Open Marxism
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Open Marxism is a collection of critical and heterodox Marxist schools of thought which critique
It is very strongly anti-structuralist in both its Marxism–Leninist[4] and Althusserian[5] forms, and there is significant overlap with some schools of post-Marxism.[6] It often (though not always) aligns itself with humanist Marxism, and libertarian or left communism.[7] It draws strongly from value-form criticism.
Overview
Derrida describes an 'open' Marxist tradition in an interview from 1980.[8] Alvin Gouldner also describes 'Two Marxisms' in the 1980s; one scientific, and one critical.[9]
Originating from a term used by Agnoli in a debate with Ernest Mandel, Open Marxism began in the 80's as an effort to unite heterodox Marxist tendencies against the dogmatism of revisionist Marxism-Leninism, and mainstream sociological structuralist[10] versions of Western Marxism, such as Althusserian Marxism and Gramscian cultural studies.[11] Open Marxists returned to basic Marxist concepts such as value, labour and the state-form,[12] and argued against social-democratic state-led and Marxist-Leninist party-led utilisations of Marxism.
The sources of critical, Open Marxism (sometimes called the 'warm stream of Marxism'[13]) are many, from György Lukács' return to the philosophical roots of Marx's thinking, to council communism, the New Left, elements of Autonomism and situationism and also the Neue Marx-Lektüre of 70s Germany.[14] Hegel is often the common thread within these tendencies.[3]
Intellectual affinities with autonomist Marxism were especially strong and led to the creation of the journal The Commoner (2001–2012) following in the wake of previous open Marxist journals Arguments (1958–1962)[15] and Common Sense (1987–1999).
In the 1970s and 1980s, state-derivationist debates around the separation of the economic and the political under capitalism unfolded in the working group Kapitalistate and the Conference of Socialist Economists[16] journal Capital & Class, involving many of the theorists of Open Marxism and significantly influencing its theoretical development.[17] Endnotes journal references itself as influenced by OM.[11]
Three volumes entitled Open Marxism were published by Pluto Press in the 1990s. A fourth volume, again published by Pluto, appeared in 2020. The authorship of the latest volume showed how far the influence of Open Marxism has spread from Europe to Latin America.[18]
Theorists
- Theodor Adorno[19]
- Johannes Agnoli[20]
- Kostas Axelos[21]
- Hans-Georg Backhaus[22]
- Zygmunt Bauman[23]
- Ernst Bloch[24]
- Werner Bonefeld[25]
- Peter Burnham[26]
- Simon Clarke[27]
- Harry Cleaver[28]
- Ana C Dinerstein[29]
- Alfonso Garcia Vela[24]
- Edith Gonzalez[24]
- Richard Gunn[30]
- John Holloway[30]
- Karl Korsch[31]
- Henri Lefebvre[32]
- Michael Löwy[33]
- György Lukács[34]
- Rosa Luxemburg[35]
- José Carlos Mariátegui[36]
- Ernest Mandel[37]
- Mike Neary[38]
- Antonio Negri[2][39]
- Evgeny Pashukanis[31]
- Frederick Harry Pitts[40]
- Moishe Postone[41]
- Michael Heinrich[42] (Disputed - Heinrich is influenced by Althusserian structuralism)
- Kosmas Psychopedis[25]
- Helmut Reichelt[25]
- David Roediger[35]
- Mike Rooke
- Isaak Illich Rubin[43]
- Victor Serge[44]
- Gáspár Miklós Tamás[45]
- Sergio Tischler[46]
- Adrian Wilding[47]
'Open Leninism'
Some scholars discuss the existence of an 'open Leninism', or a Neo-Leninism,
Criticism
Some critics have alleged that open Marxism is too open[61]- a charge of 'subjectivism' [62] and 'voluntarism'[63] is sometimes levelled, though its authors, particularly John Holloway have responded to this.[64]
Others claim that open Marxist accounts tend to treat the national capitalist state abstractly, without reference to uneven and combined development and international forms of class struggle in the capitalist "world-system".[65]
Like other forms of Marxism, it has been criticised for being totalising, universalising and Eurocentric.[66]
See also
- Antipositivism
- Anti-Stalinist left
- Autonomism
- Centrist Marxism
- Democratic confederalism
- Humanist Marxism
- Hegelian Marxism
- Parametric determinism
- Post-Marxism
- State derivation
- Third camp
- Value form
- Value criticism
- Western Marxism
- Zapatista Army of National Liberation
References
- ^ Gabriel, Meier (2023). "Book Review - Werner Bonefeld, A Critical Theory of Economic Compulsion: Wealth, Suffering, Negation" (PDF). Antipode.
