Description
Book SynopsisThis is the first publication in the
Democratic Marxism Series, which seeks to elaborate the social theorising and politics of Democratic Marxism.
Marx’s writings on and ideas about social transformation have figured prominently in the global Left imagination for more than 150 years. At the end of the twentieth century a number of factors seemed to converge to mark the end of Marxism’s influence on the world and, as a result, by the late twentieth century the relevance of Marxism was under question by both the Left (including Marxists) and Right. The decline was relatively short-lived, however, as the 2008 economic crisis brought into sharp relief the catastrophic effects of financialised capitalism and the need to (re)find alternatives.
In the second decade of the twenty-first century, the revival of Marxism is finding new sources of inspiration that revolve around four primary factors: the importance of democracy for an emancipatory project; the ecological limits of capitalism; the crisis of global capitalism; and learning lessons from the failures of Marxist-inspired experiments. This is not simply a return to nineteenth and twentieth century understandings of Marxism. Rather, the twenty-first century has seen enormous creativity from movements that seek to overcome the weaknesses of the past by forging fundamentally new approaches to politics that draw inspiration from Marxism along with many other anti-capitalist traditions such as feminism, ecology, anarchism and indigenous traditions. The Marxism of many of these movements is not dogmatic or prescriptive, but rather open, searching, dialectical, humanist, utopian and inspirational. This edited volume introduces some contemporary approaches to Marxism and explores some of the ways in which Marxism has been used in Africa.
Trade Review... this book approaches global themes from a Southern/ African standpoint and perspective that is not often recognised, yet is centrally valuable not only to critically evaluate Marxism but to understanding global dynamics. - Thiven Reddy, University of Cape Town
Table of ContentsDemocratising and globalising Marxism: Marxism and democracy: liberal, vanguard or direct?; On the shoulders of Polyani - reconstructing Marxism; Transnationalising Gramscian Marxism in the Twenty-first Century. Marxism and left politics: Notes on Critique; Marxism and Feminism: 'Unhappy Marriage' or Creative Partnership?; Marx and Eco-logic of Fossil Capitalism. Crises of Marxism in Africa and possibilities for the future; Retrospect: Seven theses about Africa's Marxist regimes; Socialism and Southern Africa; Uneven and combined Marxism in South Africa's urban social movements; The unresolved national question in South Africa: critical reflections on the crisis and limits of ANC Marxism
