead of earning a living through work, people have a Universal Basic Income (UBI) that allows them to live well, with access to adequate food, housing, and the like. They engage in art, hobbies, and other non-productive and non-service sectors. Those who require additional wealth, money, power, etc. primarily do so through trade - in such a society, the only people who work are essentially capitalists.

(I'm not primarily interested in discussing whether the above or any other utopia (or dystopia) is possible, but what happens to Marxism?)

2. Is it even necessary for AI and robots to physically replace workers - when a society establishes a UBI, does this mean that the working class ceases to exist from that point on?

3. Do Marxists/leftists/communists and other left-leaning options oppose 1 and 2, and if so, why?


r/AcademicMarxism Apr 08 '23

Hoo boy: Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon" is recorded to have over a 4 Hour Runtime

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3 Upvotes

r/AcademicMarxism Mar 29 '23

Budapest School

2 Upvotes

Hi all, I've been reading some Lukacs, Markus, and Heller, and I'm interested in any work that gives an overview of the "Budapest School" these philosophically interesting humanist Marxists belong to, so that I can be putting what I'm reading in better historical context. Any recommendations?


r/AcademicMarxism Mar 11 '23

Good Morning, Revolution! "It’s not red or blue—it is green” edition

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2 Upvotes

r/AcademicMarxism Feb 21 '23

Pants On Fire - Ep4: Youth Visit to Cuba

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2 Upvotes

r/AcademicMarxism Jan 31 '23

Monthly Review | The Witch-Hunting Committees: Never Again!

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3 Upvotes

r/AcademicMarxism Jan 22 '23

Very basic question, sorry — What does marx mean when he uses the term crystallization / crystallized in reference to labor?

5 Upvotes

Thank you for your time if you choose to give some of it!


r/AcademicMarxism Jan 21 '23

‘Understanding Marx, Understanding Modernism’ by Mark Steven (ed) reviewed by Anthony Ballas

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3 Upvotes

r/AcademicMarxism Jan 07 '23

For my haters

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5 Upvotes

r/AcademicMarxism Jan 03 '23

Monthly Review | Marx’s Critique of Enlightenment Humanism: A Revolutionary Ecological Perspective

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3 Upvotes

r/AcademicMarxism Dec 26 '22

Here is a reading guide to learn about communism and one to learn about the Communist Party USA

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0 Upvotes