- ^ a b ""The Limitations of "Open Marxism" " by Mike Rooke". Archived from the original on 2016-10-05. Retrieved 2011-11-21.
- ^ a b "A libertarian Marxist tendency map | libcom.org". libcom.org. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
- ISSN 0309-8168.
- ISSN 0309-8168.
- S2CID 147973886.
- ^ plutopress (2017-02-17). "Why we need Marxist-Humanism now". Pluto Press. Retrieved 2023-11-30.
- ISBN 0415062047.
- ISBN 978-0-333-28880-1.
- ISSN 0309-8168.
- ^ a b Endnotes. "Endnotes". endnotes.org.uk. Retrieved 2024-01-20.
- ISSN 1746-9198.
- S2CID 147376682.
- ^ "Open Marxism 1: Dialectics and History". libcom.org. Retrieved 2023-11-30.
- ^ Elden, S. (2004). Kostas Axelos and the World of the Arguments Circle. Progressive Geographies. Vol. 4: pg. 125-48.
- ^ "In and Against the State". Pluto Press. Retrieved 2023-11-30.
- ^ Bieler, A., Bruff, I., and Morton, A.D. (2010). Acorns and Fruit: From Totalization to Periodization in the Critique of Capitalism. Capital & Class. Vol. 34 (1): pg. 25-37
- ^ "Open Marxism 4". Pluto Press. Retrieved 2023-11-30.
- ISBN 978-0-7453-2836-2.
- ^ https://libcom.org/article/destruction-determination-scholar-miserable-times-johannes-agnoli
- ^ https://rke.abertay.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/15036831/Memos_OpenMarxismAndCriticalTheory_Author_2017.pdf
- ^ https://libcom.org/article/open-marxism-1-dialectics-and-history#:~:text=For%20Backhaus%2C%20the%20abstract%20categories,of%20recent%20Marxist%20state%2Ddebates.
- ^ https://journals.bsu.by/index.php/sociology/article/view/1654
- ^ S2CID 241494291.
- ^ a b c https://files.libcom.org/files/Bonefeld,%20Gunn%20and%20Psychopedis%20-%20Open%20Marxism%20-%20Volume%201%20-%20Dialectics%20and%20History.pdf
- .
- .
- ^ https://libcom.org/article/open-marxism-2-theory-and-practice
- ^ https://www.anaceciliadinerstein.com
- ^ a b https://files.libcom.org/files/Bonefeld,%20Gunn%20and%20Psychopedis%20-%20Open%20Marxism%20-%20Volume%202%20-%20Theory%20and%20Practice.pdf
- ^ JSTOR 4177100.
- .
- ^ "For a Critical Marxism | Solidarity".
- S2CID 144334812.
- ^ a b "Race, Class and Roediger's Open Marxism". 25 October 2017.
- S2CID 248907483.
- ^ "Ernest Mandel Was One of the 20th Century's Greatest Marxist Thinkers".
- ^ "Chain Reaction: Critical Theory Needs Critical Mass—Contradiction, Crisis and the Value-Form, Mike Neary". 16 September 2019.
- ^ "Open Marxism - further reading guide"
- ^ Pitts, Frederick Harry; Gunn, Richard; Bonefeld, Werner; Vela, Alfonso García (January 2019). "Open Marxism 4. Against a closing world".
