by Adam Buick, in Critique (Glasgow) . – 1975 (5) : pp. 59-70 Critique has recently published the translation of an article by Ernest Mandel, in which he develops his now familiar theme that, in the course of social evolution, there intervenes – and must intervene – between capitalism and socialism a transitional...
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Marxism
The Myth of the Transitional Society
150 Years of Materialist Conception of History
This year is the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin The Origin of Species but also of the publication of Marx’s first economic writings after his more detailed study of the workings of capitalism, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. The Preface to this work contains a summary of Marx and...
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Marx and Engels on The Origin of Species
Engels bought a copy of Darwin’s The Origin of Species as soon as it was published. Two books of importance were published in 1859, one in June and the other in November. Each one stands at the opposite pole of popularity at the time they were published. And this contrast has persisted up to...
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The return of Karl Marx
From the December 2008 issue of the Socialist Standard Marx is again enjoying something of a revival. After his views on the globalising tendencies of capitalism, it is now his theory of crises that is attracting interest and being discussed in the media. Unfortunately not always accurately. For instance, in an article headlined “BANKING...
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Socialism: Utopian and Scientific
Our subject this evening is “Socialism – Utopian and Scientific.” Most relevant in the examination of this subject is history. Not...
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Materialist Conception of History
Down through the ages there have been various interpretations of history. For example, there are the theories which see in history the working out and realization of some sort of divine plan – like Hegel’s philosophy of history, which sees the whole historical development of society as the realization stage by stage of the...
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Increasing misery?
The theory of World Socialist Movement is Marxist in the sense that certain of our key ideas about society, economics and politics are derived from Karl Marx. Although our case rests entirely on its own merits and not on what Marx may or may not have said, we have always been ready to defend...
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Marxism and needs
Is the “world of abundance” traditionally advocated by socialists feasible? Not according to Claude Bitot, known as the author of a book on the future of the movement for communism (see Socialist Standard, December 1995), in his recent book Quel autre monde possible? (“What other world is possible”?). Echoing the ideas of some Greens...
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Inflation of Logic
Zimbabwe inflation has reached an estimated 2.2 million percent per year. Shown here is a Z$500 million note. If our rulers are to be believed, high wages cause inflation. If this was true, it would make sense that Zimbabwe’s working class is the most affluent in the world. Instead the poverty rate is over...
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Marx and Corals
In his latest book, Coral, A Pessimist in Paradise, the biologist and popular science writer Steve Jones attributes to Marx the statement that “we see mighty coral reefs rising from the depth of the ocean into islands and firm land, yet each individual depositor is puny, weak, and contemptible”. Marx was something of a...
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