The Marxist Tradition Introduction to RCP Background Marxs

The Marxist Tradition “Introduction” to RCP

Background Marx’s Intellectual Sources German Speculative Philosophy Kant, Hegel, Feuerbach French Socialism Proudhon, Fourier, Saint -Simon English Political Economy Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus

Marx’s Political Activities Communist League - Communist Manifesto 1848 Revolutions - in Germany First International (1864 -1872) Dies in 1883

Engel’s Marxism Engels Survivied Marx 2 nd International (1898 -1914) Engels, Kautsky, Bernstein Social Democracry - Revolutionary Marxism Split WWI - Russian Revolution

USSR & Orthodox Marxism Success of Bolsheviks Undermines other revolutionaries (e. g. , anarchists) Puts power of Soviet State behind Marxism. Leninism Marxism = theory of capitalism Leninism = theory of socialism

Orthodox Marxism-Leninism Theory: Historical Materialism Theory: Dialectical Materialism Pactice: dictatorship of proletariat Pactice: building state capitalism

Orthodox Spin-offs Chinese Communism: Maoism 3 rd World Communist Parties sometimes reform sometimes revolution Trotskyism: 4 th International

“Western Marxism” Non-orthodox Critical Theory Georgy Luckas Karl Korsch Gramsci Frankfurt School Marcuse, Adorno, Horkheimer, Pollock

Autonomist Marxism Anarcho-communism Council Communism Johson-Forest, Tony Cliff, Cornelius Castoriadis Italian New Left -Wages for Housework Zerowork - Midnight Notes

Reading Capital As political economy As philosophy Politically

Reading Capital as Political Economy Capital = work in economics Laws of Motion Competition Working Class as Victim Leaves politics to the Party Basic Problem: one-sided, working class has no effective subjectivity

Reading Capital as Philosophy Capital as exercise in dialectical/historical materialism Neo-Hegelian Western Marxist emphasis on manipulation of consciousness via culture Althusserian revamping of historical materialism Basic Problem: one sided, working class has no effective subjectivity

Reading Capital Politically - 1 Denies split between economics & politics Emphasizes working class subjectivity within capitalist society against capitalist society transcending capitalist society

Reading Capital Politically - 2 Recasts dynamic of capitalist development as dynamic of class struggle within production within culture (reproduction) Insists on two-sided, strategic reading of Capital and of all the elements of capitalist society

Example #1: Part VIII Can be read one-sidely as economic history, story of capital, working class victimized as philosophy, case study of historical materialism Can be read two-sidedly capital’s coming into being, imposition of its rules people’s resistance to that imposition

Example #2: Chapter One-1 Can be read one sidedly as economic “value” theory, narrowly defined as story of money (pre-K, K) as correction of Classical labor theory of value as example of “commodity fetishism”

Example #2: Chapter One-2 Can be read two-sidedly in terms of class relations substance (work) = core of class relationship measure (work time) of that core form (exchange value) = form of class relationship so, money = embodiement of class relation imposed and contested rules of game

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