- ^ https://antipodeonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Book-review_Meier-on-Bonefeld.pdf
- ^ "Monthly Review | Marx's Open-Ended Critique". May 2018.
- S2CID 228850347.
- ^ "Serge and Trotsky – Left Unity in the 1930s | Left Unity".
- ^ "Corbynism: A Critical Approach".
- ^ "Sergio Tischler".
- ^ https://libcom.org/article/open-marxism-3-emancipating-marx
- ^ "For a Neo-Leninism". Verso. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
- ^ "The Need for Post-Leninism". Against the Current. 2023-05-05. Retrieved 2023-12-15.
- ^ Bahro, Rudolf (1977-12-01). "The Alternative in Eastern Europe" (PDF). New Left Review (I/106): 3–37.
- ^ Levant, Alex (2009). "Rethinking Leninism".
- ^ "Red Fightback's Final Crisis". Ebb. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
- ^ "The Lies We Tell About Lenin". jacobin.com. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
- ISBN 978-90-04-47161-0, retrieved 2023-12-14
- ^ "Climate Leninism and Revolutionary Transition". Spectre Journal. Retrieved 2024-01-13.
- ^ "Climate Leninism and Revolutionary Transition". Spectre Journal. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
- ^ ""To Halt Climate Change, We Need an Ecological Leninism"". jacobin.com. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
- ^ "The Common Before Power: An Example - Journal #87". www.e-flux.com. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
- ^ "With Lenin, Against Hegel? 'Materialism and Empirio-Criticism' and the Mutations of Western Marxism | Historical Materialism". www.historicalmaterialism.org. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
- ^ "Lenin: Remembering and Repeating". Verso. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
- ^ "The Limitations of". herramienta.com.ar. Retrieved 2023-11-30.
- ^ Dyer-Witheford, Nick. "UI Press | Nick Dyer-Witheford | Cyber-Marx". www.press.uillinois.edu. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
- ISBN 978-90-474-2360-7, retrieved 2024-01-11
- ^ "In the Beginning Was the Scream - John Holloway | libcom.org". libcom.org. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
- ^ Bieler, A., Bruff, I., and Morton, A.D., 2010, pg. 28.
- S2CID 145147658.
Further reading
- Axelos, K. ([1976] 1961). Alienation, Techne and Praxis in the Thought of Karl Marx. Trans. R. Buzina. Austin: University of Texas Press.
- Axelos, K. (1984). Systematique ouverte (Open Systems). Les Editions de Minuit: Paris.
- Bonefeld, W., Gunn, R., Psychopedis, K. (Eds.)(1992). Open Marxism, vol. 1: Dialectics and History. London: Pluto Press (ISBN 978-0-7453-0590-5).
- Bonefeld, W., Gunn, R., Psychopedis, K. (Eds.)(1992). Open Marxism - vol. 2: Theory and Practice. London: Pluto Press (ISBN 978-0-7453-0591-2).
- Bonefeld, W., Holloway, J., Psychopedis, K. (Eds.)(1995). Open Marxism - vol. 3: Emancipating Marx. London: Pluto Press (ISBN 978-0-7453-0864-7).
- Bonefeld, W., and Psychopedis, K. (Eds.).(2005). Human Dignity: Social Autonomy and the Critique of Capitalism. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
- Clarke, S. (1983). "State, Class Struggle, and the Reproduction of Capital". Kapitalistate. Vol. 10 (11): pg. 118-33.
- Clarke, S. ed. (1991). The State Debate. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Cleaver, H. (1977). Reading Capital Politically. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
- Dinerstein, A., Garcia Vela, A. Gonzalez,E., Holloway, J. (2020). Open Marxism 4: Against a Closing World. London: Pluto.
- Holloway, J., Matamoros, F., Tischler, S. (2009). Negativity and Revolution: Adorno & Political Activism. London: Pluto Press (ISBN 978-987-22929-2-8)
- Holloway, J. (2002). Change the World Without Taking Power: The Meaning of Revolution Today. London: Pluto Press.